tadepalligudem l thursday l june 05, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION Plastic pollution choking the planet, says U.N. secy-general Antonio Guterres said on the eve of World Environment Day (June 5) about an urgent need to control the menace of plastics sounds an alarm over risks of plastic aravalli green wall project Sounding an alarm over the risks of plastic pollution, Guterres said: “Plastic pollution is harming ecosystems, well-being, and climate. Plastic waste clogs rivers, pollutes oceans, and endangers wildlife. It infiltrates every corner of Earth: from the top of Mount Everest, to the depths of the ocean; from human brains; to human breastmilk... this needs to end” ■ ■ Closer home, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch a special initiative by planting saplings aimed at reforesting the 700-km Aravalli mountain range extending from Delhi to Gujarat The ‘Aravalli Green Wall Project’ aims to reforest the 700-km Aravallis; boost biodiversity by reforestation, restore water bodies 50% is extent to which plastic leakage in environment will grow by 2040 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 Nationwide Census with caste data to start in March 2027 M U KESH RAN J AN @ New Delhi How it all began and ended Rescue operation on after the stampede at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, the venue of RCB IPL victory celebration, in Bengaluru on Wednesday | 1 pm Deputy CM said that they were expecting a huge crowd and that care should be taken 2.30 pm RCB land at HAL Airport in Bengaluru, welcomed by Deputy CM DK Shivakumar 3.14 pm RCB said on social media posts to get free Victory Day Passes from website 3.45–4.15 pm Stampede reported at gates number 3, 8, 12 and 15 in stadium. leaving 11 dead 5 pm RCB reach Vidhana Soudha. Governor, CM, DCM, and others felicitated players Nagaraja Gadekal 6.10 pm Victory Celebrations continue inside the stadium even as stampede toll rises Catastrophe strikes royal celebrations 11 dead in stampede Dozens injured as desperate fans try to enter Chinnaswamy Stadium for the grand function Express News Service @ Bengaluru No one expected celebrations to turn into an unfathomable tragedy Chaos started building . up the moment Royal Challengers Bengaluru won their first Indian Premier League title in 18 years. The streets were filled with revellers until late at night. The next day, when the team was to land and attend functions commemorating their win, crowd swelled as things started to go worse. Fans started to pour into the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Finally when the lights were , switched off and the crowd headed home, the reality of the catastrophe settled in. Eleven fans were dead and at least 33 injured in a stampede outside the stadium. The condition of some of the injured was reported to be serious. The stampede occurred when an estimated three lakh-strong crowd gathered at the stadium to gain entry into the premises that had a capacity of just 35,000. This was following an announcement put out on RCB’s official social media handle about free entry passes. Another crowd of about one lakh had gathered to witness the felicitation of the RCB team at the grand steps of Vidhana Soudha at 5pm where G o v e r n o r T h aw a r c h a n d Gehlot, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar were present. Unfortunately, while about 5,000-strong number of policemen were positioned at Vidhana Soudha a few hundreds near the stadium were haplessly outnumbered to manage the crowds. Despite the tragedy, RCB went ahead with the celebrations inside the stadium in the evening from 6. 10 pm to 6.40pm. A majority of the crowd inside the stadium were said to be without tickets. Those with valid tickets were waiting outside gate number 12. Most of the fans near Vidhana too started rushing towards the stadium hoping to get a glimpse of their heroes. The fans started rushing towards gate numbers 3, 8, 12, $800 mn to Pakistan India opposed but ADB granted loan jumbo menace health hazard Rag-pickers search for recyclable plastic material at a dump yard on the eve of World Environment Day, in Tirupati on Wednesday | madhav k HC relief for NEET aspirant Vijayawada: The AP High Court has taken a firm stand on ensuring justice for medical students, directing the National Testing Agency (NTA) to address a power outage that disrupted a NEET exam in Nellore and ordering National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences to reopen the NEET PG 2025 application. BCCI rued preparatory lapses that marred RCB’s celebrations and led to the death of 11 fans. RCB management empathised with “vulnerability and emotions” of cricket lovers K’taka CM announces `10 lakh compensation Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah announced `10 lakh compensation to the family of those killed and announced a magisterial probe, to be concluded in 15 days A day after 16 opposition parties wrote to PM Modi urging him to convene a special session of Parliament to discuss Operation Sindoor, the Union government on Wednesday said the monsoon session of Parliament will be held from July 21 to August 12. Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, has recommended the dates. The recommendation will be sent to the President for convening the session. “Every session is a special session for us,” he said, adding that under the rules, “all important matters” can be discussed during the monsoon session. Taking a dig at the government for announcing the Monsoon session of Parliament 47 days before it is due, the Congress alleged that the government is trying to run away from the demand of the party and INDIA bloc for an immediate special session to discuss the report on droughts in ap Rayalaseema highly vulnerable to droughts: Study U s h a P e r i @ Visakhapatnam power woes BCCI rues preparatory lapses in stadium p r e e t h a n a i r @ New Delhi New Delhi: India had opposed Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s decision to grant $800 million loan to Pakistan saying the fund could be misused for increasing expenditure on its military, government sources said. The ADB had on Tuesday cleared the aid to strengthen public financial management in Pakistan | P9 Chittoor: A 60-year-old farmer, S Ganapathi, was killed by a wild elephant on Tuesday near Nagamvandlapalli village in Irala mandal of Chittoor district. The fatal attack occurred, just 800 metres from the Avulapalli Reserve Forest Villagers said Ganapathi had gone to his field, possibly to tend to his cattle. Fans try to climb a barricade at the stadium on Wednesday | X Punjab Youtuber held on charges of spying Punjab police arrested YouTuber Jasbir Singh after “terror-backed espionage network” allegedly linking him to Pak intelligence officials was unearthed | P9 Monsoon session from July 21-Aug 12; tough questions ahead, says Congress express read Ryot trampled to death in Chittoor and 15 and other gates hoping to get inside as news of limited free entry passes started circulating on social media. As they were denied entry, they started climbing over gates and iron barricades. After a cement slab over a drain broke near gate 12, fans fell down. At least four died at that spot. The heavily outnumbered police had no option but to resort to mild lathi charge outside the stadium, which also contributed to the stampede. Fans even tried to scale the stadium’s compound wall. Following the tragedy Chief Minister , Siddaramaiah, deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar, Karnataka BJP Chief By Vijayendra and other leaders visited the injured at the hospitals.P13 THE Union home ministry on Wednesday said that the Population Census-2027 will be conducted in two phases along with the enumeration of castes. The first phase will begin on October 1, 2026 and be held in hilly and snow-hit areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. The second phase will cover the rest of the country beginning March 1, 2027, the home ministry notification said. The exercise is going to be conducted after a delay of seven years, as the decennial census was to be conducted in 2021 but was postponed due to the Covid outbreak besides technical and administrative issues. “It has been decided to conduct Population Census-2027 in two phases along with enumeration of castes. The reference date for Population Census 2027 will be 00:00 hours of the first day of March, 2027,” the Ministry of Home Affairs said in an official release. It further said that for Lada- A comprehensive study conducted by scientists from the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, has identified the most vulnerable districts in Andhra Pradesh for droughts and cyclones. The analysis is based on 22 years of data (2002–2024). Scientists P V Ramesh Babu, B Sahadeva Reddy, P Radhi- Erstwhile district-wise number of years of droughts & cyclones District Droughts Cyclones (Years) Srikakulam 10 11 Vizianagaram 11 11 Visakhapatnam 7 10 East Godavari 6 5 West Godavari 6 6 Krishna 8 11 Guntur 10 7 Prakasam 14 10 Nellore 12 10 Kadapa 17 2 Kurnool 16 4 Ananthapur 17 3 Chittoor 17 3 EXPRESS ILLUSTRATION ka, Ch Sreenivas, and T Srinivas presented the findings in a research paper titled “Drought and Cyclone Vulnerability Districts of Andhra Pradesh” during the International Conference on Rainfed Agriculture hosted by ICAR-CRIDA in Hyderabad. The study reveals that the Rayalaseema region remains highly susceptible to drought. Ananthapur district ranked highest in terms of drought vulnerability with an index value of 1.0, indicating extreme sensitivity to rainfall deficits. Chittoor (0.96), Kadapa (0.71), Prakasam (0.70), and Kurnool (0.67) also fall into the high-vulnerability category . Of the 22 kharif seasons, Ananthapur, Chittoor, and Kadapa experienced drought in 17 years, while Kurnool reported 16 drought years and Prakasam 14. Other affected districts included Nellore (12 years), Vizianagaram (11 years), Srikakulam (10 years), and Guntur (10 years). Coastal districts such as Visakhapatnam (7 years) and the East and West Godavari districts (6 years each) reported comparatively P4 fewer drought years.  Pahalgam attack and Operation Sindoor. In a post on X, Congress general secretary, communications, Jairam Ramesh, said, “This has been done to run away from the demand made by the Congress and INDIA parties for an immediate special session to discuss Pahalgam attack and failure to bring the terrorists to justice, the impacts of Operation Sindoor and its blatant politicisation, the revelations of the CDS in Singapore, the hyphenation of India and Pakistan, the embedding of China in Pakistan, the claims of President Trump on mediation... The PM will have to answer very tough questions six weeks from now.” kh and the non-synchronous snow-bound areas of Jammu a n d K a s h m i r, H i m a c h a l Pradesh, Uttarakhand, “the reference date will be 00.00 hours of the first day of October, 2026”. India’s population count has been conducted every 10 years since 1951. The last Census of India was conducted in 2011 in two phases – phase-1 of House Listing from April 1 to September 30, 2010 and Phase II of Population Enumeration from February 9-28, 2011. In April, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided that caste-based enumeration would be part of the next Census. According to the 2011 data, India’s total population was 121 crore, the sex ratio was 940 females per 1,000 males, the literacy rate was 74.04% and the population growth was 17.64% from 2001 to 2011. The Census of India is conducted under the provisions of the Census Act, 1948 and the Census Rules, 1990. Corruption in judiciary erodes public faith: CJI s uc h i t r a k a lya n m o h a n t y @ New Delhi CHIEF Justice B R Gavai said instances of corruption and misconduct in the Indian judiciary have a negative impact on public confidence, potentially eroding faith and integrity of the system as a whole. Speaking at a roundtable in the UK Supreme Court in London on the topic of “Maintaining Judicial Legitimacy and Public Confidence” on Wednesday, CJI Gavai said when such instances (of corruption and misconduct) have surfaced in the Indian judiciary, the SuCJI B R Gavai preme Cour t has dealt it with a heavy hand. His remarks come in the backdrop of burnt wads of cash being recovered from a judge’s home. “In India, when such instances have come to light, Supreme Court has taken immediate and appropriate measures to address the misconduct,” he said. “Judges must be free from external control,” he said on the necessity of an independent judiciary . State Cabinet gives nod for release of 17 life convicts S G u r u S r i k a n t h @ Vijayawada The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, convened its 25th e-Cabinet meeting at the State Secretariat on Wednesday, marking a year of paperless governance. In a landmark decision, the Cabinet approved the release of 17 life-sentenced convicts based on their good conduct, alongside a series of transformative reforms for state jails and ambitious development projects. Briefing the media on the cabinet decisions, Minister for Information, Public Relations, and Housing Kolusu Parthasarathi lauded the visionary leadership of Naidu, Deputy Chief Minister K Pawan Kalyan, and IT Minister Nara Lokesh. He said in compliance with Supreme Court directives (SLP Criminal No. 529/2021), the Cabinet granted special remission to 17 life-sentenced convicts by Feb 1, 2025, for those who have served 14 years for capital offenses or 7 years for life imprisonment crimes.  P4