DHARMAPURI l thursday l february 15, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l CITY EDITION all-format captain rohit set to lead india at T20 World Cup Cricket board secretary Jay Shah on Wednesday confirmed that Rohit Sharma will lead India at the T20 World Cup in June this year rohit back in T20 after a year in January ‘After Hardik injury, he’s clear choice’ After India’s semifinal exit in the 2022 T20 World Cup, Rohit had not featured in the shortest format for more than a year. Hardik Pandya had been leading the side in T20Is whenever he was available. However, in January, Rohit and Virat Kohli played T20Is against Afghanistan. The BCCI secretary said even head coach Rahul Dravid will continue ■ ■ Jay Shah said that after Hardik Pandya’s injury in the ODI WC, it became clear that Rohit Sharma will captain Shah said that Rohit was captaining (in all formats) and he came back for the Afghanistan series. So BCCI would like to continue with him till the T20 World Cup to be held in USA and West Indies | P11 June 2-29 span of the WC. 55 matches in all will be played during the period 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 1st uae temple symbol of harmony, says Modi Third round of talks with farmers today y e s h i Se l i @ New Delhi Union leaders ask the protesters not to precipitate matters till meeting with govt in the evening is over H a r p r ee t B a j w a @ Chandigarh Leaders of the protesting farmers on Wednesday agreed to hold talks with the Centre the next evening and decided against any further escalation till then. They advised participants of the Dilli Chalo protest not to precipitate matters. The day began with reports of scuffle between some of the protesters and the Haryana Police at the Shambhu and Khanauri inter-state borders. The police not only fired tear gas shells, they also used drones to drop the gas canisters, which became an contentious inter-state issue. On top of the talks agenda is the demand for a legal guarantee to the minimum support price mechanism for procurement of agricultural produce. After a meeting with senior Punjab Police officials at a resort near Rajpura in the evening, Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee general secretary Sarwan Singh Pandher and Bharat Kisan Union (Ekta Sidhupur) president Jagjit Singh Dallewal said, “the third round of talks will be held with Union ministers Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal and Nityanand Rai tomorrow evening at Chandigarh. Till the meeting, we request the youth and everyone else to make the atmosphere conducive.” “It has been projected as if we want to break into Haryana and create lawlessness but it is not true. We only want that the farmers who are fighting for their rights on MSP and other issues are heard and it’s made a law,” he said and added, “We will continue to fight for our rights in a nonviolent manner.” Pandher requested the government to reciprocate by stopping the use of tear gas against the protesters to create a cordial atmosphere. The Punjab BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan), the biggest farmer union in the state, decided to disrupt railway traffic at seven places in Punjab between 12 noon and 4 pm in protest against tear gas shelling. In Haryana, farm leader Gurnam Singh Charuni criticised the police action against the protesters and called a meeting of his union on Thursday to discuss the situation. CBSE advisory The CBSE advised students in Delhi appearing in their board exams starting on Thursday to leave their homes early so as to arrive at the exam centres in time Bharat bandh The Samyukt Kisan Morcha gave a call for Bharat Bandh on Friday and a road roko from 12 pm to 4 pm on that day in support of the farmer protests Farmers at the Shambhu border face tear gas lobbed by police to disperse them on Wednesday | PTI Kejri gets 6th ED summons in excise case u j w a l j a l a l i @ New Delhi THE Enforcement Directorate (ED) asked Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to appear before it on February 19 for the sixth time for questioning in connection with the excise policy case, official sources said on Wednesday . The latest summons comes ahead of a local court’s order to Kejriwal to appear before it on February 17, for ignoring ED’s earlier summonses. The ED approached the court last week after Kejriwal did not turn up for questioning. The court said t h at Ke j r i w a l was “legally bound” to respond to ED’s summons in person and that he “purportedly f ailed to so”, which is prima facie an offence under Section 174 of the IPC. The agency’s investigation in the case revealed that the excise policy was formulated “as a part of a criminal conspiracy by the leaders of Aam Aadmi Party with deliberate loopholes to generate and channelise illegal funds” for themselves as well as to the party . The ED is expected to file a fresh supplementary chargesheet and may name AAP as a beneficiary of the alleged kickbacks that were generated through the policy that was later scrapped. Sterlite plant reopening: SC mulls formation of panel Supreme Court on Wednesday suggested if a committee of experts can be constituted to inspect Vedanta’s Sterlite Copper plant at Thoothukudi and explore if it can be reopened with stringent conditions in place | P10 Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the inauguration of the BAPS Hindu Mandir in Abu Dhabi, UAE | PTI Sonia files for RS, buzz now on Priyanka P r ee t h a N a i r @ New Delhi ENDING her 25-year-long innings in the Lok Sabha, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday filed nomination papers for the upcoming Rajya Sabha polls from Rajasthan. The formal announcement of Sonia’s candidacy was made by the party after her arrival in Jaipur on Wednesday morning. Accompanied by her children Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, and some party leaders, Sonia filed the papers in the state assembly building around noon. She will be succeeding for mer Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is set to retire in April this year. Sources attributed Gandhi’s decision to shift to the Upper House to her ‘poor health’. While contesting the 2019 LS polls, she had said that would be her last Lok Sabha election. With her Rajya Sabha entry, the 77-year-old will be vacating Raebareli Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh, which she represented four times in a row since 2004. The move also sparked speculation of Priyanka Gandhi’s Lok Sabha debut this year from the family bastion, five years after she entered active politics in 2019. BJP re-nominates Nadda, Vaishnaw and L Murugan The BJP on Wednesday re-nominated the party’s national president J P Nadda and Union ministers Ashwini Vaishnaw and and L Murugan as Rajya Sabha candidates from Gujarat, Odisha and MP, respectively | P7 Lifesavers Woman & 3 tribal men on a mission to save elephants S Se n t h i l K u m a r @ Coimbatore As a child, S Santhosh was enthralled by wild elephants that would frequent the grove near his tribal settlement at Iyyanpathi in Coimbatore. Now, the 25-year-old BBA graduate is able to save their lives. Santhosh is among the four youngsters — three Irular men and one woman — hired to operate the control room monitoring 24 AI-cameras installed alongside railway tracks in the Madukkarai forest range and prevent jumbos from being hit by trains. The cameras are monitored 24/7 by A Priyadharshini, a BCom graduate, K Manikandan who has an MCom degree, K Ajit, a BE graduate, and Santhosh. Santhosh and Manikandan hail from Iyyanpathi, Ajit is from Pudupathy and Priyadharshini is from Navakkarai. The four youngsters are employed by Binomial Solutions Private Limited at a salary of `12,000. Santhosh said they have worked on the project for three months. They work six hours a day monitoring the screens linked to the AI, cameras. If they spot the animals venturing within 150m of the railway tracks, they are expected to inform the field staff by phone. The four youngsters in the newly-opened control room along with Environment Secretary Supriya Sahu | Express first alert on Monday The tribal youth got their first alert on Monday at 6.30pm when two calves, a mother and a male elephant, ventured near the new watch tower. The wild animals were successfully diverted back into the forest THE United Arab Emirates, which was hitherto known for its high-tech buildings such as Burj Khalifa, is going to be famous for its interfaith harmony and cultural identity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday as he inaugurated Abu Dhabi’s first Hindu temple. “A large number of devotees will come here... This will also increase people-to-people connections,” he said. Profusely thanking UAE President Sheikh Mohammad Zayed Al Nahyan for making the grand temple a reality PM said the gra, cious gesture has won the hearts of 140 crore Indians. “I am fortunate that last month I was able to witness the Ram temple consecration in Ayodhya... I am fortunate to be in Abu Dhabi to witness the inauguration of this temple,’’ he added. Modi inscribed Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (World is one family) in stone using hammer and chisel at the temple built by the Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha. House rejects ONOP, delimitation AIADMK: 10 conditions for ONOP The AIADMK revealed it had put forth 10 conditions to be fulfilled before ONOP can be implemented. The party backed the resolution against delimitation MORE on P4 T M u r u g a n a n d h a m @ Chennai THE Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday adopted two resolutions, moved by Chief Minister MK Stalin, opposing the One Nation, One Poll (ONOP) policy of the BJP-led union government and the delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies after 2026 based on states’ population. Both resolutions were adopted by voice vote with the ruling DMK’s allies in the House — Congress, CPM, CPI, VCK, KMDK, TVK, MMK and MDMK — backing them. PMK MLAs were absent. The principal Opposition party the , AIADMK, which has so far supported the ONOP policy, revealed it had put forth 10 conditions to be fulfilled before the plan could be implemented in its January 13 submission to the panel headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind. However, the party supported the resolution against delimitation. The BJP said it concurred with the concerns about de- limitation but said the resolution on ONOP is unnecessary at this stage. “This August House urges the union government that the delimitation process to be carried out after 2026 based on the census should not be carried out. Due to unavoidable reasons, if the number of seats based on the population were to increase, it shall be maintained at the present ratio of the constituencies between the states in the State Assemblies and both Houses of Parliament fixed based on the population 1971,” the resolution said.