visakhapatnam l wednesday l june 10, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION Pay less foR domestic Air India flights if you opting out of food Air India said Tuesday it is mulling a proposal to offer cheaper flight tickets for flyers who opt out of food or snacks while booking a domestic flight a fully optional service, says carrier Unlike other airlines, Air India has always included complimentary meals in all its domestic flights. An Air India source said, “This will be a fully optional service. The move will reduce the fares by `500 to `600 for Economy class. It will not be introduced for Premium Economy or Business class.” The free beverage (coffee/water) served to all flyers will continue ■ 27% eyeing to get back competitive edge ■ The move will initially be introduced on a pilot basis on routes including Delhi-Amritsar, Delhi-Chandigarh and B’luru-Hyderabad Another Air India source said the move is meant to make the carrier competitive. “Price-conscious passengers choose our competitor as their fares are lesser. If our fares reduce a bit, we get back our edge.” of india’s domestic aviation market is commanded by air india 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 Resource crunch A CID team raiding Abhishek Banerjee’s office; and Mamata Banerjee leaves Sonia Gandhi’s house in Delhi | pti/parveen negi CID raids Mamata’s office amid meeting with Sonia Buzz over Didi seeking INDIA bloc help to contest Basirhat LS bypoll p r ee t h a n a i r & s u b h endu m a i t i @ New Delhi/Kolkata TRINAMOOL Congress chief Mamata Banerjee held closeddoor talks with senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence on Tuesday even as CID teams in Kolkata raided TMC offices at her Kalighat residence and Camac Street. The meeting followed Sonia and Mamata’s warm hug at the Opposition INDIA bloc’s meeting the previous day . Just a day earlier, leaders of 23 Opposition parties vowed unity and better coordination among the alliance partners. According to sources, Rahul Gandhi told the Opposition meeting that if TMC and Congress had tied up in the West Bengal election, the results would have been different. Sources said Mamata and Sonia discussed the strategy between the two parties going forward. This was their first closed-door meeting after Trinamool’s defeat in the polls, and alleged attacks on party workers and MP Abhishek Banerjee after the elections. Signature probe CID officers in Kolkata said the raids were held to dredge out the original copy of TMC’s resolution book and attendance sheet containing signatures of 70 MLAs present at the May 6 meeting held at the party office No morality: TMC Trinamool Congress leaders Kalyan Banerjee and Kirti Azad accused dissident MPs of lacking political morality and deserting the party. Alleging a broader attempt to weaken opposition parties, Banerjee said, “They are destroying democracy” The meeting also comes amid speculation that Mamata is seeking the help of Congress and the INDIA bloc to contest a by-election from Basirhat Lok Sabha constituency. The seat fell vacant after the death of TMC MP Haji Nurul Islam. A rebellion within the TMC, with as many as 20 MPs decid- ing to form a separate group and align with the ruling NDA, has added to Mamata’s troubles. A majority of Trinamool’s 80 MLAs have already formed a separate group led by Ritabrata Banerjee as the leader of opposition in the state Assembly . The timing of the raids on TMC offices as Mamata sat with Sonia, led to an uproar from TMC leaders. TMC joint secretary Derek O’Brien called it “political vendetta, shamelessly timed.” Two CID teams swept into TMC offices in Kolkata to probe allegations of forged signatures of party MLAs in connection with the election of Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay as Leader of the Opposition in Bengal. A CID team was prevented from entering Mamata’s housecum-of fice by Subhashis Chakraborty, former Rajya Sabha MP. After waiting outside for about 40 minutes, thet managed to enter the office. Abhishek Banerjee, Mamata’s nephew and the party’s national general secretary, was also in Delhi and missed a 5 pm deadline to appear before the CID at Bhabani Bhaban. Big push to asset, land monetisation and disinvestment D i pa k M o nd a l a nd Pu s h p i ta D e y @ New Delhi With the Centre facing a significant resource crunch following a series of emergency measures to shield the economy from the West Asia crisis, the government has activated plans to mobilise additional revenue, official sources said on Tuesday. The measures include aggressively pursuing asset and land monetisation while also stepping up efforts to raise funds through disinvestment. Sources said senior government officials are holding weekly meetings with the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) and the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) to explore more avenues for resource mobilisation. The government hopes DIPAM would exceed the Budget target of `80,000 crore from disinvestment in FY27. One official said the proposed strategic sale of IDBI Bank, which had been put on hold due to valuation concerns and lack of investor interest, is likely to be revived. The government has set a target of `10 lakh crore in asset monetisation during the five-year period from FY26 to FY30 under the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) 2.0. Under NMP 1.0, it achieved nearly 90% of its `6 lakh crore target. At the same time, the Centre is accelerating the monetisation of idle and non-core public assets through the National Land Monetisation Corporation (NLMC). According to the DPE, approvals were received during FY26 for monetisation of assets valued around `10,048 crore. The government’s fiscal burden has risen sharply following a series of support measures announced in recent weeks. It has created a `1 lakh crore Economic Stabilisation Fund to build fiscal buffers and respond to emergencies such as supplychain disruptions and sectoral shocks. Of this, `10,000 crore has been allocated for oil marketing firms to stabilise aviation turbine fuel prices. The government has also launched a fresh Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) with an outlay of `18,000 crore to support MSMEs and the aviation sector. In addition, it has approved the creation of the Bharat Maritime Insurance Pool with a sovereign guarantee of `12,980 crore. Gaming verdict windfall The govt hopes for a windfall from the favourable SC ruling in the GST dispute involving online gaming companies. Officials estimate that tax demands of around `1.5 lakh crore are under litigation Sops to adversely hit revenue The `10 per litre excise duty cut on fuel and the tax waiver for FIIs in govt securities is expected to adversely impact revenue. The excise duty reduction alone could result in a revenue loss of around `1.23 lakh crore delimitation bill Spl session possible if govt has the numbers RA J E SH K U M AR THAK U R @ New Delhi The ruling NDA government is open to reworking the delimitation bill to specify upfront that Lok Sabha seats across all states would be uniformly raised by 50%, if it were to muster two-thirds majority for the passage of the legislation. It could even call a special session of Parliament — ahead of the Monsoon session, which is slated to begin in the second week of July — if it is confident of the numbers game. An oral assurance on the 50% formula was made by Union home minister Amit Shah during the previous session of Parliament, but the Opposition was not convinced and the bill was defeated in the Lok Sabha on April 17. “If we get the required majority in the House, we would convey the special session of Parliament to pass the delimitation bill,” a senior BJP leader said. The proposed legislation is otherwise sound and the legal framework would remain intact, the leader added. “A uniform 50% increase would raise the LS seat count from 543 to about 815. So, the current cap of 550 seats was raised to 850,” a top source said. When the bill fell on April 17, the NDA was short of 54 votes — 298 ayes against the required 352 — out of 528 members present and voting. It already has 20 TMC rebels in the bag and is scouting for more, including from the South. Gas build-up may be cause of steel plant blast: Preliminary factory report U s h a Pe r i @ Visakhapatnam A preliminary investigation by the Department of Factories has indicated that the explosion at Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) might have been caused by the sudden release of entrapped gases in molten steel, triggering a powerful blast. According to the preliminary report prepared by the Joint Chief Inspector of Factories, the accident occurred around 4.15 pm at Continuous Casting Machine-2 in Steel Melting Shop-1 (SMS-1) during casting operations. The report stated that a full ladle carrying molten steel had been rotated and positioned for casting. However, before the slide gate could be opened to transfer the molten metal, a sudden and severe explosion High-level panel begins probe Deputy Chief Minister K Pawan Kalyan consoles an injured steel plant worker at hospital in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday | Express occurred. The force of the blast was so intense that investigators were initially unable to determine whether the explosion originated from the ladle or the tundish. The report mentioned that a large fireball shot up to the roof of the shop floor, while an overhead crane operating in the area also caught fire. “A worker stationed at Machine-4 reportedly witnessed flames reaching the ceiling immediately after the explosion. The workers positioned near Machine-2 bore the brunt of the impact,” it noted. The report identifies the “sudden release of entrapped gases in the liquid steel” as the The three-member highlevel committee set up by the Ministry of Steel has begun its probe into blast. Steel plant employees alleged that a molten metal-related incident occurred at Steel Melting Shop-2 (SMS-2) barely 15 to 20 minutes before the fatal accident at SMS-1 anticipated cause of the incident. In steelmaking, gases such as oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen can remain trapped within molten metal. If these gases accumulate and are suddenly released under certain conditions, they can create intense pressure, potentially leadP4 ing to violent eruptions. Meeting with unions soon to look into issues: Dy CM E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Visakhapatnam A meeting with labour unions will be convened shortly to understand the issues faced by workers, management shortcomings and technical challenges at Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) in the wake of Monday’s fatal accident, Deputy Chief Minister K Pawan Kalyan announced on Tuesday . The Deputy Chief Minister visited the accident site at the Steel Melting Shop-1 (SMS-1) of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL). During the visit, he interact- ed with officials and workers to gather first-hand information about the circumstances leading to the accident. Addressing the media later, Pawan Kalyan said the steel plant management had announced an ex gratia of `25 lakh each to the families of the deceased workers, and `10 lakh t o t h o s e i n j u re d i n t h e accident. Pawan Kalyan said the entire cost of medical treatment for the injured workers would be borne by RINL. The Deputy Chief Minister further stated that one eligible member from each bereaved family would be P4 provided employment. c a n did i n t e r a c t i o n Gukesh and the burden of being world champion s w a r o o p s w a m i n at h a n cong candidate’s rajya sabha nomination rejected Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination was rejected by the Returning Officer in MP on grounds of ‘hiding information about a case’, which Congress denied I P8 D GUKESH, the youngest undisputed world chess champion in history, has admitted that managing expectations has been one of the hardest things as world champion. “As much as you try to switch off, you are still aware that there is this kind of elephant in the room,” he told a few Indian journalists after Norway Chess. “Like you are expected and also you expect something. I’m in general also an ambitious player and I keep going for wins. Considering all these things, it has been World champ to feature at Chennai GM The 20-year-old has decided to feature in his home tournament, the Chennai Grand Masters, India’s strongest Classical event. This wasn’t initially on his calendar but it’s an event that has fond memories. The fourth editions begins from July 16. pretty hard. But, okay I either , break from it or grow through it.” In one of the most candid conversations by an Indian sportsperson, the 20-year-old said he had struggled for motivation during ‘parts of 2025’. “You can still do everything that you’ve been doing,” the 20year-old said. “But the reason why you’re doing it is different. You’re not waking up striving for the World Championship. But it doesn’t mean you have to lose motivation. There was obviously some, probably in parts of 2025, there was some motivation issues. But if you really love the sport, if you’re able to connect back to it, that’s why people keep saying, ‘find the reason why you started playing the sport’. I feel like external resources can never, they’re not reliable sources of motivation for a very long time. So, something that drives you from within, that’s something that I’ve been trying to connect with.” He vowed to keep fighting because ‘I don’t know what else I would want to spend the day with’. “Chess is something, even though I’m playing badly , it’s still something that I want to spend time with. To do something badly for a long time... if you don’t have any kind of love for the game, there’s no reason to continue. But just the fact that I’m trying so hard, means that there is something behind all of this. Just connecting with it, I think is the reason that I want to keep going.” Evolve monthly reports to assess GSDP, Naidu directs officials E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has directed officials to prepare monthly economic reports to assess the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). Chairing a review meeting on GSDP targets and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) at his Camp Office in Undavalli on Tuesday he provided , guidance to achieve departmental KPIs for the financial year 2026-27 at the State, district and mandal levels. Naidu stressed the need to improve indicators that remain below the national average and align them with the performance standards of leading States. He instructed the officials to adopt a scoring mechanism that evaluates performance based on target achievement and real growth outcomes. Highlighting the economic impact of infrastructure investments, Naidu noted that every rupee spent on infrastructure has the potential to generate up to 3.5 times economic activity . He directed the officials to establish an AI-powered task force to monitor economic development in real time and support data-driven governance aligned with the Swarna Andhra 2047 vision. Naidu called for focused efforts to enhance Gross Value Addition (GVA) across all sectors. He directed the officials to organise a workshop on July 2 and 3 for capacity building of employees.