thrissur l monday l july 27, 2026 l `10.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Rajnath issues strong warning to Pak on 27th Kargil Vijay Diwas Operation Sindoor showed the fate that awaits those who use terrorism against India, Rajnath Singh said at the Kargil War Memorial on Sunday ‘Indian response can be beyond imagination’ praises troops for 1999 kargil victory Warning Pakistan against any misadventure, the defence minister said India can respond in a manner “beyond their imagination.” He added that “there would be no talks with Pakistan, and any dialogue would focus solely on PoK,” describing the region as an integral part of India. Recalling Operation Sindoor, he said India dealt a big blow to the backers of terror ■ ■ Kargil Vijay Diwas commemorates the culmination of Operation Vijay, the name given to India’s military action to reclaim the heights of Kargil after Pakistan’s infiltration in 1999 “The victory in Kargil wasn’t just a military or diplomatic success; our soldiers exhibited indomitable courage and valour,” Rajnath said 545 Indian soldiers lost their lives fighting in the 1999 Kargil war 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 Pralhad Joshi assumes charge as Union education minister Rahul writes to Amit Shah on use of pellet guns on students Shortly after taking charge of education ministry on Sunday, Pralhad Joshi held a review meeting. School education secretary T K Anil Kumar and outgoing higher education secretary Vineet Joshi briefed him. MoS Jayant Choudhary attended the meet Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has written to Home Minister Amit Shah demanding accountability for the “barbaric assault” on students and whether he approved the use of “lethal force”, including pellet guns, against the protesting youth Nandan Nilekani-led task force to reform exam system Special panel to push technology-driven reforms to overhaul existing processes Anti-paper leak bill to be presented in Lok Sabha today RAJ E SH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi A day after Dharmendra Pradhan resigned as Union education minister and the protesting students called off their 36-day agitation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced a high-powered task force headed by former UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani to carry out examination reforms. Making the announcement through a video message posted on his Instagram handle, Modi said the task force would explore technology-driven reforms aimed at creating a transparent examination system, adding that t h e g o ve r n m e n t wo u l d a c t o n i t s recommendations. Apart from Nilekani, a multidisciplinary group of domain experts will be part of the task force. The other members are IIT Chennai director V Kamakoti, former Isro chairman S Somanath, former IB director Tapan Deka, former education secretary Anita Karwal, and logistics expert Amrit Lal Meena. Explaining the objective of the task force, Modi said it would focus on examination reforms. “And based on its report, steps will be taken to ensure the credibility of upcoming examinations at the earliest.” The task force will recommend immediate steps to secure upcoming tests and suggest ways to overhaul national examination and testing systems to make them leak-proof. In his latest outreach to students through Instagram, the PM noted that the government had established fast-track courts to ensure justice for students and was taking all necessary steps to make the examination system more transparent. Modi said examination reforms would be undertaken based on the report submitted by the high-powered task force. “The government is continuously taking measures for the students. Those who tampered with students’ future are languishing in jail. We have already established fast-track courts,” he said, adding that the government was moving fast to bring stringent legal provisions to check paper-leak racketeers. We must look to the future. To make sure our examination system is trustworthy, transparent and the technology is used optimally, we have decided to constitute a high-powered committee Narendra Modi, PM Domain experts in panel Apart from Nilekani, a multidisciplinary group of domain experts are part of the task force. They are IIT Chennai director V Kamakoti, ex-Isro chairman S Somanath, former IB director Tapan Deka, former education secretary Anita Karwal, and logistics expert Amrit Lal Meena p r ee t h a n a i r @ New Delhi AS Parliament reconvenes on Monday after a washout of the first week of the Monsoon Session, the deadlock may ease slightly with Op, position sources saying INDIA bloc parties may be inclined to participate in the debate on the Bill seeking to strengthen the two-year-old anti-paper leak law. The government has listed the Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Amendment Bill 2026 for the Lok Sabha on Monday A final decision on the Opposition’s . floor strategy will, however, be taken at a meeting of INDIA bloc leaders in Rajya Sabha Leader of Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge’s chamber in Parliament on Monday morning, sources said. Speaking to this paper, an Opposition leader said parties did not want to be seen as blocking reforms given that Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has quit. A heated debate on the paper leak issue is expected if the government and the opposition break the ongoing deadlock in both Houses of Parliament. The Congress-led Opposition plans to keep up the pressure over the alleged police crackdown on protesting students, demanding action against those responsible and an apology from PM Modi. TMC’s Rajya Sabha deputy leader Sagarika Ghose submitted a notice under Rule 267 seeking an immediate discussion on “use of excessive force on student protesters” in Jantar Mantar. The Opposition is also preparing to corner the government on Ram temple donation theft and the ethanol blending controversy . A decade on, debt-ridden auto driver’s wait for `1 cr jackpot, justice continues P o o j a N a i r @Kozhikode My only mistake was I did not make a copy of the ticket. I trusted the system. I never imagined that I would one day have to prove that I had submitted the ticket Koya, autorickshaw driver Hope in new govt The arrival of a new government in the state has brought a fresh, if fragile, hope for Koya. He hopes the new administration will look into his case afresh and give him an opportunity to prove his claim. When he won `1-crore Karunya Lottery jackpot in 2016, Koya felt his luck would change. It did, just not for the better. For the past 10 years, the 70-year-old autorickshaw driver’s life has been a combination of petitions, frequent travel from his native Kozhikode to government offices in Thiruvananthapuram and a juggle between rent, daily expenses and old debts. A resident of Parannur in Kozhikode, Koya says his ticket (KE 454045) won the first prize of `1 crore in the lottery drawn on July 9, 2016. There was one problem though. “The ticket was damaged,” says Koya. On the advice of bank officials, he travelled to the lotteries department office at Vikas Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram on July 13, 2016, and handed over the ticket for verification. “I was told to come back after three months. I have been waiting ever since,” he says. Later, he was asked to approach the office of then Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac. No luck. He even approached then Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. On his complaint, the department ordered an inquiry. However, in March 2018, the department rejected his claim, saying there was insufficient evidence to establish that he had presented the winning ticket. A signed confirmation by lottery agent A V Devarajan, who sold Koya the ticket, was also not accepted. Koya insists he submitted the ticket. “My only mistake was that I did not make a copy of it before handing it over. I trusted the system,” he says. In 2021, a court directed the lotteries department to take a call on Koya’s entitlement to the prize money after hearing Koya and Devarajan. Neither the department nor the government has initiated any proceedings. Koya believes his ticket may have been misplaced. “Even if they recover it now, they may not be in a position to admit what happened,” he says. ● More on P4 E x p r e s s Re a d Eateries face bleak future as fuel, essentials get dearer Sweeping changes suggested to strengthen sports sector Wayanad to get disaster risk monitoring network Kochi: The steep increase in commercial LPG prices has pushed owners of restaurant, especially those of smaller eateries, into crisis. The wage hike demanded by migrant workers under their employment has worsened the situation, they said | P4 T’Puram: Establishing 3,000 new playgrounds, launching open gyms and setting up a Sports University are among the sweeping changes suggested in sports sector to revamp and strengthen it as part of government’s ‘Vision 2036’ mission | P5 T’Puram: Nearly two years after the devastating landslides, the government is gearing up to set up a comprehensive risk monitoring system in Wayanad to improve real-time surveillance and enable timely dissemination of warnings for disasters | P4 Mirabai, Manipur’s golden girl, threepeats Nervous starts in S & C&J In both snatch and the clean & jerk sections, she failed to complete the first lift of 82kg and 105kg respectively but made amends in the second attempts to finish the contest Games’ record broken Every lift by Mirabai set a CWG record. Be it her 82kg and 85kg lifts in snatch, her 105kg in clean and jerk or her overall lift of 190kg Mirabai Chanu wells up after her record-breaking lifts on Sunday | PTI f i r o z m i r z a @ Chennai FOR more than a decade, Mirabai Chanu has been the country’s biggest medal hope in weightlifting. And it was no different at the 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games (CWG). Living up to her billing, the diminutive 31-yearold lifter from Manipur completed a hat-trick of CWG gold at the SEC Armadillo auditorium on Sunday, beating her opponents by miles. The gold was also the country’s first at this edition of the Games. The 2017 world champion and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medallist’s superiority among her opponents can be gauged by the fact that her total lift was 22kg more than the nearest rival — Ruth Asuquo Nyong from Nigeria. En route to her top of the podium finish, she also set the CWG record four times in the 48kg weight category While lifting . 85kg in the snatch section in her third attempt, she also set a Commonwealth record. Mirabai had won a gold each in the 2018 and 2022 editions with the previous one coming in the 49kg division. In 2014, she won a silver medal (48kg). Earlier in the day, another Manipuri lifter, Rishikanta Singh Chanambam pocketed silver in the 60kg weight category P11 . Siddaramaiah not to contest 2028 elections E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Mysuru Nearly two months after stepping down as Karnataka chief minister, veteran Congress leader Siddaramaiah made his most definitive political announcement on Sunday, declaring that he will not contest the 2028 assembly polls. The 79-year-old leader revealed his decision at a function in Mandya, saying it was prompted by advancing age, health concerns and growing corruption in politics. He. however, said he will stay active in public life. At an event to mark the birth anniversary of K R Pete Krishna, Siddaramaiah responded to supporters’ appeals urging him to continue in electoral politics for another decade. He made it clear that he had taken a decision not to seek another electoral mandate. He later formally announced his decision on X. “Since the political field has become corrupted today I will , not contest the 2028 assembly elections. However, I will continue to stand as a voice for people’s hardships and joys,” Siddaramaiah wrote.