NAGAPATTINAM l thursday l september 25, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Govt approves `70,000 Crore package to boost shipbuilding The Union cabinet on Wednesday cleared a `69,725 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 `6,000 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 `15,034 crore `95,000 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 Roll revision ‘dirty trick’ of BJP, says CWC 2 1) People gather outside the burning BJP office building in Leh after it was set ablaze by protesters; 2) Smoke billows out after a structure was torched; 3) People outside the burning Council Secretariat building that was the target of an arson attack | pti 5 KILLED in Leh riots R a m a s h a n k a r @ 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 ruling 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 dealt with several issues, including ‘vote theft’ and the Special InRahul Gandhi tensive 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. “Their aim is clear: to disenfranchise the poor, workers, backward classes and minorities,” it alleged. 3 1 80 hurt as violent protesters seeking statehood for Ladakh clash with police; BJP office torched F AYA Z WANI @ 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 vested interests. Referring to remarks made by Wangchuk about ‘Arab Spring-style protests’ and on the recent protests in Nepal, it alleged the activist was using the protests to deflect from certain irregularities. India mostly with Ukraine, says Zelenskyy in pushback J aya n t h J a c 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- Armstrong murder case: HC transfers probe to CBI Express News Service @ Chennai The Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered transfer of the probe into the murder of BSP state president K Armstrong from the Tamil Nadu police to the CBI. Justice P Velmurugan passed the order while allowing the petitions K Armstrong filed by the slain leader’s brother, K Immanuvel alias Keynos Armstrong, who had argued that the police had not investigated the case properly The judge directed . the CBI to file the chargesheet within six months. T he BSP leader was hacked to death by a gang on July 5, 2024, at Perambur while he was inspecting a construction site. The Greater Chennai Police held investigations and arrested 27 persons in connection with the murder. One of them, Thiruvengadam, was killed in a police encounter. P5 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. K’taka HC rejects X’s plea against purge of content Yat h i r a j u @ Bengaluru The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday rejected a petition by X Corp challenging the authority of the government to issue content take down order under the Information Technology Act. No one can assume that they can treat the Indian marketplace as a 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 the court 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. “Article 19 (1)(a) of the Constitution, right to free speech and expression, is hedged by restrictions under Article 19(2) and is always subject to those reasonable restrictions,” the court observed.