wednesday 1-1 25 december, 2024 The five-Test series is level at one a piece The Morning Standard Boxing day test: India hope for MCG heist wishes its readers Champions Trophy: India and Pakistan clubbed in same group The Melbourne Cricket Ground pitch is expected to be seamer-friendly when India take on Australia in fourth Test on Thursday morning A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS Govt schools told to check admissions of illegal migrants i f r a h m u f t i @ New Delhi Three days after the MCD issued directions to its schools mandating stricter admission procedures to prevent illegal Bangladeshi migrants from enrolling their children, the Delhi government also passed a similar order on Tuesday CM Ati. shi shared the order on ‘X’, stating, “Today, the Education Department of the Delhi government has passed a strict order that no Rohingya should be given admission in the government schools of Delhi. We will not let the rights of the people of Delhi be taken away!” Schools have been instructed to verify applicants’ identity and residence proofs thoroughly Required documents include . Aadhaar cards, birth certificates, and valid residence proof such as rent agreements or utility bills. Authorities have emphasised the importance of cross-checking these documents during admission to ensure authenticity . Schools must also report suspicious cases to the Directorate of Education (DoE). The directive highlights the role of school administrations in identifying and flagging potential irregularities in applications. Law enforcement agencies have expressed concerns that illegal migrants are using forged documents to secure school admissions, potentially affecting national security The . government’s directive aims to tackle the issue without disrupting access to education for genuine applicants. Education department officials said that the order seeks to protect the system from misuse while ensuring deserving students can access their right to education. Schools are urged to uphold transparency in their admission procedures to maintain trust in the system. The government has also advised schools to conduct awareness sessions for parents about the updated requirements. These sessions aim to prevent misunderstandings and ensure compliance with the new rules during the admission cycle. 4 Bangla nationals held, P4 Arif Mohd Khan R V Arlekar A K Bhalla V K Singh l New Delhi H B Kambhampati Guv Appointments, shuffles Arif transferred to Bihar, Bhalla goes to Manipur Kerala governor shifted to NDA-ruled Bihar; former home secy gets to manage Manipur Rajesh Kumar Thakur @ New Delhi Strife-torn Manipur on Tuesday got a seasoned hand in former Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla as its new governor. The state is yet to emerge from the ethnic conflict between Meiteis and KukiZo groups that led to violence since May last year. Bhalla, the longest-serving Union Home Secretary, completed his five-year tenure on August 22 this year. He is known to be a tough administrator and a strategist. Bhalla is a retired 1984-batch IAS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre. If he manages to help bring some stability to Manipur, it would be a job well done. Till now, Assam Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya was holding additional charge of Manipur. Bhalla was among the five gubernatorial appointments/ transfers announced on Tuesday. The other big announcement was a swap between Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and his Bihar counterpart Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar. This newspaper had reported earlier that Arif would figure in the gubernatorial reshuffle this year. Khan’s appointment in Bihar is being seen as a strategic move ahead of assembly elections in the state in 2025 in which the BJP as a major ally of the Bihar NDA nurtures dreams of coming to power on its own. Khan is a liberal Muslim scholar who articulates the Centre’s policies upfront. He was forever on a collision course with Kerala LDF government led by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Retired General V K Singh was appointed governor of Mizoram. The BJP had denied him a ticket for the Lok Sabha polls this year. Gen Singh replaces Dr Hari Babu Kambhampati, who has been transferred as governor of Odisha after incumbent Raghubar Das put in his papers citing personal reasons. Gen Singh’s name was doing the rounds for a gubernatorial assignment for long time and his appointment was expected to be either in J&K or Manipur but it went to Mizoram. Sources said many more gubernatorial appointments are on the cards for states like UP , J&K, Bengal and some UTs. l J8.00 An u p V e r m a @ New Delhi AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday pledged 24-hour water supply to the residents of the city adding to his series of promises ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections. While inaugurating round-theclock water supply in the Rajinder Nagar area, the former CM said, “Now the whole of Delhi will get clean water from the tap 24 hours a day. We promised clean water to every household in Delhi 24x7; Today I , am proud to announce that this mission has begun.” During his visit to Pandav Nagar, Kejriwal poured himself a glass from the tap and drank the water. “It is very sweet and clean,” he said. The government has developed infrastructure to ensure uninterrupted water supply to DDA flats in Pandav Nagar, he said. The water is sourced from DJB’s Chandrawal Water Treatment Plant. “When we took over the government in 2015, around 50-60% of the K S S R EEJI T H @ T’Puram A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in the Christmas celebration hosted by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) in Delhi, a senior Orthodox Church Bishop in Kerala on Tuesday openly questioned the saffron party’s outreach to the Christian community . “There (in Delhi), they honour the bishops and revere cribs. Here (in Kerala), they destroy the cribs,” the metropolitan of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church’s Thrissur Diocese, Yuhanon Mar Meletius, said in a Facebook post. The bishop’s sharp remarks come in the backdrop of the ar- The Ministry of Mines on Tuesday requested the Tamil Nadu government to keep the process of issuing the Letter of Intent (LoI) to the preferred bidder, Hindustan Zinc Limited, for mining of tungsten in Nayakkarpatti Tungsten Block in Madurai on hold. It has cited objections relating to auctioning of the block over the existence of biodiversity heritage site within block area. The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has been asked to explore the possibility of redefining the block boundary by PAGES 12 city depended on water tankers. Tanker mafia was at work. Today, after 10 years, I am delighted that more than 97% of Delhi receives water through pipelines. However, the city doesn’t have 24x7 water or clean water directly from taps. Today, the journey towards that goal begins here, in DDA Flats, Rajinder Nagar,” the AAP chief said. He emphasized his mission to ensure 24x7 clean water supply directly from the taps, with full pressure even on the third and fourth floors, and confirmed that the mission has commenced. Regarding the delays, he sought to clarify: “In the 2020 elections, I promised that by 2025 elections, we would ensure 24x7 water supply across Delhi. There has been a slight delay because of the Covid-19 pandemic and the false cases they filed against us during this time, which scattered our team. Sometimes Manish Sisodia was in jail, sometimes Satyendar Jain was in jail, and sometimes they put me in jail.” manuspeak lapse yes but motivated Olympics double medallist Manu Bhaker said “there has been a lapse” from her side while filing nominations for awards but says she is motivated to win medals | P11 rest of three VHP workers in Palakkad for trying to disrupt Christmas celebrations at a school and the destruction of a crib made by students of another school by unidentified persons. The two incidents sparked widespread protests in Kerala, where the state unit of the BJP had started its outreach programme in which leaders would visit church heads and 10 lakh Christian homes till December 30. According to sources, the central leadership of the BJP asked Union minister George Kurian and state BJP president K Surendran to openly condemn the act of the three VHP workers. The powerful Syro Malabar Church is also not convinced by the BJP’s outreach bid. “This is part of a strategy to display dominance over the minority community,” said Fr Joby Kachappilly . Political analysts view the developments as an emerging paradox within the Sangh Parivar with re gard to ideology and political correctness. There (in Delhi), they honour the bishops and revere cribs. Here (in Kerala), they destroy the cribs Yuhanon Mar Meletius actor seeks bail t’gana cops grill Allu Arjun over stampede death C h i t h a l u r i R e v a nt h @ Hyderabad Adieu, Shyam Babu The mortal remains of filmmaker Shyam Benegal being taken for the last rites, at a crematorium in Mumbai on Tuesday | ANI Centre puts tungsten mining in TN on hold @ Chennai India are yet to decide on the final XI, but the Aussies have said they will hand 19-year-old Sam Konstas his debut. The visitors need a win to retain the BorderGavaskar Trophy. Match live: 5 am BJP X’mas outreach hits Kerala wall BOSNIA Express News Service rival neighbours play in dubai on feb 23 India are clubbed with Pakistan, New Zealand and Bangladesh in Group A. Group B comprises South Africa, Australia, Afghanistan and England. India vs Pakistan is on February 23. If India progress to semis, they will play in Dubai on March 4. If Pak advance, they play in 2nd semis in Lahore next day. If India enter final, it will be in Dubai or else in Lahore on March 9 | P11 Kejriwal promises 24x7 drinking water from taps left powerless after snow storm Tens of thousands of homes were left without electricity on Monday, after the northern parts of the Balkan country were hit by heavy snow and strong winds. The storm is predicted to intensify in the coming days | P9 l The ICC finally announces the schedule for the global 50over competition that begins from February 19 in Karachi Biodiversity heritage site within block The Ministry of Mines requested the TN government to keep the process of issuing the Letter of Intent to the preferred bidder, Hindustan Zinc Ltd, for mining of tungsten in Nayakkarpatti in Madurai on hold, citing objections relating to auctioning of the block over the existence of biodiversity heritage site within the area. excluding the biodiversity site, a press statement issued by the ministry on Tuesday said. This newspaper was the first to report about the plan to mine molybdenum and tungsten in Tamil Nadu. The ministry’s announcement has come two weeks after the Tamil Nadu Assembly on December 9 unanimously adopted a resolution urging the Centre to immediately cancel the tungsten mining rights given to Hindustan Zinc Limited and not to grant any mining licence in the future without the permission of the state government. Speaking in the Assembly, CM MK Stalin had declared that as long as he is the CM, the state government will never allow tungsten mining in Madurai district. The chief minis- ter had also urged PM Narendra Modi to cancel the award of tungsten mining rights. The mines ministry had earlier said that inputs were taken from the Tamil Nadu government before the auction of the tungsten block and no communication from any quarter, including from the state, regarding any opposition to the tender was received. The statement by the mines ministry on Tuesday said that the secretary, in a letter dated December 6, 2023, sent to Chief Secretary of TN requested details of three critical mineral blocks to be put up for auction, including Nayakkarpatti. Actor Allu Arjun, accused in the Sandhya Theatre stampede case, was on Tuesday grilled for more than three hours by police. Parallelly a bail plea was filed on , his behalf in Nampally court here. Arjun faces charges of culpable homicide as a woman was crushed to death in the stampede. And her son continues to be in a critical state in a hospital. The Nampally court is expected to hear the bail petition in the next few days. The court has already granted bail to six people in the case. Arjun reached the Chikkadpally police station at 11 am where a team of officials, led by Central Zone DCP Akshansh Yadav, questioned him. According to sources, the police posed over 20 questions regarding his visit to the theatre and the December 4 stampede. Some of the questions reportedly posed to Arjun were: Did the theatre management inform him about the denial of police permission? If they did, did they inform him or his team? “Did you, or your team, inform the theatre management about your arrival? Why did you come in a rally? While you were on the way to the theatre, why did you open During the 3-hour-long questioning, cops posed over 20 questions to the actor on his visit to the Sandhya theatre on December 4 | PTI the sunroof of your car and wave to the crowd? Were you made aware when you were inside the theatre that a person died due to that rally? Did the police inform you on that day about the death of a woman?” were reportedly among the questions the police asked Arjun. Sources said that the police showed videos of the stampede. “Why did you hold a press meet? Do you stick by what you said at the press meet since the videos indicate otherwise?” were some of the other questions. “Lately, RSS chief Mohan Bhagawat has been asking various Sangh Parivar outfits to put a stop to their claims over mosques,” said political analyst Ajith Sreenivasan. However, the call was challenged by several Sangh Parivar organisations with seer bodies like Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti even criticising Bhagwat, Sreenivasan pointed out. In its pushback, the VHP said its workers only tried to question when small students were dressed up as Santas. “Parents of Hindu children had submitted petitions to the education department that their wards were paraded without consent,” said VHP’s state general secretary V R Rajasekharan. Lokpal calls Sebi chief for oral hearing Pr e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi TAKING cognizance of complaints of impropriety and conflict of interest filed by Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra and two others, anticorruption body Lokpal on Tuesday called Sebi chief Madhabi Puri Buch and the complainants for ‘oral hearing’ on January 28. The complaints were made on the basis of a report by USbased short-seller Hindenburg Research, according to an official order. In its report, Hindenbu r g a l l e g e d that Buch and her husband had stakes in obscure of fshore funds used in the alleged money siphoning scandal involving the Adani Group. The Lokpal had on November 8 sought Buch’s ‘explanation’ on the complaints filed by Moitra, a Lok Sabha member and two others. In its order, the Lokpal asked the Registry to issue notices to the RPS (respondent public s e r v a n t ) a s we l l a s t h e complainant(s) to avail of the opportunity of oral hearing on January 28. “It will be open to the RPS (respondent public servant) as well as the complainant to authorise an advocate to espouse their cause, if they so desire at the time of oral hearing,” the order said.