COIMBATORE l Thursday l April 02, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l LATE CITY EDITION IAF, HAL to hold critical review meet as tejas mk1a delay drags on Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and the Indian Air Force will hold a critical programme review this month to finalise a revised induction timeline Meet to assess progress on key requirements Air force grapples with squadron shortage Sources in the defence establishment said senior IAF and HAL officials will meet in New Delhi to assess the progress made on mandatory operational requirements. “The outcome of the review will be decisive... The IAF is seeking clarity on when the first aircraft, already over two years behind schedule, will finally be inducted,” a source said | P9 ■ ■ Beyond delays in the supply of GE F404 engines from the United States, the integration and certification of the Israeli EL/M-2052 AESA radar has added to the programme’s timeline pressures The delays come as the IAF grapples with a squadron shortfall, operating just 29 squadrons against a sanctioned strength of 42.5 180 Tejas Mk1A aircraft ordered by the Indian air force 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 Special session for women’s quota P REET H A NAIR @ New Delhi Indian tanker Jag Vasant, owned by Great Eastern Shipping Company Ltd, after clearing the Strait of Hormuz, is seen anchored at the LPG discharge terminal, in Mumbai on Wednesday | PTI PM takes stock of steps to safeguard citizens from crisis J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday chaired the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Security to review India’s preparedness amid the ongoing West Asia conflict, directing officials that “all efforts must be made to safeguard citizens from the impact of this conflict.” The second such review in recent days held at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg focused on mitigating disruptions across key sectors including energy agriculture, ship, ping, aviation, logistics and MSMEs. The government assessed supply chains and explored contingency measures to ensure stability in essenInterventions tial commodities and services. Supply proposed to be diversification for LPG and LNG, fuel taken for duty reduction and power sector emerging measures were reviewed to ensure challenges in stability of essential supplies. various other sectors such as A key focus area was energy secuagriculture, civil rity Cabinet Secretary T V Somanath. aviation, shipping an briefed the meeting about the acand logistics were tion taken to ensure supply of also discussed petroleum products, particularly LNG/LPG, and sufficient power availGovt statement ability Measures such as exempting . certain gas-based power plants from pooling mechanisms and increasing coal supplies to thermal stations were reviewed to ensure uninterrupted electricity during peak summer demand. The government noted that “enough coal stock exists” to meet power needs in the coming months. On the agriculture front, the PM reviewed fertilizer availability Efforts are underway to maintain urea pro. duction and coordinate imports of DAP and NPK fertilizers. States have been asked to intensify monitoring and take action against diversion and black-marketing. SC stays trial in DA case against Duraimurugan day 33 Costly fuel 25% Price hike cap on aviation turbine fuel on domestic routes announced to prevent steep rise in airfares, though ATF rates have more than doubled to `2.07 lakh due to West Asia crisis `195.50 Hike in cost of commercial LPG rates per cylinder `2 per litre Jump in XP95, Power95, and Speed fuels `51 More for 5 kg mini LPG cylinder Just 8.5% up Price of jet fuel in Delhi is `1,04,927 per kilolitre, only 8.5% higher than `96,638 in March. Earlier in the day, OMC website showed the price at `207,341.22 per kilolitre for this month italy miss 3rd time in-a-row Bosnia Herzegovina beat four-time champions Italy on penalties to enter football’s greatest showpiece event. Incidentally, Italy’s last qualification was in 2014, the same year Bosnia played at the quadrennial event | P13 President Donald Trump on Wednesday said the US could end its operations in Iran in two-three weeks with or a without a deal. However, a third US aircraft carrier, USS George H W Bush, set sail for West Asia on Tuesday. Trump is expected to address the nation on Wednesday night (6.30 am IST). The US president sharply escalated his confrontation with Europe over the war, saying he is strongly considering pulling his country out of NATO. “Oh yes, I would say it’s (US exit from NATO) beyond reconsideration,” he told a reporter at a White House briefing. In a further sign of stress on the transatlantic alliance, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain needed to forge a “closer partnership” with the EU on defence, security and the economy He vowed not . to let the UK get dragged into the war against Iran. Meanwhile, Trump claimed Iran’s president has asked for a ceasefire. Iran’s president “has just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. However, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson dismissed the remarks as “false and baseless”. inside SC sceptical on bid to limit birthright citizenship | p11 President Droupadi Murmu (pic) selfenumerating herself for Census 2027 at Rashtrapati Bhavan Prime Minister Narendra Modi did likewise. “Completed my selfenumeration. Today marks the beginning of the first phase of Census 2027, relating to house listing and housing operations,” he said on X @ New Delhi world cup a g e n c i e s @ Washington, London, Tel Aviv Census process kicks off S U C H ITRA KA LYAN MO H ANTY The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed trial court proceedings against senior minister and DMK general secretary Duraimurugan in a disproportionate assets case. “There shall be no further proceedings until the next date of hearing (in this case). Issue notice returnable on April 20,” a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said. During the hearing on Wednesday , senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the bench that Duraimurugan had been granted similar relief in another case. “Murugan is 87 years old and recently suffered a hip fracture. The court should consider all these factors and pass appropriate orders,” Singhvi pleaded. The Madras HC, on April 23 last year, had directed a special court in Vellore to frame charges against Duraimurugan and his family in the disproportionate assets case. The HC passed the order while allowing revision petitions filed by the DVAC, challenging an order of the special court discharging Duraimurugan and his family members from the case.  P5 Trump says war to be over in 2-3 wks, weighs NATO exit About 55,000 households across eight states, UTs did their self-enumeration on Day One Seat fight roils Cong, Manickam Tagore quits as poll panel head Tamil Nadu Congress Committee (TNCC) headquarters seeking a seat in or around Chennai for their leader Tension within the Congress party Vijayan. over candidate selection has come to Among the alliance partners in the the fore, with Congress MP DMK-led Secular ProgresManickam Tagore submitsive Alliance (SPA), the Assembly elections ting his resignation as Congress was the first to fichairman of the state elecnalise its share of seats aftion management and coorter days of tough bargaindination committee. Maning with the DMK securing ickam Tagore’s resignation 28 seats, three more than min clashes comes at a time when the with ex-mp in what it contested in the All India Congress Com2021 Assembly election. Of tiruchy I P6 mittee (AICC) is yet to finalthese, 16 are sitting seats, ise its list of candidates for DMK to win 180 w h i l e 1 2 a r e n e w seats, shows the upcoming Assembly constituencies. survey I P4 election in the state. Sources familiar with the Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu developments told TNIE Mahila Congress workers protested that internal disagreements among at Satyamurthy Bhavan, demanding Tamil Nadu Congress functionaries a seat for their president Hazeena surfaced during meetings with the Syed. Similarly, Congress Seva Dal party’s central leadership over conworkers staged protests inside the stituency selection.  P5 P r a b h a k a r Ta m i l a r a s u @ Chennai with an eye on the upcoming assembly polls, the Centre may convene a special session of Parliament from April 16-18 to bring a bill to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats to 816 so that 273 of them could be reserved for women in Lok Sabha, sources said. While the Budget Session is scheduled to conclude on Thursday, the government may prorogue it and convene a ‘special session’ ahead of the Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu on April 23, and West Bengal polls on April 23 and 29. “The House will not be adjourned sine die but will be adjourned with the announcement that it will meet again on a specific date. We will meet again this month,” said a source, indicating the third week of April. The government recently proposed an early delimitation exercise to fasttrack the implementation of the Women’s Reservation Act. The proposed changes reportedly include linking the Act’s implementation based on the 2011 Census for a quicker rollout and potentially increasing the number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats by 50% on a proportional basis. The Opposition has demanded an all-party meeting to discuss the roadmap. The Congress has also opposed the move to raise the size of the Lok Sabha by 50% saying such a move would “disadvantage” smaller states in the South, Northeast, and West. The provision to provide 33% reservation to women in Lok Sabha and assemblies was brought by amending the Constitution in 2023, but it will come into effect after the com- Amid strong blowback, FCRA bill put on hold P REET H A NAIR @ New Delhi THE Centre on Wednesday put the proposed amendments to the Foreign Contribution (Re gulation) Act (FCRA) on hold amid mounting opposition to the contentious changes and political heat ahead of the Kerala Assembly elections. While the amendment bill has drawn sharp criticisms from the CPI(M), church groups, and Congress, BJP’s Kerala chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the Centre would not proceed without addressing the concerns raised by various sections, including Christians. He added that the BJP’s Kerala unit has requested the Centre not to pass the bill at this stage. The FCRA (Amendment) Bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha last week, sparked a row as it gives the Centre the power to appoint a designated authority which would control the funds and assets in case the FCRA certificate is cancelled. Currently, around 16,000 associations are registered under the FCRA and receive `22,000 crore annually, according to the statement of objects and reasons of the bill The bill was listed for consideration in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday but Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiran Rijiju said it would not be taken up after protests by Opposition members. As soon as the Question Hour began at 11 am, opposition members, mainly from Kerala, started raising slogans against the Bill. Rijiju said the intent is to protect national security and interest and asserted that it was aimed at preventing misuse of foreign contributions. pletion of the delimitation exercise. The reservation will also be done on a “vertical basis” with seats allocated for SCs and STs. The redrawing of constituencies will be done on the basis of the 2011 census rather than the proposed 2027 census. A similar exercise will be carried out for state assemblies where seats will be reserved on a prorata basis. A Constitution amendment bill will tweak the Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam, commonly known as women’s reservation law; another bill will amend the Delimitation Act. Once approved by Parliament, the proposed laws will come into force on March 31, 2029 and will help reserve seats for women in the next Lok Sabha elections and assembly elections in Odisha, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Andhra Pradesh. express read CM’s Sanghi jibe sparks war of words with AIADMK chief Tiruchy: A war of words broke out on Wednesday between DMK chief M K Stalin and EPS after the former called the AIADMK leader a “Sanghi”. Stalin also alleged that the NDA, if voted to power, would not hesitate to rename TN as “Dakshina Pradesh”. EPS countered the charge by displaying a photograph of M Karunanidhi and Murasoli Maran with former PM Vajpayee, questioning whether they are “Sanghi” leaders | P4 Transfer DGP and Chennai commissioner: TVK to CEO Chennai: TVK on Wednesday urged the chief electoral officer to transfer the entire top brass of TN police, including DGP, ADGP and commissioner of Chennai Police, and Chennai corporation commissioner to ensure free and fair elections. Alleging lapses in security arrangements during Vijay’s rally in Kolathur on Sunday, the party flagged deliberate disruptions to prevent the actor from holding poll campaign | P4