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 ■ ■ BHUBANESWAR l monday l december 08, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l JEYPORE EDITION Houses of Bengali community members in MV-26 were set on fire by a 1,000-strong mob on Sunday, following the alleged murder of a 55-year-old woman | P4 25 killed in blaze PM to open Vande Mataram debate in LS today at packed North Goa nightclub PR E E T HA NAIR @ New Delhi THE penultimate week of the Parliament session is set to be very busy, with both Houses set to debate ‘Vande Mataram’ and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will open the debate on the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram in the Lok Sabha, where he is expected to highlight several previously unknown facets of the national song. The BJP has been allotted s u d h i r s u r ya w a n s h i @Mumbai A massive fire tore through a jampacked nightclub in North Goa around midnight on Sunday killing at least twenty-five , people, including five tourists and 20 employees of the club. The club, ‘Birch by Romeo Lane’ at Arpora, 25 km from Panaji, did not have the mandatory fire department no-objection certificate. Since the club stands in the backwater of Arpora river, a narrow bridge leading to it made it tough for panic-stricken tourists to escape, fire officials said. A preliminary inquiry found that electric firework inside the nightclub was the likely cause of the blaze, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said, adding that he had ordered chief secretary Dr V Candavelou and DGP Alok Kumar to identify and act against government officials who allowed the club to operate without fire safety clearance. The club’s chief general manager Rajiv Modak, general manager Vivek Singh, bar manager Rajiv Singhania and gate manager Riyanshu Thakur were arrested by the police. S e p a r a t e l y, p o l i c e h ave launched a manhunt for the club owners — Saurabh Luthra and Gaurav Luthra, who’ve been named in the FIR. At least 100 people were on A videograb of the fire in Arpora in North Goa late on Sunday. Eyewitnesses said the nighclub did not have well-defined exits | Express the dance floor at the time of the fire. In an attempt to rush out, some visitors ran downstairs to the kitchen where they got trapped in the blaze along with the staff, said Fatima Shaikh, a tourist from Hyderabad. “There was a sudden commotion as the flames star ted erupting. We rushed out of the club only to see that the entire structure was up in flames,” she said. Officials said there were no proper exits to the premises. Police have detained the sarpanch of Arpora-Nagoa Panchayat, Roshan Redkar, who had issued a trade licence to the nightclub in 2013. President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, among others, condoled the deaths. An ex-gratia of `5 lakh for the kin of each deceased and `50,000 for the injured was announced by the CM. three hours for its interventions in the Lok Sabha, while the total debate time will span about 10 hours. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is expected to be the second speaker in the debate, which will also feature the participation of Congress Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Deepender Hooda, Manipur MP Dr Bimol Akoijam, and Praniti Shinde, among others. The Rajya Sabha will take up the debate on Vande Mataram on Tuesday, with Home Minis- ter Amit Shah leading the discussion. Health Minister and Leader of the Rajya Sabha J P Nadda will be the second speaker. The debate on Vande Mataram is likely to see fireworks as the Congress and BJP were at loggerheads over the latter’s allegations that important stanzas of the national song were dropped in 1937, which sowed the seeds of partition. While inaugurating the yearlong commemoration of Vande IndiGo flight ops stabilising, cancellations down to 650 S L A L I T HA @ New Delhi AIR travel chaos due to IndiGo’s operational disruptions continued on Sunday, though the situation appeared to improve with the country’s largest airline set to operate 1,650 flights until midnight – up from 1,565 on Saturday and 706 on Friday . This still resulted in 650 flights across the country being cancelled with hundreds of them delayed by hours. In a statement, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said air travel operations across the country were stabilising. “All other domestic airlines are operating smoothly and at full capacity while IndiGo’s per, formance has shown steady improvement today, with flight schedules moving back towards normal levels. IndiGo’s flight operations are likely to reach upto 1,650 by the end of today Refunds being processed IndiGo has processed refunds of `610 crore so far against cancelled or delayed flights, and delivered 3,000 pieces of baggage to passengers as of Saturday, the civil aviation ministry said (Sunday),” its statement read. To ensure financial protection for passengers, the ministry directed IndiGo to complete refunds for cancelled or severely delayed flights by 8:00 PM on Sunday The ministry also asked . IndiGo to ensure that no additional fees are levied for rescheduling travel impacted by cancellations. On how much more refund was pending, an Indigo source said the process of calculating the amount to be refunded was still on. The ministry also said IndiGo successfully delivered 3,000 pieces of baggage to passengers as of December 6. It had mandated a 48-houir deadline for delivery of luggage separated from flyers due to the flight delay and cancellation chaos. In an update on the situation, Indigo said its on-time performance shot up to 75% on Sunday from 30% on Saturday . The airline also said it will “root cause analysis” into flight disruptions. Meanwhile, the aviation watchdog on Sunday extended the deadline to submit the response to Monday 6 pm. IndiGo sources said the airline would soon respond to the DGCA’s show cause notice to its CEO Pieter Elbers. “We are readying our response by explaining the reasons that flights were cancelled and delayed and the steps we are taking to mitigate them,” a source said. Mataram to mark its 150 years, Modi said a “divisive mindset” is still a challenge for India. In response, the Congress said the PM insulted Vande Mataram, noting that Rabindranath Tagore himself had recommended adopting only the first two stanzas. The Lok Sabha will take up the debate on SIR on Tuesday and Wednesday . Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi will speak on SIR on Tuesday. He is also expected to raise the issue of ‘vote theft’ and the accountability of the Election Commission of India (ECI). During the debate on SIR, the Opposition members are also expected to raise suicides of Booth Level Officers reportedly due to intense work pressure related to the voter list re-verification drive. Key opposition leaders inc l u d i n g C o n g r e s s ’s K C Venugopal and Manish Tewari, DMK’s Kanimozhi, and Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav are also expected to take part in the discussions. Boosting ties with India top agenda of US official’s visit j aya n t h j a c o b @ New Delhi A top US official is scheduled to visit New Delhi and Bengaluru from December 7 to 11. The visit of US’ under secretary of state for political affairs Allison Hooker is expected to sharpen the strategic focus of the US-India partnership at a time when both sides are navigating economic friction, geopolitical volatility and rapid technological shifts. According to the US Embassy, Hooker will prioritise advancing the US-India strategic partnership, deepening economic and commercial ties, expanding American exports, and accelerating collaboration in emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence and space exploration. Her visit comes amid renewed efforts in Washington and New Delhi to stabilise ties after weeks of heightened tensions over US’ 50% tariff. Hooker has been closely involved in India engagement in recent months. In September, she met Indian ambassador to the US Vinay Kwatra, as both sides worked to ease friction over trade and energy issues. In November, Indian public-sector oil companies signed a one-year agreement with US energy majors to import 2.2 million tonnes of LPG, roughly 10% of India’s annual LPG imports. Then, India and the US finalised a $946 million sustainment package for the Indian Navy’s fleet of 24 MH-60R Seahawk helicopters, strengthening defence industrial ties. During her stay in New Delhi, Hooker will meet her counterpart Foreign Secretray Vikram Misri, and other senior officials to discuss regional security, economic cooperation and shared priorities in the Indo-Pacific.