SAMBALPUR  WEDNESDAY  APRIL 09, 2025  `9.00  PAGES 12  CITY EDITION SCIENTISTS BELIEVE THEY HAVE RESURRECTED THE DIRE WOLVES Colossal Biosciences, a Dallas biotech company, has successfully “de-extincted” the dire wolf, a species that roamed America 12,500 years ago CLOSELY RESEMBLES ITS ANCESTOR, GRAY WOLF By harnessing ancient DNA, cloning, and gene-editing technology, scientists have created three dire wolf pups, essentially a hybrid species that closely resembles its extinct ancestor, the gray wolf. The dire wolf, a formidable predator and inspiration for HBO series “Game of Thrones,” was characterised by its size, wider head, thicker fur, and stronger jaw ■ 62 RARE TOOTH AND SKULL USED IN STUDY ■ The researchers studied a 13,000 year-old dire wolf tooth unearthed in Ohio and a 72,000 year-old skull fragment found in Idaho They took blood cells from a gray wolf and genetically modified them before transferring the genetic material to an egg cell from a domestic dog. Embryos were then transferred to surrogates | P9 DAYS IS THE TIME IT TOOK FOR THE NEW ENGINEERED PUPS TO BE BORN CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOGGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Apex court invokes special powers to declare 10 TN bills as passed Guv sending reiterated bills to Prez illegal: SC FOUR TIMELINES SET FOR EXPEDITED ACTION 1 2 3 In the case of withholding of assent or reservation of the bills for the President upon the aid and advice of the state’S ministers, the governor has to act within a month If assent is to be withheld, contrary to the advice of the ministers, the governor must return the bills with a message within 3 months If bill is to be reserved for the President, contrary to the advice of ministers, guv must do so within 3 months S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi IN a landmark verdict, the Supreme Court on Tuesday held the action of Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi to reserve 10 bills for the President’s consideration despite their reiteration by the state assembly “illegal and arbitrary”. The governor has no option but to give assent to the bill that is presented to him after re-passage in the state assembly if it is unchanged, a two-judge bench comprising justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said. The court said the governor must act on the aid and advice of the state legislature. “Under Article 200 of the Constitution, the governor does not possess any discretion and has to mandatorily act on the aid and advice of the council of ministers.” Article 200 of the Constitution deals with assent to bills. The bench said once the governor withholds assent, he is obligated to follow the procedure prescribed in the first proviso of Article 200, which is on returning the bill to the House as soon as possible. It exercised its special power under Article 142 to make the bills re-presented to the governor, as deemed to have been passed. The court pronounced the verdict after hearing a plea filed by the Tamil Nadu gover nment Waqf Act comes into force, govt files caveat in Supreme Court EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court is likely to hear on April 15 a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025. A final causelist is yet to be uploaded on the court website. The Centre on Tuesday filed a caveat in the Supreme Court and sought a hearing before any order was passed in the matter. A caveat is filed by a party in courts to ensure that no orders are passed without hearing it. Former Additional Solicitor General (ASG) and senior Supreme Court lawyer, K C Kaushik, speaking to this newspaper, said the Centre wanted a representation before any order is passed by the SC. “No ex-parte order should be issued without prior notice and an opportunity to be heard. The government wants to be the prime respondent in the matter,” he said. In another significant development, the Waqf (Amendment) Act came into force on Tuesday with the government issuing a notification. “In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of section 1 of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 (14 of 2025), the Central Government hereby appoints the 8th day of April, 2025 as the date on which the provisions of the said Act shall come into force,” the Ministry of Minority Affairs notification said. 4 Majhi’s Delhi roadshow bags investment intent worth over `1 lakh crore If a bill is reiterated by the state assembly without change, the governor must grant assent within a month Justice J B Pardiwala cle 200 for the governor to take his call, it cannot lead to inertia. “Despite there being no prescribed time limits, Article 200 cannot be The governor cannot sit on bills and read in a manner which allows the exercise pocket veto over them. governor to not take action on the Article 200 gives the bills passed by bills, which are presented to him the state assembly the authority of an for assent and thereby delay, and essentially roadblock law-making Act. Without this Act, it is only a machinery in the state,” it said. document of aspiration of people For the first time, the court set which does not come into effect timelines for gubernatorial clearJustice J B Pardiwala ance of bills, adding failure to adhere to them could invite against Governor Ravi for judicial scrutiny It gave . sitting over bills — some governors just one month for over three years — and to decide if they wanted to later escalating them to the reserve a bill for the PresiPresident. The bills were dent’s consideration. If sent to the President shortthey wanted to withhold ly after another bench in assent without the aid and the Punjab governor’s case advice of the council of ruled that the governor ministers, they have to reGovernor R N Ravi turn the bill within three does not have pocket veto or absolute veto over bills months. If the bill is reitby squatting over them. erated after re-consideration by “The governor cannot sit on state assembly the governor will , bills and exercise pocket veto over have to mandatorily give his asthem. Article 200 gives the bills sent within a month. passed by the state assembly the The governor must perform his authority of an Act. Without this role as a friend, philosopher and Act, it is only a document of aspi- guide with dispassion and not be ration of people which does not guided by political considerations, come into effect,” said Justice the verdict said. “In times of conPardiwala, who authored the judg- flict, he must be the harbinger of ment. Pocket veto an indirect veto consensus and resolution, lubriof a bill by leaving it unsigned till cating the functioning of the state it is too late for it to be dealt with. machinery by his sagacity, wisThe court said though there was dom, and not run it into a no specific time limit under Arti- standstill.” CM Mohan Majhi with Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri during the Odisha Investors’ Meet in Delhi on Tuesday. Union ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Jual Oram and state Industries minister SC Swain also present E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bhubaneswar THE state government on Tuesday signed a series of high-value MoUs entailing investments to the tune of `98,880 crore with leading industry players of the country The proposals have a poten. tial to create employment for more than 67,000 people. Overall, 13 MoUs were signed and 15 investment intents were received during the two-day Odisha Investors’ meet. These investment proposals are worth `1,03,090 crore and promise employment opportunities for around 95,915 people. On the second day of his visit to the national capital for attracting investments to Odisha, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi held several rounds of one-on-one discussions with top industry captains. The highlight of the second day was the agreement with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) for setting up a dual-feed naphtha cracker project at Paradip in Jagatsinghpur district with an investment of `58,042 crore. The state also entered into an agreement with the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd (ISPRL) for a crude oil storage facility at Chandikhol in Jajpur district and Petronet LNG to develop a Cong resolution calls Waqf Act polarising P R E E T H A N A I R @ Ahmedabad FROM opposing the Waqf Act to India’s foreign policy One Nation, , One Election bill and proposed delimitation to economic and education policy the political resolution , being discussed at the All India Congress Committee session in Ahmedabad vows to strengthen organisational capacity and competence to fight for Nyay (justice) for every Indian. While the Congress Working Committee meeting on Tuesday gave the draft resolution its final shape, it is expected to be passed at the AICC session on Wednesday . Reaffirming the party’s opposition to the contentious Waqf Act and anti-conversion laws, the resolution said the party is committed to fighting the politics of religious, linguistic, caste-based, and regional divisions. The resolution said the Waqf and anti-conversion laws are part of BJP’s polarising Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Sonia Gandhi during the CWC meeting | PTI NATIONALISM PITCH Terming the Congress party’s idea of nationalism as one that binds people together, the resolution said ‘the pseudo-nationalism of the BJP-RSS’ seeks to divide the nation over region, language, attire, and food habits strategy . “We will not allow India to be divided, nor will we allow those who seek to divide it to succeed in their diabolical designs. Our path is clear: Quit hate, Unite India,” it said. Terming the Centre’s foreign policy a weak-kneed one, the resolution said the BJP government has compromised the country’s foreign policy at the altar of individual branding and serving vested interests. “Though Congress remains a strong votary of close ties with the US, it can never happen at the expense of India’s national interests,” said the resolution. “During the PM’s visit to Washington, D.C., we were publicly insulted and our country was labelled as a ‘Tariff Abuser’. Indian migrants were treated like animals and deported from the US in chains and handcuffs,” it said. On the border dispute, the resolution said China has illegally occupied 2,000 sq km of Indian territory in Eastern Ladakh. Yet, the BJP government has failed to restore the status quo ante, as it existed before April 2020, the Congress resolution noted. SPECIES RIDDLE Odisha’s Olive Ridleys genetically distinct A S I S H S E N A PAT I @ Kendrapara A new study has found that Olive Ridley sea turtles nesting in Odisha are genetically distinct from global populations, and significantly differ from those in Sri Lanka. The study, jointly by Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun and the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad, was published in a report ‘Monitoring Sea Turtles in India 2008- 2024’ by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Dakhin Foundation of Bengaluru. Scientists of WII and CCMB ex- amined the molecular genetics of sea turtles along the mainland coast and islands of India. It suggested the Indian Olive Ridley sea turtles and Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles could be remnants of a global population which was otherwise extirpated following climatic changes before and after the closure of the Isthmus of Panama. The Indian Ocean region, thus, may have served as a source for Ridley re-colonisation following the extirpation of populations in other ocean basins. Long-term monitoring of nesting and foraging populations is vital to detect biologically significant trends and patter ns for species like sea turtles. The Dakhin Foundation, in collaboration with IISc and Forest department, initiated research and monitoring in the late 2000s for Olive Ridley sea turtles in Odisha and leatherback turtles in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. CONTINUED ON P5 LNG terminal at Gopalpur in Ganjam district. These MoUs were signed in the presence of Majhi, Union ministers Hardeep Singh Puri, Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram, and state Industries minister Sampad Chandra Swain. Addressing the meet, the chief minister said the partnerships with IOCL, ISPRL and Petronet LNG will significantly enhance the state’s petrochemical infrastructure and manufacturing capabilities. “The MoU with IOCL is a landmark moment in Odisha’s industrial journey . It reflects not just a shared vision but a strong belief in the state’s potential to lead India’s petrochemical revolution from the east. Paradip, with its strategic location and evolving infrastructure, is poised to become a transformative industrial hub - much like Dahej in the west,” Majhi said. Assuring the industry leaders of his government’s commitment to providing necessary infrastructure, streamlining regulatory processes and investing in skill development aligning with industry needs, Majhi said, “This is the right time to be in Odisha. Odisha is ready and we invite you to invest in our bright CONTINUED ON P5 future.” Infighting in TMC plays out in open S U L A G N A S E N G U P TA @ Kolkata BITTER infighting within West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) surfaced on Tuesday after a video showing an alleged verbal altercation between party MPs and screenshots of their exchanges from its official WhatsApp group went viral on social media. Amit Malviya, head of BJP’s IT cell, shared the screenshots, indicating a bitter argument between TMC MPs Kalyan Banerjee, Kirti Azad and Mauha Moitra. The authenticity of the screenshots couldn’t be independently verified. But this newspaper spoke to many senior leader of the TMC and none of them refuted the incident though they didn’t divulge any detail. Banerjee, speaking to reporters in Kolkata, acknowledged the altercation but blamed the ‘woman MP’ involved. “I’ve been in politics for 40 years. This woman MP asked the security at the EC office to arrest me. She hurled abuses at me. It’s me who fights in Parliament, not someone obsessed with a particular industrial house,” alleged Banerjee, the party’s chief whip in the Lok Sabha. He didn’t name the woman MP. “It was Kirti Azad who provoked me and lectured me on what to do. He’s the one who leaked the WhatsApp chats,” Banerjee claimed. Senior TMC leaders said the issue has been brought to the attention of party supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Malviya claimed that the WhatsApp duel was triggered by an earlier spat between two TMC parliamentarians at the Election Commission headquarters. The MPs had gone there to submit a memorandum. CHINA SAYS IT WILL ACT AGAINST US TARIFFS China said it will take countermeasures against the US after President Donald Trump threatened an additional 50% tax on Chinese imports in retaliation for Beijing’s backlash against US’ 34% tariffs | P9