BHUBANESWAR l tuesday l april 07, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late CITY EDITION three academics caught in ncert row approach supreme court The three academics in the NCERT book row moved the Supreme Court on Monday and said drafting of the content was a collective process trio has lots of credibility: defence special committee to vet revised chapter A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was told the three experts, Professor Michel Danion, Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar, were not fly-by-night persons and had credibility. On February 26, the court banned NCERT’s Class 8 social science book which contained ‘offending’ contents on corruption in the judiciary ■ ■ On March 11, acting tough against the three experts involved in the drafting of the controversial chapter, the top court had directed the Centre and all state governments to disassociate from them The court was informed Monday that a committee comprising former SC judge Justice Indu Malhotra will review the revised chapter 14 days is when the supreme court bench meets again to hear the case 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 Both sides reject Pak proposal on truce, Israel hits South Pars again Ceasefire plan not enough to end war, says Trump; admits bid to arm Iranian protesters After years-long wait, 14 state varsities finally get vice-chancellors E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar day 38 A gen c i e s @ Dubai IRAN and the United States received a draft proposal late Sunday calling for a 45-day ceasefire and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The proposal, tentatively dubbed the ‘Islamabad Accord’, came from Egyptian, Pakistani and Turkish mediators, hoping the 45-day window would provide enough time for talks to reach a permanent ceasefire. It was sent to Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff. Iran on Monday rejected the proposal. News agency IRNA said, “Iran... has rejected a ceasefire and insists on the need for a definitive end to the conflict.” Iran’s refusal for truce came after the head of intelligence for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Maj Gen Majid Khademi, was killed in an attack targeting him in Tehran. File photo of the South Pars gas field in the southern Iranian port town of Assaluyeh, which was hit by an Israeli missile strike on Monday | AFP Oil refiners to postpone maintenance shutdown Two more LPG tankers sail through Hormuz Indian oil refiners are planning to postpone maintenance shutdowns of their units to meet domestic production of LPG, petrol, and diesel. According to a top official, some refineries of Indian Oil Corporation and BPCL have already planned shutdowns. Two more Indian-flagged LPG tankers have crossed the Strait of Hormuz and are headed for Indian ports even as 16 other vessels remain stranded. Green Sanvi carrying 46,650 tonnes of LPG will reach India on April 7 while Green Asha with 15,500 tonnes will reach on April 9. The Revolutionary Guards s a i d t h e y w i l l av e n g e Khademi’s killing. For his part, US President Donald Trump said the truce proposal was a “very significant step,” but not enough yet to end the conflict. Word of Iran’s rejection came while Trump addressed a White House event. Asked if Tuesday at 8 pm Washington time was his final deadline for Iran, Trump replied, “Yeah.” Trump also revealed the US attempted to arm Iranian protesters but the weapons were diverted and never passed to the right people. “We sent guns, a lot of guns... The people that they sent them to kept those guns.” Besides, he threatened a media outlet with jail time if it does not reveal the person who leaked information about a US airman who was missing in Iran. Israel’s defence minister Israel Katz said they struck a petrochemical facility in Iran. “The IDF has now strongly attacked the largest petrochemical facility in Iran located in [Asaluyeh],” he said, adding the facility in the Pars region services Iran’s South Pars natural gas field, and produced half of its petrochemicals. This was the second hit on South Pars in weeks. Strikes on cities across Iran killed more people, while in Israel’s Haifa, four persons were found dead in a rubble. 55% voters excluded even after review: WB S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi THE West Bengal government on Monday told the Supreme Court that as many as 55% of voters whose names were removed from the electoral rolls stand excluded even after the adjudication of claims and objections. “Out of these 60 lakh cases, available data of 40 lakh cases indicates the exclusion rate is 55%,” said senior lawyer Shyam Divan, appearing for West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. A bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant and comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipin Pancholi, noted that 59.15 lakh out of 60.06 lakh cases were decided by April 6 noon. Divan argued that the rejection rate is very high despite the judicial safeguards. “These were mapped individuals. Seven lakh objections have already been filed and several lakh appeals are in the process of being filed,” he said. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for Security scare at Delhi Assly as car trespasses Forensic team inspecting Delhi Assembly premises on Monday | Sayantan Ghosh E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi IN a major security breach at the Delhi Assembly on Monday afternoon, an unauthorised private car entered the premises after ramming through one of the boundary gates. The car with an Uttar Pradesh registration number stayed inside briefly and came out. The driver of the Tata Sierra placed a flower bouquet in the Speaker’s official car parked on the porch before fleeing, triggering a a major security scare at the Vidhan Sabha. The intruder hit a big gate and a boom barrier before entering the area via gate number 2, which is a VIP gate. Several police teams, including the bomb squad and dog squad, rushed to Continued on P7 the spot.  the State of West Bengal, said the appellate tribunals should pass interim orders for those prima facie found wrongly excluded. The bench, however, declined the submissions and refused to set any deadline for the tribunals to decide on the appeals. The court noted the electoral list needs to be frozen at some point in view of the upcoming Assembly elections, but it was leaving the decision to the appellate tribunals. The CJI asked the Calcutta High Court chief justice to constitute a three-member panel of former senior judges to frame uniform procedures for these tribunals. “Let the committee prescribe the procedure by tomorrow (Tuesday) so that adjudication of appeals can be expedited,” it said and fixed the matter for further hearing to April 23. In another decision, the court directed the NIA to take over the probe into the gherao of judicial officers engaged in SIR work in Malda after noting serious allegations against the local police. Mamata Banerjee addresses a public meeting in Nadia on Monday | pti ‘Stalin, Congress in cahoots with BJP’ Kolkata: Mamata Banerjee on Monday alleged that the BJP had entered into a “tacit understanding” with the Congress and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, saying many officers from Bengal had been sent to the southern state as poll observers. Also, the EC transferred around 500 officers in Bengal compared with a handful in other poll-bound states, she alleged. With a majority of public universities left without vicechancellors (V-C) for several years, which had seriously affected their functioning, the state government finally appointed V-Cs to 14 institutions on Monday . Governor and Chancellor of universities Hari Babu Kambhampati appointed the V-Cs to Utkal, Ravenshaw, Fakir Mohan and 11 other universities as per the provisions of The Odisha Universities Act, 1989 and The Odia University Act, 2017. As per the communication from the Chancellor’s office in Lok Bhavan, Prof Chandi Prasad Nanda has been appointed vice-chancellor of Utkal University, while Prof Arka Kumar Das Mohapatra has been posted as V-C of Ravenshaw University and Prof Santosh Kumar Tripathy at Fakir Mohan University, Balasore. Prof Sanjaya Kumar Patro has been appointed as V-C of Dharanidhar University, Keonjhar, Prof Byomakesh Tripathy Gangadhar Meher University, Sambalpur and Prof Asima Sahu Khallikote Unitary University, Berhampur. Prof Pawan Kumar Agrawal has been named vicechancellor of Maa Manikeshwari University, Kalahandi while Prof Sibaram Tripathy will take charge of Madhusudan Law University Cuttack. , The appointments also include Prof Mahendra Kumar Mohanty as V-C of Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanja Deo University , Baripada; Prof Bibhuti Bhusan Malik at Rajendra University Balangir and Prof , Jyotsna KB Rout at Rama Devi W o m e n ’ s U n i v e r s i t y, Bhubaneswar. Prof Prabhat Kumar Mohapatra will head Shree Jagannath Sanskrit University Puri , while Prof Hrushikesh Senapaty and Prof Satyanarayan Acharya will serve as the vicechancellors of Vikram Dev University, Jeypore, and Odia U n i v e r s i t y, S a t y a b a d i , respectively  Continued on P7 . Kalpakkam PFBR attains criticality E XPR E SS N E WS S E RVIC E @ Chennai India on Monday achieved a major milestone in its civil nuclear programme, with the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) at Kalpakkam attaining criticality, the stage at which a controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction begins. Prime Minister Narendra Modi described it as a “defining step” in advancing the second stage of India’s nuclear programme. “The indigenously designed and built Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam has attained criticality… a decisive step towards harnessing our vast thorium reserves,” he said in a post on X, congratulating scientists and engineers. The 500 MWe PFBR, developed by Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research and operated by BHAVINI, is India’s first fast breeder reactor, a technology that produces more nuclear fuel than it consumes. Using plutonium-based fuel and liquid sodium as coolant, the reactor converts non-fissile uranium-238 into fissile material, improving fuel efficiency and reducing waste. The milestone follows clearance from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board in 2024 for fuel loading and low-power physics experiments.