TIRUNELVELI l wednesday l august 13, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION Govt nod for 4 chip plants worth `4,594 cr in Odisha, Punjab, AP Out of the four projects, Odisha will get two, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh one each, Union I&B minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Tuesday odisha to witness `4,009 crore investment In all, 10 projects under national mission Vaishnaw said SiCSem will set up a silicon carbide semiconductor plant in Bhubaneswar for `2,066 crore, while Intel-backed 3D Glass Solutions will establish a manufacturing unit in Odisha with an investment of `1,943 cr; electronics component maker CDIL will set up a facility in Punjab for `117 crore; and ASIP will establish a chip packaging plant in AP for `468 crore ■ ■ The four new projects together are expected to generate a cumulative employment for 2,034 skilled professionals, a govt release said With the four new approvals, the total approved projects under the India Semiconductor Mission is now 10 with cumulative investments of around `1.6 lakh crore spread across six states, the release added `76,000 cr outlay of semiconductor mission under which projects are approved 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 prasadham shop Inclusion or exclusion from rolls within Election Commission of India’s ambit, says bench HC bins plea to allow one sect to operate stall in temple Bihar SIR appears to be a trust deficit issue: SC R S i v a k u m a r @ Chennai @ New Delhi The Madras High Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition praying for orders to the Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department to ensure that the contract for running the ‘prasadham kadai’, which sells edible sacred offerings for the god, at the renowned Devarajaswamy temple in Chinna Kancheepuram is given only to men belonging to the Vaishnavite Brahmin commun i t y. Ju s t i c e N A n a n d Venkatesh observed that Vaishnavites are a sect worshipping Lord Perumal and they do not constitute a specific caste. The petition, filed by L Ravi of West Mambalam in Chennai, prayed for the court to quash the auction notice dated July 31, 2025 issued by the HR&CE department, and conduct the auction for awarding tender for the ‘prasadham kadai’ as per the conditions contained in the original auction notice dated June 3 and July 4. The auction notice dated July 31, 2025 had revised the tender condition and fixed the eligibility as experience of five years in preparing ‘prasadham’ in a Vaishnavite temple and running the ‘prasadham kadai’. The new bid allowed non-Vaishnavite Brahmins too to take part in the tender. Justice N Anand Venkatesh, who heard the submission of special government pleader NRR Arun Natarajan, found no violation in the tender dated July 31. Natarajan added that the tender cannot be awarded solely based on a particular community and noted that the Madurai Bench of the HC had held that a particular sect cannot be given the rights for preparing the ‘prasadham’.  P7 Dogs to detect drones fired from Pak The Border Security Force has trained dogs to detect drones carrying drugs and weapons coming from across the India-Pakistan international border. The animals can pick up the mechanical buzzing sound of the flying machines that humans ears can’t | P10 SUCHITRA K ALYAN MOHANTY The Supreme Court on Tuesday observed that the special intensive revision (SIR) in Bihar appears to be a matter of trust deficit, adding inclusion or exclusion of citizens from electoral rolls was within the ambit of the Election Commission of India (ECI). A bench of justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi, which commenced the hearing on a batch of petitions, called the SIR row “largely a trust deficit issue”, going by the ECI’s claim that roughly 6.5 crore of the total 7.9 crore voting population didn’t have to file any documents for themselves or their parents who featured in the 2003 poll roll. Besides, “if out of 7.9 crore voters, 7.24 crore voters responded to SIR, it demolishes the theory of one crore voters missing or disenfranchised,” the bench said. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for RJD MP Manoj Kumar Jha and others, argued that the exclusion of about 65 lakh voters from the draft elec- toral roll is illegal. “Despite residents holding Aadhaar, ration and EPIC cards, officials refused to accept the documents. People were struggling to find birth certificates and other documents of their parents, he said. However, Justice Surya Kant told Sibal he was making a very sweeping statement that nobody has documents in Bihar. “If this happens in Bihar, then what will happen in other parts of the country?” he wondered. Contrary to its earlier advise to the ECI to consider Aadhaar and voter I-cards for the SIR process, the bench agreed with the poll body that they were not proof of citizenship. Senior advocate Abhishek Gaza GENOCIDE Priyanka vs Israel envoy PREETHA NAIR @ New Delhi Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Israeli Ambassador to India Reuven Azar were at daggers drawn on Tuesday after the former accused Israel of committing “genocide” and criticised the Indian government’s “shameful” silence over “the devastation on the people of Palestine”. The Wayanad MP’s remarks received a sharp response from Israel’s ambassador to India, Reuven Azar. “What is shameful is your deceit. Israel Killed 25,000 Hamas terrorists. The terrible cost in human lives derives from Hamas’s heinous tactics of hiding behind civilians, their shooting of people trying to evacuate or receive assistance and their rocket fire,” Azar said on X. The diplomat’s reply was to a post by Priyanka on the microblogging platform that Israel has “murdered over 60,000 people, 18,430 of whom were children”. Targeting the BJP-led government at the Centre, the Congress leader said enabling these crimes by silence and inaction is a crime in itself. Priyanka Gandhi In another post on X, Priyanka said the “cold blooded murder” of five Al Jazeera journalists is another heinous crime committed on Palestinian soil and said the immeasurable courage of those who dare to stand for the truth will never be broken by the violence and hatred of the Israeli state. “In a world where much of the media is enslaved to power and commerce, these brave souls reminded us of what true journalism is. May they rest in peace,” she said. In a sharp response, the Israeli envoy said that Israel facilitated two million tonnes of food into Gaza while Hamas tries to sequester them, creating hunger. “Gaza population has grown 450 per cent in the last 50 years, no genocide there. Don’t buy Hamas numbers,” Azar said on X. Bombay HC: Aadhaar isn’t citizenship proof The Bombay High Court on Tuesday denied bail to an alleged Bangladeshi national, saying mere possession of documents such as Aadhaar card, PAN card or a Voter ID card does not make someone a citizen of India. “They are meant for identification or availing services, but do not override the basic legal requirements of citizenship as prescribed in the Citizenship Act, 1955,” Justice Borkar said | P10 Singhvi, representing different political parties, questioned the timeline — just before the Bihar state polls — for the completion of the exercise. The court, however, stressed that as per the rules, those excluded have to submit applications for inclusion, and it is only at this stage that anyone’s objection will be considered. But Singhvi submitted that the EC was never intended to be the policeman of citizenship. “What is happening here is de facto deletion. Non-inclusion is the clever word being used here.” Sibal pointed out that while in one constituency in the state, contrary to the poll panel’s claims, 12 people declared dead were found alive, in another instance alive persons were declared dead. But senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, representing the ECI, said any exercise of such a nature was bound to have some defects at the draft stage. “This process can be rectified,” Dwivedi said. The arguments were inconclusive and would continue on Wednesday . EC gets plaint on Siddu’s 2018 ‘vote purchase’ Amid vote theft charges against the poll body in Karnataka, BJP MP Lahar Singh Siroya petitioned the ECI citing a video of former Union minister C M Ibrahim claiming he had ‘purchased’ 3,000 votes in the 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections to ensure a narrow victory of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the Badami assembly constituency done through WhatsApp from anywhere. An AI-powered bilingual chatbot (English and Tamil) will ensure that the user is able to get what they are looking for without being rerouted to any external interface through links or other applications, officials said. The Tamil Nadu e-Govern- N i r u pa m a V i s w a n at h a n @ Chennai About 50 Tamil Nadu government services, including applying for ration cards, nativity and income certificates, payment of taxes, trade licences and booking of tickets in government buses, can soon be e x pr e ss r e a d Trump’s 50% tariff on India is a hegemonic conspiracy, says CM CHENNAI: US President Donald Trump’s “unilateral” imposition of 50% tariff on Indian goods was a “hegemonic conspiracy” that India should oppose strongly, Chief Minister MK Stalin said on Tuesday | P4 Ordered to stay in children’s home, girl jumps off HC building Chennai: A 14-year-old girl, whose parents are divorced, was injured after she jumped off the first floor of a building of the HC on Tuesday after a bench ruled that she be sent to a kids’ home based on a plea filed by her father | P2 Madurai mayor’s husband held in `200-crore property tax scam Madurai: A Madurai police team arrested P Ponvasanth, husband of Madurai mayor Indirani, in Chennai on Tuesday in connection with the alleged `200 crore property tax scam in Madurai corporation | P4 From netas to abhinetas, growl grows louder An elderly woman at a demonstration for stray dogs, in Delhi on Tuesday | PTI From the leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha to Bollywood’s leading men, the tribe of ‘big brothers’ for stray dogs is growing. The backlash came from all quarters in both bark and bite. After a day of high drama, marching with INDIA bloc colleagues from Parliament to the Election Commission of India’s office over revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, Rahul Gandhi took a moment to post on social media, aimed, perhaps, at a different constituency of voters. Dog parents and animal lovers have not been at rest since the Supreme Court’s directive on Monday to remove all stray dogs from Delhi-NCR and place them in shelters within eight weeks. Rahul described the directive as a “step back from decades of humane, sciencebacked policy”. He added that “shelters, sterilisation, vaccination & community care can kee p streets safe” without the need for “blanket removals”. Rahul’s dog cred has never been in doubt. Former Congress leader and present Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said that he had to vie for Rahul’s attention with the latter’s dog on an occasion when he had gone to meet PREETHA NAIR @ New Delhi Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday announced a threemember panel to probe charges against Justice Yashwant Varma after admitting a multi-party notice for his removal, setting in motion the process of impeachment of the Allahabad High Court judge. The inquiry committee includes Supreme Court judge Justice Aravind Kumar, Madras High Court Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava, and senior Karnataka High Court advocate B V Acharya. “The committee will submit its report as early as possible. The proposal (for removal of Justice Varma) will remain pending till the receipt of the report of the inquiry committee,” Birla said. The LS Speaker said he had received a proposal from 146 Lok Sabha members, including Ravi Shankar Prasad and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, seeking removal of Justice Varma on July 21. The committee was set up in accordance with Section 3(2) of the Judges What happens next If the committee finds Justice Varma guilty, the inquiry report will be tabled in Parliament, followed by a discussion in both Houses after which there will be voting on the motion for the removal of the judge (Inquiry) Act 1968, he added. A fire incident at Justice Varma’s residence in the national capital in March, when he was a judge at the Delhi High Court, had led to the discovery of sackfuls of burnt cash at the outhouse. Though the judge claimed ignorance about the cash, a Supreme Court-appointed committee indicted him after speaking to a number of witnesses and recording his statement. Soon, use WhatsApp to access 50 TN govt services SC ruling on stray dogs Pa r a m i ta G h o s h @ New Delhi Justice Aravind on panel of 3 to probe Varma misconduct him over a political matter. For Bollywood actor John Abraham, it is personal. He is the dad of Bailey a mixed breed, , adopted as a stray Calling the . action ‘illegal, impractical, and inhumane’, he wrote to Chief Justice of India B R Gavai, requesting a review of the sweeping order. For animal lovers, there is no north-south divide. From actor Varun Dhawan to popular playback singer in the south, Chinmayi Sripaada, to Indian comic actors such as Vir Das, all have also come out strongly against the relocation order, using their social media accounts to call it a “death sentence for all dogs”. These voiceless souls are not “problems” to be erased. Shelters, sterilisation, vaccination & community care can keep streets safe - without cruelty Rahul Gandhi ance Agency (TNeGA) is working to roll out the WhatsAppbased e-governance solution in next three months, sources said. Minister of Information Technology and Digital Services Palanivel Thiaga Rajan had made the announcement regarding the service in the Assembly in April.  P7 Door-delivery of pds goods launched in tn Chennai: CM Stalin on Tuesday launched the Thayumanavar Scheme, which delivers PDS commodities at the doorsteps of senior citizens and persons with disabilities, and flagged off vehicles carrying the goods | P4