CCI slaps `213 crore penalty on Meta The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Monday imposed `213.14 crore penalty on the company for abusing its dominant position. The penalty is over Meta-owned WhatsApp’s 2021 privacy policy update on a ‘takeit-or-leave-it’ basis. The commission said the update forces users to comply, undermining their autonomy chennai l tuesday l november 19, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 l 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 Protester killed; more troops sent to Manipur Helpless local BJP office bearers resign; Shah holds 2nd review meet M U K E S H R A N J A N an d P rasan ta M a z um d ar @ New Delhi/ Guwahati Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday chaired a high-level meeting to review the security situation in Manipur with senior officials, his second in as many days. One person was killed and another injured in alleged police firing during mob violence in Jiribam town on Sunday night even as several local office bearers of the ruling BJP submitted their resignations expressing deep concern over the prevailing “unwelcome/ helpless situation”. A mob had gone on the rampage in Jiribam and attacked the offices of the BJP and the Congress, prompting the police to allegedly open fire. The state government has ordered a probe. Given the volatile situation, the Union home ministry decided to send 50 more companies of the Central Armed Police Forces to the trouble-torn state. This is over and above 20 Minister Govindas Konthoujam’s residence, that was set on fire in Bishnupur | PTI companies sent last week. At the meeting, Shah directed the CAPFs and the state police to intensify their operations to quickly restore normalcy. In Imphal, Chief Minister N Biren Singh chaired a meeting with the NDA legislators. Twenty-three MLAs — 14 from BJP, five from its ally Naga People’s Front, three from National People’s Party (NPP) and an Independent — besides the lone Rajya Sabha member attended the meet. The NDA has a strength of 46 in the 60-member House. The NPP served notices to its three MLAs who attended the meet despite the party’s withdrawal of support to the government. The meetings came in the wake of arson attacks and vandalism by mobs targeting the houses and the properties of over a dozen legislators, including ministers. Leishangthem Susindro, a minister, has built a bunker at his house, which was targeted by a mob. ‘Increase central tax share to states to 50%’ E x press N e w s S er v i c e @ Chennai Chief Minister MK Stalin, during his meeting with 16th Finance Commission chairman Arvind Panagariya and members of the panel in Chennai on Monday, expressed concern over the decrease in devolution of central funds to the state and increasing financial burden due to additional expenses incurred for projects jointly implemented by the state and the centre. Stalin urged the commission to address the disparities in sharing of revenue among states and increase the share of central taxes to states to 50%. Though the 15th Finance Commission recommended for @ Mumbai Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday said the current cost of borrowing is very stressful and asked banks to cut the interest rates to make borrowing more affordable. “What is important is that when you look at our growth requirements, and you have so many different voices coming out and saying the cost of borrowing is really very stressful, and a time when we want indus- tries to ramp up and move (to) building capacities, interest rates will have to be far more affordable,” Sitharaman said at a SBI event here. Her remarks come amid the Reserve Bank of India’s decision not to lower the interest The 16th Finance Commission chairperson Arvind Panagariya on Monday said TN has presented a well-researched analytical report and has explained its demands and grievances in a well-balanced and convincing manner | P4 providing 41% tax revenue share, in the last four years, contrary to the recommendation, the union government’s total tax devolution was just 33.16%, the CM said. Additional funds should be allocated to performing states like Tamil Nadu, considering the overall development of the country. “A new approach should be adopted so that devel- CM Stalin submits memorandum to Arvind Panagariya at Chennai | Express oping states like Tamil Nadu are not affected by the decrease in central allocation,” he said. Speaking about the difficulties in implementing schemes, he said that states are largely responsible for implementing key projects in sectors like healthcare, education, social welfare, and agriculture. Despite this, the power to generate funds for such projects by the states are limited, he said. Stalin said, therefore, it is only fair and appropriate to raise the share of revenue allocated to states to 50%. “Only if the share is increased to 50%, states like Tamil Nadu will be able to implement development projects that meet their specific needs while also ensuring fiscal autonomy in managing their own finances.” Stalin also expressed concern over Tamil Nadu’s diminishing share of tax revenue, which fell from 7.831% under the 9th Finance Commission to 4.079% under the 15th Commission.P7 alliance Non-Hindu TTD staff to be sent TVK BINS REPORT ON AIADMK TIE-UP General Secretary N Anand says vested interests spreading false information on AIADMK alliance to divert public attention | P4 Current interest rates stressful, cut them, FM urges banks E x press ne w s ser v i c e Arvind: TN REPORT well-researched rates since February 2023. The rates were left unchanged for the tenth time in October. With the retail inflation rising to a 14month high of 6.21% in October, analysts are expecting the RBI to keep the rates unchanged in the next review in December. back to Andhra Pradesh govt pool E x press N e w s S er v i c e @ Tirumala The new Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams Trust Board, which met for the first time here on Monday, took several important decisions, including the surrender of non-Hindu employees working in Tirumala to the State government. It also decided to revoke the land lease to the Visakha Sarada Peetham and provide darshan to local people on the first Tuesday of every month. Shortly after taking over as trust board chairman on October 31, B R Naidu had said, “Everyone who works at Tirumala should be Hindu. That would be my first effort.” At Monday’s meeting, it was decided to hold consultations with non-Hindu employees, B R Naidu said. They will have the option of taking voluntary retirement or joining other government department, he added. As for the Visakha Sarada Peetham, he said the lease will be cancelled and the building there will be demolished because of several violations. Sarada Peetham chief Swamy Swaroopanandendra Saraswati was considered the spiritual guru of former chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy . The board also discussed at length the possibility of reducing the waiting time for Sarva Darshan. Since it takes up to 30 hours on some days, the board decided to deploy Artificial Intelligence and hire a consultancy to cut the wait time to two hours. The trust board also decided to withdraw all TTD fixed deposits from private banks and deposit them in nationalised banks.