Flood row: Didi blocks entry of J’khand trucks Trucks seen in a long queue on National Highway 19 in Dhanbad after the West Bengal-Jharkhand border sealed by the Mamata Banerjee government. The heavy vehicles are stuck at the border after the Bengal government restricted their entry in protest against the release of water from two dams in the neighbouring state, which resulted in flooding of parts of Bengal | PTI | P10 HYDERABAD SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 21, 2024 `9.00 PAGES 18 LATE CITY EDITION 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 Resolve for Allocated in Budget for gets Stronger HC strikes down govt rules to set up fact checker Says they are unconstitutional and can have a ‘chilling effect’ on freedom of expression E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Mumbai Stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra, Editors Guild of India, News Broadcast and Digital Association, and Association of Indian Magazines had filed petitions Govt’s view The Centre told HC in July that the right to know factually correct info and the right to not be misled were equally important as the right to freedom of speech and expression THE Bombay High Court on Friday struck down the amended Information Technology Rules, specifically Rule 3, which empowered the Central government to form fact checking units (FCUs) to deal with “fake, false, or misleading” content about the government on social media and online platforms. The ‘tiebreaker’ verdict was delivered by Justice A S Chandurkar. The amended rules violated several constitutional provisions, including Article 14 (right to equality), Article 19 (freedom of speech and expression), and Article 19(1)(g) (freedom to practice any profession), Justice A S Chandurkar held. Rule 3(1)(b)(5)—the provision dealing with the establishment of FCUs—was ultra vires to the Constitution, he judge added. Terming the amended provision ‘vague and overbroad’, the judge held that it could have a ‘chilling effect’ not only on individuals but also social media intermediaries and platforms. Justice Chandurkar held that the expressions ‘fake, false or misleading’ are vague and that the test of proportionality is not satisfied. “Impugned Rule as amended be struck down. All the petitions will be placed before the division bench to be decided,” the judge held. Justice Chandurkar’s opinion will now be placed before a division bench, which will formally announce the 2:1 majority against the impugned rules. The case was referred to Justice Chandurkar following a split verdict in the matter by a division bench of Justices G S Patel and Neela Gokhale in January While Justice Patel struck . down Rule 3 citing censorship concerns, Justice Gokhale ruled in favour of the provision. MATTERS OF FAITH TTD head backs Naidu; Jagan raps laddu politics Maha BJP will hit a century, says Fadnavis EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Mumbai MAHARASHTRA Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday expressed confidence in the BJP winning 100 seats on its own in the forthcoming assembly elections in November. He attributed his confidence to the slew of development projects his gove r n m e n t i n i t i at e d across the state. F a d n av i s w a s speaking at the first edition of The New Indian Express’ Mumbai Dialogues — a platform for exchange of ideas on politics, economy and other social issues — in Mumbai. However, Opposition leaders did not share Fadnavis’ optimism. Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray shared his concern over Maharashtra losing several development and job-generating projects to Gujarat during the cur rent regime. The event was also attended by Congress MLA and Mahar- From left: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra Congress in-charge Ramesh Chennithala, and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aditya Thackeray participating in the first edition of The New Indian Express’ Mumbai Dialogues ashtra Congress in-charge Ramesh Chennithala, Rajya Sabha member of Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) Milind Deora and film director Kiran Rao. Chennithala listed the failures of the Maharashtra government and expressed confidence that the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) would come to power in the state. The counterpoint came from Milind Deora who said during the MVA’s rule, infrastructure development of Mumbai city came to a standstill due to internal politics. In contrast, under the EXPRESS READ Relief to Revanth: SC refuses to transfer cash-for-vote trial to Bhopal New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday in its order refused to transfer the trial of the 2015 cashfor-vote case involving Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and others, from Telangana to Bhopal. In its orders, a bench directed Revanth not to interfere in any way with the functioning of the prosecution in the case. The top court accepted the apology offered by Revanth for his remarks on the SC’s decision to grant bail to BRS MLC K Kavitha in the Delhi liquor policy case | P4 E N S @ Tirumala/Vijayawada THE controversy surrounding the famous Tirupati laddu’s quality deepened on Friday with Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) executive officer Shyamala Rao confirming that adulterated ghee was supplied by AR Dairy Food Pvt Ltd, a Tamil Nadu-based firm, adding action has been taken to blacklist it. However, former CM and YSRC president Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy rubbished the charges of adulteration, adding it was a diversionary tactic by his successor N Chandrababu Naidu. Shyamala Rao, who assumed charge as executive officer on June 16 this year, said five companies were supplying ghee to TTD at `320-`411 per kg. Since they were way below their cost of production, they set off warning bells. “After our warning, supplies from all except one were found to be good. We found four tankers of ghee from AR Dairy to be substandard. Samples from the four tankers were sent to National Dairy Development Board’s (NDDB) accredited lab CALF. It confirmed the low quality he explained. ,” On the political front, Jagan accused Naidu of playing with the sentiments of devotees to divert public attention from his failure to implement election promises even after completing 100 days in office. Explaining that there was no scope for using animals fat or adulterated ghee in Tirumala, he said procurement of ghee is a routine process that is being followed for decades. HYDRAA gets statutory status, more teeth E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Hyderabad THE state Cabinet on Friday not only approved a proposal to accord statutory status to the Hyderabad Disaster Response and Assets Monitoring and Protection Agency (HYDRAA), but also decided to empower the agency to carry out its task of removing encroachments in FTLs and buffer zones of water bodies and protect them. The Cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, also took some crucial decisions on various issues. Following the meeting, Ministers Ponguleti Srinivasa Reddy, N Uttam Kumar Reddy and Komatireddy Venkat Reddy briefed the media. Srinivasa Reddy said: “The Cabinet decided to give to HYDRAA the powers and rights given to municipalities, corporations and other departments to protect lakes in core Hyderabad, that is inside the Outer Ring Road. The Cabinet decided to relax the rules accordingly .” There are 27 urban local bodies and 51 recently-merged villages inside the ORR, the minister said, adding that this decision will empower OTHER KEY DECISIONS 12-member committee to be set up with principal secretaries of R&B, Revenue, Municipal Administration, NHAI officials, district collectors to finalise alignment of southern part of Regional Ring Road Expedite the remaining 5% construction works of Dindi Balancing Reservoir; speed up the process for obtaining environment and forest clearances for this project Paving the Path to Viksit Bharat Name the women’s university after Chakali Ilamma Rename Potti Sriramulu Telugu University after Suravaram Pratap Reddy Rename Indian Institute of Handloom Technology after Konda Laxman Bapuji Implement Police Arogya Bhadratha scheme under SPL scheme Sanction 3,000 teaching and non-teaching posts to eight new medical colleges in the state. Notification will follow soon Establish an engineering college in Kosgi the agency even more. The Cabinet also approved sanctioning 129 officers to HYDRAA and to send 946 employees from other departments to the agency on deputation. In another major decision, the Transfer 72 acres in Manoharabad mandal from Revenue dept to Telangana Trade Promotion Corporation for developing Multi-Modal Logistic Park Transfer 58 acres from Revenue department to Industrial department to develop an Industrial park in Yerrupalem mandal in Khammam district Approve 36 staff for newlyestablished fire station in Eturnagaram of Mulugu mandal Establish a junior college in Hakimpet Cabinet approved the revised estimates of the SLBC project. The original cost at the time the project was sanctioned in 2005 was `2,800 crore which has now been revised to `4,637 CONTINUED ON P4 crore. leadership of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, infrastructure projects like coastal road, Atal Setu and airport at Navi Mumbai came up and got completed, he said. Two sessions on economy, banking and equity markets discussed the challenges ahead, particularly those on job creation. “Creating jobs is the most critical aspect to sustain the current growth rate, which will lead to the country becoming a middle income economy said ,” banker Keki M Mistry. The former Vice Chairman and Chief Executive of HDFC said while the economy is on a solid footing growing at over 7%, to sustain this level of growth “we need to create more jobs”. To a question on the controversies around the Sebi chairman, he said the country’s regulatory framework is extremely strong and robust. Devina Mehra, founder of First Global, said though share prices are at a record high, they are frothy only in certain pockets; so new investors have opportunities. CBC 22201/13/0017/2425 Government of India Women-led Development Petitioners 100 Days of Modi 3.0 SC stays order on local quota in admissions New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Telangana High Court order, which ruled that permanent residents or those domiciled in the state cannot be denied the benefit of admission in the medical colleges in the state merely because of their study or residence outside Telangana. A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued notice on an appeal filed by the state government and response from petitioner Kalluri Naga Narasimha Abhiram, who appeared before the high court. The state government, however, agreed before the top court to grant a one-time exception for the petitioners, who had approached the high court. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Telangana, assured the court that a one-time exception would be given to 135 students who appeared before the CONTINUED ON P4 high court.
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