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 ■ ■ HYDERABAD SUNDAY APRIL 28, 2024 `12.00 PAGES 26 LATE CITY EDITION Hamas reviewing Israeli offer for ceasefire as attack looms | P11 I swear by Jubilee Hills Peddamma Thalli that I will waive farm loans by August 15 A Revanth Reddy, chief minister M A N DA RAV I N D E R R E D DY 1 @ Hyderabad U’KHAND BURNS, IAF STEPS IN 13 Mi-17 helicopter sorties try to extinguish the raging forest fires; state requests Army help N A R E N D R A S E T H I @ Dehradun 2 1. A view of the forest fire in Uttarakhand. 2. An IAF helicopter fills water from the Bhimtal lake in Nainital district to douse the fire | EXPRESS WITH forest fires engulfing the Nanda range in Nainital district of Uttarakhand, the Centre deployed a Air Force helicopter on Saturday to control the blaze. Parallelly, the state government requested the assistance of the Army . The IAF’s Mi-17 helicopter did 13 sorties, drawing water from the Naini and Bhimtal lakes in a Bambi bucket and emptying it over the flames in the Pines, Bhumiadhar, Jyolikot, Narayan Nagar, Bhawali, Ramgarh and Mukteshwar areas. Fire-fighting operations are expected to continue on Sunday as well. Nainital Sub-Divisional Magistrate Pramod Kumar said, “The wildfire is spreading uncontrollably from the pine for- 544 cases of forest fires in five months Uttarakhand witnessed 544 incidents of forest fire from November 1, 2023 to April 25,this year, of which more than 656.55 hectares of forest land was destroyed ests to the Lariyakanta forests. Efforts are on with the assistance of an IAF helicopter to extinguish it.” An ITI building was partially burnt in the massive fire in the pine forest near Nainital. The fire also reached dangerously close to the High Court Colony in Nainital but hasn’t caused any damage so far. The forest of Ladiyakanta in Nainital was also in flames. The fire brigade barely managed to control it. Dense smoke enveloped the road from Nainital to Bhawali, disrupting movement of vehicles for hours. Forest department sources said wildfires are spreading due to limited rainfall. Nishant Verma, nodal officer of Uttarakhand’s forest department for forest fires, said, “As of April 25, the forest department has recorded 146 cases of man-made fires. Of these, 17 individuals have been identified. As for 129 other cases, the perpetrators are unknown.” Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami said all efforts are being made to control the fires. He did an aerial survey of the affected region and reviewed efforts to douse the fires with officials of the Kumaon division at the Forest Training Academy in Haldwani. CHIEF Minister A Revanth Reddy on Saturday accused the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of planning a surgical strike on SCs, STs and OBCs by abolishing reservations. He said that they were using elections as a platform to launch the strike and went on to allege that the BJP was trying to destroy the social fabric of the country by implementing Manuvaada ideology . Addressing a press conference here, Revanth alleged that the BJP was trying to secure 400 Lok Sabha seats by using illegal means. Accusing the BJP and the PM of planning to amend the Constitution to scrap quotas, he asserted that reservation in politics, employment and education was the fundamental right of SCs, STs and BCs. Abolition of triple talaq and Article 370 and introduction AHEAD OF THE GAME WITH THIS ISSUE Houthis attack Indian oil ship Amid veteran vs fresher fight, Y E S H I S E L I @ New Delhi YEMEN-based Houthi rebels on early Saturday fired ballistic missiles on an oil tanker travelling through the Red Sea heading towards India from Russia. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said the Panama-flagged, Seychelles-registered Andromeda Star was attacked twice. The crew is safe and the vessel is en route to its destination Vadinar port in Gujarat. The incident occurred 14 nautical miles off Al Mukha, Yemen. Houthi spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree in a pre-recorded statement claimed responsibility for the attack. The oil tanker originated from Primorsk, Russia. “The first was an explosion close to the vessel and the second consisted of two missile attacks, which damaged the vessel,” according to UKMTO (UK Maritime Trade Operations). UP IN ARMS Women throw dung on a poster in protest against defection of political leaders for their own selfish interests, ignoring public issues, in Miryalaguda on Saturday | P5 all eyes on seer swing bowling P R A M O D K U M A R V A I D YA @ Hubballi THOUGH a prominent pontiff bowed out of the contest after promising a scintillating match, the Lok Sabha election scene in Dharwad continues to be as intense and exciting. Influential Lingayat pontiff Dingaleshwar Swamiji had spiced up the polls by announcing his candidature but later opted out. While making his pitch, the Swamiji had sharply attacked sitting MP and Union minister Pralhad Joshi (61), accusing him of dishonouring the Lingayats and victimising its leaders. With the BJP repeating Joshi from Dharwad, the Congress hopes the Swamiji could be a force multiplier against him. At stake in Dharwad is the BJP’s prestige as it has held this Lingayat majority constituency for seven consecutive terms. The Congress is trying its best to knock out Joshi. Their straight fight is being closely watched because of Joshi’s perceived proximity to the BJP brass. ILLUSTRATION: MANDAR PARDIKAR Instead of fielding a Lingayat against Joshi, the Congress gave the ticket to an AHINDA (a Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits coined by Karnataka’s first backward class leader Devraj Urs), which has stood firmly behind Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. The party’s nominee, Vinod Asuti (34), who belongs to the Kuruba community and is a debutant in the LS poll. The Congress is playing the youth card against veteran Joshi. CONTINUED ON P6 TG youth, forced to work for cybercriminals in Cambodia, rescued S W E T H A V I M A L A M @ Hyderabad & N A V E E N K U M A R TA L L A M @ Karimnagar A 27-year-old man from Sircilla, who was allegedly forced to work in a cyber scam call centre in Cambodia after falling prey to job fraud, has been rescued by law enforcement officials there. He is on his way back to India. Sircilla police, after learning about his plight, contacted the Indian embassy in Phnom Penh, which got in touch with Cambodian police. The victim, Atikham Shiva Prasad, disclosed to law enforcement officials here that there were about 500 to 600 Indians trapped in the scam. He added that one of the victims was a youth from Jagtial. A gang of cybercriminals, reportedly Chinese nationals, had set up a call centre in Cambodia to commit financial fraud by targeting potential victims from India, the police said. It may be recalled that similar cyber fraud camps were being operated from Myanmar. Shiva Prasad and others were given Indian phone numbers to lure people into investing their money in fake companies, lotter- ies and task-based activities. Aspiring to become a software employee abroad, Shiva allegedly paid `1.4 lakh to one Kancharla Sai Prasad from Jagtial, who helped him secure a job in Cambodia. Sai Prasad is an agent, who had contacted two other agents — Sadakat from Lucknow and Abid Ansari from Pune — before getting the job offer from Shadabh, a Bihar native currently living in Dubai. The police arrested Sai Prasad and Abid Ansari and seized their mobiles. A lookout notice has been issued against Shadabh. Speaking to TNIE, Rajanna Sircilla SP Akhil Mahajan revealed, “Shiva was taken to Cambodia on a travel visa, his passport was seized and he was forced to work for 16 hours/day in a small room. Phones were not allowed and the victims were instructed to not interact with each other.” While Shiva was forced to work in two different companies in the past two-and-a-half months, he somehow managed to call his mother recently and informed her about his work. She lodged a complaint with the police. CONTINUED ON P6 of CAA were part of RSS’ policy the chief minister said and , added that the organisation was also bent on scrapping reservations. He said that senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi promised to lift the ceiling on reservations and was committed to giving quota and funds in proportion to the population of SCs, STs and OBCs. He reiterated the Congress commitment to undertake a caste census if the party came to power at Centre. He asked BRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao to explain why he was not addressing the issue of scrapping reservations. He demanded that KCR spell out his party’s stand on the issue. He expressed suspicion that the former CM was supporting the BJP to secure the release of his daughter K Kavitha from jail. He also asked state BJP leaders G Kishan Reddy, Eatala Rajender and Bandi Sanjay to respond to his statement on reservaCONTINUED ON P6 tions. PLUS 12 PAGES PIC: SRI LOGANATHAN VELMURUGAN Modi planning surgical strike to scrap quota: CM KCR ON X Hyderabad: BRS chief and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Saturday opened an account on X. In his first post, he said: “My wishes to BRS leaders, activists and Telangana people on the party foundation day.” In his second post, he said: “While I was having lunch at former minister V Srinivas Goud’s residence in Mahbubnagar along with MP Manne Srinivas Reddy and other leaders, there was power cut twice. But the CM and the ministers denied there are power cuts in Telangana.” Responding to KCR’s post, CM Revanth said: “Is KCR a Kumbhakarna to eat all day? An average person finishes his meal within 10 to 15 minutes. KCR is spreading lies.”
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