TIRUNELVELI l sunday l november 17, 2024 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l CITY EDITION india’s hockey hub, Odisha, finally wins National title dominating five-goal fest for winners After investing in infrastructure, promotion, including sponsoring both men & women’s national teams, the state has emerged on top most players from sundargarh nursery In the final on Saturday, Odisha defeated Haryana 5-1 to win the title at the Mayor Radhakrishnan Hockey Stadium in Chennai. For Odisha, Rajat Akash Tirkey scored the first goal in the first quarter before Pratap Lakra doubled the lead in the 39th minute. In the fourth quarter, Shilanand Lakra scored three goals to seal the title ■ ■ ■ At least 12 players were from the cradle of Indian hockey in the team. Coach Bijay Lakra said some of them grew up playing together. This was Haryana’s 3rd consecutive final appearance (2022 winners) Earlier in the day, Lalit Upadhyay and Rajkumar Pal helped Uttar Pradesh beat Manipur to finish third in the competition I P11 1st This is the first-ever senior national title for Odisha 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 Imphal valley on boil, mob storms houses of ministers Speculation rife on some BJP MLAs submitting resignation today LIft AFSPA from six areas, says govt Prasa n ta M az u m d ar @ Guwahati Five Maoists shot dead in Chhattisgarh E J A Z K A I S E R @ Raipur Five cadres of the outlawed CPI (Maoist), including two women fighters in uniform, were gunned down by security forces in an encounter on Saturday in the north Abujhmad area located along the edgy inter-district borders of NarayanpurKanker in Chhattisgarh. Two jawans — Heerman Yadav and Khileshwar Gawde — sustained bullet injuries in the gunfight and were shifted to a hospital where they were said to be stable and out of danger. “Based on an intelligence input about the presence of Maoists in the north Abujhmad (meaning unfamiliar land) region, a joint team of District Reserve Guard (DRG), Special Task Force (STF) and Border Security Force (BSF) left on the planned operation during the intervening night of 1516 November. As the search campaign moved ahead, an encounter began around 8 am after the Maoists opened fire on the forces that came close to their hideout location. So far, five bodies of Maoists have been recovered from the encounter site,” said a police officer. WITH THIS ISSUE Feeling at Home PLUS 12 PAGES Massive protests broke out in Manipur’s Imphal valley on Saturday after the bodies of six persons, believed to be of those reported missing from Jiribam district on Monday were recov, ered from a river close to the border of Assam’s Cachar and Manipur’s Jiribam districts. Miscreants also vandalised and burned down five churches and six houses in Jiribam on Saturday evening, the Indigenous Tribal Advocacy Committee claimed. In the wake of widespread protests, the state government temporarily suspended internet and mobile data services in the affected districts. The protesters attacked the houses of several MLAs and damaged properties at some places. They also stormed the houses of two BJP ministers. Vehicles were also set on fire. One of the MLAs, whose house was targeted, was R K Imo, who is the son-in-law of Chief Minister N Biren Singh. As the protesters are going for the jugular of the elected members for failing to control Massive protests were held on Saturday in Imphal after six bodies were found The Manipur government has written to the Centre requesting it to review its Nov 14 notification imposing the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in six jurisdictions in the Imphal valley. The state cabinet discussed it at a meeting late Friday night and decided to request the Centre to review and withdraw the said declaration No reason was cited the escalating violence, speculations are rife that some of the BJP’s legislators could resign on Sunday . The influential Meitei organisation ‘Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity’ announced a civil disobedience movement from Saturday . The bodies of all six persons were taken to the nearby Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) in Assam’s Cachar district for post-mortem. Three of the bodies were recovered on Friday and the others on Saturday The state govern. ment in a statement issued earlier in the day confirmed that three of the bodies were of the missing persons. Three women and three children went missing from Jiribam following Monday’s gunfight in which CRPF and police personnel had gunned down 10 “militants”. Kuki-Zo organisations claimed they were “village volunteers”. Tension had been building across the Imphal valley since Friday night following reports about the recovery of three bodies. The protests intensified later in the day on Saturday when reports emerged about the recovery of three more bodies. Land given to descendants of Kattabomman sold illegally S G o d s o n Wise ly Dass @ Thoothukudi Several acres of ‘assigned patta land’ given by the Tamil Nadu government to the descendants of Veerapandiya Kattabomman, the legendary palayakarar or poligar of Panchalankurichi who fought the British East India company with great valour and was killed through treachery, has been illegally sold to non-family members over the years in violation of norms. Despite an investigation report on the matter being submitted 10 years ago, no action was taken against the officials and the realtors who sold the land, sources said. The state government gave three acres of land each to 143 legal heirs of Kattabomman at Panchalankurichi village and P Duraisamypuram village of Ottapidaram taluk on April 19, 1978, as per a Government Order dated January 25, 1978. The plots were diverted from the Ottapidaram forest land and provided to the descendants to help them pursue agriculture and improve their livelihoods.  P5 A housing plot on the assigned patta land | Express Assigned patta land of 81 descendants, spanning 243 acres, was sold off over the past four decades Investigation report e x p r ess r e a d Valluvar in saffron robes: TN guv event sparks row Actor Kasthuri Shankar arrested in Hyderabad by Chennai police team Chennai: Governor R N Ravi landed in a controversy again after an image of Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar clad in saffron robes was used during a seminar held at Raj Bhavan on Saturday | P4 Chennai: Actor Kasthuri, whose anticipatory bail plea was rejected by the Madras HC last week, was arrested in Hyderabad by a special Chennai police team on Saturday. She was booked for allegedly making offensive remarks against the Telugu community in Tamil Nadu | P5 1 0 - c r suit f o r 3 - se c o n d c l i p Nayan spars with Dhanush over Netflix docu E x p ress n e w s ser v i c e @ Chennai Actor Nayanthara took to Instagram on Saturday to address a legal dispute involving actordirector Dhanush, accusing him of obstructing the making of her Netflix documentary Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale. She alleged that Dhanush demanded `10 crore as compensation for using three seconds of behind-the-scenes (BTS) footage from their 2015 film Naanum Rowdy Dhaan in the documentary . The documentary explores Nayanthara’s relationship with her husband Vignesh Shivan, a filmmaker, tracing it all the way back to the filming of Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, which was produced by Dhanush, under his Wunderbar Films banner. In an open letter, Nayanthara expressed frustration over the legal notice sent by Dhanush demanding `10-crore compensation for the use of three seconds of BTS footage. She stated that the clips in question were captured using personal devices and had been publicly shared on social media in the past. Furthermore, she revealed that her team has spent two years attempting to obtain an No Objection Certificate (NOC) from the actor-director, who allegedly refused to approve the use of even photographs and lyrics from the film. “Cinema is a fight for survival for people like me, who are self-made,” she said, accusing Dhanush of harbouring a grudge against the documentary and her personal life. She further stressed that his actions affected not just her and her husband but the numerous people who have worked on the documentary. She concluded by urging Dhanush to move past any resentment and allow her documentary to release without further conflict. P5 Open letter gets mixed response In response, a number of actors, notably Dhanush’s previous collaborators, sided with Nayanthara, while others dismissed the matter, calling it a ‘marketing strategy’ ahead of the Netflix documentary’s release on November 18 SAD presidentship Constrained by Takht, Badal calls it quits H ar p ree t B aj w a @ Chandigarh Embattled Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday submitted his resignation, drawing the curtain over two decades of dynastic rule in the second oldest political party in the country . His position in the party had become untenable after the Akal Takht, the highest temporal seat of Sikhs, declared him a tankhayia (guilty of religious misconduct) two-and-a-half months ago but did not announce his sentence and barred him from any political activity . Ever since his father Parkash Singh Badal became party president in 1995, it became a Badal family pocket borough, with the baton of presidentship being passed to Sukhbir in 2008. On August 29, Sukhbir had appointed senior party leader Balwinder Singh Bhundar as the SAD working president. SAD leader Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said Bhunder has convened an emergency meeting of the SAD Working Committee on Monday at the party’s headquarters here to consider Sukhbir’s resignation and chart out the next course of action, including initiating the process to elect his successor. The last organisational elections within the party was held on December 14, 2019. Sukhbir had recently suffered a fracture on his right foot and underwent a corrective surgery at the PGI in Chandigarh. His resignation comes three days after he approached the Akal Takht with a fresh appeal to Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh (High Priest) to convene a meeting of the clergy soon to pronounce his religious punishment. On August 30, Sukbir was declared tankhaiya for the mistakes committed by his party’s government from 2007 to 2017 when he was deputy chief minister and SAD president. Friday speech to be vetted: Waqf Board E J A Z K A I S E R @ Raipur In what is decidedly the first such directive anywhere in the country the Chhattisgarh State , Waqf Board in the BJP-ruled state issued a circular to the Mutawallis (caretakers) of all mosques asking them to get the sermons they deliver every Friday afternoon before the prayer vetted by it. “There should not be any political colour in the speeches given ahead of the Jumma namaz every Friday At times, . fatwas are issued from the mosques or support is extended to some political party Mosques . should confine themselves to religious preaching or practices and not become a siyasi adda (political nest). So, I have instructed all Mutawallis to apprise the Waqf Board regarding the contents of their sermons and get our consent,” Chhattisgarh Waqf Board chairman Salim Raj told this newspaper on Saturday . He contended that he has not overste pped his brief, as mosques and dargahs fall within the ambit of the Waqf Board. Raj said imams have also been asked to create awareness regarding the government’s welfare schemes, especially those meant for the minorities.