Novak Dkokovic DHARMAPURI l sunday l june 26, 2022 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l CITY EDITION Romance of Wimbledon: Djokovic defends title Serbian Novak Djokovic and Spain’s Rafa Nadal will reignite their famed rivalry at SW19 from Monday Iga Swiatek Rafael Nadal No night sesssions | There are no night sessions, unlike at Record player All eyes on Serena Swiatek’s current winning streak of 35, which encompasses six tournament titles in a row. She is tied for the longest by a woman this century Ranked a lowly 1,204 in the world and without a competitive singles match in 12 months, Serena Williams returns to Wimbledon targeting a record 24th Grand Slam and eighth title at Big W the other three Grand Slam tournaments Women Top three seeds Iga Swiatek Anett Kontaveit Ons Jabeur FIRST Second third Men Novak DJokovic Rafael Nadal Carlos Alcaraz $50 mn Total player compensation. $2.5mn EACH to women & men champs 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 Shinde meets Shah, Fadnavis? Kalloori Kanavu to help students choose career Said to request expediting of govt formation; Uddhav to sack six rebel ministers on Monday S u d h i r S u r ya w a n s h i @ Mumbai Amid buzz on rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde flying in to Vadodara on Friday night and meeting BJP leaders Amit Shah and Devendra Fadnavis to discuss government formation, the ruling coalition in the state sought to pressure the dissidents further. According to highly placed sources, Fadnavis was seen at the Mumbai airport taking a Gujarat flight. “Rebel MLAs are getting restless. If there is delay in government forma- tion, things can go awry Shinde . wanted to urge Shah to immediately intervene to resolve the crisis, hence the meeting,” said a source. The leaders, however, were not available for comment. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray called a meeting of the Shiv Sena’s national executive, which authorised him to take decisions to revamp the organisation. On Monday Uddhav is expected to , recommend the sacking of six ministers to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari. Both sides continued playing mind games with the rebels calling their group Shiv Sena (Balasaheb) and Shinde as its leader. Parallelly, a technical battle was being fought with Deputy Speaker Narhari Jirwal rejecting a no-confidence motion against him sought by the Shinde camp as it was sent via a random email address and was not submitted in person to the Speaker’s office. In a counter-attack, the legis- Punjab in debt trap, says White Paper Jab-o-meter June 24 13,90,325 doses Take June 25 11,19,043 doses your shot Total: 1,97,06,96,547 NATIONWIDE June 24 June 25 tamil nadu June 24 June 25 Fresh cases 17,336 15,940 Fresh cases Recoveries 13,029 12,425 Recoveries Deaths 13 20 Deaths 1,359 621 0 1,382 617 0 W IT H T H IS ISSU E Anatomy of an Assassination PLUS 12 PAGES H a r p r e e t B a j w a @ Chandigarh The AAP government in Punjab on Saturday admitted the state was being pushed deeper into a debt trap in a White Paper it tabled in the Assembly, but sought to blame the previous governments for the economic morass. The economies of quite a few state governments are under similar stress, but it is only Punjab that has accepted it upfront. Just last week, the RBI had warned that the economies of Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, and Bihar are in deep trouble. But Kerala sought to rebut it. Punjab’s debt has spiraled to `2.63 lakh crore and the state has `24,351.29 crore worth liabilities to service in the immediate term, the document said. “The current debt indicators of the state are probably the worst in the country pushing it , deeper into a debt trap,” it claimed. The White Paper was tabled by state finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema on the second day of ongoing budget session. It quantified the current debt as a whopping 45.88% of the state GDP . Debt ballooned 44.23% in the last five years at a compounded annual growth rate of 7.6%, the document added. Pointing fingers at the previous Congress government, it said they left an immediate and medium-ter m liability of `24,351.29 crore. Of that amount, `13,759 crore will go towards non-payment of arrears of the sixth pay commission and `7,117.86 crore for power subsidy arrears. Gujarat riots Day after SC verdict, police arrest Teesta, ex-DGP Sreekumar E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Mumbai Bag of dreams Police personnel arranging the bags of candidates who took part in a police examination on a college campus in Tirunelveli | V KARTHIKALAGU express read GST compensation cess levy extended till 2026 Nine-month-old girl drowns in bucket New Delhi: The Centre has extended the time for levy of GST compensation cess by nearly four years till March 31, 2026. It was to end on June 30 but the GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising state FMs, on Saturday decided to extend it so that states can repay the loans taken in the last two fiscal years to make up for the shortfall in their revenue collection Chennai: A nine-month-old girl drowned allegedly after falling in a bucket of water in the washroom of a playschool in Pallavaram on Friday. The playschool is run by her mother, Angeline Jayashree (24). The baby crawled to the washroom and accidentally fell into the bucket, the Pallavaram police said. Angeline noticed her child missing and, upon searching, found the baby in a bucket in the washroom. ENS A day after a Supreme Court bench observed that people with vested interest had sought keep the 2002 post-Godhra riots pot boiling and suggested action against them, the police arrested activist Teesta Setalvad and former Gujarat DGP R B Sreekumar in Mumbai and Ahmedabad respectively on Saturday . The Gujarat Police sent its Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) to Mumbai to arrest Setalvad. The court’s ruling was widely read as pointing towards Setalvad’s NGO, Citizens for Justice and Peace, which worked extensively with many victims, including petitioner Zakia Jafri, whose family was a victim of the Gulbarg Society massacre. Setlavad was a co-petitioner in the case. As for Setalvad, she lodged a complaint at Santacruz against the Gujarat Police ATS for banging her door and assaulting her. Earlier in the day, the Ahmedabad Crime Branch arrested Sreekumar after registering a complaint and conducting a preliminary inquiry. The complaint named Sanjeev Bhatt, Sreekumar and Teesta Setalvad as accused, adding they misrepresented information, damaged the image of Gujarat and abused the legal process. According to the complaint, they had created a situation where false evidence was thrown against the Special Investigation Team probing the case, the trial court, the Gujarat High Court and the Supreme Court. TN boy steals `20L gold, shares it with pals E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Madurai Gold belonged to sister Police on Friday booked a 13year-old boy from Nagamalai Pudukottai for stealing 53 sovereigns (worth around `20 lakh) of his sister’s jewellery from his house with the help of two friends, aged 13 and 17, over a period of one year. The accused splurged it on bikes, mobile phones, and tours. According to police, the incident came to light last month after the boy’s father noticed the gold missing. The boy’s sister is in Rajasthan with her husband. Manikandan* told his 13-year-old friend and classmate Ramesh* of Kochadai about the gold in his house and One day, Manikandan’s family noticed the new mobile phone and asked him how he got it. Manikandan lied to them that he bought it using the money he won playing online games, police said Ramesh* relayed this to his 17year-old neighbour Guhan*, a school dropout. Police said it was Guhan who asked Manikandan to steal the jewellery and bring it to him. Guhan sold the jewellery, bought a new bike, and went on tours. He bought Manikandan a new mobile phone, and gave him and Ramesh a few thousands of rupees every now and then. One day, Manikandan’s family noticed the new mobile phone and asked him how he got it. Manikandan lied to them that he bought it using the money he won playing online games, police said. A police officer said Manikandan stole only one or two pieces of jewellery at a time. The police are yet to recover any of the jewellery pieces. The officer said Manikandan’s father was hesitant at first to lodge a complaint as his son would be one of the suspects if he did so. The teenagers have been booked under IPC section 379 (Punishment for theft). No one has been arrested. *Names changed Manikandan and Ramesh were not aware of the value of the gold. Guhan sold the jewellery, bought a new bike, and went on tours several times. He bought Manikandan a new mobile phone, and gave him and Ramesh a few thousands of rupees every now and then Police lature’s secretary issued disqualification notices against 16 rebel Sena MLAs, seeking their explanations in writing along with supporting documents by Monday 5.30 pm as to why they failed to attend a party meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday or face disqualification. However, the rebels refused to blink. “Since Shinde has the majority, our side should be heard first. Else, we will approach court and urge the governor to ask the government to prove its majority in the House,” Deepak Kesarkar said. P7 State of crisis A2,63,265 cr Total outstanding debt* How it ballooned 2,63,265 crore (2021-22) 1,009 crore 83,099 crore (2011-12) (1980-81) * 44.23% growth in debt over past five years EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Chennai Chief Minister MK Stalin launched the Kalloori Kanavu (College Dreams) programme, which will offer higher-education guidance to students who have cleared Class 12, at Nehru Indoor stadium here on Saturday. The programme will provide students with detailed infor mation about different courses, colleges, entrance examinations, educational loans and scholarships, etc. The State government will organise events under the programme across the State on June 29-30 and distribute career-guidance booklets to all participants. Various educational institutions will set up their stalls during these events. Thousands of students from government, aided, and private schools in Chennai took part in the event at Nehru Indoor stadium on Saturday Experts ex. plained to them about various streams of education and the employment opportunities therein. Speaking at the event, the CM termed the students the intellectual assets of TN. “The government has the duty to help you grow further. I may be the chief minister of the State, but I wish to see you all become CM MK Stalin inaugurating Kalloori Kavavu in Chennai | R Satish Babu ‘chiefs’ in your respective fields.” He appealed to parents and students not to focus only on engineering and medicine but to consider other educational streams as well. “You can become experts in a field you choose. Take a look at the achievers around the globe. You will find that choosing a field dear to them and working hard helped them become successful. Take a cue from them,” the CM said. TN has 30% of the best colleges in India, so it’s easy to get a degree. “You can, however, excel in life only if you nurture your unique skills.” The CM also underscored the need for students to develop language skills in Tamil and English.  P5