Counting day today in Maha, Jharkhand The counting of votes for the crucial assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand will begin at 8 am on Saturday. The Jharkhand election was conducted in two phases on November 13 and 20. Votes polled in the by-elections to 46 assembly seats in 13 states and in the Lok Sabha segments of Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala, will also be counted simultaneously | PTI | P10 kochi l saturday l November 23, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l late city EDITION 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 express read HC slams LDF, UDF for Wayanad hartal Kochi: The High Court has criticised the LDF and the Opposition UDF for calling dawn-to-dusk hartals in Wayanad on November 19 to protest the delay in central assistance for landslide victims. Terming it an “irresponsible behaviour”, the court asked : “What do you seek to achieve with this hartal, other than putting people in a worse situation?” | P7 Omchery N N Pillai passes away at 100 T’Puram: Playwright and novelist Omchery N N Pillai, 100, died at a hospital in Delhi following agerelated ailments. He has authored nine full-length plays, over 80 one-act plays and several novels. Pillai won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1972 for the play ‘Pralayam’. He won the honour again in 2010 for overall contributions to Malayalam literature | P4 Fishing boat collides with sub, 2 missing New Delhi: Two fishermen were reported missing after their fishing vessel collided with an Indian Navy submarine about 70 nautical miles off the Goa coast. Eleven of the 13 crew on board fishing vessel ‘Marthoma’ were rescued | P10 18 pages, including 4 pages of kochi Express Govt forms judicial panel, Munambam residents fume No proof of Modi link to Nijjar plot, clarifies Canada report in 3 months The judicial commission has been tasked with studying all land-related matters at Munambam and verifying land records. The panel must submit report in 3 months. Trudeau’s security advisor trashes report that claimed Indian PM was in the loop security and intelligence advisor to the Canadian PM. THE Justin Trudeau-led govCanada’s denial of the newsernment on Friday sought to paper report came after Exterset the record straight as it nal Affairs Ministry called it trashed a Canadian media re- out as a smear campaign. port, which claimed Prime “Such ludicrous statements Minister Narendra made to a newspaper Modi was in the loop purportedly by a Caabout the killing of nadian government Sikh separatist Hardsource should be diseep Singh Nijjar in missed with the conCanada. tempt they deserve,” On Wednesday The , India’s foreign minisGlobe and Mail had try had said. What the put out a report quotMeanwhile, the dippaper said ing an anonymous Calomatic stalemate beQuoting an nadian security offitween India and Cancial linking Modi, official, the paper ada continues. The Home Minister Amit said “it would be Indian Consulate in Shah, External Af- unthinkable that Toronto has issued a three senior fairs Minister S Jaisstatement saying it hankar, and National political figures had to cancel several Security Advisor Ajit in India wouldn’t consular camps as the have discussed Doval to criminal acCanadian authorities the targeted tivities in Canada. refused to provide ad“The Government killings with Modi equate security . before of Canada has not “Due to continued proceeding” stated, nor is it aware inability conveyed by of evidence, linking security agencies to Prime Minister Modi, Minis- provide minimum security ter Jaishankar, or NSA Doval against heightened threats, the to the serious criminal activity Consulate has had to cancel within Canada. Any sugges- some consular camps. Most of tion to the contrary is both them were not at any places of speculative and inaccurate,” worship, including one at a poread the statement issued by lice facility the Indian consu,” Nathalie G Drouin, national late in Toronto said. Y E SHI S E L I @ New Delhi E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ T’Puram Sticking to its standard response, the state government on Friday constituted a judicial commission to resolve the vexed Munambam waqf land row. However, residents at the disputed area rejected the decision, saying the move would only further delay a solution. A high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan also decided to approach the High Court to vacate an injunction that prohibits the government from accepting land tax from the owners of the disputed properties. Former acting chief justice of Kerala High Court C N Ramachandran would head the commission, tasked with studying all land-related matters at Munambam and verifying land records. The commission must stir to be intensified Bumrah magic After India were dismissed for 150 in the first innings, Jasprit Bumrah rose to the occasion, taking 4/17 on day one of the first Test in Perth on Friday. Australia were 67/7 at stumps | afp | P13 Rejecting the govt’s move, the Munambam Bhoo Samrakshana Samithi said it would intensify the agitation Forex reserves tank $18 bn, rupee slips B enn K o c h u v ee d a n @ Mumbai INDIA’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves have seen the sharpest weekly dip on record, losing $17.76 billion for the week ended November 15 as the dollar continued to rally leading to immense pressure on the rupee, which forced the Reserve Bank of India to sell the greenback to stem the slide. Forex reserves have slipped nearly $30 billion in the past seven weeks. The reserves are down $47 billion from the record high of $704.89 billion reported on September 27. Traders said RBI intervened in the forex market repeatedly to save the rupee. According to analysts, there was a revaluation loss estimated at $10.4 billion for the reporting week, and RBI may have sold dollars worth $7.2 billion in the week ended November 15. Dilip Parmar, a senior currency research analyst at HDFC Securities, said dollar demand from importers and continuing foreign fund outflows weigh on the rupee. “The central bank has aggressively supplied the dollar to meet the demand and outflows to control volatility. There has been huge dollar demand from precious metal importers post-Diwali,” he said. “Despite the seven weeks of decline, we believe the forex reserves remain robust in terms of all external adequacy requirements with the import cover comfortably placed at over 11 months,” said Aditi Gupta, an economist at Bank of Baroda, in a note. submit its recommendations to the government within three months. Rejecting the government’s move, Munambam Bhoo Samrakshana Samithi said it would intensify the agitation. “A decision will be taken on Saturday ,” said Joseph Benny convenor of , the samithi. Experts point out that the practice of constituting judicial commissions to address vexed issues has become the norm in the state. Most of the commissions have served only to delay solutions, they said. Meanwhile, in what could be a major relief for the owners, the meeting attended by revenue, law and waqf ministers, Waqf Board chairman and the advocate general, decided not to serve legal notices to residents living on the disputed land in ● More on P4 Munambam.  $250 bn per year offer of rich nations The latest draft text on New Collective Quantified Goal (NCQG) published during COP29, for the first time included the quantum of climate finance rich nations are willing to commit, which is $250 billion per year by 2035 | P11