kottayam l Sunday l march 03, 2024 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l city edition Consignment of ship for pak’s nuclear programme seized A ship from China carrying a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine, which could be used to make critical parts for missiles, seized in Mumbai Malta-flagged vessel came from China CNC machine made by italian company Based on intelligence inputs, customs officials alerted defence authorities about the Malta-flagged merchant ship, CMA CGM Attila. The cargo was halted on January 23 for inspection. Investigation showed that it was shipped by Taiyuan Mining Import and Export and was meant for Cosmos Engineering in Pakistan. Cosmos has been under a watchlist since 2022 ■ ■ The CNC machine was made by an Italian company. The Bill of Loading showed that consignor was Shanghai JXE Global Logistics Co Ltd and consignee was Pakistan Wings Pvt Ltd of Sialkot Agencies are trying to ascertain if the CNC machine was meant for Pakistan’s defence research and development organisation 22,180 kgs is the weight of consignment seized in mumbai 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 PM Modi, Amit Shah in BJP’s first list of 195 candidates for LS polls Student’s death: Governor suspends vet varsity V-C Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to contest from Lucknow In a major embarrassment to the LDF government, Governor Arif Mohammed Khan has suspended Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University vice-chancellor Dr M R Saseendranath in the wake of the death of J S Sidharthan, a second year student of the veterinary college at Pookode in Wayanad district. The governor initiated a probe into the incident and wrote to the High Court registrar, seeking a sitting judge’s service for a judicial probe. Meanwhile, the police have arested all the accused in the case related to the mob trial and subsequent death of Sidharthan. The suspension order issued RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi Narendra Modi, Prime Minister State-wise break-up The first list has 51 seats from UP, 24 from Madhya Pradesh, 20 from West Bengal, 15 each from Gujarat and Rajasthan, 12 from Kerala, nine from Telangana, 11 each from Assam, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, five from Delhi, three from Uttarakhand, two each from Arunachal and Jammu & Kashmir, and one each from Goa, Tripura, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Daman and Diu Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh were among the 195 candidates the BJP announced in its first list for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Modi, Shah, and Singh will seek repeat mandates from Varanasi, Gandhinagar and Lucknow, respectively . There was a major shake-up in the Delhi list as the party dropped four of its five sitting MPs. The axe fell on Ramesh Bidhuri, Parvesh Verma, Meenakshi Lekhi and Harsh Vardhan but Manoj Tiwari got to contest from North East Delhi. The party fielded Bansuri Swaraj, daughter of late BJP leader Sushma Swaraj from New Delhi, Kamaljeet Sehrawat from West Delhi, MLA Ramvir Singh Bidhuri from South Delhi, Praveen Khadelwal from Chandni Chowk The BJP also dropped Sadhvi Pragya Thakur from Bhopal. The most interesting candidature was of Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala where Shashi Tharoor is the sitting Congress MP. Contrary to speculation, the BJP stayed with Smriti Irani from Amethi. The first list has 47 candidates who under 50 years in age besides 28 women. BJP’s national general secretary Vinod Tawade said 57 of the 195 candidates belong to OBCs, while 27 to the SC and 18 to the ST communities. For mer Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan will enter the fray from Vidisha while Jyotiraditya Scindia will contest from Guna. In all, 34 Union ministers figure on the first list. They include Mansukh Mandaviya, Sarbananda Sonowal, Kiren Rijiju, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Dr Jitendra Singh, G Kishan Reddy and Arjun Munda. Bhojpuri singer and actor Pawan Singh has been fielded from Asansol in West Bengal to take on TMC’s sitting MP Shatrughan Sinha. Asansol has a significant percentage of people of Bihar-origin and Hindi speaking voters. The first list included actorturned-politicians Hema Malini, Ravi Kishan and Dinesh Nerahua, all of whom will fight from respective seats in UP . Union mins, minority faces... BJP goes for tactical move in state K S S reej i th @ T’Puram Two Union ministers, three women and two minority faces are among the BJP’s candidates for 12 Lok Sabha seats in the state, announced on Saturday Union Minister of State . for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar will take on three-time MP Shashi Tharoor in Thiruvananthapuram while Union Minister V Muraleedharan will contest from Attingal. As expected, actor-politician Suresh Gopi will seek people’s V Muraleedharan mandate from Thrissur. Besides the Mahila Morcha leaders, the party has also accomm o d a t e d Yu v a M o r c h a representative in the candidate list. As TNIE had reported, regular faces have been excluded Suresh Gopi from the list. The central leadership has decided to field Anil Antony son of Congress , veteran A K Antony in Pathanamthitta con, sidering the concerns raised by NDA partner BDJS against P C George, who recently joined BJP The BDJS had expressed its dissatisfac. tion in considering George for the seat over his alleged derogatory statement against the ● More on P5 Ezhava community earlier. Tripartite agreement to end Tripura tribal row Prasanta M a z um d ar @ Guwahati Prashant to be our guest in Hyderabad today The ace political strategist will participate in an interaction at ITC Kakatiya Hotel in Begumpet from 4 pm to 6 pm on Sunday. Hyderabad Dialogues is part of the Express Dialogues series of the TNIE group. Time to tune in | P5 THE Centre on Saturday signed an agreement with the Tripura government and the state’s principal opposition party, the TIPRA Motha, towards finding a solution to the problems faced by the state’s indigenous tribal population–Tiprasa. The pact was signed in New Delhi after a series of meetings between the Centre, TIPRA Motha and other stakeholders. It was agreed to resolve all issues relating to history land and , political rights, economic development, identity culture and language of , the indigenous people. It was also agreed to form a joint working group to work out and implement the mutually-agreed points in a time-bound manner. Till then, all stakeholders will refrain from resorting to any form of protest or agitation in order to maintain a conducive atmosphere. Union home minister Amit Shah, who was present during the signing of the agreement, said it was a historic day for Tripura. “With this agreement, we have honoured history, corrected mistakes in history and accepted the realities of today,” Shah said. Tripura CM Manik Saha was also present when the tripartite agreement was signed. “Nobody can change history but we can always move forward by learning from mistakes and keeping in mind today’s realities. I am happy that TIPRA Motha and all tribal parties played a constructive role in this direction,” he said. Candidates: 4 Indians worried over visa delay S w ar o o p S w am i nathan @ Chennai FOUR of the five Indian chess players to have qualified for the Candidates event are yet to know about their Canadian visa status. Both R Vaishali and R Praggnandhaa, the brother-sister duo, are among those who are affected by the delay. Coach RB Ramesh confirmed the development saying time is too short. Vidit Gujrathi, D Gukesh and Koneru Humpy are the other Indians to have qualified. The Candidates is an elite eight-player event from where the challenger for the World Championship match is identified. This year, Toronto is the host of both Open and Women categories. “We can confirm that players from four countries are impacted by the visa issue, India being one of them,” said FIDE. E x p ress N e w s S er v i c e @ T’Puram by the governor on Saturday also stated that P C Saseendran — a former professor with the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU)— will replace Saseendranath, as officiating vice-chancellor. The communiqué from the governor’s secretariat, Raj Bhavan, issued by chief secretary to the governor/chancellor Davendra Kumar Dhodawat, said Saseendran shall exercise the powers and perform the duties of the vice-chancellor with immediate ef fect until fur ther orders. The governor’s move came at a time when the LDF government had not taken any steps against the college authorities who had come under flak from ● More on P4 various quarters. EXPRESS READ Shehbaz set to become Pak’s PM for 2nd time Islamabad: Top PML-N leader Shehbaz Sharif is set to become the 33rd Prime Minister of Pakistan on Sunday, once again leading a coalition government, amid allegations of rigging of polls and facing staggering economic and security challenges. Shehbaz has already submitted his nomination. Bengaluru cafe blast: Cops zero in on suspect Bengaluru: A day after the bomb blast at a cafe in Bengaluru, police officers investigating the case have zeroed in on the suspect aged between 30 and 35 after analysing the CCTV footage. The case has been handed over to the Central Crime Branch (CCB) for investigation under ACP Naveen Kulkarni. WITH THIS ISSUE Pay Attention PLUS 12 PAGES
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