vijayawada l saturday l february 14, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l late city EDITION accept dagarvani tradition’s inputs to song, sc tells rahman sc fiat on plea against 2025 delhi hc order A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a plea by Dhrupad vocalist Ustad Faiyaz Wasifuddin Dagar against a September 2025 Delhi High Court’s order, which said there was no evidence of the Dagar Brothers being the authors of a classical rendition of Shiv Stuti, which was used while composing the number in the film Music composer A R Rahman and Ponniyin Selvan 2’s makers were asked to accept the genre’s contribution in Veera Raja Veera song of the film ‘classical music maestros want respect’ ■ ■ “The originality of the tune is undisputed,” the SC bench told Rahman’s counsel Abhishek Singhvi. “They are traditional worshippers of classical music... they want respect, recognition” Known for its meditative style, Dagarvani is a 20-generation-old lineage of Dhrupad, the oldest genre of Hindustani classical music Feb 20 is when the supreme court posted the next hearing 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 No verification of marks after CBSE Class-12 results from ’26 BNP landslide Modi calls up Tarique Rahman, reaffirms India’s commitment to strengthen ties with Bangladesh; focus shifts to govt formation Party positions Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Express News Service @ New Delhi WITH an aim to enhance transparency and efficiency in board examinations, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced on Friday that post-result verification of marks for Class 12 will be discontinued from 2026. The move comes as the board transitions to a fully digital evaluation system through ‘OnScreen Marking (OSM)’, a step officials said will eliminate totalling errors and streamline the assessment process. The decision was outlined during a workshop conducted by CBSE for school principals and teachers to explain the modalities of the new system. Under the OSM framework, Class 12 answer scripts will be evaluated digitally, reducing the scope for manual errors such as incorrect totalling or unmarked responses. However, Class 10 answer books will continue to be assessed in physical mode. Examination Controller Sanyam Bhardwaj said students earlier sought verification mainly to address discrepancies in marks calculation or missing entries. “Such errors will be eliminated at the outset in the digital system. This reform follows extensive planning, including system redesign, trial runs, stakeholder consultations, and strengthened security protocols,” he added. “In the older system, students would seek verification to check for discrepancies in the whole numbers or missing numbers. In the new scheme of digital evaluation, such discrepancies would be eliminated at the outset,” he added. CBSE conducts board examinations for Classes 10 and 12 in India and across 26 countries, covering nearly 46 lakh students annually . The board examinations are slated to begin from February 17 this year, as per an official release from CBSE. 212 Jamaat-e-Islami 77 Others 8 Halfway 151 Result awaited: 2 Total seats: 299 Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairman Tarique Rahman (L) greets supporters as he leaves his residence in Dhaka a day after wresting power in the general elections, on Friday | PTI described Modi’s outreach as significant. “PM Modi is the first world leadIn a major diplomatic outreach er to have a telephonic conversation following the Bangladesh Nation- with BNP chief and the next prime alist Party’s sweep of Bangladesh’s minister of Bangladesh, Tarique general election, Prime Minister Rahman,” Kabir said, calling the Narendra Modi on Friday spoke message “a welcome gesture”. with BNP chief Tarique Rahman, In Dhaka, the attention is shiftcongratulating him on ing to government forleading the party to a demation. The BNP won a cisive victory and reafsweeping mandate, sefirming India’s commitcuring 209 seats in the This victory shows ment to strengthening the people’s trust in 300-member parliament your (Tarique bilateral ties. and attaining an abso“Delighted to speak Rahman) leadership. lute majority The result . with Tarique Rahman. I India will continue to grants the party the austand in support of congratulated him on the thority to amend the democratic, remarkable victory in Constitution and underprogressive, inclusive the Bangladesh electake significant instituBangladesh. I look tions,” Modi said on X tional reforms. forward to working after the call. Results for 297 of the with you to “I conveyed my best 300 parliamentary seats strengthen ties wishes and support in have been declared. AcNarendra Modi, PM his endeavour to fulfil cording to the final tally the aspirations of the announced by the Elecpeople of Bangladesh. As tion Commission of The results were two close neighbours changed through the Bangladesh, the BNP with deep-rooted historiand its allies secured 212 administration... cal and cultural ties, I reThose who attack of the 297 seats people, vandalise affirmed India’s contindeclared. ued commitment to the property, and commit The 11-party electoral peace, progress, and arson just a day after alliance led by Banglaprosperity of both our winning polls cannot desh Jamaat-e-Islami be trusted with the peoples.” Modi was the custody of a country won 77 seats. The newly first world leader to formed National Citizen speak with Rahman by Nahid Islam, NCP leader Party, which led a mass phone. movement against the Reacting to Modi’s phone call to Awami League and former Prime Tarique Rahman, a BNP spokes- Minister Sheikh Hasina, obtained person said Bangladesh seeks bal- just six seats. Islami Andolan anced diplomatic ties with India. Bangladesh secured one. IndeHumayun Kabir, adviser to Rah- pendent candidates captured sevContinued on P9 man and tipped for a cabinet berth, en seats. J aya n t h J a c o b & B ay e z i d M i l k y * Polls countermanded in 1 seat due to death of a candidate Referendum Yes: 68.1% @ New Delhi/Dhaka 48,074,429 NO: 31.9% 22,565,627 Total votes cast 70,640,056 Why Jamaat lost its momentum 1 Jamaat had initial advantage as it hoped to fill the vacuum of the ban on Awami League and alliance with NCP leaders who led went against Hasina 2 Tarique Rahman entered the race relatively late. But he picked up tempo as sympathy factor over the death of his mother Zia worked for him 3 The youth, many of whom had driven the July uprising, voted in significant numbers for the BNP rather than Jamaat. Yet Jamaat had its best outing at the husting Seva Teerth, A new corner office for the PM & PMO Rajesh kumar thakur @ New Delhi PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Friday shifted to his new office, Seva Teerth, from the colonial-era South Block building near Rashtrapati Bhavan on Raisina Hill. The shift came on a day — February 13 — that marked 95 years since the formal inauguration of New Delhi as India’s modern capital in 1931. On Friday, Modi reached Seva Teerth Complex in a motorcade along with Union ministers Manohar Lal and Jitendra Singh and top PMO officials, and inaugurated the complex housing the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the National Security Council Secretariat and the Cabinet Secretariat. The PMO will shift from the South Block on Raisina Hill to Seva Teerth, bringing together the offices of the Cabinet Secretariat and the National Security Council Secretariat that were located at dif ferent places. In the presence of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Minister of State in PMO Jitendra Singh and top officials including principal secretaries P K Mishra and Shaktikanta Das, @ Vijayawada Finance Minister Payyavula Keshav will present the budget for the financial year 2026-27 in the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly on Saturday .   The State budget is expected to strike a balance between welfare and development. The State budget for 2025-26 was presented with an outlay of `3,22,359 crore. Sources say the budget estimates for 2026-27 may be be- tween `3.35 lakh crore and `3.48 lakh crore. The TDP-led NDA government, which was formed in June 2024, p re s e n t e d i t s f u l l fledged budget in November 2024 with an outlay of `2.94 lakh crore for 2024-25. Later in the year, the budget outlay for 202526 stood at `3,22,359 crore. For the next fiscal, there may be a marginal increase in the budget outlay . Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu held review meetings on the budget several times, and made it clear that it should be in the direction of fulfilling the aspirations of all sections of people. Irrigation, Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, Education, Health and other priority sectors are expected to get major allocations in the budget. As the State government has ambitious plans to make optimum use of the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) to achieve rapid economic development, and revived a majority of the CSS works, allocations for those projects (State matching grants) are likely to figure in the State budget. Prior to the presentation of the budget in the Assembly at 11.15 am on Saturday the State , Cabinet will meet under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Naidu to give a formal approval to it. A view of Jaahnavi Kandula’s native village Kumbhalanur Camp in Kurnool district | Express Even as global attention remains fixed on the `262 crore compensation announced by the city of Seattle in the tragic death of Indian girl Jaahnavi Kandula, the ground reality in her native Kumbhalanur Camp village in Kowthalam mandal of Kurnool district, and at Adoni where her mother is living in a rented house, paints a far more sombre picture. The continuing grief and emotional devastation within the family came to light during a visit by TNIE to Kumbhalanur Camp, and later to Adoni on Friday . In Kumbhalanur Camp, there are no signs of relief over the reported $29 million settlement. Instead, neighbours and relatives spoke in hushed tones about the double tragedy that struck the family The villagers . said they had only learnt about the compensation through meP4 dia reports.  Speaking on Friday after inaugurating the Seva Teerth complex, PM Narendra Modi said India must shed every trace of a colonial mindset as it advances towards becoming a Viksit Bharat. Referring to changes such as the renaming of 7 Race Course Road to Lok Kalyan Marg, he said these efforts to transform culture of power into a spirit of service the prime minister signed files approving the launch of PM RAHAT Scheme for extending life-saving protection for every citizen and doubling the number of lakhpati didis to six crore. “The inauguration marks a milestone ... and reflects the Prime Minister’s commitment to building a modern, efficient, accessible and citizen-centric governance ecosystem,” a note from PMO said. through NEET-UG Express News Service @ Chittoor A software engineer was killed in an accident on the ChennaiBengaluru National Highway near Chittoor on F riday morning. Police said a speeding container truck swerved sharply to avoid a motorcycle entering the highway from Yadamari side, rammed into an Alto car and overturned onto it. The driver of container truck was identified as Kumar of Tamil Nadu. The mishap occurred while the truck was going towards Bengaluru. The car driver, identified as D Anudeepak (33) of Chittoor, died on the spot in the incident. The biker, Y Chandran of Vel- Outlay may cross `3L crore Official sources say the total budget estimates for 2026-27 may be between `3.35 lakh crore and `3.48 lakh crore No relief in sight, Jaahnavi’s family struggles amidst grief K MA D HU SU D HAKA R @ Kurnool Colonial mindset must go, says PM Techie killed as container truck falls on car in Chittoor nursing admissions AP budget likely to focus on welfare & development Express News Service Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates Seva Teerth, the new Prime Minister’s Office complex, in New Delhi on Friday | PTI We are still unable to digest what Jaahnavi Kandula’s family has gone through A neighbour The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to conduct admissions to fouryear BSc (Nursing) courses through NEET-UG | P5 The mangled car under the overturned truck in Chittoor on Saturday | Express lore, sustained injuries. Police used a JCB to retrieve Anudeepak’s body from the mangled car. The body was sent for postmortem. Chittoor traffic police have registered a case. Today’s Matches 11am: Ireland vs Omana (Colombo), 3pm: New Zealand vs UAE (Kolkata), 7pm: Pakistan vs USA (Ahmedabad)