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 ■ ■ HYDERABAD l saturday l july 18, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 l late city EDITION 13.34 lakh TG voters marked ‘uncollectible’ S B a c h a n J e e t S i n g h @ Hyderabad More than 13.34 lakh voters in Telangana have been classified as “uncollectible” during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, with deaths, migration, duplicate entries and untraceable voters accounting for most of the cases. The development comes even as the Election Commission of India (ECI) has extended the enumeration exercise in the state by 10 days, till August 3, 2026. The CEO’s office said all 3,38,26,421 Enumeration Forms have been distributed, achieving 100% coverage. Of these, 2,06,52,577 forms had been digitised as of Friday . Under the revised schedule, BLO verification will continue till August 3, followed by publication of the draft electoral roll on August 10. Claims and objections can be filed till September 9, with the final electoral roll to be published on October 12 after their disposal by October 8. 13,34,829 (3.95%) electors classified as ‘uncollectible’ By numbers Category Number in % Permanently 6,39,503 1.89 shifted/absent Deceased 4,64,210 1.37 Duplicate entries 1,73,115 0.51 Untraceable 53,324 0.16 Others* 4,677 0.01 *Voters who refused to accept or return Enumeration Forms JPC seeks to temper higher education bill Suggests key changes in draft, curbs on govt’s sweeping powers P R EE T HA NA I R @ New Delhi With the Centre preparing to move the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025 for passage in the monsoon session of Parliament, a Joint Parliamentary Committee has sought safeguards against excessive centralisation, recommended stronger consultation with states, and protection of institutional autonomy . According to the draft report circulated among members, the panel recommended changes to key clauses that drew sharp criticism from multiple quarters, including NDA allies, for granting the Centre sweeping powers to override policy disagreements, supersede regulatory bodies, and control funding. The Bill proposes an overhaul of the higher education sector by dissolving the University Grants Commission, All India Council for Technical Education, and the National Council for Teacher Education to create a single, unified regulatory commission. While Clause 47 allows the Centre to supersede the Commission or any Council with Presidential approval, the panel recommended that ‘supersession’ should be invoked only in extraordinary circumstances, for a limited duration and as a last resort. NDA-ruled Andhra Pradesh, Report on bill to sack PM, CMs put off The JPC examining the bill on removal of the prime minister and chief ministers detained on serious charges, on Friday decided to defer the adoption of a draft report when voting was underway on the panel’s recommendations. AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi and NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule had submitted their dissent notes but withdrew them after the panel decided to defer the adoption several universities, opposition and other stakeholders have characterised the provision as “critical vulnerability” as it allows the Centre to dissolve the regulator entirely without adequate safeguards. In its recommendation, the panel said, “Clause 47 be comprehensively reviewed and the expressions 290 “unable to dis- charge functions” and “persistently made default” shall be defined through objective, measurable, and verifiable criteria in the Act or the rules, to eliminate ambiguity, ensure transparency, and prevent arbitrary invocation of the power of supersession.” It further said that the Clause 47(2)(a) shall be amended may be read as, “The Chairperson of the Commission, or the Presidents of the Councils and other members of the Commission or the Councils, as the case may be, shall, as from the date of ‘supersession’, cease to hold their respective office and desist from exercising all the powers, functions and duties under the provisions of this Act, and their office shall deemed to have been as vacated.” While Clause 45 empowers the Centre to issue binding directions on questions of policy, the panel called for objective thresholds, procedural safeguards and transparency requirements governing the Centre’s power. It proposed adding the words “for the purposes of this Act” to the provision allowing the government to assign additional functions, to restrict its scope. The JPC also recommended increasing the number of state government nominees on each of the three councils under the Commission to three. PM Narendra Modi inspects the engine room of the train in Jind Friday | PTI Consolation match In the rebranded ‘Bronze match’ at the World Cup’s penultimate game, England face France. A look at the game.  Mbappe, Kane, Jude and the golden boot This match has historically seen coaches play fringe players. This one could see the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Today’s match: Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham start because of 3rd place play-off: what's at stake: the Golden Boot. Both Mbappe and France vs England 2.30 Lionel Messi have the same goals but the latter is the AM* (*IST Sunday) leader with more assists. Bars to remain open till 4.30 am for matches n  Telangana government has allowed select establishments in the CURE to remain open till 4.30 am on July 19 and 3.30 am on July 20 n  extension is for the intervening nights of July 18-19 and July 19-20 The to coincide with the FIFA World Cup third-place play-off and final n  Earlier, the Telangana Bar and Restaurants Owners Association had urge the government to allow longer operating hours for the matches He left us but we’ll have lots of good memories TG to set up SET to probe Dharani him during the Stanford Twenty20 tournament in the CaribIT is a very sad day We all know bean. We spoke often, and even . no one lives forever and that when we did not meet, I stayed these things are inevitable. Even in touch through friends close so, the passing of someone you to him. have known for many I cannot say he inyears, and remained in spired the way I touch with in some way , played. I simply tried affects you deeply . to do my best for the I never played with Sir West Indies. I never Garry Sobers because he ima gined I could was before my time, but match what Garry Sohe was always around bers achieved. He was cricket. Wherever the a once-in-a-generaSir Garfield West Indies toured, espetion cricketer whose Sobers cially in the Caribbean, he 28.7.1936-17.7.2026 accomplishments were was a familiar presence at beyond comparison. matches and team gatherings. Sir Garry did so much for He also travelled to Australia West Indies cricket, for Barbaduring the Kerry Packer era, so dos and for countless people he my generation, despite not play- met. We will always cherish the ing alongside him, came to memories. know him well. The writer is former WI great I also spent some time with As told to Firoz Mirza The Cabinet on Friday decided to write to the Centre seeking financial assistance and the deputation of a central team to assess the impact of El Nino. The Cabinet also approved the decision to constitute a Special Enquiry Team (SET) to probe the alleged irregularities in the Dharani land records portal. Briefing media on Cabinet decisions, I&PR Minister Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy said the communication to the Centre would detail the impact of the deficient rainfall on agriculture, irrigation, drinking water and rural livelihoods. The state government has already put in place a contingency plan for Kharif. On Dharani, he said a forensic audit had flagged over 10,000 suspicious transactions since the portal was launched in October 2020.  Continued on p5 mi c h a e l h o l d i n g Manda Ravinder Reddy @ Hyderabad