chennai l tuesday l october 22, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 l late city EDITION Gold price soars, Silver moves closer to `1 lakh / kg milestone Gold price on Monday surged `750 to hit `80,650 per 10 grams (99.5% purity), while silver zoomed `5,000 to `99,500 per kg in the national capital Diwali, Geopolitical factors push demand Precious metals shine in futures trade Bullion traders attributed the jump in gold prices to pick-up in buying by local jewellers to meet increased demand in the festive and wedding season. According to experts tracking the commodities market, the price escalation is also driven by the rising tensions in West Asia and uncertainties related to the US elections, prompting investors to pool their money into safe-haven assets ■ ■ ■ Further, a positive trend in the overseas markets as well as a fall in equity markets boosted the gold’s safe-haven appeal, experts said In futures trades on the Multi Commodity Exchange, gold contracts for December delivery jumped `493 or 0.63% to `78,242 per 10 grams Silver contracts bounced `2,822 or 2.96% to hit a high of `98,224 per kg `1,00,564 Price of 1 kg silver on MCX on Monday for March 5, 2025 delivery contract 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 ChinA Siachin Glacier daulat BeG oldi karakoraM Pass AKSAI CHIN Y JunCtion, Depsang India, China iron out wrinkles Both sides arrive at patrolling agreement on the LAC Y e s h i S e l i & M aya n k S i n g h @ New Delhi INDIA (LADAKH) Demchok The fine print The pre-2020 situation was that the Army was patrolling till its line of perception in Demchok and Depsang. “Whether we can return to those areas will be clear in the fine print,” sources said RG KAR impasse Medics call off fast after 2-hr talks with Didi S u l a g n a S e n g u p ta @ Kolkata PROTESTING doctors in West Bengal called off their hunger strike on Monday following a two-hour meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. They also cancelled their proposed strike across hospitals in the state on Tuesday . The decision was taken after a general body meeting of the doctors in the wake of their meeting with Banerjee in the state secretariat. The doctors had launched the fast-unto-death protest on October 5 in response to the horrific rape-murder of their colleague at RG Kar Hospital in August. Their demands included safety and security within hospitals, systemic reforms in the healthcare sector, and removal of West Bengal’s health secretary . Banerjee assured the doctors of her resolve to address their concerns but she refused to remove health secretary Narayan Nigam without evidence against him. Dr Debasish Haldar, speaking on behalf of the junior doctors, said they were not fully satisfied with the government’s assurances but decided to call off stir out of respect for the RG Kar hospital victim’s parents, who asked them to end the fast. Six doctors had to be hospitalised due to health complications. While breaking the fast, Dr Rumelika Kumar said, “We are solely lifting the fast on request of the parents and the civil society We are not doing it because . of the government’s requests or we are intimidated by them.” Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s primary briefing on Monday was about the upcoming 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, but what was casually mentioned became the story of the day — that India and China have arrived at a patrolling agreement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. The jaw-dropping announcement of the thaw in eastern Ladakh came in response to a question from this reporter on the buzz on the possibility of Prime Minister Narendra Modi having a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jingping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit. Chances brighten for Modi-Xi talks Product of patient diplomacy: jaishankar “There are areas which for various reasons after 2020, they blocked us, we blocked them. We have now reached an understanding which will allow patrolling as we did till 2020... It is a positive development and I would say it is a product of very patient, very persevering diplomacy,” Jaishankar said At a different event later in the day, foreign minister S Jaishankar indicated that both sides had effectively gone back to the pre-2020 situation. “With that we can say the disengagement with China has been completed. Details will come out in due course,” he said. It was in 2020 that 20 Indian jawans died after a brawl with PLA soldiers in the Galwan valley along the LAC. Bilateral ties became frigid ever since. “Over the last several weeks, Indian and Chinese diplomatic and military negotiators have been in close contact with each other in a variety of forums. As a result of these discussions, an agreement has been made for patrolling arrangements along the LAC leading to disengagement and a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020. We will be taking the next steps on this,’’ Misri said. Sources indicated that there is a strong likelihood of the ModiXi bilateral. The prime minister will also have bilateral meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Dr Masoud Pezeshkian. The announcement came days after the US law enforcement department unsealed the second indictment in the alleged murder-for-hire attempt against Khalistani radical Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil, in which a former RAW officer was named and shamed. The two sticking points on the LAC that had defied resolution for this long are at Depsang and Demchok. Multiple military sources said that things will take time to get clear as “not much has changed on ground”. Troops continue to be stationed in the vicinity of the 832 km LAC on Eastern Ladakh.  P9 Deepavali rush: TNSTC to run 14K buses from oct 28-30 Ex p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai A total of 14,086 government buses will be operated across Tamil Nadu from October 28 to 30, to help the public commute ahead of Deepavali, said Transport Minister S S Sivasankar on Monday. It is estimated that 5.83 lakh commuters will travel from Chennai during these three days. Addressing reporters, Sivasankar stated that unlike last year, buses will only be operated from the Kalaignar Centenary Bus Ter minus (KCBT) in Kilambakkam, Chennai Mofussil Bus Terminus (CMBT) in Koyambedu and the Madhavaram Mofussil Bus Terminus. No services will run from temporary stands at Tambaram MEPZ, Poonamallee or other locations. Importantly, to meet the increased demand, private buses will be hired by the Villupuram Corporation of TNSTC on a gross cost contract (GCC) basis and operated on mofussil routes from Chennai to various parts of the state, the minister said. Under the GCC model, the transport corporation will collect ticket fares deploying a conductor, while private operators will cover the costs of bus maintenance and driver wag- es, and will be compensated at a fixed rate. The rate for private buses has been set at `51 per kilometre. Recently, the Villupuram corporation operated five private buses on the Chennai - Tiruvannamalai route during the pooja holidays. “The number of commuters opting to travel by bus has increased significantly. While we haven’t finalised the exact number of buses to be operated during Deepavali, private buses will be deployed based on demand at government fare rates,” Sivasankar said, adding that private bus operators have been asked to keep their buses ready.  P7 We have scheduled a meeting with omni bus operators on October 24. Strict instructions will be issued to prevent them from overcharging S S Sivasankar, TN transport minister private buses hired To meet the festival-time demand, private buses will be hired by the Villupuram Corporation of TNSTC on a gross cost contract (GCC) basis and operated on mofussil routes from Chennai to various parts of the state. The rate for private buses has been set at `51 per kilometre. Hoax callers to be put under no-fly list: Rammohan Naidu Ex p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ New Delhi TO deal with the menace of hoax bomb threats to airlines, the Centre plans to amend rules to place the culprits in the no-fly list and initiate criminal charges against them, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said on Monday. He said such threats will be made a cognisable offence, which will attract punishment and fines. Naidu said the government is considering amendments to the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Civil Aviation Act, 1982, to strengthe n m e a s u r e s . “ E ve n though most of them are hoax threats, we cannot take them lightly The lives . of passengers are important, the security situation is impor- tant, and protocol is important,” he added. These hoax bomb calls also caused financial loss to airlines that had to divert flights for safety reasons. An airline official said the financial loss due to frequent diversions ranges from a few lakh rupees to a couple of crores per flight, depending on the size of the plane. The minister also announced the extension of affordable regional air connectivity scheme, UDAN, for 10 more years. Around 1.5 crore passengers have benefited so far. Meanwhile, CISF and BCAS brass met Home Secretary Govind Mohan on Monday. Sources said the threats originated overseas but their exact location could not be traced so far. Eternal pain A woman mourns during the funeral of Dr Shahnawaz, who was shot dead by terrorists in Jammu & Kashmir’s Ganderbal district on Sunday evening, at Naidgam in Budgam district, on Monday. Six migrant workers were also killed in the targeted terror attack | PTI | P10 SC: Secularism part of statute’s basic structure S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Monday said secularism had always been held to be part and parcel of the basic structure of the Constitution. A two-judge bench of the court comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar made the observation while hearing a batch of petitions filed by former Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy, advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain and others, challenging the insertion of the words “socialist” and “secular” in the Preamble of the Constitution. The addition came through the 42nd constitutional amendment moved by the then Indira Gandhi government in 1976. “This court has in a number of judgments held that secularism was always part of the basic structure of the Constitution. If one looks at the right to equality and the word ‘fraternity’ used in the Constitution, there is a clear indication that secularism has been held as the core feature of the Constitution,” the bench said. “When secularism was debat- Retrospective ed, there was only the French effect challenge model. The Supreme Court has Advocate Ashwini struck down statutes that go Upadhyay said he was against secularism. You may not against the words look at Article 25. For socialism, “socialist”, “secular” or we have not followed the West- “integrity” but was ern concept and we are happy against their insertion about it,” Justice Khanna told into the Preamble in the petitioners. 1976 with retrospective He said there were different effect from Nov 26, 1949 meanings of socialism and one “should not take the meaning adopted in Western countries”. “Socialism can also mean there has to be a fair opportunity for all — the concept of equality Let us not take it as a Western concept. It can . have some different meanings as well. Same goes with the word secularism,” he said. Swamy submitted that the Preamble was a declaration made on November 26, 1949 and therefore, adding further words to it through a subsequent amendment was arbitrary He said it was wrong to say that according to the . present Preamble, the Indian people agreed on November 26, 1949 to make the country a socialist and secular republic. The Preamble cannot be altered, varied or repealed, he argued. The bench said it would examine the matter and posted it for further hearing on November 18. HC grants interim bail to double lifer TN takes first step towards becoming accessible convicted in 1996 Navarasu murder 2 yrs after deadline S u b a s h i n i V i j aya k u m a r @ Chennai Over two years have gone by since the Tamil Nadu government missed the June 2022 deadline set in the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act of 2016 to ensure all public buildings in the state are accessible. Now, the department for welfare of differently abled persons has finally a taken a step towards fulfilling the goal by initiating the process to empanel agencies to conduct longoverdue access audits of public facilities, including transportation terminals, hospitals, parks and government buildings, across the state. “About three years ago, the department attempted to conduct access audits, but the effort was unsuccessful for various reasons, such as the lack of presence of the selected agencies in certain locations. That is why we have now decided to empanel multiple agencies for the purpose. Once the agencies are empanelled, we will begin the audits. Government depart- ments can also engage them to audit their buildings,” said a senior department official. The state could use one of the 17 organisations empanelled by the union gover nment to audit how disabledfriendly its infrastructure is, but given the scale of the task at hand the department has invited Expressions of Interest (EOI) from agencies, organisations, NGOs, trusts and other entities to conduct these access audits. Selected agencies will be empanelled for a period of seven years from the date of issuance of the selection order.  P7 R S i v a k u m a r @ Chennai The Madras High Court on Monday granted interim bail to John David, convicted and sentenced to double life in the infamous murder of medical student Pon Navarasu at Annamalai University in 1996, while quashing a Government Order rejecting his application for premature release. David has been incarcerated for about 17 years and is currently in Puzhal Central Prison. A division bench of Justices S M Subramaniam and V Sivagnanam passed the orders on a petition filed by his mother Dr Esther. David’s application for premature release had been accepted by the Tamil Nadu government but rejected by Governor R N Ravi. Subsequently, the government issued another G.O. rejecting the application. Holding that the governor is bound to accept the decision of the state cabinet under Article 161 of the Constitution, the bench found no justification for the governor’s decision. Quashing the rejection order, the bench ordered the government to reconsider the application as expeditiously as possible. The murder of Navarasu, son of former University of Madras Vice-Chancellor Dr P K Ponnusamy, shook the state. His mutilated body parts were recovered from different places. The gruesome murder was a fallout of ragging in the institution. David was Navarasu’s senior. In 1998, a Cuddalore court convicted and sentenced David to double life on two counts under sections 302 and 364 of the IPC.  P7