MADURAI l Saturday l march 09, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE 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 ut- most 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 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 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. Setback for Cong as I-T tribunal refuses to free up funds in banks 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 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 DMK inks pact, gives 2 LS seats to VCK, 1 to MDMK E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ 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 result, ing 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 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. 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: p7 e x p r e ss r e a d Two trampled to death by elephants in two 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 ‘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 SC, 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. | P7 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- 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.
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