BHUBANESWAR l friday l july 17, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l LATE CITY 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 Kharge seeks all-party meet on delimitation P ree t h a N a ir @ 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 (Bada death is yet to be ascertained. Danda) 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.  Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and other dignitaries pulling the rope of Lord Jagannath’s chariot | 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. ,” Amid speculation that the Union government is working on multiple formulations to reintroduce the Constitution amendment bill that would involve delimitation, Congress p re s i d e n t M a l l i k a r j u n 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 I... request you to the proposals on delimita- convene an alltion. “Unfortunately, these party meeting to requests had not been ac- discuss the cepted. The Constitution government’s revised proposals (131st Amendment) Bill, on delimitation, 2026, then failed to secure etc., and give us the required 2/3 majority in adequate time to Lok Sabha on 17 April 2026 study them in by a clear margin,” he detail before they are introduced in said. “I have been reading in Parliament media reports that the Un- Mallikarjun Kharge ion Government now pro- to the PM poses to reintroduce a revised (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026 during the forthcoming Monsoon Session of Parliament. I would, once again, 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 ParliaContinued on P5 ment,” he said.  Boy from Punjab tops NEET-UG re-exam, 2 from Odisha in list S L a li t h a @ New Delhi A total of 11.21 lakh candidates qualified in the re-examination of the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET-UG 2026, the results of which were declared late on Thursday night. As many as 58% of them 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. Both scored 99.9999 percentile, the NTA said. Kudale Shravani Krishna was the topper among women. She stood fifth in the overall NEET ranking. Two students from Odisha also figured among the toppers. Satwik Patnaik with 99.997 percentile was ranked 40 while Amaan Kumar Nayak secured 80th rank with 99.995 percentile score. “The result has been declared in time so that the medical-admission and counselling calendar for candidates stays on track,” the NTA said in a statement. The top 17 who scored over 705 marks are from Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, UP Maharashtra, , Bihar, TN and Telangana. 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 scored above 700 out of 720, 1,492 scored 650 and above, 10,160 scored 600 and above and 90,780 scored 500 and above. Uttar Pradesh tops the number of candidates qualified with over 1.7 lakh candidates. Out of overall qualifying students, 2.91 lakh belong to the general category; other backward classes – non-creamy layer 5.12 lakh; Scheduled Caste 1.59 lakh; Scheduled Tribes 63,716; gen-economically weaker sections 95,026; persons with benchmark disability 3,666; and persons with disabilities 303. Scorecards of all candidates are available on the official website, neet.nta.nic.in. Nearly 20 lakh candidates appeared in the retest held on June 21.