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 wednesday l september 30, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l LATE City EDITION Kiran Pahal, Prachi Choudhary, MR Poovamma & Vithya Ramraj celebrate after winning the women’s 4x400 m relay final; (R) An ecstatic Neeru Dhanda after capturing a historic gold medal in the women’s trap event on Tuesday | pti Pak terror is the CM seeks Centre’s help on Tummidihatti fault line in US ties: Jaishankar Express News Service @ Hyderabad Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has urged Union Jal Shakti Minister CR Patil to accord permissions for the Tummidihatti, Palamuru-Rangareddy and Sitarama projects. The chief minister, along with Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy called on Pa, til in Delhi on Tuesday. During the meeting, he requested the Union minister to convince the Maharashtra government to give its consent to Telangana to construct the JAYAN T H JAC O B @ New Delhi SC raps NSA detention of Sambhal accused SUCHI T RA KA LYAN M O HAN T Y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Tuesday lit into the Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh for the illegal NSA detention of Sambhal violence accused Mulla Afroz and imposed a cost of `10 lakh on it. Extra-judicial confession cannot be the sole basis for preventive detention, it ruled. A two-judge bench of justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu said: “Preventive detention cannot be based on inadmissible custodial confession. Custodial confession can’t be the basis for NSA (National Security Act).” It termed the government action “unsustainable in law”. While setting aside the Allahabad High Court order which upheld the detention of Afroz under the NSA, the top court held that preventive detention cannot be founded on a confession allegedly made by Afroz while in police custody . india’s relationship with the US cannot move forward steadily if Washington does not fully appreciate New Delhi’s concerns over cross-border terrorism, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said amid renewed US engagement with Pakistan. Taking part at a session hosted by the Asia Society in New York, Jaishankar said terrorism remained one of India’s most consequential concerns and that a lack of understanding from a key partner could have a direct bearing on the relationship. “What for us in India is particularly important is the issue of terrorism,” Jaishankar said, adding that India had faced terrorism from a neighbouring country as part of what he described as a “deliberate, conscious policy” over several decades. “If something which matters so deeply to us, there isn’t enough understanding or appreciation or empathy of that, I think that creates a problem too,” he said. “If one of my primary concerns is not fully appreciated by my partner, then clearly there is an impact of that on the relationship.” The foreign minister’s comments come against the backdrop of a complicated phase in India-US ties, marked by disagreements over tariffs and trade, India’s purchases of Russian energy and US’s renewed outreach to Pakistan. “We would certainly hope for and expect the (India-US) relationship to move on an upward trajectory,” Jaishankar said. “But I have to be real about the issues that we confront, and to the extent we are able to move ahead on some of these issues, I think we’ll have a better relationship.” Jaishankar also described India-China relations as significantly improved compared with the period immediately following the 2020 border standoff. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar addresses an event in New York | PTI Chinese air corridor India is exploring an alternative air corridor through China’s Xinjiang region to reduce the additional flying time and costs faced by Indian airlines due to the restrictions on Pak airspace Essar to build $15 bn plant Essar Group will invest $15 bn to build a steel plant in Iowa. US President Donald Trump said Essarbacked Mesabi Metallics will build “the largest steel plant in American history” Tummidihatti barrage. The chief minister informed Patil that the proposed barrage, to be constructed at a height of 152 metres, would enable the state to divert Godavari water to Yellampalli through gravity, thereby saving energy Stating that the . gover nment had already furnished the information sought by Maharashtra, he requested Patil to ensure that an agreement was reached between the two states on the project. Revanth also requested the Union minister to grant envi- ronmental clearances at the earliest for the Palamuru-Rangareddy, Dindi Lift Irrigation Scheme, Sitarama LIS and Gouravelli reservoirs. The delay in granting the required permissions was escalating project costs, he said. He also sought clearances pending with the Central Water Commission (CWC) for the Sammakka Sagar project. A detailed project report had already been submitted to the CWC, Revanth said, adding that the project required inter-state clearances. The Telangana government was in touch with Chhattisgarh to obtain a no-objection letter for the project, he said. Revanth also requested Patil to direct the Krishna River Management Board to install telemetry systems at various locations along the Krishna river. The government had already released `4.15 crore required for installing the telemetry system in the first phase, Revanth informed Patil. He also requested Patil to expedite the installation of telemetry systems under the second and third phases. At CWC meet, Congress seeks Gyanesh’s head, suspension of SIR GradUATES MLC POLLS m u k e s h r a n j a n @ New Delhi e n s @ Hyderabad DEMANDING the immediate removal of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, suspension of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and restoration of 13.3 crore names allegedly deleted from the voter lists, the Congress on Tuesday stepped up its broadside and sought the resignation of PM Narendra Modi too, stating the CEC could not have done the “match-fixing” of polls sans his nod. The demands were made at a two-and-a-half-hour meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC), chaired by party president Mallikarjun Kharge and attended by for mer party ch i e f s S o n i a Gandhi and EC removal: AAP, DMK on same page Several leaders of the INDIA bloc will skip Wednesday’s meet. AAP and DMK have said they won’t take part, while SP’s Akhilesh Yadav has said he will send a senior leader to the meeting to be held in Delhi’s Constitution Club SC to hear plea against CEC next week The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear next week a fresh plea questioning whether Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar could take decisions unilaterally on behalf of the EC without concurrence of the other Election Commissioners Rahul Gandhi, along with senior leaders including Jairam Ramesh, K C Venugopal and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. The INDIA bloc meets on Wednesday to deliberate on the CEC and SIR row. “So, there are two forms of match-fixing: EVM match-fixing and voter list match-fixing, both are hap- pening,” Rahul said. Briefing the media after the meeting, Ramesh said, “Rahul has been raising these issues related to polls in Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra and some did not believe him. He has been proven right,” Ramesh said, while alleging “elections in India were neither fair nor transparent since 2014.” AICC names 2 candidates The AICC on Tuesday announced its candidates for the upcoming Graduate MLC elections from the MahbubnagarRangareddy-Hyderabad and Nalgonda-Warangal-Khammam constituencies. AICC president Mallikarjuna Kharge approved the Telangana Congress proposals to field Sama Rammohan Reddy from the Mahbubnagar-RangareddyHyderabad constituency and Ramreddy Sarvotham Reddy from the Nalgonda-WarangalKhammam constituency . Sama Rammohan Reddy has been associated with the Congress for several years and has also served as chairman of the TPCC Media Committee. The party has now given him an opportunity to contest the Graduate MLC election.  continued on p4