mangaluru l wednesday l june 03, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION internet loves army pilot’s proposal to partner post p.o.p A newly qualified Army pilot proposed to his girlfriend right after his graduation ceremony in Nashik — with a helicopter as the backdrop NASHIK to new beginnings after tough training The video spread quickly online, with people responding to how genuine and unscripted the whole thing felt. Captain Bharat Bhardwaj called it a “love ka salute” — and joked that while officers give and receive salutes at work, back home, the wife is in charge. For the Captain, the day marked the end of a tough professional journey, and the start of a new one is where the Army trains its combat helicopter pilots 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 Finally, CBSE heads roll Board Chairman Rahul Singh and Secretary Himanshu Gupta shifted, replaced with Lokhande Prashant Sitaram and Varun Bharadwa respectively; OSM system probe ordered Out Rahul Singh IN Himanshu Gupta Lokhande Prashant Sitaram Varun Bharadwa S LALITHA @ New Delhi In a major administrative shake-up following controversy over the CBSE’s new digital evaluation system for Class XII board examinations, the Centre on Tuesday removed CBSE Chairman Rahul Singh and Secretary Himanshu Gupta with immediate effect and ordered a high-level inquiry into the procurement of the OnScreen Marking (OSM) system used for evaluating answer sheets. The government also announced the constitution of a one-member committee headed by S Radha Chauhan, Chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission, to investigate the award and procurement of services related to the OSM platform. It directed the committee to submit its report to the Department of Personnel and Training within a month. According to the official order, Chauhan has been authorised to seek assistance from officials of other departments during the inquiry while the Capacity Build, ing Commission will provide secretarial support. The action came hours after the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education held a meeting with senior officials of the CBSE and the Ministry of Education to review complaints surrounding the implementation of the digital marking system. Later, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet appointed Lokhande Prashant Sitaram, a 2001 batch IAS officer as the new CBSE Chairperson. Varun Bharadwa, Indian Information Service officer of 2008 batch was appointed the Board’s secretary . While Rahul Singh was transferred as Additional Secretary in the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Gupta was sent back to parent cadre with the ‘extended period of cooling off ’. Controversy erupted after the declaration of Class XII results on May 13, with students and parents alleging widespread discrepancies in evaluation, technical glitches, delays in verification and re-evaluation processes, and lack of transparency in the OSM system. While student Sidhant Sartak alleged that three tenders were rigged to favour Hyderabad-based Coempt EduTeck Pvt Ltd in the award of the OSM contract, the CBSE in its pushback submitted a report to the committee, defending the implementation of the system. It also said that portal-related glitches had been rectified. The controversy deepened after another student, Vedant Shrivastava, claimed that CBSE had uploaded and evaluated another candidate’s answer sheet under his name. A denial of service attack attempt caused 1.5 mn hits on the CBSE re-evaluation portal within 2 mins and over 1 lakh bids of unauthorised file access CBSE statement ‘OSM tenders rigged to favour firm’ Sidhant Sartak, 17, made a detailed presentation before a Parliamentary Standing Committee, alleging that at least 15 changes were made across three tenders to favour Hyderabad-based Coempt EduTeck Pvt Ltd over Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in the award of the OSM contract. His presentation was made in the presence of senior CBSE officials | P9 Annamalai yet to resign as Shah summons Nagendran RAJESH K U M AR THAK U R & Sub a s h i n i V i j aya k um a r @ New Delhi/Chennai After aggrieved former Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai met Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday the BJP lead, ership summoned state BJP president Nainar Nagendran to Delhi, fuelling speculation of a possible mutual reconciliation. With the party leadership requesting him to reconsider his decision, sources said Annamalai hasn’t formally submitted his resignation yet. As for Nagendran, he arrived in the Capital and was scheduled to meet Shah to find an amicable solution. During his meeting, Annamalai spoke about his prolonged differences with the state unit leadership after being removed as president of the TN unit in 2025 to patch up with the AIADMK. Sources said Annamalai had made up his mind to quit and return to Chennai immediately after his resignation is accepted. He intended to part ways without bur ning his bridges with the top leadership. But since he was asked to reconsider his decision, he may return to Chennai on June 4, sources said. Though he was offered a Rajya Sabha ticket and a ministerial berth, he declined, preferring to work in TN, sources said. Major cyber attack as revaluation portal for Class XII opens S L a l i t h a @ New Delhi Malicious actors attempted to disrupt services on the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) Class XII re-evaluation portal through a barrage of cyber attacks on Tuesday the day it became operational. , The Board shared the information after complaints from thousands of students since early morning that they were unable to login to the portal. An official statement from the Board said that the portal currently supports usage by 8,000 concurrent users and a total of 16,000 had successfully completed their submissions for reevaluation of marks by 3 pm. “While thousands of students accessed the CBSE re-evaluation portal today, malicious actors attempted to disrupt services through a barrage of cyberattacks. Most recent being a denial of service attack attempt causing 1.5 million hits on the portal within a matter of 2 minutes and more than 1 lakh attempts of unauthorised file access.” The platform has been further refined by the CBSE based on student Screengrab of students failing feedback, it said. Session to login to the portal time limits have been extended to make the process more convenient and seamless, it added. There was enormous criticism from students over the need for Aadhaar verification. In another statement, the CBSE said, “Aadhaar Verification has been included for security reasons.” It also clarified that in the case of children who do not have this document, the parent’s, relative’s or guardian’s Aadhaar details may be used. “In this case, the Aadhaar Name, Date of birth and Gender must be of the person whose Aadhaar number is used,” it added. The portal was finally opened to begin the revaluation process early in the day with the Board announcing it at 4.42 am on its social media handles. E x p r e s s Re a d NIA chargesheet flags Hamas link in Pahalgam NEW DELHI: In a significant development in the Pahalgam terror attack investigation, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), in its chargesheet, flagged the need to examine possible links between Pakistan-backed terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and The Resistance Front and Hamas | P9 Producer Price Index set to replace WPI NEW DELHI: The government will phase out the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) over the next five years while introducing a more detailed Producer Price Index (PPI), covering output, input and services prices, to offer a realistic assessment of inflationary trends in the economy | P12 Stage set for DKS’ swearing-in, 10-15 ministers to take oath P r e et h a N a i r & D eva ra j B H i r e h a l l i @New Delhi/Bengaluru The stage is set for the swearing-in of 64-year-old DK Shivakumar as the 18th chief minister of Karnataka at 4.05pm on Wednesday along with 10 to 15 ministers, sources said. The swearingin ceremony will be held at Lok Bhavan’s Glass House where the oaths will be administered by Gover nor Thaawarchand Gehlot. The grand ceremony follows a day after Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah held extensive discussions on Tuesday with AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress General Secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal and AICC General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala, to finalise the composition of the new cabinet. The meeting saw the Congress high command weighing in various options to ensure equitable distribution of ministerial berths for loyalists of Shivakumar, Kharge and Siddaramaiah. It was last Thursday that Siddaramaiah vacated the CM’s chair after a marathon meeting in New Delhi and the message that he had to hand over the gaddi was conveyed to him by Rahul. Among those likely to be inducted into the cabinet are KJ George, Dr G Parameshwara, Ramalinga Reddy, Krishna Byregowda, UT Khader, Mallanagouda Basanagouda Patil, Satish Jarkiholi, Priyank Kharge, Dr Yathindra Siddaramaiah, Laxmi Hebbalkar and either KH Muniyappa or his daughter Roopakala Shashidhar. Some sources said Hebbalkar may not make the cut in the first list. The names of former ministers Dinesh Gundu Rao and Eshwar Khandre are also doing the rounds. P4 Preparations under way for the swearing-in of Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, in Bengaluru on Tuesday | Nagaraja Gadekal Siddu appointed CWC member A day before DK Shivakumar took oath as chief minister, outgoing CM Siddaramaiah was on Tuesday appointed a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), which is the party’s highest decisionmaking body. AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal announced the appointment on Tuesday. According to the press note, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge appointed Siddaramaiah as CWC member with immediate effect. Earlier, Siddaramaiah had refused a Rajya Sabha seat offered by the party. ‘As a child, he would keep playing till he won’ A k n i s r e e K a r t h i k @Bengaluru As a child growing up in Doddalahalli, a village about 80 km from Bengaluru, Shivakumar refused to head home until he won the game he was playing with his friends. Decades later, that same unwavering spirit has propelled ‘Kanakapura Bande’ or ‘DKShi’, as he is fondly called, from Doddalahalli to the pinnacle of Karnataka politics, as he sets out to take oath as chief minister on Wednesday . In Doddalahalli, 85-year-old Shivashankaraiah, sitting under the tile-roofed verandah of his house, remembered that boy playing around on the same village streets. He called Shivakumar a ‘chalavadi’ (a resolute go-getter), the trait that elevated him to the chief minister’s post. “I have seen Shivakumar since his childhood. He used to roam around the village, playing ‘gilli danda’, ‘kabadi’, ‘goli’, ‘mara koti aata’ and others. Winning and losing are part of a game. But when Shivakumar lost a game, he would play again and again till he won. He would head home only after winning. I feel he has done the same here by becoming chief minister,” he said. Shivakumar’s childhood friends, NB Basavaraju, who is doing sericulture along with dairy farming, and Chikka Swamy, a farmer, said Shivakumar, even after shifting to Bengaluru, would visit twice a month and spend the entire summer vacation with them. P4 No role for third-party mediation in border dispute with Nepal, says India J aya n t h J a c o b @New Delhi INDIA on Tuesday firmly rejected any role for third parties in resolving its boundary dispute with Nepal, responding to remarks by Nepal Prime Minister Balendra Shah in Parliament on Sunday in which he called for involvement of the UK and China in efforts to resolve the border issue. The Indian response came amid a deepening political controversy in Nepal, where Shah’s comments have triggered protests and repeated disruptions in Parliament. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India had External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with Nepal’s Rastriya Swatantra Party president Rabi Lamichhane in New Delhi on Tuesday | PTI taken note of both Shah’s statement and a subsequent clarification issued by Nepal’s Foreign Ministry . Reiterating New Delhi’s long- standing position that boundary issues must be addressed bilaterally, he pointed out that most of the India-Nepal border has already been settled. “While close to 98% of the India-Nepal boundary has been demarcated, there are some unresolved segments. The shifting of the course of Gandak river has resulted in this situation. There are cases of crossborder occupation and encroachment of the boundary which are currently being mapped jointly he said. ,” The fallout from Shah’s comments paralysed Nepal’s Parliament for a second consecutive day on Tuesday . Qatar team Malabar’s football aspirations manifest in the flesh at 2026 FIFA WC R o nn i e Ku r i a k o s e @ Kochi KERALA’S love affair with football has found a moment of history. Tahsin Mohammed Jamshid, who has roots in Kannur, has earned a place in Qatar’s 26-member squad for the FIFA World Cup. He has also become the first Malayali to make a World Cup team. The 19-year-old, however, won’t be the only player with Indian heritage at the football gala. Nishan Velupillay whose , roots trace back to Tamil Nadu, will be representing Australia. Born and raised in Qatar to parents from Malabar region, Tahsin was named in the final squad after figuring in the country’s probable list. He is also the first player of Indian origin to feature in the Qatar Stars League. He plays for AlDuhail SC, the country’s oldest football team. “Tahsin may be playing for Tharoor hails selection In an X post, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor described Tahsin’s selection as “a moment of quiet history” for Kerala. “He wears Qatar’s colours...but his story belongs to Thalassery and Valapattanam.” Qatar, but Malabar’s aspirations run through his veins. His parents moved to Qatar in 1996. It was during an inter- school football tournament that he was first scouted,” said D Ravi Kumar, a veteran journalist who has covered the football scene in Qatar extensively . Tahsin trained at Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence, which is globally renowned for its state-of-the-art facilities, and went on to represent Qatar at the Under-16, Under-17 and Un- der-19 levels. “It is not common that players of different origin feature in a national side, but because of Tahsin’s exceptional talent, he was considered,” Ravi said. Tahsin’s international debut came during the World Cup qualification campaign against Afghanistan. Though included in the squad against India, he did not feature in the match but later played in Qatar’s decisive final two qualification fixtures. “The boy plays as winger. But under Julen Lopetegui, the head coach of Qatar, we may see him move into a more defined position in midfield,” Ravi said. Tahsin is the second son of Hibasil Jamshid, a Thalassery (Kozhikode) native working as a chief accountant in Qatar, and Shyma. something fishy Ex-MLC offers ransom money, traps ‘abductors’ Express News Service @ Bengaluru In a suspicious crime with many holes that have remained unexplained, former MLC and senior BJP leader Dayananda Reddy was reportedly kidnapped in the Attibele police limits on the outskirts of the city around 12.15 am on Tuesday . The accused demanded Rs 3 crore to release him, while Reddy is said to have got himself out around 4 am, telling the accused that he could arrange the money only after the banks open in the morning. One of the accused gave his phone number to Reddy, who asked them to collect the money from him later. Soon after his release, Reddy approached the police and filed a complaint. The police made Reddy call the accused asking them to come and collect the money. When they came, the policemen in mufti surrounded and nabbed two of them. The police are now interrogating them. On Tuesday evening, Reddy was in his multi-purpose vehicle, heading home in Bommasandra from a club in Electronics City Phase II. Two men on a motorbike stopped him, showed him a gift box and asked him to collect it. CONTINUED ON: P7