kottayam l wednesday l June 03, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION internet loves army pilot’s proposal to partner NASHIK to new beginnings after tough training A newly qualified Army pilot proposed to his girlfriend right after his graduation ceremony in Nashik — with a helicopter as the backdrop The video spread quickly online, with people responding to how genuine and unscripted the whole thing felt. Captain Bharat Bhardwaj called it a “love ka salute” — and joked that while officers give and receive salutes at work, back home, the wife is in charge. For the Captain, the day marked the end of a tough professional journey, and the start of a new one is where the Army trains its combat helicopter pilots 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 Finally, CBSE heads roll Board Chairman Rahul Singh and Secretary Himanshu Gupta shifted, replaced with Lokhande Prashant Sitaram and Varun Bharadwaj, respectively; OSM system probe ordered Out Rahul Singh IN Himanshu Gupta Lokhande Prashant Sitaram Varun Bharadwaj S LALITHA @ New Delhi In a major administrative shake-up following controversy over the CBSE’s new digital evaluation system for Class XII board examinations, the Centre on Tuesday removed CBSE Chairman Rahul Singh and Secretary Himanshu Gupta with immediate effect and ordered a high-level inquiry into the procurement of the OnScreen Marking (OSM) system used for evaluating answer sheets. The government also announced the constitution of a one-member committee headed by S Radha Chauhan, Chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission, to investigate the award and procurement of services related to the OSM platform. It directed the committee to submit its report to the Department of Personnel and Training within a month. According to the official order, Chauhan has been authorised to seek assistance from officials of other departments during the inquiry while the Capacity Build, ing Commission will provide secretarial support. The action came hours after the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education held a meeting with senior officials of the CBSE and the Ministry of Education to review complaints surrounding the implementation of the digital marking system. Later, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet appointed Lokhande Prashant Sitaram, a 2001 batch IAS officer as the new CBSE Chairperson. Varun Bharadwaj, Indian Information Service officer of 2008 batch was appointed the Board’s secretary . While Rahul Singh was transferred as Additional Secretary in the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Gupta was sent back to parent cadre with the ‘extended period of cooling off ’. Controversy erupted after the declaration of Class XII results on May 13, with students and parents alleging widespread discrepancies in evaluation, technical glitches, delays in verification and re-evaluation processes, and lack of transparency in the OSM system. While student Sidhant Sartak alleged that three tenders were rigged to favour Hyderabad-based Coempt EduTeck Pvt Ltd in the award of the OSM contract, the CBSE in its pushback submitted a report to the committee, defending the implementation of the system. It also said that portal-related glitches had been rectified. The controversy deepened after another student, Vedant Shrivastava, claimed that CBSE had uploaded and evaluated another candidate’s answer sheet under his name. A denial of service attack attempt caused 1.5 mn hits on the CBSE re-evaluation portal within 2 mins and over 1 lakh bids of unauthorised file access CBSE statement ‘OSM tenders rigged to favour firm’ Sidhant Sartak, 17, made a detailed presentation before a Parliamentary Standing Committee, alleging that at least 15 changes were made across three tenders to favour Hyderabad-based Coempt EduTeck Pvt Ltd over Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in the award of the OSM contract. His presentation was made in the presence of senior CBSE officials | P7 Major cyber attack as revaluation portal for Class XII opens S L a l i t h a @ New Delhi Malicious actors attempted to disrupt services on the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) Class XII re-evaluation portal through a barrage of cyber attacks on Tuesday the day it became operational. , The Board shared the information after complaints from thousands of students since early morning that they were unable to login to the portal. An official statement from the Board said that the portal currently supports usage by 8,000 concurrent users and a total of 16,000 had successfully completed their submissions for reevaluation of marks by 3 pm. “While thousands of students accessed the CBSE re-evaluation portal today, malicious actors attempted to disrupt services through a barrage of cyberattacks. Most recent being a denial of service attack attempt causing 1.5 million hits on the portal within a matter of 2 minutes and more than 1 lakh attempts of unauthorised file access.” The platform has been further refined by the CBSE based on student Screengrab of students failing feedback, it said. Session to login to the portal time limits have been extended to make the process more convenient and seamless, it added. There was enormous criticism from students over the need for Aadhaar verification. In another statement, the CBSE said, “Aadhaar Verification has been included for security reasons.” It also clarified that in the case of children who do not have this document, the parent’s, relative’s or guardian’s Aadhaar details may be used. “In this case, the Aadhaar Name, Date of birth and Gender must be of the person whose Aadhaar number is used,” it added. The portal was finally opened to begin the revaluation process early in the day with the Board announcing it at 4.42 am on its social media handles. Annamalai yet to resign as Shah summons Nagendran RA J ESH K U M AR THAK U R a n d Su b a s h i n i V i j aya k um a r @ New Delhi/Chennai After aggrieved for mer Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday, the BJP leadership summoned state BJP president Nainar Nagendran to Delhi, fuelling speculation of a possible mutual reconciliation. With the party leadership requesting him to reconsider his decision, sources said Annamalai hasn’t formally submitted his resignation yet. As for Nagendran, he arrived in the Capital and was scheduled to meet Shah to find an amicable solution. During his meeting with Shah, Annamalai spoke about his prolonged differences with the state unit leadership after being removed as president of the TN unit in 2025 to patch up with the AIADMK. E X P R E SS R E AD CM: Op Toofan collective mission T’Puram: Operation Toofan should be embraced as a collective mission to rid state of the drug menace, Chief Minister V D Satheesan said on Tuesday as he launched the statewide anti-drug campaign. He said the spread of drugs was the biggest challenge facing Kerala. P4 G30 meal scheme fights for survival T’Puram: As food prices continue to rise and meals at restaurants become increasingly unaffordable due to LPG and fuel price hikes, Janakeeya Hotels, which serve lunch at just J30, are facing an existential crisis. Operators have now called for a price revision. P4 1 in 4 Malayali men consumes liquor, says survey External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with Nepal’s Rastriya Swatantra Party president Rabi Lamichhane | PTI India: No role for third parties in border talks J aya n t h J a c o b @New Delhi INDIA on Tuesday rejected any role for third parties in resolving its boundary dispute with Nepal, responding to Nepal Prime Minister Balendra Shah’s remarks in Parliament on Sunday in which he called for involvement of the UK and China in efforts to resolve the border issue. The response came amid a deepening political controversy in Nepal, where Shah’s comments have triggered protests and repeated disruptions in Parliament. External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India had taken note of both Shah’s statement and a subsequent clarification issued by Nepal’s Foreign Ministry . Reiterating New Delhi’s long-standing position that boundary issues must be addressed bilaterally he pointed , out that most of the India-Nepal border has already been settled. One in every four Malayali men consumes alcohol, the latest round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-6) has revealed, while also highlighting an uptick in consumption among the male population. As per the survey report for 2023-24, alcohol consumption among men in Kerala showed a relative rise of 14% from four years ago in 2019-20, when the last NFHS report came out. The NFHS-6 report released last week showed that 22.7% of Kerala men aged 15 and above consume alcohol, up from 19.9% in 2019-20. The national average was 18.9%, marginally up from 18.7% in the previous round. Liquor consumption significant rise in Male drinkers NFHS-6 Gender (all figures in %) Urban Rural Total Men 21.5 23.7 22.7 Women 0.3 0.3 0.3 Men 18.7 21.0 19.9 Women 0.2 0.3 0.2 NFHS-5 among women in Kerala remained negligible at 0.3%, but was still marginally up from 0.2% in 2019-20. Among states and UTs, Arunachal Pradesh topped at 50.5%, followed by Telangana at 43.9%. Kerala was in the 19th position. The latest report reveals a reversal of the declining trend Fewer Tobacco users M S V i d ya n a n d a n @T’Puram As per NFHS-6, male tobacco users came down from 16.9% in 2019-20 to 15.9% in 2023-24. Tobacco use among women stayed same at 2.2%. National average for men and women users was 38% and 8.9%, respectively. seen since 2005-06. Male alcohol consumption, which stood at 45% in 2005-06, had fallen to 37% in 2015-16. Both the surveys were done in the 15-49 age group. Since the fifth round, the survey is being conducted in the 15-plus age group with no upper cap. Meanwhile, there was a slight drop in rural-urban gap among drinkers, with the latest round revealing that 23.7% of rural men and 21.5% of urban men consume alcohol. In the previous survey, the numbers were 21% and 18.7%, respectively . The survey finding does not seem to align with sales data from Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco). In 2023-24, Bevco sold 3.30 crore cases – one case is nine litres – of liquor, marginally lower than the 3.35 crore cases sold in 2019-20. This comes to 29.7 crore litres of alcohol sales in 2023-24. Gross sales revenue, however, increased from `14,708 crore in 2019-20 to `19,089 crore in 2 0 2 3 - 2 4 , ow i n g t o p r i c e revisions. Union Home Minister Amit Shah with TN BJP leader K Annamalai in Delhi | PTI Sources said Annamalai had made up his mind to quit and return to Chennai immediately after his resignation is accepted. He intended to part ways without burning his bridges with the top leadership. But since he was asked to reconsider his decision, he may return to Chennai on June 4, sources said. Though he was offered a Rajya Sabha ticket and a ministerial berth, he declined, preferring to work in TN, sources said. Annamalai first met BJP national general secretary B L Santhosh before proceeding to meet party president Nitin Nabin. In Tamil Nadu, several district-level functionaries loyal to Annamalai are said to have resigned following reports of his impending exit. Cross-border discount racket cripples market with fake, diverted meds U n n i k r i s h n a n S @T’Puram A massive cross-border discounting racket has put lifesaving medicines under scrutiny in Kerala, with regulators fearing that counterfeit, diverted and spoiled drugs are flooding the market. The state’s investigation into pharmacies offering “impossible” discounts of up to 90% has traced a shadowy supply chain back to bulk dealers in Agra, Mathura, Hyderabad and Madurai. The loophole emerged following the implementation of the GST, which granted stockists freedom to source medicines from anywhere in the country . A N Mohan, the state president of the All Kerala Chemists and Druggists Association, said these interstate bulk dealers are directly driving the predatory, deep-discount storefronts currently destabilising the local market. The drugs control department has launched a crackdown, warning that the crisis extends beyond unfair pricing. In several cases, manufacturers have outright denied producing specific drug batches found in pharmacies, confirming that unverified and potentially fake medications are actively circulating. This threat was realised recently when the department uncovered a major counterfeit drug racket involving fake asthma medication during inspections in Thiruvanant h ap u r a m , T h r i s s u r a n d Kozhikode. Regulators also suspect an illegal channel where medicines designated for subsi- Pain points Dealers offer bigger discounts than what local reps can match Medicines diverted from government supply to open market Key source cities: Agra, Mathura, Hyderabad, Madurai 30,000+ drug licensees in Kerala Less than 100 drug control inspectors dised supply are being funnelled into the open market. A senior department official said their primary source of anxiety are the quality of medicines coming from such untraceable sources. This is particularly critical for medications like insulin, which demand strict, uninterrupted cold-chain storage throughout transport. Officials warn that it is virtually impossible to guarantee the efficacy of temperature-sensitive medicines moving through these unverified, long-distance supply networks. The influx of grey-market pharmaceuticals has also triggered an economic collapse for local supply chains, leading to mass layoffs of medical representatives who work for authorised stockists. As pharmacies bypass legitimate channels to chase illicit margins, local representatives find them● More on P4 selves frozen out.  Tahsin in qatar squad Kerala’s football aspirations manifest in the flesh at FIFA World Cup R o n n i e Ku r i a k o s e @Kochi Kerala’s love affair with football has found a moment of history. Tahsin Mohammed Jamshid, who has roots in Malabar, has earned a place in Qatar’s 26-member squad for the FIFA World Cup set to be played in the US, Mexico and Canada. He is also the first Malayali to make a men’s World Cup team. The 19-year-old, however, won’t be the only player with Indian heritage at the football gala. Nishan Velupillay whose , roots trace back to Tamil Nadu, will be representing Australia. Born and raised in Qatar, Tahsin is the son of Hibasil Jamshid from Kozhikode and Shyma from Kannur. He is also the first player of Indian origin to feature in the Qatar Stars League. He plays for Al-Duhail SC, the country’s oldest football team. Malabar roots Tahsin is the second son of Hibasil Jamshid, a Thalassery (Kozhikode) native working as a chief accountant in Qatar, and Shyma, who hails from Valapattanam, Kannur. “Tahsin is a product of Qatar’s youth football system. His parents moved to Qatar in 1996. It was during an inter-school football tournament that he was first scouted,” said D Ravi Kumar, a veteran journalist who has covered the football scene in Qatar extensively . Tahsin trained at Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence, which is globally renowned for its state-of-the-art facilities, and went on to represent Qatar at the Under-16, Under-17 and Under-19 levels. “It is not common that players of different origin feature in a national side, but because of Tehsin’s exceptional talent, he was considered,” Ravi said. Tahsin’s international debut came during the World Cup qualification campaign against Afghanistan. Though included in the squad against India, he did not feature in the match, but later played in Qatar’s decisive final two qualification fixtures. “The boy plays as winger and is known for his ability to beat defenders, create chances and even score. But under Julen Lopetegui, the head coach of Qatar, we may see him move into a more defined position in mid● More on P4 field,” Ravi said.