SAMBALPUR  FRIDAY  MAY 16, 2025  `9.00  PAGES 14  CITY EDITION VOYAGER 1 MAKES COMEBACK AS DORMANT THRUSTERS REVIVED NASA engineers have revived thrusters aboard Voyager 1, the farthest spacecraft from Earth, just before a planned communications blackout FEAT ACCOMPLISHED JUST IN TIME: NASA REVIVAL PROCESS TOOK LOTS OF PLANNING The feat was accomplished just in time, as a scheduled maintenance period for a crucial Earth-based antenna threatened to sever communication with the probe. The revived thrusters are the original roll thrusters, which have been dormant since 2004. These thrusters allow Voyager 1’s orientation in space and let it send data back to earth ■ ■ Voyager 1 operates at an immense distance, beyond the heliosphere, and the team had to carefully plan and execute the revival process In addition to the risk, the team faced time constraint. A giant antenna in Canberra went offline on May 4. The antenna is the only one with enough signal strength to send commands to the probe 56,000 KMPH IS THE SPEED AT WHICH THE VOYAGER MOVES IN SPACE 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 Put rogue Pakistan’s nukes under IAEA watch: Rajnath Calls out the neighbour’s nuclear blackmail during recent Operation Sindoor India rebuts Trump claim on zero tariffs M AYA N K S I N G H @ New Delhi DEFENCE Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday demanded IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) supervision over Pakistan’s nuclear weapons, arguing they were not safe in the hands of the rogue nation. Pointing out that India was not deterred by Pakistan’s nuclear blackmail, he said Operation Sindoor sent a clear message to the terrorists in Pakistan that they no longer had a safe sanctuary . Addressing soldiers in Srinagar, Rajnath said the world has witnessed how irresponsibly Islamabad has issued nuclear threats to New Delhi several times. “I raise this question before the world: Are nuclear weapons safe in the hands of such an irresponsible and rogue nation? Pakistan’s nuclear weapons should be taken under the supervision of the IAEA,” Rajnath said. Pakistan had sought to play the nuclear card amid Operation Sindoor as media reports suggested that a meeting of D I PA K M O N D A L @ New Delhi their Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) — the highest decision making body on the use of nukes — would be held shortly While it sent the inter. national community into a tizzy, Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Asif later denied any proposal to call the meeting. Another lie peddled on social media that Pakistan’s nuclear facilities were hit during Operation Sindoor, was rebutted by the IAEA, which said there was no radiation leak. “Based on information available to the IAEA, there has been no radiation leak or release from any nuclear facility in Pakistan,” the IAEA said. Defence minister Rajnath Singh in Srinagar on Thursday | PTI WORK ON CBMs TO CONTINUE “Further to the understanding between the two DGMOs on 10 May, it has been decided to continue the confidence building measures so as to reduce the alertness level,” the army said on Thursday | P9 SC raps ‘irresponsible’ MP minister S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Thursday rapped Madhya Pradesh minister Kunwar Vijay Shah, against whom an FIR has been filed for his remarks on Col Sofiya Qureshi, saying persons holding constitutional post must exercise restraint. “What kind of statement you are making? Such a person holding a constitutional office ENCOUNTER 10 militants neutralised in Manipur EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Guwahati TEN suspected militants were killed by the Assam Rifles in an encounter near the India-Myanmar border i n M a n i p u r ’s C h a n d e l district. The Army’s Eastern Command said an Assam Rifles unit under the Spear Corps (Nagaland’s Dimapur-based 3 Corps) had launched an operation on May 14 acting on specific intelligence about the movement of armed militants near New Samtal village in Khengjoy Tehsil of Chandel. “During the operation, troops were fired upon by suspected cadres, to which they quickly retaliated in a calibrated and measured manner. In the ensuing firefight, 10 cadres were neutralized,” the Eastern Command posted on X. A cache of arms and ammunition was recovered. The Army did not disclose the name of the group. The operation is in progress in a remote area. “We will share the inputs as soon as possible,” an Army of ficer said. T his was among the major counterinsurgency operations in Manipur since the ethnic violence between Meiteis and Kuki-Zo tribals on May 3, 2023. In the past 24 hours, security forces apprehended seven militants from Thoubal, Kakching, Bishnupur and Churachandpur. should be responsible... when this country is going through such a situation (Operation Sindoor),” said a bench led by Chief Justice B R Gavai. The SC’s remarks came when lawyer Vibha Makhija mentioned Shah’s plea against the Madhya Pradesh HC’s order to register an FIR against him. The bench declined to grant any stay on the FIR at this stage but agreed to hear the matter on Friday . FIR WEAK: HC The FIR against Shah is weak, the HC said, saying it is vulnerable to being quashed in its present form US President Donald Trump on Thursday said India has decided to drop all tariffs on US goods, a statement the latter immediately denied. “They [India] have offered us a deal where basically they have agreed to charge us literally no tariffs,” Trump has said while responding to a question in Doha on Apple’s plan to shift iPhone manufacturing to India. He told the Apple CEO not to shift manufacturing to India. India rebutted the claims. “Between India and the US, trade talks have been going on. These are complicatS Jaishankar ed negotiations. Nothing is decided till everything is. Any trade deal has to be mutually beneficial; it has to work for both countries. That would be our expectation from the trade deal. Until that is done, any judgment on it would be premature,” minister of external affairs S Jaishankar said. Meanwhile, a commerce ministry official said every country negotiates with its national interests in mind. “Negotiations must balance sensitivities and strengths on both sides. The aim is always a mutually beneficial agreement, as mentioned in the joint statement.” Only 11.25% quota, excluding medical, tech courses a betrayal of OBCs: Oppn Quoting Article 16 (4) of the Constitution, Jena said, “Nothing in this arTHE move of the state government to ticle shall prevent the State from makprovide 11.25 per cent reservation in ing any provision for the reservation higher education for socially and edu- of appointments or posts in favour of cationally backward classes (SEBC) any backward class of citizens which, students has drawn a huge backlash in the opinion of the State, is not adefrom the Opposition as well as the OBC quately represented in the services unpopulation for leaving medical, techni- der the State.” cal and professional courses out of He said the case of Odisha is exits purview. ceptional in view of its higher The BJD and Congress on percentage of ST, SC and OBC Thursday charged the BJP population in comparison to government of betraying the the national average and other OBCs who constitute 54 per states. The ST and SC populacent of the state’s population. tion of the state is 40 per cent as “The state government’s against all India average of 22 reservation policy for OBC/ per cent. The national OBC SEBC students is a cruel joke. population is 52 per cent while Announcement of the the it is more than 54 per cent in The state cabinet decision by Chief Odisha. government’s Minister Mohan Charan MaBesides, the 50 per cent cap jhi for providing 11.25 per cent reservation policy fixed by the apex court in Infor OBC/SEBC reservation for SEBC in high- students is a cruel dra Sawhney case in 1992 was er education excluding mediin the matter of initial rejoke on the cal, engineering and other communities who cruitment to public employprofessional courses is a com- constitute 54% of ment, not higher education, the state’s plete betrayal of the 54 per he added. population cent of the population,” said Acknowledging that previsenior Congress leader and ous governments have done Srikant Jena, former Union minister Srigreat injustice to the OBC Congress leader kant Jena. population of the state, senior Debunking the state govleader and former Law minisernment’s argument that it cannot ex- ter Narasingha Mishra said the state ceed the 50 per cent cap on reservation had never put its case before the Suput by the Supreme Court, Jena, a preme Court in the right earnest so far strong votary for OBC quota, said as giving 27 per cent reservation to quantum of reservation is derived SEBC/OBC in jobs and education is CONTINUED ON P5 from Article -16 of the Constitution. concerned. B I J O Y P R A D H A N @ Bhubaneswar Reservation as per SC cap: Min B I J AY C H A K I @ Bhubaneswar HIGHER Education minister Suryabanshi Suraj justified the decision of the state cabinet to provide 11.25 per cent reservation to the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes (SEBCs) in educational institutions, saying it conforms to Supreme Court’s 50 per cent quota cap. Referring to the demand of the Opposition political parties to provide 27 per cent reservation for SEBCs, the minister said the reservation for SCs and STs is 38.75 per cent and adding the quota for SEBCs, the total remains at 50 per cent. On the exclusion of medical, engineering and other technical courses from the quota, the minister hinted that they too will be brought into the fold subsequently. “This is the first step towards ensuring justice for SEBCs who were ignored by the previous BJD and Congress governments. The BJP government headed by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi will take more steps in future to ensure social justice across all spheres,” he said.