chennai l friday l december 19, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 38 l late city EDITION SC to eci: consider Kerala, u.p. plea on SIR deadline extension Supreme Court on Thursday asked Election Commission to consider representations seeking extension of time for SIR in Uttar Pradesh, Kerala lawyers question hurry in wrapping up sir leave it to the poll panel: eci counsel A bench comprising CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was told by senior lawyer Kapil Sibal that 25 lakh names were deleted in electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh alone. SIR deadline in UP was December 3 and in Kerala was December 18. A lawyer questioned the hurry and said assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh are due in 2027 and yet EC was not giving time ■ ■ The bench took note of the submissions and asked the ECI to take a decision “sympathetically” on any representations seeking an extension of time, while considering the ground realities Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, for the Election Commission, opposed the submissions saying these should be left to the poll panel Jan 6 is when final hearings on pleas challenging SIR will be taken up 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 e y ta k e a w ay s 99% of Indian exports (by value) will enter Oman without any tariffs 1 Agriculture, dairy, tea, coffee, jewellery, footwear sectors are excluded from the deal 2 Full tariff cuts for textiles, gems, leather, pharma, autos amid US tariff pressures 3 2024-25 trade with Oman: India exported goods worth $4.06bn; imported $6.5bn 4 Another FTA in bag with duty-free Oman access to 99% exports P u s h p i ta D e y @ New Delhi AT a time when the country is diversifying its export market amid steep, unilateral trade tariffs levied by the US, India and Oman on Thursday signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) under which 99% of Indian exports, by value, will have duty-free access to the Omani market. In return, India will offer duty-free access to 78% of goods imported from Oman. In value terms, 95% of Oman’s exports will have free access to the Indian market. However, India ensured that sensitive sectors such as agriculture and dairy products are outside the trade deal’s ambit. The commerce ministry clarified that all major labour-intensive sectors — including gems and jewellery , textiles, leather, footwear, sports goods, plastics, furniture, agricultural products, engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and automobiles — will receive full tariff elimination. For products of export interest to Oman that are sensitive for India, the concessions are largely in the form of tariff-rate quota (TRQ)-based liberalisation. The trade agreement is expected to provide respite to labour-intensive sectors affected by US tariffs. The pact was signed in Muscat by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Oman’s Minister of Com- PM Narendra Modi being conferred the Order of Oman by Sultan Haitham bin Tarik | PTI merce, Industry and Investment Promotion, Qais bin Mohammed Al Yousef, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. For the first time, Oman raised the quota for intra-corporate transferees to 50% from 20% and extended the stay for contractual service suppliers to two years, with a possible two-year extension. The pact also eases entry for skilled professionals. The deal allows 100% FDI by Indian firms in service sectors in Oman. Additional pacts cover maritime heritage, agriculture, higher education, and industry ties between Oman Chamber of Commerce and CII. letter to pm Crisis looms as US tariffs cripple TN exports: CM EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Chennai Warning of a looming humanitarian and economic crisis due to the impact of the 50% tariff on Indian exports imposed by the United States, Chief Minister MK Stalin has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his urgent intervention to resolve the issue. He stated that the US tariffs have crippled Tamil Nadu’s textile, apparel, and leather sectors, resulting in a loss of `15,000 crore in orders and putting lakhs of jobs, particularly those of women, at serious risk. Explaining in detail how the US tariffs have had a serious impact on TN’s textile and leather industry, the CM said in Tiruppur — the knitwear capital of India — exportCM MK Stalin ers have reported a staggering wipeout of `15,000 crore in confirmed orders, coupled with enforced production cuts of up to 30% across units. New orders are drying up at an alarming rate. “This has translated into a combined daily loss of `60 crore in revenues for exporters in Tiruppur, Coimbatore, Erode and Karur, pushing many small and medium enterprises to the brink of collapse,” he said. P7 Torn papers fly as G-Ram-G bill replacing Mahatma approved P r e e t h a N a i r a n d Pa r v e z S u lta n @ New Delhi Parliament on Thursday passed the Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill amid chaotic scenes in the Lok Sabha, with the Opposition raising slogans, tearing copies of the legislation, and standing on tables while holding posters of Mahatma Gandhi aloft, despite repeated appeals for order by Speaker Om Birla. The Rajya Sabha subsequently burnt the midnight oil to pass the bill after a five-hour debate. The VB G-Ram-G Bill that replaces the two-decade-old Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee guarantees 125 days of employment for rural households in a financial year, with the government earmarking `95,000 crore for the initiative. A major shift under the new framework is a revised fundsharing pattern, under which states will have to bear 40% share of the scheme’s financial responsibility . Moving the bill for passage after a nearly eight-hour-long debate, Union Minister for Rural Development Shivraj Singh Chouhan mounted a strong defence of the government’s move, express read HC bench reserves order in Thiruparankundram case Madurai: On the last day of hearing of appeals filed against the order allowing lighting of deepam on a ‘deepathoon’ on Thiruparankundram hill, the state argued that there is no data to prove that the stone pillar is in fact a ‘deepathoon’. A two-judge bench of the Madras HC on Thursday reserved orders in the case | P2 Deepam row: 40-year-old man kills self in Madurai Madurai: A 40-year-old man, P Poorna Chandran, killed himself inside the CCTV feed monitoring room of Tallakulam police on Thursday, allegedly to show his support for lighting deepam at the ‘deepathoon’ in Thiruparankundram hill. Chandran, a Murugan devotee, was not affiliated to any party | P2 Schneider inks 718-crore investment deal with TN Chennai: Schneider Electric India signed a deal with the TN govt on Thursday to expand its units in Chennai and Coimbatore and to set up a greenfield plant in Hosur at an investment of `718 crore. The agreement is expected to create 663 direct jobs. The Hosur facility will come up on a 5 lakh sq ft plot | P4 ‘urban phobia’ Plea on enhancing quality of packaged drinking water: Luxury litigation, says SC s u c h i t r a k a lya n m o h a n t y @ New Delhi THE Supreme Court on Thursday declined to entertain a PIL seeking enforcement of global standards for packaged drinking water, terming it as a fit case of ‘luxury litigation’ in a country where a large populace lacks access to basic drinking water. “Where is the drinking water in this country, madam? People do not have drinking water; the quality of bottled water will come later on,” Chief Justice Surya Kant, who was sitting with Justice Joymalya Bagchi, said, adding that these are ‘luxury litigations’. The bench was hearing a PIL filed by Sarang Vaman Yadwadkar, who sought directives to improve and align Indian standards for packaged drinking water with global benchmarks. At the outset, the CJI questioned the very premise of the petition, observing that the court could not lose sight of broader realities faced by the country . “Do you think we can implement standards followed by the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and Australia? This is an urban-centric approach; people in rural areas drink groundwater, and nothing happens to them,” the bench said. Senior advocate Anita Shenoy, counsel for petitioner, said the issue concerned public health and consumer safety Relying on Section 18 of the . Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006, which mandates adherence to prescribed safety norms, the counsel said citizens were entitled to clean and safe packaged drinking water, and that statutory obligations could not be diluted. The bench, however, allowed withdrawal of the PIL with the liberty to approach the FSSAI. Free laptops for TN college students likely from January 5 B i n i ta J a i s w a l @ Chennai NAREGA Act mandates spending of 60% funds on labour and 40% on material. But only 26% was spent on material and funds were siphoned off Torn papers sail past minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the Lok Sabha on Thursday | PTI insisting that the legislation did not dilute Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals but, instead, sought to strengthen them. As Opposition MPs trooped to the well of the House, raising slogans against the government for dropping Gandhi ji’s name from the rural jobs initiative and tearing copies of the bill and flinging it towards the chair, Chouhan hit out at the Congress for “insulting” the Mahatma and “killing” his ideals time and again. Congress members Shafi Parambil, Dean Kuriakose and Hibi Eden stood on the table and others resorted to sloganeering in the well of the House. Rejecting the charge that the Centre was deliberately remov- ing Gandhi’s name from the law, the minister alleged that the Congress had attached his name to the scheme for political reasons. “The name of Mahatma Gandhi was added in 2009 with an eye on elections,” he said. Chouhan argued that the existing framework of MGNREGA had serious structural flaws, particularly in the allocation of funds among states. In the Rajya Sabha, Digvijaya Singh (Cong) raised a point of order saying the bill was made available on the members’ portal late in the evening and sufficient time was not given to submit amendments. Tiruchi Siva (DMK) too sought more time to file amendments. But the request was rejected. Shivraj Singh Chouhan Voice vote Several amendments moved by Oppn members were not taken up for voting as they were absent. Amid uproar, LS passed the bill by voice vote The Tamil Nadu government’s free laptop distribution scheme is likely to be launched on January 5, with beneficiaries already identified for the first phase of implementation. The scheme, announced in this year’s state budget, is aimed at strengthening digital access among college students from economically weaker sections and enhancing their exposure to emerging technologies, including Artificial Intelligence. The state government had allocated `2,000 crore in the budget this year for providing laptops to 20 lakh students over the next two years. In the first phase, around 10 lakh UG final-year students studying in arts and science, engineering, medical, law, agriculture and polytechnic courses in government and government-aided colleges will receive laptops.  P7 WITH THIS ISSUE CHENNAI’S BEST WEEKEND GUIDE 38 PAGES, INCLUDING 24 OF INDULGE (TABLOID)