vijayawada l thursday l april 04, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l late city EDITION 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, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) said Steps taken to ensure no gap in learning about 33 lakh textbooks printed Director of NCERT Dinesh Prasad Saklani 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 to ensure there is no gap in learning. The NECRT’s announcement comes days after the CBSE told affiliated schools to adopt new syllabi for classes 3 and 6 from the upcoming academic year ■ ■ Saklani said new texts are being adopted in classes 3, 6 as they mark the start of preparatory and middle stages of schooling, respectively About 33 lakh updated textbooks for classes 1, 2, 7, 8, 10 and 12 have been delivered to bookshops, Saklani said. New books for class 3 and updated books for classes 4, 5, 9 and 11 will be out this month | P9 26 crore 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 Wary Rahul’s roadshow flagless Over 25 lakh beneficiaries Thousands attend rally; Congress ally Muslim League’s ‘green’ flags conspicuously absent E XPR E SS N E WS S E RVIC E @ Kalpetta Treading cautiously, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday abandoned party flags of all allies as he took out a massive roadshow to the Wayanad district collectorate 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. Express Read HC reserves verdict on Kejriwal’s plea New Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday told the Delhi High Court that his arrest right after enforcing the Model Code of Conduct was meant to humiliate, insult and disable him and his party. “The timing issue ensures that I (Kejriwal) am unable to participate in a democratic activity and also to demolish my party before the first vote is cast,” Abhishek Manu Singhvi, senior advocate for Kejriwal, charged. The court reserved the verdict, which is expected by next week 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. E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Vijayawada 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 Taiwan shakes @ 7.4 9 70 people killed coal miners trapped receive pension on day one One of the buildings damaged by a powerful earthquake that shook Taiwan’s Hualien County on Wednesday morning | AP | P11 Disbursement of social security pensions finally commenced at the village and ward secretariats on Wednesday afternoon. By evening, nearly 40% of the disbursement was completed in several districts. Several old and differentlyabled people were seen waiting at the secretariats since early morning across the State to get their pensions. However, disbursement commenced only in the afternoon, when the secretariat staff brought the cash from the banks. Though it was announced that for the elderly infirm, and , differently-abled, pensions would be disbursed at their doorstep by the secretariat staff, at several places, beneficiaries turned up in large numbers at the secretariats out of anxiety . There are 65,60,904 pensioners under different categories and the finance department reportedly deposited `1,951.69 crore with banks for pension disbursement. As instructed, village and ward secretariat staff visited the houses of beneficiaries who are speciallyabled, severely ill, bedridden, confined to wheelchairs, and elderly widows of war veterans d r aw i n g S a i n i k we l f a r e pensions. Disbursement commenced in 13,669 village and ward secretariats out of 14,994. A total of 25.66 lakh beneficiaries received their pensions on Wednesday District collectors . were instructed to ensure that disbursement starts from 7.00 am onwards from Thursday in view of summer. In Visakhapatnam district, by 7 pm, 48% of social security pensions were disbursed. The ‘Cheated’ man slits his throat in K’taka HC E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bengaluru A 51-year-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 NV Anjaria and Justice Dr HB Prabhakara Sastry . Chinnam Srinivas from Mysuru slit his throat just before the division bench rose for the day. The judges immediately summoned policemen and directed them to shift Srinivas to a hospital. Supreme Court to list petitions on VVPAT before LS polls begin E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c 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 of a parliamentary constituency . 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 . advocate 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 is aware of the situation and 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 Sand, eep Mehta had issued notice to the ECI and the Centre on another plea filed by lawyer and activist Arun Kumar Agrawal seeking 100% verification of VVPAT slips. The norm of five randomly picked EVMs to undergo VVPAT physical verification was set in April 2019. Before that, only one EVM underwent the process. Srinivas had filed a complaint alleging that he was cheated of `93 lakh by his partners in an apartment project. Srinivas had filed a writ petition after an FIR registered in Mysuru was quashed by a single-judge bench. On Wednesday, he came to the court 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. Elderly women on their way to the Sachivalayam in Tirupati to collect their pension on Wednesday | Madhav K HC dismisses PIL to quash ECI order The High Court of Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday struck down the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by three women seeking suspension of the orders issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI), barring volunteers from disbursing pensions at the doorsteps of the beneficiaries. The bench of Chief Justice Dheeraj Singh Thakur and Justice Rao Raghunandan Rao heard the case highest distribution rate of 78% was recorded in Pendurthi mandal. For April 2024, a total of 1,65,432 pensions were sanctioned for Visakhapatnam district. Of the total, 79,113 pensioners have received the aid. Following orders from the District Collector, pensions were disbursed to 1,450 disabled, seriously ill, bedridden, and wheelchair-bound individuals at their residences. Additionally around 4,800 pensions , I noticed elderly people suffering today. I can’t help, but wonder if Naidu has any humanity as he stalled the volunteers from disbursing the pension at the beneficiaries’ doorstep by approaching the ECI YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, Chief Minister Jagan’s actions are leading to death of elderly people and he is blaming us for that only to gain sympathy. The ruling YSRC stopped disbursal of pensions only to malign the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu, TDP supremo were delivered to beneficiaries residing in rural areas. At every secretariat, arrangements were made to ensure pensioners’ comfort, including the provision of tents, chairs, and drinking water, so that no inconvenience is caused to them. Pension distribution will continue till April 6 at the secretariats from 7:30 am to 7 pm. Special arrangements have been made for those unable to P4 visit the secretariats.
Express Network Private Limited publishes thirty three E-paper editions of The New Indian Express newspaper , thirty two E-paper editions of Dinamani, one E-paper edition of The Morning Standard, one E-paper edition of Malayalam Vaarika magazine and one E-paper edition of the Indulge - The Morning Standard, Kolkatta.