BHUBANESWAR  MONDAY  AUGUST 04, 2025  `9.00  PAGES 12  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. MANIPUR PRESIDENT’S RULE EXTENSION 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 ■ ■ Sources said Shah’s meeting could be regarding a resolution on 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 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 EC issues notice Railway trackman killed in IED blast by Maoists to Tejashwi on voter card slur 6 Odia workers killed as rock collapses in AP granite quarry P R A S A N J E E T S A R K A R @ Rourkela EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Guntur/Bhubaneswar SIX migrant workers from Odisha were killed and 10 others injured when when a granite rock face collapsed at a quarry near Ballikurava in Bapatla district of Andhra Pradesh on Sunday . According to reports, due to heavy rainfall, loose soil around the quarry cliff destabilized, causing the giant boulders to dislodge and collapse on the workers below. The deceased were identified as Danda Badatya (48), Takuna Dalai (37), Banamala Chehra (30), Bhaskar Bhisoy (40), Santosh Gouda (36), and Mussajan (43). All the deceased hailed from Ganjam and Gajapati districts of Odisha. At the time of the collapse, 16 people were working in the quarry While four workers died . on the spot, two others who were critically injured succumbed at the Narasaraopet Government hospital. The injured are also being treated at the hospital and the condition of two is stated to be critical. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu ordered registration of a criminal case against the quarry management, and sought a comprehensive report from the Mines and Geology Department on the incident. Bapatla district collector J Venkata Murali visited the injured and directed officials to ensure the best medical care for them. The district administration has taken steps to send the bodies of the deceased to their native places in Odisha at the earliest. An ex gratia of `14 lakh each was announced by the AP government for the deceased workers while `10 lakh each will be provided to the severely injured and `1 lakh to those who sustained minor injuries in the mishap. Expressing grief over the incident, Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Majhi announced assistance of `4 lakh each from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund to the next of kin of each of the deceased. Meanwhile, Odisha government has decided to send the officer-on-special-duty in the Odisha Parivar Directorate Pritish Panda to Bapatla on Monday to look into treatment of the injured Odia workers and ensure the bodies of the deceased are brought back to their native places. The Labour department has asked its officials in Ganjam and Gajapati to reach out to the families of the deceased workers. 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.” from the draft electoral roll, The RJD leader, thereafElection Commister, alleged that sion of India (ECI) his EPIC number on Sunday issued h a d b e e n a notice to him “changed”, but asking him to District Magis‘hand over for intrate Thiyagaraja vestigation’ a votS M repudiated his er ID card that he claim.“The EPIC claimed to be in number in the possession of deelectoral rolls is spite the EC not isthe one that was EC says PC’s suing it officially . submitted by the views false Tejashwi on Satleader of the oppoFormer Union urday had demonsition in his affidaminister P strated an online vit in 2020 assemquery, with the Chidambaram on X bly polls. If he has said 6.5 lakh EPIC number, to another EPIC card migrants were cl a i m t h at h i s with another name was missing being registered as number as well, it voters in Tamil in the draft elecis a matter of intoral rolls pub- Nadu after 65 lakh vestigation,” the were lished as part of DM said. special intensive disenfranchised in In Patna, spokesBihar. The EC revision (SIR) and, persons Ajay Alok dismissed his upon rebuttal from (BJP), Neeraj Kuclaims as false authorities conmar (JDU) and cer ned, alle ged Rajesh Bhatt (LJP) that his voter ID card demanded that a case be regnumber was ‘changed’. istered against the RJD leadIn a letter addressed to the er. At a press conference in former deputy CM, the Sub New Delhi on Sunday, BJP Divisional Magistrate of spokesperson Sambit Patra 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?” RAMASHANKAR & RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR A railway trackman was killed and another injured after an improvised explosive device (IED) planted by Maoists went off on the rail tracks under K Balang police limits of Rourkela police district on Sunday forenoon. The deceased Atua Oram (37) and his injured colleague Budhua Munda (35) were scanning the railway tracks for possible sabotage attempt when the explosion occurred. The violence came on the closing day of the Martyrs Week being observed by the outlawed CPI (Maoist) outfit. The incident occurred a few kilometres away from the Renjda station, about 110 km from Rourkela and close to the Mao- ist den of the Saranda forest in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. The injured gangman has been shifted to a private hospital at Rourkela for treatment. Immediately after the incident took place, Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwani rushed to the spot to take stock of the situation. The SP said the IED blast occurred around 10 am in which one South Eastern Railway (SER) employee was killed and another injured. He said information was received about posters put up by by the Maoists in the area on Saturday night. The scanning exercise as per the standard operating procedure (SOP) was started on Sunday morning. During the scanning of the tracks nothing was found near 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- F AYA Z W A 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, posted at High Altitude Warfare School in Gulmargm, 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 Videograb of the passenger assaulting a SpiceJet employee at the Srinagar airport on July 26 | EXPRESS 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 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 Now, BSE vice-president held for OTET paper leak E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Cuttack IN a major breakthrough in the Special Odisha Teacher Eligibility Test (OTET) question paper leak case, the Crime Branch of Odisha Police on Sunday arrested Board of Secondary Education (BSE) vicepresident Nihar Ranjan Mohanty for his alleged involvement in the matter. Seven persons including data entry operator Jitan Moharana, who allegedly stole the question paper from Mohanty’s laptop, and teacher Prasant Kumar Khamari, who made handwritten copies of the same for sale, have already been arrested in connection with the leak. Briefing mediapersons, DGP CID(CB), Vinaytosh Mishra said investigation has revealed Mohanty’s complicity in the case. The board vice-president was involved in set- ting the special OTET question papers and coordinating with a Bhopal-based firm for printing. He had reportedly been overseeing the examination for the last 11 years. Before final printing, the firm had sent password-protected copies of the question paper to Mohanty for proofreading. As per protocol, he was to download and delete the file after proofreading. “However, Mohanty deliberately violated the protocol by allowing Moharana, who worked in the office of the Controller of Examinations but had no role in conduct of the examination, access to his laptop,” Mishra said. During investigation, police had found the proofread copies of the the site where posters were pasted, but the blast occurred about 1 km away which partially damaged the concrete sleeper of the rail track. Wadhwani said security forces of Odisha comprising teams of the Special Operation Group Senior Army officer booked for assaulting SpiceJet staff Series on ice: Fitting final day awaits TNIE in England The spot where the blast took place BSE vice-president Nihar Ranjan Mohanty being arrested by Crime Branch on Sunday question papers on his laptop following which he was interrogated on Saturday. During earlier interrogations, Mohanty had reportedly claimed that he had deleted the copies after proofreading. Mohanty deliberately violated the protocol by allowing Moharana, who worked in the office of the Controller of Examinations but had no role in conduct of the examination, access to his laptop – Vinaytosh Mishra, DGP CID(CB) “Verification of call records revealed over 100 calls between Mohanty and Moharana over the past three months beyond office hours,” the DGP said further terming them as abnormal communication. Interestingly, data entry operator Moharana was removed from the confidential section around three months back over allegations of suspicious conduct. “However, despite such allegations against him, Mohanty involved him in the examination process. Investigation revealed, the duo shared a close link. So both have an equal role in the question paper leak,” Mishra said. Further probe is on to ascertain if more people are involved and trace the related financial transactions, the DGP infor med adding, action would be taken CONTINUED ON P5 accordingly . without completing the boarding process in violation of aviation security protocols. The officer was escorted back to the gate by a CISF official. “At the gate, the passenger grew aggressive and physically assaulted members of the SpiceJet ground staff,” the SpiceJet said, adding the officer kicked, punched and beat its employees with a queue stand. 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 injured staff member was seen crying in pain. An FIR was filed at Budgam police station under Sections 115(2), 126(2), 351(2), and 131 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. (SOG), District Voluntary Force (DVF) and IR Batallion accompanied by bomb disposal squads have been carrying out intense combing operations in the region. Police sources claimed the IED was planted to target the security forces with the trap of attracting them to the site through Maoist posters. The explosion is attributed to the eastern regional bureau (ERB) of CPI (Maoist) which commands multiple states. Senior divisional commercial manager (SDCM) of SER and spokesperson for the Chakradharpur division Aditya Chaudhury said the Rourkela-Barsuan-Renjda-Topadihi-Karampada rail route is mainly used for mineral transportation. CONTINUED ON P5 EXPRESS READ Man killed in Gajapati over sorcery suspicion Berhampur: In a grisly crime, a 37-year-old man was tortured and murdered brutally over witchcraft suspicion at Rataguda village within Mohana police limits in Gajapati district on Saturday evening. The deceased was identified as Gopal Mallik | P4 DEFICIT OF RAINFALL IN A THIRD OF DISTRICTS About a third of districts across India have reported weak monsoon, a cause for concern, with Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Telangana, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and TN among them | P7