LCA Tejas Mk1A’s first flight successful The HAL said the first LA 5053 aircraft of the Tejas Mk1A series took to the skies successfully from Bengaluru on Thursday. “HAL achieved this significant production milestone with concurrent design & development amid major supply chain challenges in the global geopolitical environment,” said HAL CMD C B Ananthakrishnan villupuram l friday l march 29, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION 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 Delhi court extends the chief minister’s ED remand till the all fools’ day Kejri argues his case, sees plot to crush party Arvind, the then Secretary of former Deputy CM Manish A Delhi court on Thursday saw Sisodia. Arvind told the ED its arrested chief minister him- that he was handed a draft reself arguing his case in the liq- port of a Group of Ministers on uor policy scam. “I was named the excise policy by Sisodia at by four witnesses in the excise Kejriwal’s residence where policy case. Are four statements former minister Satyendra enough to arrest a sitting CM?” Jain was also present. he asked. Referring to this allegation, The court extended Kejriwal said because the custody of Delhi of his position, several Chief Minister Arvind ministers come to his Kejriwal with the Enresidence and even exforcement Directorate The actual excise change documents. “Is policy scam (ED) by four more days this statement suffistarted after the till April 1 in the scam. beginning of the cient to arrest a sitting The Rouse Avenue ED investigation CM?” he questioned. Court saw heated ar- and not when the On the statement of guments between Ke- policy was made a n o t h e r a c c u s e d jriwal and ED lawyers turned-approver RaArvind Kejriwal, during the hearing. ghav Magunta to the “Where is the `100 Delhi chief minister ED, the CM said Macrore liquor scam gunta’s father gave six money the ED keeps harping statements to the probe agency on?” Kejriwal asked, adding but did not say anything about that the entire liquor policy Kejriwal. Magunta is the son of case is a political conspiracy to Buchi Babu, chartered accountcrush his Aam Aadmi Party . ant of BRS leader K Kavitha, During the previous hearing, who too is under arrest in the the probe agency had sought to same case. The AAP chief arestablish Kejriwal’s role in the gued that people are being formulation of the excise poli- turned approver and forced to cy by citing a statement of C change their statements. US comments unwarranted: foreign office Ye s h i Se l i @ New Delhi U J W A L J A L A LI @ New Delhi Arvind Kejriwal comes out of a Delhi court after his production in the excise policy scam on Thursday | PTI custody extension “...there appears to be sufficient reasons to permit further custodial interrogation, particularly keeping in view the submissions that he (Kejriwal) is required to be confronted with the material collected and statements recorded so far,” special judge Kaveri Baweja said India on Thursday said described the US State Department’s recent comments on the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as unwarranted — its second riposte in response to two statements. Apart from weighing in on Kejriwal, the State Department also commented on the freezing of Congress funds. “ you are aware, on WednesAs day India had lodged its strong , objection and protest with the senior official from the US Embassy with regard to the comments made by the US State Department. The recent remarks by the State Department are unwarranted. Any such external imputation on our electoral and legal processes is completely unacceptable,” said Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Randhir Jaiswal. The foreign office said in India, legal processes are driven only by the rule of law. “Anyone who has similar ethos, especially fellow democracies, should have no difficulty in appreciating this fact. India is proud of its independent and robust democratic institutions. We are committed to protect them from any form of undue exter nal influences,” Jaiswal added. In first tango, RIL picks up 26% stake in an Adani arm R A K E S H K U M A R @ New Delhi IN a first, rival billionaires Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani have joined hands for a business deal as Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) acquired a 26% stake in Mahan Energen Ltd (MEL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Power Ltd. The deal will give RIL 500 MW of electricity from MEL’s Madhya Pradesh-based power plants for captive use. “One unit of 600 MW capacity of MEL’s Mahan thermal power plant, out of its aggregate express read HC allows withdrawal of probe against Stalin Chennai: The HC has allowed TN to withdraw the appeals filed by AIADMK government against quashing of a order seeking a probe against CM MK Stalin in the construction of new secretariat| P4 NIA arrests conspirator in Bengaluru blast case Bengaluru: NIA on Wednesday arrested Muzammil Shareef, a key conspirator, in the Bengaluru blast case. Shareef was picked up from Bengaluru after NIA teams cracked down at 18 locations | P5 MP dies in hosp after suspected suicide bid E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Coimbatore Erode MP A Ganeshamurthi, who was under treatment at a private hospital in Coimbatore for the past three days after an alleged suicide attempt at his home on Sunday, died around 5.05am on Thursday without responding to treatment. The 77-year-old three-time MP from Erode was a senior functionary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) and had been the treasurer of the party for many years. He won the 2019 Lok Sabha election by contesting on DMK symbol. It was alle ged that Ganesha- murthi was in depression after he was denied seat by the MDMK to contest from Erode in the Lok Sabha poll. The DMK has fielded its candidate in Erode and has instead given the Tiruchy seat to MDMK. Durai Vaiko, son of MDMK chief Vaiko, was named as the party’s Tiruchy candidate. Speaking to reporters after paying his respects to Ganeshamurthi’s body, Vaiko said the claim that the MP decided to end his life because of denial of seat was not true. “Ganeshamurthi said if we get two seats in the alliance, Durai Vaiko and I will contest together, and if we get one seat, let Durai contest. I was in constant touch with him,” Vaiko said. P5 operating and upcoming capacity of 2,800 MW, will be designated as the Captive Unit for this purpose,” Adani Power said in an exchange filing. It added that RIL will pick up 5 crore shares with a face value of `10 (`50 crore). RIL said the investment is in compliance with the provisions of the Electricity Rules, 2005, which say a captive user must own a 26% stake in the captive unit. Ambani’s interests span oil and gas to retail and telecom while Adani’s focus is on infrastructure spanning sea ports to airports, coal and mining. Though considered business rivals, the two Gujarat industrialists have rarely crossed each other’s path except in the clean energy business, where the two have announced multibillion investments. Adani aspires to be the world’s largest renewable energy producer by 2030, while Reliance is building four gigafactories in Jamnagar — one each for solar panels, batteries, green hydrogen, and fuel cells. Adani is also building three gigafactories for manufacturing solar modules, wind turbines, and hydrogen electrolysers. f e a r o f t h e F ly i n g s q u a d s ECI’s `50k cash rule hits cattle trade across TN J e v i n Se l w y n H en r y @ Dharmapuri For lakhs of farmers living in Tamil Nadu’s hinterland, cattle, goat, and sheep are the beasts of burden that help them pull through the vagaries of life. For these farmers, livestock are their investment, income, and insurance. During festivals, emergencies, or while admitting their wards to schools or colleges, rural households trade their livestock for cash at shandies to make ends meet. But the cash restrictions imposed on them by the Election Commission as part of the Model Code of Conduct have now pushed them to the brink. R Murugan, a trader from Gopinamthampatti in Dharmapuri, told TNIE, “In Dharmapuri, cattle rearing is one of the key occupations. The district has over 3.75 lakh cattle and more than 5.25 lakh sheep, goat and other milch animals. Cattle trade happens periodically in open markets in Nallampalli, Bommidi, Gopinathampatti and Papparapatti and other areas. Every week, on Wednesdays, hundreds of people from Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Salem, and even from Karnataka visit the market to purchase cows and other animals. While normally, the volume of trade crosses `55 lakh, this week it was only `43 lakh, a drop of almost 25%.” P5 biz down 50%, complain jewellers to ceo Chennai: Office-bearers of the Tamil Nadu Jewellers Federation, a statewide body of 83 jewellers association, knocked on the doors of Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo on the trouble faced by them due to detention of vehicles carrying jewellery by poll officials. The jewellers urged the CEO to direct EC officials to not detain vehicles. Talking to reporters after submitting a representation to the CEO, Jayantilal Challani, president of Jewellers & Diamond Traders Association, said their trade is down 50% after model code came into effect in TN | P4 Didi’s iftar West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during Ramzan’s Dawat-e-Iftar, in Kolkata on Thursday | PTI Three killed in roof collapse in Chennai Peanuts as wage hike draw barbs in poll season pub; CMRL says not due to metro work Rural jobs scheme J i t en d r a Ch o u b e y @ New Delhi A paltry annual hike in daily wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) for unskilled workers was jeered at by the Opposition, with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi promising to jack it up to `400 a day . Each state has a different daily wage rate under the scheme. Haryana was at the top of the pecking order at `374 after the revision this year while in Uttar Pradesh it was just `237. In gross terms, states like UP and Assam witnessed an increase of just `7 as compared to last year while the wage rise in MGNREGA wages for unskilled manual workers REvised Wages in 2024 Wages in 2023 Andhra Pradesh Assam Bihar Chhattisgarh Gujarat Goa Haryana J&K Jharkhand Karnataka 272 238 228 221 256 322 357 244 228 316 Change in % 300 10.2% 249 2.9% 245 7.4% 243 9.9% 280 9.3% 356 10.5% 374 4.7% 259 6.1% 245 7.4% 349 10.4% Goa was `28. The annual revision by the Centre is meant to mitigate inflation. A govern- Kerala Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Odisha Punjab Rajasthan Tamil Nadu Telangana Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand West Bengal 333 221 273 237 303 255 294 272 230 230 237 346 3.9% 243 9.9% 297 8.7% 254 7.1% 322 6.2% 266 4.3% 319 8.5% 300 10.2% 237 3% 237 3% 250 5.4% Wages in rupees, States ment official termed the revision a routine exercise. Taking a dig, Rahul sarcasti- cally said, “Congratulations to MNREGA workers! The PM has increased your salary by `7. Now he might ask you, ‘What will you do with such a huge amount of money?’” Trinamool leader Saket Gokhale sharply criticised the inadequate increase of wages, especially in West Bengal. “Shameful & shocking that in today’s wage revision announced for MGNREGA, Modi Govt has increased wages for workers in Bengal by only 5%,” Gokhale posted on X. Goa topped the chart with a hike of 10.56%, while in Karnataka it was 10.4%, MP and Chhattisgarh 9.9%, Gujarat 9.3% and Bihar 7.4%. E XPR E SS N E WS S E RVIC E @ Chennai A portion of a ceiling collapsed at Sekhmet club on Chamiers Road in Alwarpet in Chennai late on Thursday leaving three , people dead. The three victims, all employees of the pub, have been identified as Max (22) and Lalli (24) of Manipur and Cyclone Raj (48) of Tiruchy . Meanwhile, while some media reports and locals claimed that the accident could have occurred due to metro rail work, CMRL denied the allegation. Around 17 workers and three patrons were at the pub when the incident occurred on the first floor of the club. Accord- Three patrons & 17 staff were at the pub when the incident occurred | Express ing to police sources, while one body was recovered first, the other two were recovered some time later. Both State and National Disaster Rescue Force teams are working to clear the debris. Speaking to reporters, Prem Anand Sinha, Additional Commissioner of Police, said they are conducting rescue operation to find out if more people are trapped under the debris. Local sources, however, said it was unlikely “We are conduct. ing inquiry to find out the reason for the crash. Expert analys i s m ay b e r e q u i r e d t o accurately find the cause of the incident,” he added. Sinha said that as the ceiling fell on the floor of the first level, the ceiling of the ground floor too got damaged and fell to the ground. P5
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