BHUBANESWAR l friday l july 17, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l JEYPORE EDITION Avoid putting Indian sailors on vessels moving via Hormuz: DGMA The advisory from the Directorate General of Maritime Administration (DGMA) came after this week’s attacks on two vessels in the strait No deployment till further orders U.S. deepens attacks, areas near tehran hit The DGMA directed ship owners, ship managers and recruitment and placement service companies to avoid deploying Indian sailors on vessels travelling through the waterway till further orders. “The Directorate considers it ​necessary to adopt enhanced precautionary measures to safeguard the interests of Indian seafarers...” the order said ■ ■ The DGMA also directed ship captains to maintain a “heightened level of security vigilance” when operating in the Gulf waters The US intensified its attacks on Iran early Thursday. Strikes also reached into areas around Tehran for the first time in this latest round of violence. Iran said it struck a US air base in Jordan 13 Indian seafarers have died in the strait of hormuz since feb 28 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 Punjab boy tops NEET-UG re-exam, 11.21 lakh clear it e X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ New Delhi Daitapatis carrying Lord Jagannath, without His majestic floral tiara, in Pahandi at Jagannath Temple in Puri on Thursday | DEBADATTA MALLICK Lost Tiara, 2 deaths, delay dampen rain-hit Rath yatra Deities stranded on Grand Road due to delay in chariot-pulling 60-yr-old dies in crowd surge, another of cardiac arrest R a j k u m a r M o h a n t y @ Puri slippery, while the massive footfall of pilgrims posed a sigBraving heavy rains, lakhs nificant crowd management thronged Puri to witness the challenge. The state governgrand Rath Yatra on Thursday ment clarified that there was even as a delay of over two no stampede. It maintained hours in Lord Jagannath’s Pa- that the overall situation rehandi procession and the ab- mained under control and that sence of his majestic floral ti- adequate crowd management a r a l e f t m a n y d evo t e e s measures were in place disappointed. throughout the event. The festival was also marked Law minister Prithiviraj by two deaths, including a 60- Harichandan said Chief Minyear-old man falling victim to ister Mohan Charan Majhi has a sudden crowd surge directed Health mintriggered by heavy ister Mukesh Mahalrain, while six others ing to get a clear picwere hospitalised afture about the ter falling ill, mostly incident of crowd I offer my deepest condolences over due to suffocation. surge which led to the demise of an The first incident the death of one perelderly person due occurred near son. A fact-based reto suffocation and Marichkot Market, port has been another due to where food was being sought. suspected cardiac distributed among arrest. I wish speedy Puri received more devotees. The seven than 200 mm of rainrecovery of the affected persons were fall over the past 36 ailing devotees rushed to the district hours. Despite the inMohan Charan Majhi, headquarters hospicessant downpour, Chief Minister tal (DHH), where the the entire three-km elderly man was deG r a n d Ro a d r e clared dead. The remaining six mained packed with lakhs of were treated and are stated to devotees from across the counbe stable. Officials said the ex- try and abroad. Pilgrims had act cause of the sexagenarian’s lined the Grand Road (Badeath is yet to be ascertained. dadanda) since early morning, In a separate and unrelated the constant drizzle and downincident, a 30-year-old pilgrim, pour notwithstanding, to witidentified as Anil Das, suffered ness the ceremonial Pahandi a cardiac arrest during the fes- and later pull the three charitival. He was taken to the hos- ots. While the Pahandi of Lord pital, where doctors declared Jagannath began on time at him dead. around 9 am, the procession A senior official said contin- c o n c l u d e d o n l y a r o u n d Continued on P5 uous rain had made the road 2.30 pm.  Devotees pulling chariot of goddess Subhadra during Rath Yatra in Puri on Thursday evening | DEBADATTA MALLICK no stampede, says Mahaling Health Minister Mukesh Mahaling reviewed the situation at the district headquarters hospital along with advisor to the CM, Prakash Mishra. He clarified that there was no stampede during the Rath Yatra. He said that compensation amount for the families of the deceased persons will be announced by the state government after discussion with the chief minister. More than 200 devotees fell ill during the day, sources said. Melbourne to Delhi After years, ultra long-haul Air India plane flies in a 56 kg Rottweiler S L a li t h a @ New Delhi Air India is on cloud nine. It recently flew in a male Rottweiler, 4, named Cloud, from Melbourne to New Delhi, making him the first pet to take an ultra long-haul Indian passenger flight in recent times. Ultra long-haul flights refer to journeys with a travel time of more than 10 hours. While airlines permit pets in domestic flights and short international flights inside the cabin as well as the cargo hold (plane belly), only Air India has the permit to transport cats and dogs on such long journeys. An Air India source said, “The pet parent is relocating permanently from Australia to India and was very particular about taking his dog back home. Both flew by AI 309 and Cloud, (weighing 56 kg) had a smooth journey in his pet carriage in the cargo hold for nearly 12 hours. Water was placed in it for him. To calm him down during the trip, a mild medication was given which was not a sedative.” The airline had been working to get pet clearances both in India and abroad for more than a year, he added. Air India operates long haul flights to the US, Australia and Canada. “We had to get the consent from the stake- holders and regulatory agencies of these international airports. We also had to get the nod from airport operators in India as well as regulatory agencies like the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the Bureau of Civil Aviation and the Central Industrial Security press clusive Force.” Airports too need to have a pet-friendly infrastructure. “Flyers with pets arrive a few hours ahead of other passengers. The airport needs to be equipped with infrastructure to house the pets and attend to their needs until the start of the journey Delhi airport has . these facilities already he added. ,” A total of 11.21 lakh candidates have qualified in the re-examination of the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate) NEET UG 2026, the results declared late on Thursday night showed. More than 58% of these are women. Aryan Gupta (Punjab) with the highest score of 715 out of 720 was declared AIR 1, while Panshul Bansal of Haryana, with the same score was AIR 2. The cut-off percentile and marks for different categories of students and those who qualified are: Unreserved 50th Percentile (715-213 marks); 996935; Other Backward Classes, SC and ST it is 40th Percentile (212 to 177 marks - 81111 qualify in OBC, 29947 in SC and 12452 in ST categories. The Top 17 rankers who scored more than 705 marks are from the states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, the NTA said. An official release said that 138 candidates scored above 690 marks out of 720. Of these, 99% are between 17 and 19 years of age and over 93% of the toppers have appeared for NEET (UG) for the first time. They are drawn from 66 cities across the country The NTA said that 19 . candidates have scored above 700 out of 720, 1,492 candidates scored 650 and above, 10,160 candidates scored 600 and above and 90,780 candidates scored 500 and above.  Continued on P5 Kharge seeks all-party meet on delimitation P ree t h a N a ir @ New Delhi Amid speculation that the Union government is working on multiple formulations to reintroduce the Constitution amendment bill that would involve delimitation, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the revised proposals. In his letter, Kharge said he had written to the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, in March and April requesting an allparty meeting to discuss the proposals on delimitation. “Unfortunately, these requests had not been accepted. The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, then failed to secure the required 2/3 majority in Lok Sabha on 17 April 2026 by a clear margin,” he said. Kharge’s letter comes even as the NDA appears to be inching towards a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha to pass constitutional amendment bills. On Wednesday, INDIA bloc partner NCP (SP)’s Supriya Sule hinted that her party would consider supporting the proposed delimi- I... request you to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the government’s revised proposals on delimitation, etc., and give us adequate time to study them in detail before they are introduced in Parliament Mallikarjun Kharge to the PM tation bill provided the Centre gives an assurance that the number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in every state will be increased uniformly by 50%. Sources said that there is a proposal to increase the number of Lok Sabha seats for all states by 50% in the new draft to address the concerns of the South. The draft is being readied to address the concerns that a populationbased delimitation would shrink the South’s political power in the Lok Sabha. According to the gover nment’s plan, Lok Sabha seats will be increased to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to “operationalise” the women’s quota law before the 2029 parliamentary polls following a delimitation exercise to be carried out based on the last published 2011 census. The NDA needs 360 votes to achieve the magic figure.