chennai l Friday l august 28, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 42 l late city EDITION Sehwag and Dravid’s sons to play together for India U19 Legendary batters Rahul Dravid and Virender Sehwag's sons, Anvay and Aaryavir respectively, are set to play for India U19 in the Australia series Maiden call-up for Aaryavir in blues It is a maiden India call-up for 18-year-old Aaryavir, who is currently playing for West Delhi Lions in the Delhi Premier League. He will be joining Anvay in the one-day squad where India U19 will play three matches from September 18. The junior cricket committee picked separate squads for the three one-day matches and two multi-day games vs Australia Anvay Dravid Aaryavir Sehwag Second series with India U19 for Anvay ■ ■ Anvay, the younger son of former India captain and coach Dravid, retained his place in the ODI squad after being part of the U-19 side that toured Sri Lanka last month The 17-year-old wicketkeeper-batter had scored 14 and 87 in the two youth ODIs he played during the tour 14 Dravid and Sehwag last played together for India 14 years ago 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 Emergency contact numbers of Embassy of India in Kathmandu: +977 985 131 6807, +977 970 910 7500, +977 981 032 6117 Efforts on to find ‘missing’ TN pilgrims: Min Rajmohan D I PA K M O N D A L @ New Delhi E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Chennai As many as 103 pilgrims from Tamil Nadu who had travelled to Nepal for the Kailash pilgrimage are stranded in the country following Wednesday’s devastating flash floods, and efforts are under way to rescue and bring them back, Information Minister A Rajmohan informed the Assembly on Thursday . Later, speaking to reporters at Chennai before leaving for New Delhi, Rajmohan said contact had been established with 26 tourists from TN but hastened to add that the number keeps changing. While information had been received that a few others were safe, they could not be contacted yet, he said. Replying to a discussion on a special mention on the issue in the House, Rajmohan said a Chennai-based organisation, Mahadev Kailash Yatra, had taken 49 Tamil pilgrims to Nepal. Efforts were under way to obtain complete details about the pilgrims, including their travel plans, present locations and whether they had been affected by the floods. Meanwhile, another group was taken to Nepal as part of a travel programme organised by Super Yathra, Kumbakonam, in association with Samrat Tours and Travels in Nepal. The group comprised 54 people from TN and three from Puducherry tak, ing the total to 57 pilgrims.  P9 INSIDE agent’s son among those missing | p4 CM deputes mins to monitor op | p6 An area covered in mud and silt washed along the flash flood, near Trishuli Dam in Nepal on Thursday | PTI Toll up, 290 Indians uncontactable so far E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi At least 290 Indian nationals remain uncontactable in Nepal’s flood-hit Rasuwa district even as rescue teams have brought more people to safety and authorities race to establish the whereabouts of those stranded in the disaster zone. The External Affairs Ministry (MEA) said on Thursday that 54 Indians had been rescued so far. The number of workers rescued from the Trishuli-1 hydropower project has also risen sharply, with 63 workers now safe, compared with 33 reported earlier. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Indian authorities were coordinating with Nepalese officials, state governments, tour operators and project authorities to trace those out of contact. Among those still uncontactable are two large Tamil Nadu groups of 37 and 49 people, who were travelling for the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra through separate travel opera- CJI invite row: NLSIU cancels convocation E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e Pilgrimage activity With Raksha Bandhan and Shravan Purnima approaching, pilgrimage activity in highaltitude areas is particularly heavy. The absence of a comprehensive record of travellers moving through the remote region is making it harder for authorities to determine the full number of people affected tors, Samrat Travels and Fly Everest Travels. Another group of 32 Indians from West Bengal, travelling through Samrat Travels, was reportedly in Timure, one of the areas affected by the disaster. Authorities are also trying to contact 61 Indians travelling through Richa Tours and 33 people from Kerala whose whereabouts remain unconfirmed. The government has stressed that “uncontactable” does not mean that a person is necessarily missing, injured or dead. It indicates that officials have so far been unable to establish communication. The scale of the disaster is growing. The official death toll rose to 362, including three in Tibet, while Nepal authorities reported 910 people missing. A newly formed lake at the flood site is also reportedly rising after a river blockage, prompting Nepal’s disaster authorities to warn residents and rescuers to stay away from riverbanks amid fears of a possible outburst.  more on: P11, 15 Manipur violence Four Nagas killed in alleged Kuki ambush @ Bengaluru P r a s an ta M a z u mda r @ Guwahati National Law School of India University (NLSIU) on Thursday cancelled its 34th annual convocation, initially scheduled to be held on September 12, citing “unavoidable circumstances”. The development comes amid pushback from students against Chief Justice of India Surya Kant attending the event. “Despite our collective best efforts, due to unavoidable circumstances, we are unable to hold the 34th annual convocation,” read a circular issued by the NLSIU administration on Thursday morning. This is the first time after the Covid-19 pandemic that the university has cancelled a convocation ceremony . Graduating students of the 2026 batch will be conferred their degrees ‘in absentia’ after due approvals by NLSIU’s governing bodies. The students Amid signs of normalcy returning to Manipur following the resumption of inter-state bus services, alleged Kuki rebels carried out an ambush on Thursday, killing four Naga civilians. One other Naga individual was injured in the ambush while a student leader was reported missing. The incident occurred at around 8.30 am between Makui Ashang and Thanamba Naga villages on the IT Road in Kuki-majority Kangpokpi district. The victims were travelling from Makui village to Senapati which is a Naga-majority district bordering Nagaland. Manipur’s apex Naga organisation United Naga Council condemned the “barbaric and calculated” attack. “It was reported that armed Kuki militants under Suspension of Operation…ambushed and attacked innocent Naga civilians in an area that serves as an important lifeline for Nagas living along the IT Road,” it said. Chief Minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh chaired a high-level security meeting, where the government condemned the ambush. He instructed security officials to nab the culprits. were left with the choice of receiving their certificates via courier or collecting them at the NLSIU campus. On August 15, around 165 students from the graduating class of 2026, 409 current students, and 128 alumni had signed an open letter to the university administration, expressing ‘unconditional solidarity’ with National Academy of Le g al Studies and Research (NALSAR, Hyderabad) students, who had opposed the CJI’s presence at their convocation. This invited Bar Council of India chairman Manan Kumar Mishra’s short-lived wrath. WITH THI S I S S UE CHENNAI’S BEST WEEKEND GUIDE 42 PAGES, INCLUDING 24 OF INDULGE (TABLOID) Sale of two-day-old baby busted in Chennai Ra j alak s h mi Sampat h @ Chennai A two-day-old baby girl is now in the custody of a child welfare committee in Chennai after six people, including the child’s prospective adopters, a private hospital doctor and its administrator, were arrested by the Villivakkam police on Thursday on charges of arranging the illegal sale of the Big haircut, but Chandra says it’s against `3.9k cr newborn. With the baby’s father already behind bars in a different matter, police have issued her mother notice under Section 35 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and allowed her to remain with the baby to breastfeed her during the investigation. The six arrested accused were being produced for remand. Police said Pavithra (23) and The AP couple agreed to bear Pavithra’s pregnancyrelated expenses and take custody of the child after its birth Villivakkam police her husband Ganesan (28), a history-sheeter, had entered into a verbal arrangement with an Andhra Pradesh couple, Selvarasi (30) and Gnanasekaran (35), when Pavithra was pregnant. The couple, who were trying to have a child for seven years, agreed to bear her pregnancy-related expenses and take custody of the child after its birth, the police added. P9 AFTER a major controversy erupted over the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) approving Essel Group chairman Subhash Chandra’s `6.5-crore repayment plan against admitted creditor claims of `22,006 crore, the media baron on Thursday said the claims against him as a personal guarantor were just `3,992 crore. In a statement, Chandra said he had not borrowed money from any lender and was only a personal guarantor for the loans raised by Vivek Infracon, Spirit Textiles and Churu Enterprises. Chandra further said that `620 crore of these claims had already been settled, while the borrowing entities had offered to pay `1,113 crore to multiple lenders. Discussions are continuing, he said. On Tuesday, the NCLT’s Delhi Bench had approved the repayment plan despite objections from Subhash Chandra financial creditors over the size of the proposed recovery the conduct , of the resolution professional and the participation of entities alleged to be associated with Chandra. The repayment plan was approved by 80.814% of the creditors. However, Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, Canara Bank, LIC Housing Finance and some other lenders voted against it. Creditors opposing the plan argued that the proposed recovery amounted to over 99% haircut. While approving the plan, the tribunal held that its role was to examine whether the plan complied with the law and whether there was any statutory infirmity warranting its rejection. express read TN hikes hostel food allowance by `200 cr Chennai: Social Justice Minister Vanni Arasu during the Assembly session on Thursday announced a `200-crore additional allocation to enhance food allowances for students in Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare hostels. The monthly allowance for college students will rise from `1,400 to `1,800 and for school students from `1,500 to `2,000 | P6 Vijay seeks rejection of DMK’s poll plea Chennai: CM C Joseph Vijay urged the Madras HC to reject DMK candidate S Inigo Irudayaraj’s petiton challenging his Tiruchy-East victory, arguing that the allegation of using children for electoral gain was insufficient to declare the poll void as the plea failed to show how it affected the poll result as required under the Representation of the People Act | P4