TIRUNELVELI l Saturday l march 09, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l CITY EDITION oN WOMEN’S DAY, GAS PRICES CUT, sUDHA mURTY NOMINATED TO rs Modi woos women voters by announcing `100 per cylinder price cut, nominates noted philanthropist Sudha Murty to the Rajya Sabha price cut seen as easing financial burden Second drop in prices in six months Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the reduction in LPG cylinder prices to mark Women’s Day will significantly ease the financial burden on millions of households across the country. On Sudha Murty, he said her presence in the Upper House is a powerful testament to Nari Shakti, exemplifying the strength and potential of women in shaping the nation’s destiny ■ ■ This is the second reduction in LPG prices in six months. Rates were slashed by `200 in August ahead of assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram Non-subsidised cooking gas price will be cut to `803 per cylinder in the national capital with effect from midnight of Friday/Saturday 33 CRORE DOMESTIC COOKING GAS USERS are there IN THE COUNTRY 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 surprises as Rahul in first list from Wayanad, Tharoor T’puram P reetha N air @ New Delhi Much along expected lines, the Congress on Friday unveiled the first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections with former party president Rahul Gandhi seeking a mandate from Kerala’s Wayanad for the second term. The other prominent names include former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel from Rajnandgaon, Shashi Tharoor from Thiruvananthapuram and Congress general secretary K C Venugopal from Alappuzha. Announcing the names at a press conference in the capital, Venugopal said the party’s utmost priority is to dislodge the BJP government in the 2024 elections and win maximum Lok Sabha seats. Out of the 60 seats discussed by the Central Election Committee (CEC) on Thursday, 39 names were cleared for eight states. Of the 39 candidates, 15 belong to the general category and 24 from the SC, ST, OBC, and minority communities. Besides, 12 of them are under the age of 50, he said. While in Kerala the party has retained most of its sitting MPs except one, among the most watched contests would be in Wayanad, where Rahul will take on his INDIA bloc ally CPI’s Annie Raja. Rahul, who was previously an MP from Amethi, lost the seat in 2019 but Party calls tax department’s action politically motivated, to move Delhi High Court for relief P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi Congress leaders K C Venugopal (centre), Ajay Maken (right) and Pawan Khera address a press conference at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi on Friday | PTI won from Wayanad. The other top contest will be between Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Shashi Tharoor, who is seeking a fourth term from Thiruvananthapuram. Kerala will see three of Congress’ high-profile leaders Rahul, Venugopal and Tharoor in the fray. Sources said the decision to field Venugopal No word on Amethi Though speculation is rife over Rahul’s candidature from Amethi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s from Rae Bareli, Venugopal declined comment. “The second CEC meeting on March 11 will discuss more seats,” he said was to reclaim Alappuzha, the only seat it lost to the CPI (M) in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. As a sitting Rajya Sabha MP , Venugopal has two more years to complete his term. His decision to enter the Lok Sabha fray comes at a time when the BJP needs only a few more seats for getting majority in the RS. In Karnataka, the Congress retained Deputy CM D K Shivkumar’s brother D K Suresh in Bangalore Rural. No names have been announced for the Kalburgi seat amid speculation that Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge will contest from there. Four candidates from Telangana including former Union minister Balram Naik (Mahabubabad) also figured in the first list. Govt relaxes minimum road width norm for layouts in TN C Shivak u mar @ Chennai A Delhi police sub inspector seen kicking a person offering namaz on a road in Inderlok area in the national capital on Friday | pti SI suspended for kicking men for praying on road u j w a l j a l a l i @ New Delhi A Delhi police sub inspector (SI) on Friday was suspended for kicking and shoving a few persons, who were offering namaz on a road in north Delhi’s Inderlok area. The incident occurred around 2 pm near Inderlok Metro Station. A sizable gathering had assembled at a mosque in the neighbourhood as it was Friday, resulting in some men spilling to the street to offer prayers. An alleged video of the incident went viral on social media triggering outrage among netizens. Following the incident, the locality remained tense for several hours with the approach road to the mosque blocked by protesters for traffic. The administration deployed paramilitary personnel in conjunction with the police to prevent any Setback for Cong as I-T tribunal refuses to free up funds in banks breakdown of the law and order situation. Deputy Commissioner of Police (north) Manoj Kumar Meena said the protesters dispersed after they were shown the suspension order of the SI, Manoj Kumar Tomar. The blocked roads were then reopened. Necessary disciplinary action is also being taken against the Tomar, Meena added. The news of the officer’s suspension was announced through the mosque’s mike, he added. Following the incident, strict surveillance was imposed on the northeast district of Delhi, which had experienced communal unrest in 2020. Political parties across party line condemned the incident. National Conference chief spokesman Tanvir Sadiq said such actions by the police sow the seeds of fear, not safety . The state government has decided to relax the minimum road width norm for layouts to ensure that plots in unapproved layouts in town and village panchayats that were regularised over the years get planning permission expeditiously . A government order issued by the housing secretary said the minimum road width norm for layouts will be reduced from seven metres to 6.5 metres in towns and to six metres in village panchayats by amending the Tamil Nadu Combined Development and Building Rules of 2019. But the road width requirement for residential layouts in Chennai Metropolitan Area, peri-urban village panchayats, municipal corporations, and municipalities will continue to be seven metres, the order said. According to sources, a total of 27,690 unapproved layouts have been regularised after the regularisation scheme for such layouts was introduced on May 4, 2017. But many of these layouts have road width of less than seven metres. Since the roads in such regularised layouts act as access roads for newly formed layouts located near them, planning permission to these newly formed layouts was also delayed, though most of these new layouts were formed adhering to the road width requirement. Sources said the issue was discussed during a review meeting held under the housing minister on August 31 last year. Based on the discussion, the Director of Town and Country Planning (DTCP) submitted a proposal to the government to amend the Tamil Nadu Combined Development and Building Rules, 2019, to modify the road width norm for access roads. continued on: p5 IN a setback to the Congress ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal on Friday rejected its plea to lift the restrictions clamped on its bank accounts by the I-T department in connection a tax dispute. The I-T tribunal also rejected the request of senior advocate and Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha to keep the order in abeyance for 10 days so that the party can approach the Delhi High Court for relief. The Congress has alleged its main bank accounts were frozen on February 16 consequent to an income tax demand of `210 crore for assessment year 2018-19 and alleged discrepancies and delays in tax returns. It has also accused the taxmen of arbitrarily withdrawing `65 crore from its accounts in different banks. Speaking to this newspaper, Vivek Tankha said the Congress will move the HC at the earliest. “We are disappointed with the order of the tribunal. They have denied us the standard order. We are a na- tional party and we very well argued our case and the case was to come for final hearing in April,” he said, adding that the freeze on funds has put the party at a disadvantage in the election season. The tribunal had earlier allowed Congress to operate the accounts till a final decision was reached. However, it also put a lien of `115 crore on the accounts, which means the party could access only the remaining funds. Describing the tax department’s action as ‘politically mo- TDP-JSP-BJP alliance almost done but seat-sharing yet to be finalised P H aree s h @ Vijayawada THE tripartite alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Telugu Desam Party (TDP), and Jana Sena Party (JSP) that was finalised in principle on Thursday night made no headway on Friday as the leaders of the three parties are yet to come to a consensus on seat sharing. TDP supremo N Chandrababu Naidu and JSP chief Pawan Kalyan stayed put in New Delhi on Friday, waiting for a call from the BJP leadership to cut ice. They flew to the national capital on Thursday and held talks with BJP national president J P Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, where the TDP reportedly expressed its readiness to join the National Democratic Alliance. They are likely to hold discussions with the BJP leadership again on Saturday . BJP’s Andhra Pradesh chief Daggubati Purandeswari, who was in Delhi, reached Hyderabad on Friday night as she is scheduled to attend a public meeting addressed by former Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Nellore on Saturday . Sources in the state BJP said the party had initially put a proposal for 10 Lok Sabha and 13 Assembly seats. A senior leader told TNIE, “We are ready to settle for less Assembly seats, but will insist for at least 6-7 Lok Sabha seats.” He pointed out that the saffron party was able to get a good share of MP seats in all other states where it was striking an alliance. “In Odisha, where there are 21 Lok Sabha seats, the BJP is likely to get 15 seats and the ruling BJD six. If this is the case in a state where the alliance partner is in ruling, we can negotiate for more seats in AP too,” he said. In 2014, the BJP in alliance with TDP had contested 12 MLA and four MP seats. JSP was part of the alliance, but did not contest the elections. Sources said the BJP is keen on contesting the four Lok Sabha seats it had won in the previous elections. These include Tirupati, Rajahmundry Naras, apur and Visakhapatnam. Additionally, the party is also seeking Araku, Vijayawada, Hindupur and Rajampet seats. The TDP has reportedly said it can concede Tirupati, Rajahmundry Narasapur, Visakhap, atnam and Araku. tivated’, Tankha said: “We’ve given logical and reasonable points to the tribunal but they did not accept them. They took away our exemption under 29C for a delay of 20 days or something (in filing tax returns). But I’m still an income tax payee. I have an income of `199 crore and an expenditure of `197 crore. So the total tax component would be only `60 lakh. Instead of that they are forcing over `135 crore,” he said. He also stressed that now only constitutional courts can rescue elections, democracy, and political parties. e x p r e ss r e a d Two killed by elephants in 2 incidents in Nilgiris Nilgiris: Two people were trampled to death by wild elephants that emerged from forest areas at different locations in Nilgiris district on Friday morning. C Nagaraj, a 51-year-old daily wage labourer of Masinagudi, and Madhev, a 50-year-old estate worker of Gudlaur, lost their lives in the attacks. Forest officials said the elephants had disappeared into the forest after the incidents | P2 Bandh over girl’s death hits normal life in Pondy Puducherry: Normal life came to a halt in Puducherry on Friday due to the bandh called by the INDIA bloc and AIADMK over the murder of the nine-year-old child and demanding action against drug menace in the UT. Police personnel were deployed in large numbers to avoid any untoward incident. Roads were deserted and business establishments, including cinema theatres and restaurants, remained shut | P7 DMK inks pact, gives 2 LS seats to VCK, 1 to MDMK E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ Chennai After delay and speculation about tough negotiations happening behind the scenes, the DMK on Friday inked poll pacts with allies Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) and Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK). The ruling party gave VCK two LS seats and MDMK one, a repeat of the seat count the parties got in the DMK alliance in the 2019 LS polls, but acceded to their demand to contest on their own symbol and not on DMK’s ‘Rising Sun’. In 2019, VCK contested on DMK symbol in one seat, MDMK candidate, too, had won the party’s lone seat on DMK symbol. As per the agreement, VCK got Chidambaram and Villupuram, the two reserved seats it contested last time, as tentative constituencies for the Lok Sabha election. MDMK’s agreement did not mention the constituency Party general secretary Vaiko said . it will be decided later. VCK’s demand for one more general seat, however, was not accepted. Both VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan and Vaiko said the pact was satisfactory Sources said the . stumbling blocks in sharing of seats between the VCK and the DMK were cleared after a delegation led by Thirumavalavan met the CM at the secretariat earlier in the day to thank him for passing the “Tamil Nadu Development Action Plan for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act, 2024” Bill. continued on: p5 Night of devotion Sadhguru during the Maha Shivaratri celebration held at the Isha Yoga Center in Coimbatore on Friday in which scores of devotees took part | S Senbagapandiyan ‘Accused can’t surrender in non-jurisdictional court’ R S I V A K U M A R @ Chennai In a significant order, the Madras High Court has ruled that persons accused in cases registered under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) cannot surrender in a court that does not have the jurisdiction over the place of occurrence of the offence. Justice N Anand Venkatesh gave the ruling on Friday on a petition filed by the state government seeking to issue guidelines to prevent accused from surrendering in courts that have no jurisdiction in order to preempt police from taking them into immediate custody. “Surrender petitions filed by the accused, who have voluntarily surrendered before a magistrate having no jurisdiction to try the case, are not maintainable,” the judge said. Citing certain orders of the Supreme Court, the judge said that no order of remand can be passed by the magistrate under Section 167(2) CrPC on such petitions for surrender. Consequently, the period of 15 days of police custody or 60/90 days custody will commence only from the date on which the person comes into the custody of the court, upon being forwarded by the police under Section 167(1) CrPC, the court said. If an accused voluntarily appears before a magistrate who has no jurisdiction to try the case, it would be open to him to direct the Station House Officer of the nearest police station to take the accused into custody and deal with him in accordance with legal procedures, the judge held. The judge, however, made it clear that the order relates to only cases registered under the IPC and not applicable to cases of economic offences under special acts like Customs Act or FEMA. continued on: p5
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