KOZHIKODE l wednesday l july 08, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Govt to ask refiners to cut lpg production to pre-war levels With the West Asia situation stabilising, the Centre is likely to direct oil companies to scale back domestic LPG production to pre-crisis levels move follows easing of supply pressures ceasefire helps restore lpg imports The move comes after supply concerns triggered by the conflict involving Iran, Israel and the US began to ease. According to sources, Indian refineries have started reducing domestic LPG production to 40,000 metric tonnes per day. During the peak of the crisis, both public and private refiners increased output to a record 54,000 metric tonnes per day ■ ■ Strait of Hormuz handles nearly 40% of India’s crude oil imports, 60% of its LNG imports and about 90% of its LPG imports LPG was the worst-hit fuel as India imports nearly 60% of its domestic requirement. With a ceasefire in place, shipping through the strategic waterway has resumed, restoring normal LPG imports | P10 33 crore households across the country use Domestic LPG 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 Landslip at tunnel site leaves 3 dead, 7 missing  CM says project contractor ignored directives to remove soil piled up near the construction site  Contracting firm claims it complied with all norms; Konkan Rly Corporation announces probe L e s ly J o s e p h @ Meppadi A landslip at the Wayanad twin-tunnel road project near Meenakshi Bridge in Kalladi claimed three lives, left at least seven people missing, and ignited a political and legal storm on Tuesday While heavy . monsoon rain triggered the initial slope instability, residents and local representatives termed it a “man-made disaster”, blaming corporate negligence and a complete failure of regulatory oversight. The three victims have been identified as Chandra Ban, an operator from Madhya Pradesh; Bikash Kumar, a civil foreman from Bihar; and Anmol, a worker from Jharkhand. T h e c o l l ap s e o c c u r re d around 11 am, sending a massive torrent of liquified mud, rocks and construction debris crashing onto the Meppadi– Chooralmala road. The deluge buried the Meenakshi Bridge, engulfed a private transit bus and flattened a roadside eatery where workers had gathered. Nine labourers were pulled out from the sludge and rushed to Meppadi WIMS Hospital. Two of them remain in critical condition in intensive care unit. At the heart of the growing outrage is the dumping of tens of thousands of tonnes of excavated earth by the project’s contractor, Dilip Buildcon Limited, operating under the supervision of the Konkan Railway Corporation. “I had a miraculous escape. I saw the massive soil sliding down and ran for my life,” said local resident Hamsa Manthikkara. “The company had heaped the excavated soil at the site. Though concrete retaining walls were built around the heaps, we had repeatedly warned they were inadequate,” he said. Chief Minister V D Satheesan said a string of official warnings issued more than a fortnight before the landslip went unheeded, paving the way for the disaster. “On June 20, the district collector directed the contractor to remove the excavated soil piled up near the construction site. The disaster management authority issued a similar order, and the PWD minister also instructed the contractor to clear the soil. None of these directives was complied with,” he said. The chief minister is scheduled to visit the disaster site on INSIDE Search and rescue operations under way at the landslip-hit area at the tunnel road construction site at Kalladi near Meppadi, Wayanad | Vincent Pulickal When tragedy struck A volunteer holds a child as she helps a family which was stranded on the other side of the road to cross the landslip-hit area at Kalladi | Vincent Pulickal The disaster management authority had inspected the area and directed contractor to remove soil. The failure to comply with that order directly led to the disaster — V D Satheesan, Chief Minister Wednesday . The Konkan Railway Corporation has ordered an inquiry into the incident but maintained that incessant rain triggered the collapse. Dilip Buildcon said the project was being executed in strict compliance with all engineering, safety and environmental norms, approvals and protocols. The project is being executed in strict compliance with all applicable engineering, safety and environmental approvals and protocols — Dilip Buildcon Limited, the company entrusted with the work The excavated material was highly unstable, Satheesan said. Mixed with mud, it had a fragile composition and had been dumped precariously at the site. The disaster management authority had inspected the area and explicitly directed the contractor to remove the soil. The failure to comply with that order directly led to the landslip triggers calls for continuous monitoring ment pension, was needed for urgent medical treatment. His family maintained Lakra had been making repeated trips to the bank for three months at the manager’s insistence to complete the KYC process. Even after he was brought to the branch in an auto-rickshaw, officials allegedly turned them away. His daughter-in-law, Phoolmani Lakra, said that on one occasion, the manager ordered a peon to drag them out. “My father-in-law was ill and could not get the required treatment because the bank didn’t give down from a hillside near the excavation site. The devastation became severe as the excavated soil heaped at the site was washed away, bringing down trees and sweeping away the concrete and metal barricades. According to eyewitnesses, around 25 workers were present there at the time of the accident. A mosque, a house, a worker transit bus, a car were damaged Meppadi -Chooralmala road Meppadi Landslip area him his own money she said. ,” Heartbroken family members and villagers staged a protest by placing Lakra’s body at the rural bank’s entrance, refusing to cremate him until action was taken. Chief Minister Hemant Soren promptly ordered an investigation. In a post on X, he directed the Garhwa Deputy Commissioner to “promptly investigate the matter, take strict action, and inform.” DC Pashupati Nath Mishra directed the Sub-Divisional Magistrate to conduct a detailed probe, and warned of action against those found guilty . J ayant h J a c o b @ New Delhi Pic: PTI India and Indonesia on Tuesday significantly expanded their strategic partnership, with Jakarta agreeing to procure two batteries of India’s BrahMos supersonic cruise missile system in a deal worth about $200 million, alongside Astra air-to-air missile systems, as the two countries unveiled an ambitious roadmap covering defence, maritime security, critical minerals, technology digital connectivity and , resilient supply chains. The agreements were announced after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta during the first leg of Modi’s three-nation Indo-Pacific tour, which will also take him to Australia and New Zealand. The defence component marks another milestone in India’s push to become a major exporter of indigenous military hardware. A BrahMos battery typically comprises four launchers and 12 ready-to-fire missiles, along with commandand-control systems, support equipment and specialised vehicles, though configurations vary depending on whether the system is deployed for land attack or coastal defence. Sources said Indonesia has @ Ahmedabad 11.20am: Meppadi police reach the spot and start evacuation and rescue operation with the help of local residents. They take injured to hospitals 11.30am: Fire and rescue teams from Kalpetta reach the spot 12:30pm: One body recovered 2pm: NDRF team from Meenangadi arrive at the site. Two more bodies were recovered by 5.30pm. department flagging the site as hazardous about 10 days earlier, no authority ensured its safety directives were enforced, they said. Echoing these concerns, Agriculture Minister T Siddique, who is also the local MLA, condemned the systemic failures while outlining the ongoing rescue and relief opera● More on P4 tions.  ‘heavy rain, huge pile-up of debris aggravated tragedy’ P4 EXPRESS READ One in five babies in state underweight T’Puram: Nearly one in every five babies born in Kerala is underweight (weighing less than 2.5kg), according to the Annual Vital Statistics Report 2024 released by the economics and statistics department recently. As per report, the figure rose from 15.9% in 2022 to 16.29% in 2023 and to 18.37% in 2024, a trend closely tied to a concurrent rise in premature births in state. P5 Prime Minister Narendra Modi being conferred Indonesia’s highest civilian honour by President Prabowo Subianto also decided to procure India’s Astra beyond-visual-range airto-air missiles following their operational performance during Operation Sindoor. The agreements also envisage wider collaboration in defence manufacturing and technology transfers, reflecting a shift from a buyer-seller relationship towards long-term industrial ties. Addressing a joint media interaction, Modi described the outcomes as a golden chapter in bilateral ties. “The growing trust between our two countries has strengthened cooperation in defence, security and the maritime domain,” he said. The two leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to a free, open and rules-based IndoPacific. President Prabowo echoed the sentiment. HC upholds death for 38 in Ahmedabad serial blasts case D I L I P S I N G H K SH AT R I YA Tunnel project site disaster, he said. Local leaders said the suspension of drilling work during the monsoon narrowly averted a far greater tragedy, as more than 100 workers were off the site. While the contractors face immediate scrutiny, the disaster has also exposed serious lapses in official oversight. Despite the public works ‘casualty count would have been worse’ J’khand bank’s KYC delay kills 75-yr-old IN a tragic incident that has s p a rk e d o u t r a g e a c r o s s Jharkhand, a 75-year-old ailing man died after being repeatedly denied access to his own pension money due to pending KYC formalities at a rural bank. Ratan Lakra, a resident of Bargarh village in Garhwa district, passed away on Monday after struggling for months to withdraw funds from his account at the Bargarh branch of Jharkhand Gramin Bank. The money, primarily his govern- Meenakshi bridge 11am: Mound of mud slides who was watching the watchers MU K ESH R A N J A N @ Ranchi WAYAnad The mudslip happened at Kalladi — around 9km from Meppadi town — where work on the KalladiAnakkampoyil tunnel road connecting Wayanad and Kozhikode districts is under way. India, Indonesia expand strategic partnership THE Gujarat High Court on Tuesday upheld the Ahmedabad Sessions Court’s ruling in the 2008 serial bomb blasts case, confirming the death sentence for 38 members of the banned Indian Mujahideen and life imprisonment for 11 others. A division bench of Justices A Y Kogje and Samir Dave rejected the appeals filed by the convicts against the capital punishment awarded by the lower court in February 2022. The HC directed the Gujarat government to pay `10 lakh to the family of every deceased victim, `5 lakh to each seriously injured survivor, and `1 lakh to those who suffered minor injuries. The compensation must be paid before March 31, 2027. The verdict comes 18 years after 21 coordinated blasts at 20 locations ripped through Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, killing 56 and injuring more than 200 people. The case remains one of India’s biggest criminal prosecutions. Of 78 accused who faced trial, the trial court convicted 49, acquitted 29, sentenced 38 to death, and awarded life imprisonment till natural death to 11 convicts. Ronaldo’s WC dream over as Spain, Belgium advance Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal’s WC quest ends at the hands of Spain while Belgium make lightwork of US. A look at what transpired in Monday’s games... Spain too good for Portugal Spain hardly gave Portugal a sniff before scoring the game’s solitary goal in the stoppage time. Ronaldo, in his last World Cup, was hardly involved as the match appeared to pass him by without the 41-year-old influencing it in any way Argentina beat Egypt 3-2 Enzo Fernandez scored in stoppage time to give Argentina an incredible 3-2 win over Egypt and a spot in the World Cup quarterfinals on Tuesday. Meta blog on child abuse Investment scams via after govt slaps notice WA, Telegram up: MHA New Delhi: Meta on Tuesday published a detailed blog outlining measures it has taken to combat child sexual abuse material across its apps, after the government slapped a notice on it over reports of Instagram ads promoting such content | p10 New Delhi: The Union home ministry has warned against a sharp rise in online investment scams operating through WhatsApp and Telegram, where cybercriminals lure people with promises of quick and guaranteed returns | P7 Belgium blow away US After a controversy over Folarin Balogun’s suspension of the red card, the 2018 semifinalists blew the co-hosts away 4-1 in a supreme show of strength. After the game, they also trolled FIFA for their role in the controversy. “Overturn this,” they posted on their socials