KOCHI l friday l may 03, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l LATE city EDITION Supreme Court orders 33% quota for women in SC Bar Association The court said the order must be implemented from the 2024 election to the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) set to be held on May 16 Five seats in the executive committee At least 1 office bearer should be woman Apart from six office bearers, the SCBA has six senior executive members and nine executive members. As per the court order, at least two senior executive members and three executive members should be women. The order was passed by a bench comprising justices Surya Kant and K V Viswanathan while hearing a case involving SCBA against its former Secretary B D Kaushik ■ ■ One post of the office bearers of the SCBA should be reserved for women by turn and on rotation bases, the bench said in its order For the upcoming elections, the post of Treasurer shall be reserved for women, it said. However, this will not preclude eligible women members of SCBA from contesting for other office-bearer positions May 19 when results of the Supreme Court bar association election will be out 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 Feeling the heat Holiday for educational institutions, including professional colleges, till May 6 IMD issues heatwave alerts in Alappuzha, Palakkad, Thrissur and Kozhikode for Friday Warm night warning issued in Alappuzha 40.4˚C recorded in Palakkad on Thursday, the warmest district in state Senobi, 80, rushes to a shade to escape from the scorching sun after spreading fish for drying at Nedumthoppu near Chirayinkeezhu in Thiruvananthapuram | B P Deepu Two die of heatstroke; Kerala gears up to meet the challenge E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ T’Puram/Kozhikode On a day two suspected heatstroke deaths were reported in Malappuram and Kozhikode, the state government swung into action on Thursday rolling out a series of measures to cope with the p r ev a i l i n g h e a t w ave conditions. A high-level meeting of the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan decided to declare holiday for educational insti- tutions, including professional colleges, till May 6. Meanwhile, a high level meeting attended by power minister K Krishnankutty and KSEB management decided not to go for load shedding in spite of the power crisis. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued heatwave alerts in Alappuzha, Palakkad, Thrissur and Kozhikode for Friday. It also issued a warm night warning in Alappuzha. Palakkad is likely to record a maximum temperature of 40 degree Celsius, T h r i s s u r, K o l l a m a n d Kozhikode 39, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta and Kannur 38, Thiruvananthapuram, Er nakulam, Malappuram and Kasaragod 37, on Friday . Palakkad remained the warmest district with a maximum temperature of 40.4 degree Celsius on Thursday. Kozhikode city reported 39, which is 4.6 degree Celsius above the normal. Cracks in Akkulam glass bridge spark adventure tourism safety concerns S h a i n u M o h a n @T’Puram Barely two months after the Varkala floating bridge accident, the glass bridge ready to be opened at Akkulam Tourist Village has developed cracks, raising serious concern over the quality and safety standards of the adventure tourism infrastructure in the state. The inauguration of the glass bridge — slated for March — was postponed following the floating bridge accident on March 9. Fifteen people fell into the sea after the 100-metre-long Glass bridge at Akkulam Tourist Village floating bridge collapsed due to rough waves. Now, cracks have appeared on the 52-metre glass bridge at Akkulam, which is touted by the tourism department as a key adventure infrastructure. The bridge is constructed at a height of 75ft. The adventure tourism activities at the Akkulam Tourist Village are jointly implemented by Vattiyoorkavu Youth Brigade Entrepreneurs Cooperative Society (VYBeCOS) and the District Tourism Promotion Council (DTPC). VYBeCOS alleged that the cracks in the glass bridge occurred due to suspected vandalism, and it has lodged a complaint with the Sreekaryam ● More on P4 police. Muhammad Haneefa, 63, a resident of Padinhattummuri in Malappuram, passed away while undergoing treatment for heatstroke at Kozhikode Medical College Hospital on Thursday . He collapsed while working in a field near Tamarakuzhi on Wednesday. Preliminary assessment indicates dehydration to be the cause of hisdeath. Bijesh, a 41-year-old painter from Chakkumkadavu in Panniyankara, Kozhikode died of suspected heatstroke at his work site on ● More on P4 Thursday . press Intake Lookout notice against ‘absconder’ Prajwal | P6 BrahMos docs: DRDO bins reports of security breach| P9 No word, but party readies in Rae Bareli Nomination deadline for Amethi, Rae Bareli seats in UP ends today BJP drops tainted Brij Bhushan, fields his son Karan in Kaiserganj P r ee t h a N a i r @ New Delhi NA M ITA B A J PAI @ Lucknow With barely hours left for filing of nomination papers for the Amethi and Rae Bareli seats, the Congress is continuing to keep the suspense on whether Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka will contest from the prestigious seats. Though there was no official word, sources said that Rahul is likely to enter the fray from Rae Bareli. That decision was taken after much deliberations within the party leadership. However, sources said Priyanka may not contest the general elections. On Wednesday Congress lead, er Jairam Ramesh said the decision would be announced by Thursday evening. Yet, there was no official announcement till going to the press. Family However, posters of Rahul bastion have come up in both Amethi Rae Bareli is and Rae Bareli as the local leadprestigious for ership is hopeful that one of the the Congress Gandhis will contest from Amas it was held ethi. “We received a message by Indira from the high command in the Gandhi thrice, evening to make preparations her husband for Friday’s nomination. The Feroze Gandhi party will also hold a rally totwice and day said a leader. ,” Sonia from According to sources, Con2004 to 2024 gress chief Mallikarjun Kharge has conveyed to the Gandhis that not contesting from Uttar Pradesh would not augur well for the party’s prospects in the Hindi heartland. Rahul represented Amethi for three straight terms from 2004 to 2019 before he was defeated by Union minister Smriti Irani by over 50,000 votes in 2019. Irani, who is seeking a second term from Amethi, has challenged Rahul to contest from the seat. A section of the leaders believe that if Rahul does not take up the challenge, it will only vindicate the BJP’s charges of him running away from the seat. The BJP on Thursday dropped Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who faces criminal charges of sexually harassing women wrestlers during his stint as the president of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), and instead fielded his younger son Karan Bhushan Singh from Uttar Pradesh’s Kaiserganj Lok Sabha constituency . The saffron party also named Dinesh Pratap Singh as its candidate from Rae Bareli, a Gandhi family bastion that elected Congress leader Sonia Gandhi five consecutive times. Dinesh Pratap Singh, currently serving as a minister in the Yogi Adityanath cabinet, was the BJP’s candidate from the Rae Bareli parliamentary seat in 2019 as well. Even though Rajput he lost to Sonia Gandhi last card time, he managed to bring down By fielding her victory margin to 1.67 lakh Dinesh Singh votes from 3.52 lakh in 2014. He and Karan was earlier with the Congress Bhushan(pic), and he joined the BJP in 2018. BJP hopes to Brij Bhushan, the sitting MP placate in Kaiserganj, was forced to reRajput sign as WFI president over the community sexual harassment scandal after voters, who the wrestlers launched a prowere upset test. By denying ticket to Brij with the party Bhushan, the BJP has sought to send out a message of distancing itself from tainted leaders. With Brij Bhushan, the total number of MPs benched by the BJP in UP in the ensuing election has touched 15. A six-time MP, Brij Bhushan has won not only from Kaiserganj but also neighbouring constituencies like Gonda and Balrampur. An influential regional leader, he has sway over half-a-dozen LS seats in central UP. He has formidable clout in Kaiserganj and adjoining districts as he owns over 50 educational institutions in the region. EXPRESS READ Police ignore bus driver’s complaint against mayor T’Puram: Giving yet another twist to the road rage controversy, the Thiruvananthapuram city police have refused to initiate action on the complaint lodged by the KSRTC driver against Mayor Arya Rajendran and K M Sachin Dev, MLA, for allegedly obstructing his duty, resulting in the cancellation of the trip. P4 18 pages, including 4 pages of KOCHI Express f i rs t i n s t a t e Now, book a private train from Kerala E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Kochi In a first, private trains will be available for tourists from Kerala to destinations such as Goa, Mumbai and Ayodhya. To begin with, the private train journey from the state to Goa will begin next month. The facility is being launched by SRMPR Global Railways, a Chennai-based tour operator, in partnership with the Kochi-based Princy World Travel Limited. An individual or a group of 600 passengers can book a private train journey to the three prominent destinations from Kerala, said officials. The inaugural journey is set to depart from Thiruvananthapuram on June 4 to Madgaon in Goa. The fourday tour package is available in three categories: 2-tier AC at `16,400 per person, 3-tier AC at `15,150 per person and non-AC sleeper at `13,999. The package includes stay food and sightseeing. Services like off-board travel , and excursions by buses, stay at hotels, tour guides, meals and travel insurance are provided along with these train journeys and allied onboard services. Though the Indian Railways introduced the concept of private players operating tourist trains on themebased circuits under the Bharat Gaurav Tourist Trains around a couple of years back, this is the first time that a private company is getting into this segment from Kerala. Earlier, such private train tours were launched from states such as Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. For instance, the government of Karnataka in association with IRCTC operates private trains to Kashi Prayag, Gaya and Ayodhya. Similarly, private trains are operated between ● More on P6 Coimbatore and Shirdi.
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