THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l saturday l October 10, 2026 l `10.00 l PAGES 18 l late city EDITION house panel recommends NTA’s accountability to Parliament A Parliamentary Standing Committee has called for a legislative mechanism to ensure NTA’s accountability to both Houses of Parliament wants robust exam security apparatus The committee examining the National Testing Agency (NTA) in the wake of NEET-UG paper leak and re-test said the cancellation of the exam this year implies need for further improvement. “The NTA needs adequate staff, robust security, clear accountability mechanisms, and digitalization of operations and examinations” to prevent paper leak, it said ■ 16 ‘seek help from renowned institutions’ ■ The panel recommended that NTA must only rely on bona fide experts from renowned educational institutions like IITs, AIIMS, IIMs to develop its question banks and for translation purposes It also suggested that students who arrive late at exam centres be allowed to sit for the test after recording an undertaking | P9 of 39 sanctioned posts at nta are vacant, per the house panel 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 India calls US V-P Prez sought vote theft proof, says INDIA bloc Total shutdown in Delhi for CJP march Vance remark on foreign workers deeply offensive P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi India on Friday termed US Vice-President J D Vance’s remarks on foreign workers “unwarranted” and “deeply offensive”, asserting that Indian professionals make significant contributions to the American economy innovation and job crea, tion. New Delhi also said the US decision to suspend Permanent Labour Certification (PERM) applications for certain companies does not advance the shared ambitions of the two nations. “Talent mobility is of tremendous mutual benefit for the two countries and our expectation is that all stakeholders in this process can appreciate this fact,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. “The steps announced by the US do not advance the shared ambitions of both countries,” said the MEA. The response came after the US suspended new PERM applications and halted the processing of pending applications for eight companies, including Microsoft, Adobe and Capgemini, as well as Indian IT firms Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro and HCL. The move is part of the Trump administration’s wider push to tighten employment-based immigration, with officials arguing that companies should prioritise American workers. Vance accused Microsoft of using the programme to replace American employees with foreign workers. Rejecting the characterisation of foreign professionals as “foreign indentured servants”, the MEA said such descriptions ignored the contribution of Indian workers to the US economy and innovation ecosystem. “Resorting to terminology that carries painful historical and colonial legacy connotations is deeply offensive,” the MEA said and highlighted the role generations of immigrants have played in America’s economic growth and prosperity . The suspension affects the PERM programme, a labour-certification process that US employers generally need to complete before sponsoring eligible foreign employees for employment-based Green Cards. Introduced in 2005, the programme requires employers to establish that there are not enough qualified and available US workers for a position and that hiring a foreign worker will not adversely affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed Americans. J D Vance The steps announced by the US (on Green Cards) do not advance the shared ambitions of both countries MEA statement Why it matters For Indians, the suspension could delay permanent residency. Many skilled workers enter the US on H-1B before seeking employersponsored Green Cards No H-iB impact MEA said since PERM is separate from H-1B visa, the suspension does not by itself affect the status of existing holders and dependants After a meeting with President Droupadi Mur mu at Rashtrapati Bhavan, INDIA bloc leaders on Friday said the President neither denied the Opposition’s allegations nor questioned them, but asked the delegation to provide evidence of “vote theft”. A 10-member delegation, including Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee and CPM general secretary M A Baby met the President in the , evening and submitted a memorandum. The demands in the memorandum included the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, a return to ballot papers for elections and the repeal of the 2023 law that provides lifelong immunity to the CEC and Election Commissioners. President Droupadi Murmu with Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, LoP Rahul Gandhi, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee and CPI’s D Raja on Friday | PTI Ahead of Saturday’s CJP march, Delhi Police and central agencies imposed a total clampdown on the capital with over 25,000 police and paramilitary personnel deployed. Additional CCTV cameras were installed at key locations and 57 Delhi Metro stations were closed. Northern Railway said 38 trains, scheduled to arrive at New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin stations between 4 am and 2 pm on Saturday, had been cancelled. Commercial establishments at Connaught Place, near Jantar Mantar, have been advised closure on Saturday | P9 Other demands included immediate suspension of the SIR and restoration of all 13.30 crore voters “illegally” deleted from electoral rolls. The memorandum urged the repeal of all Assembly polls over the last two years, in which conclusive evidence of “vote chori” has been presented. “Assembly elections in Haryana, Mahar- and fair elections’. I was shocked and stunned that the President accepted what we said,” he said, adding the Opposition will provide the evidence when the President is ready to accept it. He said the INDIA bloc would approach the Supreme Court on Monday to meet the Chief Justice and hand over a memorandum. ashtra, MP, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Delhi and West Bengal have been stolen,” it read. Speaking to reporters after the hour-long meeting with Murmu, Rahul Gandhi termed it an “unbelievable meeting”. “I expected the President of India to deny that ‘vote chori’ is taking place. I expected the President to say ‘India has free Peace Nobel for jurist who found Israel guilty of Gaza genocide a g e n c i e s @ Oslo NAVI Pillay, a South Africanborn jurist and former UN human rights chief whose career has spanned from defending the rights of an imprisoned Nelson Mandela to leading a panel that found that Israel committed g enocide in Gaza, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her efforts to promote international law as it comes under attack. Her win is a high-profile rebuke to US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who have both rejected the findings of the UN commission she led on Gaza. The lead- ers also have been highly critical of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. Pillay, 85, has worked at both. Hours after the award was announced in Norway, the Trump administration imposed sweeping new sanctions on the ICC as part of a campaign to dismantle the tribunal that the US believes has become politicised and attempted to unfairly and illegally prosecute Americans and Israelis on charges of war crimes. On the 125th anniversary of the prize’s inception, the Norwegian Nobel Committee sought “to remind the world that the rule of law, national and international, underpins the system we have set up to ensure peace and resolve conflicts nonviolently. Peace requires justice,” committee Chair man Jørgen Watne Frydnes said. Pillay received the news while attending a forum in Nuremberg, Germany . She chaired the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, which was created by the UN-backed Human Rights Council. Following a hearing, the commission a year ago concluded Israel was responsible for genocide in Gaza. Gaza was among Pillay’s first comments after hearing she had won. “What’s happening there is genocide,” she said in Germany . Police personnel on duty near Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Friday | Parveen Negi Kharge told reporters the President said she would probe the matter thoroughly and decide on the next steps. Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah, NCP(SP)’s Supriya Sule, RJD’s Manoj Jha, VCK chief Thol Thirumavalavan, IUML’s ET Mohammed Basheer and CPI’s D Raja were part of the delegation. EXPRESS READ JNU sacks prof over sexual harassment New Delhi: The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Friday dismissed professor Angomcha Bimol Akoijam, a Congress Lok Sabha MP from Inner Manipur, after an internal inquiry found him guilty of sexually harassing female students. Prof Akoijam was associated with the Centre for the Study of Social Systems in the School of Social Sciences. P10 Navi Pillay Tamil roots Born in Durban on September 23, 1941, to a family of Indian origin with Tamil roots, Navanethem “Navi” Pillay grew up under apartheid. She later pursued postgraduate studies at Harvard Law School. In 1995, she was elected to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she served as a judge until 2003. BJP clean sweeps West Bengal assembly bypolls Kolkata: BJP candidates Hasirani Rath and Sakharav Sarkar recorded commanding victories in the high-voltage Assembly bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar in West Bengal, with widening margins in counting trends on Friday. The Election Commission had not announced final results till Friday night. P10 18 pages, including 4 pages of THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Express Register FIR against Pinarayi & kin: HC New private varsities bill to do away E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e ​@ Kochi In a ruling that could trigger ripples in state politics, the Kerala High Court on Friday directed the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) to register an FIR against former chief minister P i n a r ay i Vi j aya n , daughter Veena T, and son-in-law and former minister P A Mohamed Riyas in the CMRL-Exalogic payoff case. The court also quashed the state government’s decision to constitute a special investigation team (SIT) to conduct a preliminary inquiry based on Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) information without registering an FIR. “When the infor mation, along with the supporting statements recorded and documents obtained, discloses the commission of offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act by the persons concerned, a further preliminary inquiry into the facts of the case is unwar ranted,” the court observed. It stated that when infor mation is forwarded under Section 66(2) of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) to register an FIR based on inputs gathered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) that disclose the commission of a scheduled offence or offences, the state police are obligated to register an FIR. The court add- CMRL payoff case Vigilance will file case soon, says CM T’Puram: CM V D Satheesan said the government did not show any undue haste nor tried to exact personal vengeance against former CM Pinarayi Vijayan and his family in the CMRL-Exalogic payoff case. The CM said in the backdrop of the HC verdict, the vigilance will register a case soon. P4 ed that this does not exempt the notified agency from conducting a preliminary independent inquiry where necessary “How. ever, in the present case, the information forwarded by the ED to the state police chief contained detailed material concerning the alleged corporate fraud involving CMRL and Exalogic. Therefore, no further preliminary inquiry was necessary before registering an FIR,” the court held. Justice A Badharudeen passed the order on a petition filed by activist-lawyer K M Shajahan, challenging the state government’s decision to conduct a preliminary inquiry through a crime branch SIT instead of registering a corruption case. Advocate​ V Sethunath, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that the government’s decision to conduct a preliminary inquiry was motivated by an ulterior intention to shield ● More on P4 the accused.  with LDF’s govt nominee proposal A n u K u r u v i l l a @ Kochi The UDF government’s proposed private universities legislation is likely to scrap the previous government’s plan to have government nominees on governing and academic councils and ease land and corpus fund requirements to attract private players to the state’s higher education sector. The proposed legislation is still at the pre-draft stage, but a recent political-level discussion has broadly agreed on the key provisions to be included in the new bill, according to a senior higher education department official. The government is also ex- amining the private university legislation in the Congressruled Andhra Pradesh for possible pointers. The UDF government has decided to withdraw the Kerala Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) Bill, passed by the assembly on March 25, 2025, and pending presidential assent. The higher education de par tment, through an order issued on September 17, had directed that bill brought in by the LDF government be withdrawn during the next assembly session to be convened on October 12. Under the 2025 bill, those seeking to establish private universities are required to have a corpus fund of `25 crore and around 10 acres of land. Sources said, while these stipulations may be relaxed, the Congress-led UDF government is expected to ensure that the new universities will not have a free run on the fees to be imposed on students. A source privy to the discussions said the provision to have government representation in the governing and academic councils of private universities was among the major hurdles that derailed the previous bill. “This rule is not there even in the national private university bill. This and many other clauses were the reason why that bill was referred to the President,” ● More on P4 the source said. ‘Messi affair’: Stadium revamp claim `70 crore, actual cost `8.44 crore GOPI K A VARRIER @Kochi HC orders further probe into Balabhaskar death The court directed the CBI to entrust the further investigation into the car accident that claimed the life of the violinist in 2018 with an officer of proven integrity | P7 An internal GCDA report has found that the cost of renovating Kochi’s Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium for the failed Lionel Messi friendly was inflated by nearly `60 crore. The Greater Cochin Development Authority owns the stadium. The report, accessed by TNIE, put the preliminary cost of the renovation at `8.44 crore, against the `70 crore that sponsor Reporter Broadcasting Corporation (RBC) claimed to have spent. According to the internal report, a committee headed by the GCDA secretary conducted a preliminary assessment of the stadium renovation, calculating costs based on the market rates of materials and individual works. The report pegged the cost of boundary wall work at `1.19 crore, parking ground development at `1.66 crore and gallery chair installation at `2.22 crore. Painting, entrance lobby revamp, toilet renovation and electrical work cost `1.36 crore, while nearly `2 crore was spent press clusive under other heads. Even if a 10% margin is allowed, the actual cost wouldn’t have touched `10 crore, GCDA sources said. The report also said 15,000 fixed seats were left untouched during the renovation and needed replacement when the sponsor handed the stadium back to the GCDA. Contrary to former GCDA chairperson K Chandran Pil- ‘GCDA spent L50L’ Contrary to the former GCDA chairperson’s claim that the renovation cost the authority nothing, the report said the GCDA partially carried out electrical and fencing work and maintained floodlights, spending over C50 lakh. lai’s claim that the renovation cost the authority nothing, the report, citing records, said the GCDA partially carried out electrical and fencing works and maintained the floodlights, spending over `50 lakh. Pillai was unavailable for comment. The report said Sports Kerala Foundation (SKF) prescribed the specifications for materials used in the renovation to meet FIFA approval requirements. It also noted that GCDA engineers did not supervise the work at any stage, with SKF officials overseeing it instead. The stadium was handed over to the RBC through the SKF on September 26, 2025, for renovation. It was initially scheduled to be taken back on October 30, ahead of the proposed November 17 match, which did not ma● More on P4 terialise.