tirupati l thursday l july 17, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Kharge, Rahul write to PM, seek law to restore statehood of J&k ‘Include Ladakh under 6th Schedule’ In their letter, Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi said the legislation should be brought in Parliament’s Monsoon session All-party meeting likely on Saturday The leaders of opposition in the two houses of Parliament—Kharge in Rajya Sabha and Gandhi in Lok Sabha—also called on the government to bring a legislation to include the Union Territory of Ladakh under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The Sixth Schedule is constitutionally protected, ensuring greater autonomy and security for local governance ■ ■ The upcoming session is likely to be stormy as Opposition members are gearing up raise the Pahalgam attack, leak of the interim report on the Ahmedabad air crash in the international media, etc Sources said the government may convene an all-party meeting on July 19, two days before the Monsoon session’s commencement July 21 First day of the Monsoon session, will go on till August 21 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 Don at it again on India deal D I PA K M O N D A L @ New Delhi AP CM Chandrababu Naidu greets Telangana CM Revanth Reddy before the meeting with Union Minister of Jal Shakti CR Patil in New Delhi on Wednesday | Express Expert panel to resolve AP-TG water disputes @ Vijayawada The high-level meeting convened by Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil, involving the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana N Chandrababu Naidu and A Revanth Reddy respectively was held in New Del, hi on Wednesday in a cordial atmosphere to discuss the sharing of Krishna and Godavari river waters. Speaking after the meeting, Andhra Pradesh Water Resources Minister Nimmala Rama Naidu said that a consensus was reached between the two States on three important issues - regarding the proposed Polavaram-Banakacharla linkage to divert 200 TMC of water from the Godavari river, and the objections raised by Telangana to the project report submitted by Andhra Pradesh as well as the projects proposed by Telangana for the usage of SIT misdirected itself in Ashoka prof case: SC S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi Questioning the line of probe by a Haryana police Special Investigation Team (SIT) into social media posts by Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad on Operation Sindoor, the Supreme Court on Wednesday observed “it had misdirected itself.” The court had ordered the setting up of the SIT to examine if there was anything incriminating in the social media posts by Mahmudabad. In its interim report, the SIT said it had seized Mahmudabad’s mobile phones and sent them for forensic analysis. It further revealed that he had appeared before the SIT A K Mahmudabad for questioning four times. A bench of justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi wondered why the SIT was expanding the scope of the probe. It said its direction was to confine the investigation to the two FIRs against Mahmudabad over his contentious social media posts. “We are asking why SIT is, on the face of it, misdirecting itself ? They were supposed to examine contents of the posts,” Justice Kant said. “It is open for the SIT to say that the contents of the FIRs does not disclose any offence. Then this case can be closed,” the bench said. August 1, the new deadline for imposing the reciprocal tariff. The US has announced a 26% tariff on India, but has put on hold the tariff for now. Currently only a 10% , basic tariff is in place. An Indian team is in the US for carrying out the fifth round of negotiations on the bilateral trade agreement. Chief negotiator and commerce secretary-designate Rajesh Agrawal on Tuesday said that the Indo-US trade deal was progressing as per the terms of reference decided between the two countries agreed in February . The US has already announced reciprocal tariff between 25-40% against two dozen nations. TTD chairman Naidu rules out hike in Common Good Fund B M urali @ Tirumala Committee comprising tech experts and admin officers will be formed by July 21 E x p ress N e w s S er v ice US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said a trade deal with India would soon be sealed under which American firms would get greater access to Indian markets. According to Trump, the trade pact with India will be on the lines of the US-Indonesia deal announced early in the day . “They are going to pay 19% and we are going to pay nothing … we will have full access into Indonesia, and we have a couple of those deals that are going to be announced,” Trump said, adding that the deal with India will be on the same line. India has not formally reacted to Trump’s claims, but officials say that the US president has the habit of making tall claims in public, which are far from reality. They cite the example of the Vietnam deal; Trump had claimed the South East Asian country had agreed to a 20% tariff, but Hanoi rejected the claim. India has maintained that it will not sign any deal that is against the country’s interest. New Delhi and Washington are in talks to finalise a trade deal before Krishna-Godavari water. It was decided to constitute a technical committee, as these projects involve several technical aspects. To ensure mutual benefit for both the Telugu States, a committee comprising technical experts and administrative officers will be formed by next Monday (July 21), the Minister said. He added that officials from both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will be part of the committee, which will function und e r t h e C e n t r a l Wa t e r Commission (CWC). The committee will also examine the issue of 3,000 TMC of water from the Godavari currently flowing waste into the sea. Rama Naidu said the meeting focused on three major issues and both States agreed to install telemetry systems at reservoir outflows and canal P4 entry points.  e x p r e s s r ea d HC slams govt on poor facilities in hostels Vijayawada: The AP High Court on Wednesday expressed serious concern over the appalling conditions in the government-run welfare hostels in the State. Kakinadabased KAS Teja filed a PIL over the lack of basic facilities in social welfare hostels | P3 T irumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) Chairman BR Naidu on Wednesday categorically stated that the Board is not prepared to increase contributions to the Common Good Fund (CGF). In an interview with TNIE, Naidu said, “the Endowments Department has issued a notice to TTD to raise its CGF contribution from the existing `40 crore or contribute up to 9% of TTD’s revenue. We are opposing this. There is no scope for increasing the CGF,” the Chairman affirmed. “In 2022, the State Government handed over the Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS) to TTD. In the last board meeting, we resolved to recruit 499 medical and paramedical staff, which will incur wage expenses of `141 crore annually—up from the earlier `68 crore,” the TTD Victim’s relative rejects blood money offer J ayanth J acob @ New Delhi Efforts are in full throttle to convince the family of Talal Abdo Mahdi, the Yemeni national murdered in 2017, to accept blood money in return for sparing Indian nurse Nimisha Priya from execution. This comes even as one of Mahdi’s family members publicly rejected reconciliation. “We are making all efforts to get Nimisha spared from the death sentence, and negotiators are working on getting the immediate family to collectively accept the blood money offer. This mandatory process could be long and we need to have patience,” her lawyer S Chandran said. Her execution, originally scheduled for Wednesday was postponed following interventions from various quarters. In a Facebook post, Mahdi’s brother, Abdelfattah Mahdi, condemned the delay and reaffirmed the family’s position: “Now it’s been postponed and we were not expecting that – unfortunately – especially that those who have stopped the implementation know our absolute refusal to any attempt to reconcile in any form... pressure won’t move us. Retribution will come.” Bright moves At women’s chess World Cup, China faces new threat - India s w aroo p s w aminathan @ Chennai THE Chinese women’s dominance of the 64 squares faces an existential threat from an upcoming force. India. At the ongoing women’s World Cup in Batumi, there are four from China in the last 16, including two World Championship runners-up. The reigning world champion, Ju Wenjun, declined to take part but they are still well represented, both in terms of quality and quantity . India, though, aren’t too far back. The gold medallists from last year’s Olympiad also have four players in the pre-quarterfinals. In the only direct confrontation between the two nations in the last-16, Divya Deshmukh took down Zhu Jiner (a GM) in the first tie (Deshmukh, an IM, is one of the country’s brightest prospects). In a queen-centric endgame versus Jiner, Deshmukh, an age-group world champion, completely asserted her posi- tion as her pieces had better coordination and were very active. After building up an imposing advantage, she played the decisive 49. Qf7+ and Jiner resigned on the spot. If the 19year-old draws with black pieces on Thursday, she will advance to the quarterfinals. The teen was joined by young R Vaishali, seasoned D Harika and Koneru Humpy in the last 16 after the first three rounds in Georgia. The other three drew their opening ties and they will all advance if they win on Thursday. The women’s World Cup is important as it carries with it as many as three qualification places for next year’s women’s Candidates. Divya Deshmukh against Zhu Jiner at the event I FIDE/ Anna Shtourman Candidates calling World Cup carries three qualification spots. Vaishali and Humpy played in 2024 but qualified through other pathways. If players qualify through World Cup, they can have 7-8 months to prepare Chirman added. He further said, “In addition, we are administering several educational institutions, providing recurring grants to universities, colleges, schools, and welfare organisations, and maintaining roads and providing other facilities in Tirupati. Considering all these responsibilities, increasing the CGF is not feasible.” Aadhaar verification for TTD services approved The Chairman announced that TTD has received permission from the Centre to verify Aadhaar cards while devotees avail of its services. “Our request for Aadhaar verification has been approved. The verification fee will be `0.70 per transaction, and transactions will be conducted through an authorised link,” he said. AI Integration in TTD services soon Naidu emphasized that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will soon play a major role in Tirumala and other TTD-administered P4 temples.