hyderabad l Monday l august 04, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION pm modi, Amit Shah meet President separately This was the first meeting of the PM with the President after his recent visit to the United Kingdom and the Maldives meeting amid logjam in parliament on s.i.r. The meetings came against the backdrop of the logjam in Parliament over the Opposition’s demand for a discussion on the poll roll revision exercise in Bihar ahead of assembly elections. Except discussions in both Houses on Operation Sindoor, Parliament has seen no business since Monsoon session started on July 21 President’s rule extension in Manipur, which the Lok Sabha passed last week but the Rajya Sabha is yet to discuss it ■ Shah’s meeting with the President could also be related to the likely Cabinet reshuffle, sources said | P7 July 21 manipur president’s rule extension ■ Sources said Shah’s meeting could be regarding a resolution on Meetings come 2 weeks after jagdeep dhankar resigned as vice president 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 Senior Army officer booked for assaulting SpiceJet staff Faya z Wa n i @ Srinagar THE Jammu and Kashmir police have booked a senior officer of the Indian Army for allegedly assaulting four SpiceJet staff at the Srinagar airport last week, causing a spinal fracture to an airline staff. The Army has pledged full cooperation in the investigation while the airline has started the process to place the army officer on the no-fly list. The incident took place on July 26 when Lt Colonel Ritesh Kumar Singh, was trying to board SpiceJet flight SG-386 from Srinagar to Delhi allegedly with excess cabin baggage. “The passenger was carrying two pieces of cabin baggage weighing a total of 16 kg, more than double the permitted limit of 7 kg,” read a SpiceJet statement. It said the passenger became aggressive when the airline staff flagged the excess baggage and asked him to pay the applicable charges. The army officer refused and forcefully entered the aerobridge without completing the boarding process. The officer was escorted back to the gate. “At the gate, the passenger grew aggressive and physically assaulted members of the SpiceJet ground staff,” SpiceJet said, adding the officer kicked, punched and beat its employees. Visuals of the assault, which went viral on social, showed the officer charging at the ground staff. A SpiceJet employee could be seen bleeding from his face while another staff member was crying in pain due to injury . An FIR was filed at Budgam police station under Sections 115(2), 126(2), 351(2), and 131 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. express read Delhi Chalo: Cong to take BC quota fight to capital Hyderabad: In a bid to pressure the Centre into clearing Bills for enhancing reservations to 42% for BCs in local bodies, education & employment, the Congress will be launching a three-day protest in the national capital beginning August 5. For this, the TPCC has arranged a special train from the Charlapalli railway station at 9 am on Monday. TPCC president B Mahesh Kumar Goud and AICC Telangana in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan are expected to join the party workers | P4 slip of paper ends in arrest of man accused of killing over 50 women | p3 EC issues notice to Tejashwi on voter card slur To RJD leader’s claims of fraud in poll roll, EC asks him to submit his EPIC card tion suggests that the EPIC number you mentioned at @ Patna/New Delhi the press conference on August 2 was not issued offiA day after leader of Opposi- cially. You are therefore retion in Bihar assembly Tejas- quested to hand over the hwi Prasad Yadav claimed EPIC card in original for dethat his name was missing tailed investigation.” The RJD leader, thereaffrom the draft electoral roll, ter, alleged that Election Commishis EPIC number sion of India (ECI) h a d b e e n on Sunday issued “changed”, but a notice to him District Magisasking him to trate Thiyagaraja ‘hand over for inS M repudiated his vestigation’ a votclaim.“The EPIC er ID card that he number in the claimed to be in electoral rolls is possession of dethe one that was spite the EC not isEC says PC’s submitted by the suing it officially . views false leader of the oppoTejashwi on SatFormer Union sition in his affidaurday had demonminister P vit in 2020 assemstrated an online query, with the Chidambaram on X bly polls. If he has said 6.5 lakh another EPIC card EPIC number, to migrants were with another cl a i m t h at h i s name was missing being registered as number as well, it voters in Tamil is a matter of inin the draft elecNadu after vestigation,” the toral rolls pub65 lakh were DM said. lished as part of In Patna, spokesspecial intensive disenfranchised in Bihar. The EC persons Ajay Alok revision (SIR) and, dismissed his (BJP), Neeraj Kuupon rebuttal from claims as false mar (JDU) and authorities conRajesh Bhatt (LJP) cer ned, alle ged that his voter ID card demanded that a case be registered against the RJD leadnumber was ‘changed’. In a letter addressed to the er. At a press conference in former deputy CM, the Sub New Delhi on Sunday, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra Divisional Magistrate of Patna Sadar-cum-electoral asked,“If a senior party registration officer for Digha leader like Yadav carries assembly constituency said, two voter IDs, what will the “Our preliminary investiga- party workers be doing?” r a m as h a n k a r & R A JE S H K U M A R TH A K U R Ghose holds KCR accountable for KLIS lapses Laying bare the rot VV B a l a k r i s h n a @ Hyderabad If sources are to be believed, the report submitted by the PC Ghose Commission of Inquiry holds BRS president and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao “directly and vicariously accountable” for irregularities in the planning, execution, completion, and operation and maintenance (O&M) of the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme (KLIS). According to highly placed sources, the Commission reportedly found that the project was taken up without Cabinet approval and fixed responsibility on the then irrigation minister T Harish Rao and then finance minister Eatala Rajender. It also recommended the severest le g al action against six irrigation engineers for deliberately misleading the Commission and for giving false depositions. The report noted that the then engineer-in-chief, C Muralidhar Rao, recently caught by the ACB, misrepresented facts to the Central Water Commission. One of the most serious findings relates to KCR’s directive to continuously impound water in the barrages to full capacity for lifting through pump houses, despite barrages being designed as low-head diversion structures, not storage systems. This, the Commission stated, was a “major cause for distress”, linking it directly to the sinking of piers at the Medigadda barrage. The report flagged massive cost escalations, flawed designs and procedural lapses throughout the project’s construction. The Commission, headed by former Supreme Court judge PC Ghose, described KLIS as a scheme marked by “rampant and brazen procedural and financial irregularities”.  The Commission of Inquiry, headed by Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose, is believed to have held several individuals and institutional functionaries — including political leaders and senior officials — responsible for the failure of Medigadda and other barrages under the Kaleshwaram Project. The Commission has purportedly recommended action against former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, his then Cabinet colleagues T Harish Rao and Eatala Rajender, as well as officials like Smita Sabharwal, SK Joshi and then ENC C Muralidhar Rao Drowning in irregularities  SOLE DECISION OF KCR: The decision to construct barrages at Medigadda, Annaram and Sundilla was “the sole and individual decision of the Minister (Irrigation) and the Chief Minister.” The Commission noted there was no formal “decision of the government”  SUPPRESSION OF EXPERT REPORTS: An Expert Committee formed on January 21, 2015, had rejected the Medigadda proposal due to “prohibitive cost and time consumption,” and suggested alternatives like Vemanapally. This report was “intentionally… not considered” and “kept in cold storage” by then chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and irrigation minister Firoz Mirza @london THE weather Gods didn’t want this series to end. Not yet anyway And, so, this . mind-bending, narrative-shattering, finger-nail chewing fivematch Test series will go into a 25th bum-squelching day. And who would blame them? It’s been that kind of a series. A man with a broken finger came out to bowl. A man with a broken foot came out to bat. And, late on Sunday, a man with a dislocated shoulder, arm very much in a sling—Chris Woakes—was prepared to come out and bat. In the middle, the Jamies, Smith and Overton, were involved in a dogfight against, really a trio of heroic pacers who , kept going and going and going. At least one of them had to take a painkilling injection. At least one of them wore a knee brace before discarding it because it was affecting their run-up. What’s a couple of dodgy ligaments when a potential trade off is a famous come-from-behind win to level the series. India go to bed needing four more wickets to ensure there is something tangible to show from Shubman Gill’s first assignment as captain. England go to bed needing 35 more runs. And boy was Sunday a right old , scrap between two flawed sides giving it their all, their wounded bodies and tired minds ig-  NO JUSTIFICATION FOR MEDIGADDA & LACK of CABINET APPROVAL: The report said that the reason — “no availability of water at Tummidihatti” — for shifting the barrage to Medigadda “does not appear to be sincere and honest”. Initial administrative approvals were not placed before or cleared by the Cabinet, violating Business Rules, it added  IRREGULARITIES IN AWARDING OF CONTRACT: KCR, in a letter to the prime minister on February 11, 2016, pegged the project cost at `71,436 crore — even before WAPCOS submitted its final report. Despite advice from the CWC to go for a “turnkey basis,” contracts were awarded on a “lump sum” basis continued on p4 noring the pain threshold. Harr y B r o o k a n d Jo e Ro o t coruscating 195-run, thrill-aminute stand had seemingly sucked out all the oxygen from the Indian team. But after they fell, India roared back. It’s what has kept them alive going into the final day of a series that will long be remembered irrespective of the result. India’s Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj (C) celebrate Joe Root’s wicket with teammates on Sunday | ap Sports, industry icons team up to nurture talent in TG m e g h n a n at h @ Hyderabad In a landmark initiative, sporting icons Kapil Dev, Baichung Bhutia, Abhinav Bindra, Pullela Gopichand and Gagan Narang have joined hands with top administrators and corporate leaders to form the 14-member Board of Governors of the Telangana Sports Development Fund (TSDF). According to officials, the newly constituted board combines grassroots sporting expertise with strategic leadership from industry The TSDF, . envisioned as a pioneering public-private model, aims to bolster grassroots systems, promote excellence across disciplines and serve as a national blueprint for nurturing future champions. Board of Governors n Dr Sanjiv Goenka, chairman, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group; owner of IPL & ISL teams n Upasana Kamineni, vice-chairperson, Apollo Hospitals Foundation n Vita Dani, chairperson, Dani Foundation; co-owner, Ultimate Table Tennis n Kavya Maran, director, Sun TV Network n C Shashidhar, MD, Vishwa Samudra Group n Pullela Gopichand, chief national badminton coach; Dronacharya awardee n Ravikanth Reddy, volleyball administrator The fund will focus on athlete development, infrastructure, PE teacher training and targeted investments in Olympic sports. The board will oversee joint decision-making and ensure transparency in implementation. n Baichung Bhutia, Indian football legend n Abhinav Bindra, Olympic gold medallist, shooting n Kapil Dev, 1983 World Cup-winnin g cricket captain n BV Papa Rao, former IAS officer; sports reform advocate n Injeti Srinivas, former secretary, Sports n Jayesh Ranjan, principal secretary, Sports & Youth Services, Governmen t of Telangana n Shiva Sena Reddy, chairman, Sports Authority of Telangana The board includes influential figures such as RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group chairman Dr Sanjiv Goenka, known for strategic investments in Indian sport, and Vita Dani, credited with playing a key role in the rise of Indian table tennis. It also features women leaders in sport like Kavya Maran, CEO of Sunrisers Hyderabad, and Upasana Kamineni, vice chairperson of Apollo Hospitals Foundation, who bring fresh perspectives and a commitment to inclusive sporting growth. decision to shift Annaram and Sundilla locations was made by the High Power Committee in October 2016 — after contracts had already been awarded in July/August — and “without consulting WAPCOS”. In 2021–22, costs were further increased citing “increased quantities, changes in specifications and designs, and inclusion of items like staff quarters, guest houses, slope protection, taxes and escalation.” The Commission termed these “malicious” efforts “to unduly favour the Agencies” and “wrongfully siphon public funds” ‘Focus on local systems’ The TSDF, envisioned as a publicprivate model, aims to bolster grassroots systems, promote excellence across disciplines and serve as a national blueprint for nurturing future champions The Commission concluded that the entire project was marked by “rampant and brazen procedural and financial irregularities.” It recommended: Recovery of funds  NO O&M: There was no operation or maintenance — no periodic checks, inspections, or pre/postmonsoon reports — carried out on any of the three barrages  DESIGN DEFICIENCIES: The Series on ice: Fitting final day awaits TNIE in England  COST ESCALATIONS: The Action suggested by panel barrages, designed on “permeable foundations,” were wrongly used as storage structures, contrary to standard practice. At Annaram and Sundilla, crucial studies — backwater, tailwater curves, G-D curves, geophysical investigations — were not conducted. Quality control was found “inadequate,” particularly for secant piles, where even verticality checks were simply marked “yes” without data  UNDUE FAVOURS TO CONTRACTORS: The report found that “Substantial Construction Completion Certificate” (9.9.2019) and “Completion Certificate” (15.3.2021) for Medigadda were “wrong, illegal and tainted with malice,” as the works were incomplete and defects known Recovery of `677.67 lakh (paid to WAPCOS) from responsible officials, as WAPCOS’s report was “brushed aside” Probe into collusion n The report explicitly states that “the Project authorities and the Agency are hand in glove with each other and acted with concerted malicious intention in pursuit of their unfair and ulterior motive to unduly benefit out of, and make unlawful gain from, the huge amount of public money expended on the construction of Medigadda barrage”