kochi l thursday l september 25, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l late city EDITION Govt approves K70,000 Crore package to boost shipbuilding The Union cabinet on Wednesday cleared a K69,725 crore package to revitalise India’s shipbuilding sector and reduce dependence on foreign ships File photo Push for atmanirbharta in shipping sector more medical seats at PG, UG levels The package will extend the Shipbuilding Financial Assistance Scheme, help launch a National Shipbuilding Mission, and set up a Maritime Development Fund. It is designed to boost domestic shipbuilding capacity and create substantial job and investment opportunities. It comes a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for Atmanirbharta in the shipping sector ■ In other decisions, the cabinet approved the construction of a 4-lane ■ highway and the doubling of a rail line in Bihar for D6,000 crore It also cleared proposals to strengthen and upgrade existing central and state government medical colleges and add 5,000 postgraduate medical seats and 5,023 MBBS seats at a cost of D15,034 crore A95,000 cr worth proposals approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday 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 K’taka HC rejects X’s plea against purge of content 2 1) People gather outside the burning BJP office building in Leh after it was set ablaze by protesters; 2) Smoke billows from a torched structure; 3) People outside the burning Council Secretariat building that was the target of an arson attack | pti 5 KILLED in Leh riots Yat h i ra j u @ Bengaluru The Kar nataka HC on Wednesday rejected a petition by X Corp challenging the government’s authority to issue content take down order under the Information Technology Act. No one can assume they can treat the Indian marketplace as mere playground where information can be disseminated in defiance of statutes or disregard to legality and later , adopt a posture of detachment, the court said. The petitioner urged it to declare that Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 does not confer the authority on the Government of India to issue information-blocking orders under the Act. “The petitioner’s platform is subject to a regulatory regime in the USA... Under the Take It Down Act of the US, it chooses to follow the said Act as it criminalises the violation of orders of take-down, but the same petitioner refuses to follow the same in the shores of this nation (India),” said Justice M Nagaprasanna. 3 1 80 hurt as violent protesters seeking statehood for Ladakh clash with police; BJP office torched F AYA Z W A NI @ Srinagar AT least five persons were killed and 80 others suffered injuries in Leh district of Ladakh Union Territory on Wednesday as protests demanding statehood and inclusion under Sixth Schedule turned violent. The angry young protesters pelted stones at policemen, torched the BJP office, and damaged public property. Some of the injured are in serious condition. According to sources, tension was brewing since Tuesday after two persons fell ill and had to be hospitalised during the ongoing hunger strike led by climate activist Sonam Wangchuk demanding Sixth Schedule benefits and statehood for Ladakh. Following the violence, Wangchuk called off his hunger strike. On Wednesday, hundreds of youths took to the streets in Leh in response to a call by the Leh Apex Body for shutdown. Chanting slogans like “We will not beg for our rights,” the protesters clashed with security personnel. The youth pelted stones at policemen, who retaliated by firing tear smoke shells and resorting to baton charge. The protesters then set afire police vehicles and a BJP office. They also pelted stones on some government offices. Intense clashes continued throughout the day, resulting in casualties and injuries. Violence will defeat our five years’ efforts and agitation for statehood and 6th Schedule status to Ladakh Those responsible for orchestrating violence to disturb the peaceful atmosphere in Ladakh will be identified and stern action will be taken against them — Activist Sonam Wangchuk — Ladakh Lt Governor Kavinder Gupta The authorities clamped prohibitory orders and booked a Congress leader for allegedly making a provocative speech at the hunger strike venue. Speaking to this newspaper, LAB co-chairman Chering Dorjey said: “We have been agitating peacefully but it went out of control. There was anger; people were disappointed over the delay in talks and were perturbed over October 6 being fixed as the date for talks and not this month.” In its pushback, the Union home ministry charged that the violence was engineered by those trying to sabotage the dialogue process between the Centre and Ladakh groups. It said Wangchuk misled people through provocative mention of Arab Springstyle protests and references to Gen Z protests in Nepal. India mostly with Ukraine, says Zelenskyy in pushback Jaya n t h Jac o b @ New Delhi Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pushed back against US President Donald Trump’s claim that India along with China is a key funder of Rus- Roll revision ‘dirty trick’ of BJP, says CWC R amas h a n k ar @ Patna Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday claimed that ‘mini-hydrogen, hydrogen, uranium and plutonium bombs’ were being readied for further exposing ‘vote chori’ (vote theft) by the BJP in the next one month. He was speaking at the extended Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting at Sadaqat Ashram, the party’s headquarters in Bihar. A political resolution adopted at the meeting Rahul Gandhi dealt with several issues, including ‘vote theft’ and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of polls rolls in the election-bound Bihar. The CWC lauded Rahul for boldly exposing ‘vote theft’ and fighting ‘brazen attempts to subvert democracy’. It described the SIR in Bihar as another dirty trick from the BJP’s toolkit to manipulate electoral rolls.  P10 18 pages, including 4 pages of kochi Express sia’s war effort, asserting that New Delhi is “mostly with Ukraine” despite ongoing energy trade with Moscow. In an interview with Fox News, Zelenskyy addressed recent criticism from President Trump, who told the General Assembly that India and China were the “primary funders” of Russia’s war due to their continued purchase of Russian oil. “I think India, mostly, with us,” Zelenskyy said. He acknowledged the challeng- es posed by India’s energy ties with Russia but voiced optimism, placing trust in President Trump’s ability to navigate the issue. “Yes, we have these questions with energy but I think President Trump , can manage them,” he said. 391 cases against MPs, MLAs pending in Kerala courts P R A M D A S @Kochi The trial in cases registered against former and sitting Kerala MPs and MLAs is moving at a snail’s pace in courts across the state. In all, 391 cases against lawmakers are pending in the courts, a government report showed. Of those, 59 have been pending for more than 10 years, 100 for five to 10 years and the remaining 232 for less than five years. Warrants were issued in 55 cases, but just 12 were executed. Of the 59 cases that are over a decade old, the police did not receive summonses in 29. Of the 30 summonses they received, 27 were served. Three were not served as the accused were absconding. Twelve warrants were issued in the cases of which two were executed, while 10 were not due to reasons such as the accused having died, absconding or stay ordered by the HC. Expressing concern over the pendency of the cases, the HC on Wednesday directed the state government and the court administration to instruct nodal officers to coordinate efforts for expediting service of summonses in cases pending for over 10 years. It issued the order in a suo motu case initiated to monitor the progress of the pending cases against the MPs/MLAs. In a warrant issued against Minister P A Mohamed Riyas, the reason for non-execution was ‘not found in ● More on P4 person’.