New IPL rules Ahead of the 2025 season, BCCI has made some major changes in the rules in the all-captains meet. A look... Saliva ban revoked THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l friday l march 21, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE city EDITION The usage of saliva on balls had been banned since Covid pandemic, but it has been lifted for the IPL from hereon. This came after appeals from several star bowlers including Mohammed Shami. slow overrate ban The IPL will enforce demerit points for captains if they fail to adhere to optimal over-rate. Mandatory ball change after the 11th over in second innings for night games cwg 2030: india send Expression of interest India have formally submitted Expression of Interest to host the Centenary Commonwealth Games at Ahmedabad. The letter of interest was sent by P T Usha as the chief of Commonwealth Games Association of India on March 13 | P11 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 aura of devis Kerala Governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar (centre), TNIE CEO Lakshmi Menon (sitting, left), Editorial Director Prabhu Chawla (sitting, right), Resident Editor-Kerala Kiran Prakash (fourth from left) and Deputy Resident Editor Cithara Paul (extreme right) with Devi awardees (from left) Swathy Subramanian (architect), Poornima Indrajith (actor & designer), V P Suhara (social activist & writer), Ritu Sara Thomas (architect), Maya Mohan (educator), V J Joshitha (cricketer), Sheela Kochouseph (entrepreneur), DEVI Sudhamma Chandran (forest AWARDS guide), P G Deepamol (ambulance driver), Usha Nangiar (koodiyattam artist), Latha K (chef), Sreekumari Ramachandran (writer), R N Rejitha (CRMG crane operator), Savita Rajan (architect) and Sister Roselin Chirayil (social worker) during the Devi Awards presentation ceremony at Taj Vivanta in Kochi on Thursday | T P Sooraj | P3 Presents WOMEN’S AWARDS FOR DYNAMISM & INNOVATION Elon Musk’s X sues India govt over content blocking R a kes h K u m a r @ New Delhi ELON Musk-led-social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has filed a petition in the Karnataka High Court against the Centre, accusing it of illegally blocking content on the platform. The petition, filed on Thursday, alleges the government is circumventing established legal safeguards and procedures in its bid to censor online content. According to X, the government is improperly using Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act to issue content blocking orders. It argued that this section is not intended for such purposes and that the government is deliberately by- passing the more stringent requirements of Section 69A of the IT Act and the associated Blocking Rules. Section 69A is the legally defined route by which the government can restrict access to online content that is deemed harmful to the nation’s interests. However, this process is regulated by the 2009 IT (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking for Access of Information by Public) Rules, which require a structured review process before blocking decisions are made. Section 79(3)(b) says if a government agency flags illegal content, the platform must take it down within 36 hours or risk being liable for third-party content. 30 more Naxals killed in Chhattisgarh E JA Z K A I S E R @ Raipur At least 30 members of the banned CPI (Maoist) were killed in two separate encounters in Bastar division on Thursday as security forces in, tensified operations against left-wing insurgency in south Chhattisgarh. “A joint team of the District Reserve Guards (DRG) from Bijapur and Dantewada, Special Task Force, Central Reserve Police Force and elite CoBRA force was out on search operations based on specific intelligence inputs. Around 7 am, an encounter broke out in the dense forest along the inter-district border area of BijapurDantewada, where 26 Naxalites were neutralised. During the exchange of fire, DRG jawan Raju Oyami lost his life,” said Jitendra Yadav, Bijapur district police chief. In another gunfight at Kanker district in the north Bastar region, a combined team of the Border Security Force, Bastar Fighters and DRG gunned down four Maoists close to the Abujhmad jungle of Narayanpur. No security personnel sustained injuries in the Kanker encounter. The recovered bodies of Maoists are yet to be identified and the casualty count of the red rebels may rise further, the officer said. The forces also recovered 21 weapons, including an AK-47, two Self-Loading Rifles, one INSAS rifle, three BGL rocket launchers, and explosives among others from the encoun- Jawans returning from the encounter site in the forest area at BijapurDantewada border in Bijapur, Chhattisgarh, on Thursday | ANI ter site. Union Home Minister Amit Shah stated that the security forces had achieved anoth- er big success in the mission to eliminate Naxalism under the ‘Naxal Mukt Bharat Abhiyan’. Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai praised the commitment of the security personnel. “We are achieving historic success in the fight against the Maoists,” he said. So far this year, 113 Maoists have been eliminated in various encounters in the state. Last year, Maoists lost 219 of their fighters in anti-insurgency operations. The series of encounters during the last one year are part of the renewed strategy to eliminate Maoist influence in Chhattisgarh by March 2026. Bijapur, Dantewada, Kanker and Narayanpur are among the seven Maoist-affected districts of Bastar division. EXPRESS READ ‘Will raise honorarium if Centre hikes incentive’ T’Puram: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has told the LDF leadership that though the state has financial constraints, it is ready to increase the honorarium if the Union government increases the incentive for ASHA workers. P4 CPI suspends Ismail for six months T’Puram: The CPI executive has suspended former minister and MP K E Ismail from the party’s primary membership for six months over his controversial statements following the demise of former Ernakulam district secretary P Raju. P4 16 pages, including 4 pages of THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Express