New textbooks for classes 3 & 6 to be out in April, May: NCERT For other classes, textbooks will only be updated and revised this year No gap in learning COIMBATORE l thursday l april 04, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l LATE CITY EDITION NCERT said a 15-day foundation course for students of class 3 and a month-long bridge programme for those from class 6 have been prepared. The announcement comes days after the CBSE told affiliated schools to adopt new syllabi for classes 3 and 6 from the upcoming academic year 26 cr students enrolled in 14.86 lakh schools in India 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 3 Rajiv case convicts return to Sri Lanka Taiwan shakes @ 7.4 E X P RE S S NE W S S ER V I C E @ Chennai 9 people killed Three former convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case returned to Sri Lanka on Wednesday, nearly two years after being freed by the Supreme Court in the case. Agency reports quoting police sources said Murugan, Robert Payas, and Jayakumar reached the Colombo International Airport around 11 am (local time) on Wednesday on a flight from Chennai. The Colombo police crime investigation department recorded their statements for more than five 70 coal miners trapped in Two quarries in Taiwan One of the buildings damaged by a earthquake that shook Taiwan’s Hualien County on Wednesday morning | AP | P11 TN moves SC seeking `37K cr flood, cyclone relief from union govt S U C H I TR A K A LYA N M O H A NTY @ New Delhi After Karnataka government, Tamil Nadu has now moved the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the union government to release funds to the state for disaster relief and natural calamities. The DMK government, in its petition, has invoked Article 131 of the Constitution under which the Supreme Court has exclusive and original jurisdiction over legal issues between states or between a state or states and the union government or their instrumentalities. The state government has urged the top court to direct the centre to provide over `37,000 crore in aid for damage caused by recent floods and Cyclone Michaung. Besides seeking financial assistance of `19,692.69 crore for the damage caused by Cyclone Michaung in December last year, the Tamil Nadu government has sought `18,000 crore for losses incurred due to the unprecedented rains in the southern districts of the state. The plea also seeks a direction to the centre to release `2,000 crore immediately as an interim measure. ‘Centre must pay TN `2k cr immediately’ “There is no justification to delay the release of funds. This step-motherly treatment violates the National Disaster Management Policy and financial relations and federal nature of tax division. The centre must be directed to release `2,000 crore immediately as an interim measure,” the state said Tamil Nadu government has alleged that the centre has failed in its duty to act on the reports of an inter-ministerial team that visited the state to assess the damage caused by the natural calamities. The delay in releasing financial aid to the state is illegal, arbitrary, and violates the citizens’ fundamental rights under Articles 14 and 21 of the Indian Constitution, the state’s petition said. “There is no justification to delay the release of funds. The differential treatment in releasing funds in comparison to other states is tantamount to class discrimination” the state government said. P5 long term chief speaks plan Athletics Federation of India AFI chief Adille Sumariwalla says India will do better than Tokyo at the Paris Olympics during an interaction. He talks about preparation, AFI’s long term development plan and reveals about its new project for 4x400m women | P13 A leopard running on the streets of Mayiladuthurai on Tuesday night triggered panic among residents and sent police and forest officials into a tizzy Mayiladuthurai Collector . AP Mahabharathi, who visited the Koranad area in the town where the leopard is suspected to be hiding, declared holiday for seven schools in the locality late on Wednesday . “Among the seven schools, four have Class 10 exam on Thursday We have directed of. ficials to provide armed security to those four schools. People need not panic. We are taking all necessary steps to catch the leopard,” the district collector said. Around 10 teams consisting of more than 50 personnel from forest, fire, and police departments have been formed under Nagapattinam Wildlife Warden Abhishek Tomar to catch the animal. A control room has hours at its office, reports said. Jailed for their role in the assassination of the former PM for more than 30 years, the three left by a Sri Lankan aircraft from Chennai to Colombo at 10am on Wednesday . P5 Wary Rahul’s roadshow flagless Thousands attend rally; Congress ally Muslim League’s ‘green’ flags conspicuously absent E X P RE S S NE W S S ER V I C E @ Kalpetta Treading cautiously, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi abandoned party flags of all allies as he took out a massive roadshow to the Wayanad district collectorate on Wednesday to submit his nomination papers for the Lok Sabha election. The extensive use of key ally Muslim League’s green flags during his 2019 roadshow was played up by the BJP at the national level, with senior leaders including Amit Shah wondering whether Rahul was seeking votes in Pakistan, crushing the hopes of the grand old party in north India. This time, tricoloured balloons and hats along with placards were part of the roadshow instead of flags. Rahul’s sister and AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, AICC general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal, Muslim League leader Panakkad Sayyid Abbas Ali Shihab Thangal, other local leaders, and thousands of supporters accompanied him. The absence of flags has left many tongues wagging. Even Rahul’s 2019 loss in Amethi was attributed to the presence of Muslim League flags in his roadshow then. The Congress was in no mood to take any chances this time. Since it would have been counterproductive to avoid only the League flag, it was decided to abandon the use of flags altogether, including that of the Congress. “Flags are not important in elections. Rahul Gandhi and the hand symbol are our icons,” Kalpetta MLA T Siddique said. But Congress and the Muslim League will have to sweat it out to explain the action. There will be questions as to how the party will raise the issues of Muslims, when it finds even the presence of the League flag embarrassing. Speaking at the conclusion of the roadshow, Rahul said he will be with the people of Wayanad in their fight to resolve three major issues — humanwildlife conflict, night travel ban, and lack of a medical college in the hilly district. Rahul Gandhi during his road show in Wayanad on Wednesday | E Gokul On one side are the forces who want to destroy the democracy and the Constitution of this country and on the other, there is a force that is protecting the Constitution and democratic nature of our count People are coming to me and saying that they never voted for that symbol (Congress party’s) before the last election but they were told that he would become the prime minister. So they voted for him. But what happened? Rahul Gandhi, Cong’s Wayanad nominee Annie Raja, CPI candidate in Wayanad SC to list pleas on VVPAT before LS polls begin Exp r e ss N e ws S e r vic e @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will take up a batch of pleas related to EVM data cross-checking against voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) records the week after next. The petitions were supposed to come up on Wednesday but could not be listed because Justice Khanna was heading a special bench. The pleas seek a direction to the Election Commission to count all VVPAT slips as against the current practice of verifying only five randomly selected EVMs in each assembly segment. On Wednesday, senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the matter before the special bench of justices Khanna, M M Sundresh and Bela M Trivedi, requesting that the pleas may be heard next Tuesday Senior ad. vocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, also appearing in the matter, submitted before the bench that the elections are about to start and the pleas would become infructuous if the case is not heard urgently . Justice Khanna said the court wants to speed up the hearing. However, the matter can’t be listed next week due to roster issues. It will be listed the week after, he added. On Monday, a bench of Justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta had issued notice to the ECI and the Centre on another petition filed by activist Arun Kumar Agrawal seeking 100% verification of VVPAT slips. The norm of five random EVMs to undergo VVPAT physical verification was set in April 2019, following an SC direction. Before that, only one EVM underwent the process. slits HC reserves verdict on Kejri ‘Cheated’ manfront his own throat in of S uchi t r a K alya n M o ha n t y @ New Delhi Claiming innocence in the excise policy scam, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that his arrest right after enforcing the Model Code of Conduct for the general elections, was meant to humiliate, insult and disable him and his party . “This case reeks of timing issues. The timing issue ensures that I (Kejriwal) am unable to participate in a democratic activity and also to disintegrate and demolish my party before the first vote is cast,” Abhishek Manu Singhvi, senior advocate for Kejriwal, charged. Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma reserved the verdict, which is expected by next week. Opposing Singhvi, Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the Enforcement Directorate, said: “suppose a political person commits murder two days before t h e e l e c t i o n s, does it mean he could not be arrested? Aam aadmi has to go behind bars if he has committed a crime but because you are a CM you can’t be arrested?” On how statements by four individuals were sufficient to arrest a CM, Raju said, “Whether a statement is to be believed or not is a matter of trial.” He added that Kejriwal was arrested because of twin factors — his individual role; and in his capacity as chief of AAP which , was the beneficiary of the scam. Leopard sparks panic in Mayiladuthurai, search on to capture big cat Anto ny Fer nand o @ Mayiladuthurai Nalini sees off her husband Murugan and others at Chennai airport | pti vote check Teams searching for the leopard in Mayiladuthurai on Wednesday | Express also been set up in Thiruchampalli to coordinate the search operation. The search teams on Wednesday combed hundreds of houses, backyards, farms, schools, cattle sheds and butcher shops but the animal is till elusive. Officials are trying to find out how the leopard found its way into the town. People have been warned to stay indoors through public announcement systems across the town. The forest department has also requested people to inform them about leopard movement on mobile number 9626709017. The residents of Semmangulam located close to Koranad first reported the animal intrusion to police around midnight on Tuesday . K’taka HC chief justice Exp r e ss N e ws S e r vic e @ Bengaluru In a shocking incident, a 51year-old litigant attempted suicide by slitting his throat with a surgical knife in front of a division bench of the Karnataka High Court, comprising Chief Justice N V Anjaria and Justice Dr H B Prabhakara Sastry on Wednesday . Chinnam Srinivas from Vijayanagar in Mysuru slit his throat in the court hall around 1.10 pm just before the division bench rose for the day for a function in honour of Justice Sastry, who retired the same day . Soon after the incident, the access to live streaming of the court proceedings was cut. The judges immediately summoned policemen attached to the high court security division and directed them to shift Srinivas to a hospital. Srinivas had filed a complaint alleging that he was cheated of `93 lakh by his partners in an apartment project. He had filed the complaint Security lapse Karnataka Chief Justice Anjaria expressed concern about the security lapse on the high court premises and asked those in charge of security as to how the man managed to bring a sharp object inside the court hall against three persons, including a woman from Hyderabad. Srinivas had filed a writ petition after an FIR registered in Mysuru was quashed by a single-judg e bench. On Wednesday, he came to the court along with his wife and it is suspected that he had planned his suicide attempt to draw the court’s attention to his complaint. Police said he carried a file related to his case to directly place it before the chief justice without following the due procedure. He entered the court hall, went near the podium where the judges were seated and handed over the file to the staff there. When the staff sought details about the file, he slit his throat.
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