FRIDAY 02 AUGUST, 2024 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard ALLEGED 9/11 MASTERMIND REACHES PLEA DEAL, AVOIDS DEATH PENALTY X.com/TheMornStandard WORLD’S 1ST The alleged mastermind of the deadliest attacks ever on US soil Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two other accused reached a plea deal with the US prosecutors, the Pentagon said on Thursday AI LAW COMES INTO FORCE IN EUROPE The EU’s law on artificial intelligence came into force on Thursday, which Brussels vows will drive innovation while protecting citizens’ rights. PAGE 9 A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS  NEW DELHI  J8.00  PAGES 12 Bridge rises but hope fades Seven more bodies recovered, toll touches 256; Army opens Bailey bridge to restore connectivity with affected areas; Rahul, Priyanka visit Wayanad Bill to strengthen management of disasters creates Lok Sabha heat P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra crossing a make-shift bridge during their visit to Chooralmala in Wayanad on Thursday | EXPRESS T O B Y A N T O N Y @ Chooralmala (Wayanad) THE Army on Thursday evening opened the 190-ft-long Bailey bridge at Chooralmala that could help speed up the search operations at upstream Mundakkai and Punjirimattom villages but hopes of finding more survivors at the landslide-hit areas in Wayanad faded on Day 3 of rescue efforts. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who visited the affected areas on Thursday said all survi, vors in Mundakkai have been rescued, indicating there is little hope of finding more people alive. During the day, search teams sifted through the rubble amid heavy rains and recovered seven more bodies, taking toll in the devastating tragedy to 256. Over 200 persons are still missing. The government tally as given by Revenue , Minister K Rajan, however, is 189. “The debris at Punjirimattom and Mundakkai has piled up like a mountain. Most houses have been completed destroyed. The BAIL TO SUV DRIVER New Delhi: Bail to the SUV driver arrested for his alleged role in the drowning of 3 UPSC aspirants in the basement of a coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar Dehradun: 3 members of a family among 12 dead in Uttarakhand; Most rivers have crossed danger marks prompting the government to suspend Kedarnath Yatra Shimla: 50 people missing after multiple cloudbursts overnight in Shimla, Kullu and Mandi; Manali cut off from the rest of the country; Army and Air Force kept on standby Patna: 15 killed as lightning strikes in Bihar in last 24 hours amid an alert of heavy rain in Patna and Vaishali districts Jaipur: 3, including a 6-yr-old girl, dead as the basement of their house got flooded after heavy rain pounded Jaipur, which recorded highest rainfall of the season | P3, 8 ABOVE-NORMAL RAINFALL TILL SEPTEMBER: IMD The IMD has forecast normal to above-normal rainfall in August and September over most parts of the country except the northeast and adjoining areas of east India, Ladakh, Kutch and Saurashtra regions. This means there’s a high possibility of landslides and floods | P7 search and restoration efforts will be daunting and time-consuming, which would take more than a week,” an official at the Control Room said. As per preliminary assessment, 348 houses were damaged in the landslides. The pace of search operations at Mundakkai and Punjirimattom, which were cut off following the collapse of the bridge at Chooralmala, was slow till now because excavators could not cross the river. With the construction of the Bailey bridge, now heavy trucks carrying excavators and other equipment can reach the affected areas. On Thursday, four excavators were deployed in Chooralmala, three at Mundakkai and three at Punjirimattom, which remained inaccessible till Wednesday . “Different batches of Army, Navy, NDRF and Fire Force officials are deployed at the affected areas. Besides, several volunteer groups are also active. Over 5,000 people are engaged in the search operation alone,” said an official. Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra visited the landslide-affected areas at Chooralmala on Thursday They . also visited a hospital and community health centre in Meppadi. Calling the landslide a “national disaster”, Rahul said: “It is very difficult to speak to people in these circumstances because you really don’t know what to say to them. It’s been quite a difficult day for me, but we are going to try and help make sure that the survivors get what is their due.” P5 DAYS after deadly landslides hit Wayanad, the Centre on Thursday introduced Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, 2024 in Lok Sabha to strengthen the national and state disaster management authorities. The Opposition parties including the Congress and Trinamool Congress questioned the constitutionality of the proposed legislation and said it will undermine the federal structure of the country . The government said it has become necessary to amend certain provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 to bring more clarity and convergence regarding the roles of authorities and committees working in the field of disaster management. The 2005 Act has been reviewed in consultation with all stakeholders, including state governments, it said. The bill, which was introduced in Lok Sabha by the minister of state for home affairs Nityanand Rai, confers statutory status to certain organisations like the National Crisis Management Committee that existed before Act came into force. It will provide for the creation of a disaster database at the national and state levels, make provision for the constitution of an “Urban Disaster Management Authority” for the state capital and large cities having municipal corporations, and make provision for the constitution of “State Disaster Response Force” by the state government. Congress lawmaker Manish Tewari said none of the entries in List 1 or List 2 of the Constitution dealing with the Central and state subjects deal with the issue of disaster management. Tewari suggested that the government should amend the concurrent list to have a proper entry to cover disaster management. P7 They have agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy in exchange for a life sentence UJ WA L JA L A L I @ New Delhi THE sudden downpour that lashed the city on Wednesday evening left a trail of widespread destruction, with at least 11 deaths being reported in separate rain-related incidents across Delhi-NCR. Six weather stations across Delhi recorded over 100 mm of rain in a single day, with the India Meteorological Department declaring it as an “extremely intense spell.” Till 7 am on Thursday Delhi Po, lice received 2,945 calls about traffic jams, 127 on waterlogging, 27 about building collapses and 50 about uprooted trees. A woman and her three-year-old son were killed after they fell into an open drain in East Delhi’s Ghazipur, while an elderly couple died in Noida after a boundary wall collapsed on their shanty the , police said on Thursday . The deceased were identified as Sabur Ali (62) and his wife Ameena, both natives of Assam. Ali worked as a garbage picker and the couple was sleeping when the incident occurred. A Noida Police officer said a preliminary probe suggested the wall collapsed due to rainfall. At Sabji Mandi area, a 62-yearold man died in a building collapse. Anil Kumar Gupta was probably closing his shop when it collapsed at around 8.30 pm on Wednesday It . took a couple of hours to extricate him from the rubble. He was de- clared dead when he was rushed to St Stephen’s Hospital. At Bindapur in Dwarka, a 12-year-old boy died near his residence while he was returning from tuition. Mudit Kumar, came in contact with some electric cables protruding from the ground close to his DDA flat, officials said. Two more electrocution incidents were reported from south and southeast Delhi. IMD Director General of Meteorology Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said Mayur Vihar received the highest rainfall of 147 mm. “Yesterday’s condition was not a cloudburst; it was an extremely intense spell,” he added. P3 Big-hitters gone, but Swapnil shoots for the stars T the shooting ranges, for emotion in shooting. The heart Swapnil Kusale recedes needs to keep still and that’s what into a cocoon and Swapnil did while securing blocks himself off India one more bronze at from the noise. On the Olympics. He was hearTMS @ OLYMPICS ing the PA system but did Thursday when the , shooting final was on at the not pay heed to where he Chateauroux shooting cenwas positioned. The fiftytre, Swapnil shut himself odd Indian supporters were from the outside world. cheering him on. “I did not INDRANEEL DAS The competition was inpay attention to what the PARIS tense and Swapnil was seeMC was saying. But I could sawing; sixth, fourth, third, hear the Indian fans shoutsecond and third in the 50 m rifle ing and I shifted my attention to 3-position final. There is no place that. And I said I don’t want to dis- appoint them. I will have to win for them,” he said after the bronze. This is India’s first 3-position medal in the Olympics. A ticket collector in Indian Railways, Swapnil had a humble beginning. Hailing from a village 30 km away from the district of Kolhapur (Maharashtra), his journey took him from a nondescript village to global glory . SWAPNIL KUSALE Soon after Swapnil’s medal, though, heart-breaks followed. Three, in fact. Before the Games began, three of India’s biggest medal hopes were Sift Kumar Samra (women’s 50 m rifle 3-position), Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty (men’s doubles badminton), P V Sindhu (singles badminton) and Nikhat Zareen (women’s 50 kg boxing). All four failed to progress on a largely disapP15 pointing day . When Khalid Sheikh was captured in Pak. He spent three years in secret CIA prisons before arriving in Guantanamo in 2006. A trusted lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, it was Sheikh’s idea to use planes as weapons in the 9/11 attacks | P9 Sub-classification of SCs by states valid, rules top court MAJORITY RULING S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y By majority of 6:1, Supreme Court okays sub-classification of SCs by states A seven-judge Supreme Court bench in a landmark ruling on Thursday empowered states to sub-classify groups within the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/STs) to uplift the more socially and economically backward among them for reservation benefits. The majority 6:1 verdict set aside a 2004 judgment by a five-judge bench in the E V C h i n n a i a h c a s e, which had held that sub-classification was not permissible because SC/STs form homogenous classes. But the 6:1 ruling said the SCs are heterogeneous. However, sub-classification can be done only on the basis of quantifiable and demonstrable data of backwardness and representation in government jobs and not on whims or political expediency the bench said. , The verdict came on a batch of petitions against sub-classification laws in Punjab, Tamil Nadu and elsewhere, arguing Overrules ’04 verdict of 5-judge bench in EV Chinnaiah case Points out historical & empirical evidence to establish that SCs are socially heterogenous Says Article 14 permits subclassification of class which is not similarly situated To sub-classify, states must collect data on inadequacy of representation Wants exclusion of creamy layer from SCs Dissenting judge says states cannot change Presidential List and tinker with Article 341 to provide reservation @ New Delhi they were not in sync with the Chinnaiah order. “Article 14 permits the subclassification,” the verdict authored by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud for himself and Justice Manoj Misra said. Justices B R Gavai, Vikram Nath, Pankaj Mithal and Satish Chandra Sharma wrote separate verdicts that concurred with the CJI. Justice Bela Trivedi was the lone dissenter. She said Parliament alone has the right to include or exclude castes in the SC list, adding states cannot tinker with it. The CJI said the state in exercise of its power under Articles 15 (non-discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth) and 16 (equality in public employment) of the Constitution is free to identify the different degrees of social backwardness and provide special provisions, such as quota. States can sub-classify SCs if (a) there is a rational principle for differentiation; and (b) the rational principle has a nexus with the purpose of sub-classification. EXPRESS READ Puja Khedkar’s bail plea nixed Phase 2 of UG admissions at DU A city court on Thursday denied bail to former IAS officer Puja Khedkar, accused of clearing UPSC examinations by misusing reservation benefits. Additional Sessions Judge Devender Kumar Jangala also directed the Delhi Police to expand its probe to uncover if others had similarly abused these quotas. P4 The Delhi University on Thursday commenced Phase II of the Common Seat Allocation System (CSAS) for undergraduate admissions. The varsity has released its Allocation-cumAdmission schedule for UG admissions for the academic session 2024-25 after the NTA declared results of the CUET-UG. CBI files first chargesheet in NEET leak RAMASHANKAR & SUCHITRA K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ Patna/New Delhi After Delhi deluge, a trail of destruction SUMMER GAMES A The three were tortured extensively by the CIA. Their case has been delayed over concerns that the evidence extracted through torture was admissible in court. A plea deal avoids this problem 2003 FRIEND IN TOWN PM Narendra Modi and his Vietnamese counterpart Pham Minh Chinh in New Delhi on Thursday. India will provide $300 million credit line to Vietnam to strengthen its maritime security | SHEKHAR YADAV | P7 HC: Aadhaar info can be disclosed in special cases S H E K H A R S I N G H @ New Delhi THE Delhi High Court has held the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) can be directed to disclose Aadhaar information to the court without granting the individual concerned a prior hearing in exceptional circumstances. The ruling comes in a habeas corpus petition filed by a woman, named Vandana, seeking the production of her missing mother. A division bench, comprising Justices Prathiba M Singh and Amit Sharma, stated that while the Supreme Court’s verdict in the KS Puttuswamy case recognises Aadhaar info as private, there are notable exceptions. The HC noted that such data can be provided to the court in a sealed cover, ensuring security . Vandana’s petition sought to trace her mother, who has been missing since May 2019. Despite searches, her mother remains untraceable. However, it was revealed that her Aadhaar data had been updated with a recent address and mobile number. The HC emphasised the urgency in habeas corpus matters, particularly when the missing individual might be in danger. It underscored that the UIDAI can be directed to provide updated Aadhaar details to the HC without a prior hearing if the situation demands immediate action. THE CBI on Thursday submitted its first chargesheet against 13 accused in the NEET-UG paper leak case in a Patna court. The accused have been booked for criminal conspiracy, forgery, tampering with evidence, criminal breach of trust and theft under various sections of the IPC. The CBI has so far arrested 40 people while several others were in custody for questioning in the case. The agency has lodged six FIRs in the medical entrance exam paper leak. The FIR from Bihar pertains to the paper leak while the remaining ones from Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra are regarding impersonation of candidates and cheating. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is due to pronounce its judgment on August 2, with its detailed reasons for not cancelling the NEET-UG-24 exam. On July 23, the top court rejected the pleas for a re-test, saying the detailed reasons would be given later. The apex court observed that there is no data to suggest a “systemic breach” of the exam system. HAMAS MILITARY CHIEF MOHD DEIF DEAD The Israeli military on Thursday confirmed that the Hamas military chief was killed in Gaza in July | P9