The ideas Page: With its press note, the election Commission makes the case against itself 9 TUESdAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2026 Journalism of CouraGe MuMbaI, late CIty, 20 PaGes ₹5.00 l www.indianexpress.com Da I ly f r o M : a h M e Da b a D , C h a N D I Ga r h , D e l h I , J a I P u r , ko l k ata , l u C k N o w , M u M b a I , N aG P u r , Pat N a , P u N e , va D o Da r a REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNi REGN. NO. 1543/57 STaTe CeO WRITeS TO eLeCTION COMMISSION Of INdIa aLL eyeS ON feSTIvaL SeaSON deMaNd Maharashtra top poll officer wants Industrial output up 8% in ECINet discretion for local staff — August, FMCG a slow spot a demand the two ECs had flagged Mumbai, September 28 The Chief electoralOfficerof Maharashtra, the largest state now in the notice phase of the Special intensive Revision (SiR), wrote to the election Commission of india (eCi) in New Delhi last week, seeking fourchangestotheeCiNetsoft- Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S Chockalingam ments to accept and which discrepancies they can dispose of themselves, echo concerns already recorded by election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. The CeO’s communication, addressed to Senior Deputy election Commissioner ManeeshGarg,DirectorGeneralof iT Seema Khanna and two secretariat officers, went out on September 24, a day after an investigation by The Indian Express revealed that the two »CONTINUed ON PaGe 2 business as usual By EP UNNY 124 152 Mumbai, September 28 happening today lTheNavyCommanders’ meet trump askEd Xi if hE wantEd to buy our wEapons: u.s. Envoy pagE 16 begins in New Delhi to review its operational preparedness and contribution to safeguarding India’s maritime interests. Vithya breaks P T Usha’s record Vithya Ramraj celebrates after she clocked 54.75s in the final of the women’s 400m hurdles to claim the bronze medal at the Asian Games in Nagoya, Japan, on Monday. She broke P T Usha’s national record of 55.42s after 42 years. PtI REPORT, PAGE 19 express News Service eXpreSS special New Delhi, September 28 »CONTINUed ON PaGe 2 in this drought-hit taluka of maharashtra, monsoon came, but a long dry spell followed Kharif crops destroyed, fields too dry for rabi crops, say farmers Sadaf Modak Sakri (Dhule), September 28 fOR fARMeRS in Sakri taluka of Dhule district, this year’s droughtisnotastoryofthemonsoon failing to arrive. it is about therainsarriving,raisinghopes, andthendisappearingwhenthe crops needed them the most. Sakri is among the 265 talukas declared drought-affected bytheMaharashtragovernment last week; the state has a total of A farmer assesses his damaged crops in Sakri. NareNDra vaskar 358 talukas. While the droughthit areas cover 32 of the total 36 districts, all the four talukas in Dhule district are among the affected areas. The state recorded arainfalldeficitof18%thisyear, with 798.2 mm of rainfall betweenJune1andSeptember26, against a normal of 970.9 mm. But in Sakri, where the seasonal rainfall was around the »CONTINUed ON PaGe 2 l fORMER TOP COP hAS BEEN AwARDED fOUR yEARS’ RiGOROUS iMPRiSONMENT Behind former Kerala DGP’s sentencing in graft case, two brothers and a 36-year fight page 1 anchor Shaju Philip Thiruvananthapuram, September 28 AS fORMeR Kerala DGP Tomin Thachankary was awarded four years of rigorous imprisonment, and ordered to pay a fine of Rs 30 lakh in a disproportionate-assets (DA) case around 10 days ago, two brothers, in their late 50s and early 60s, closely watched the Alexander and Boby Kuruvila; Keralam ex-DGP Tomin Thachankary proceedings at the Vigilance court in Kottayam. Their stoic expressions did not betray their association with the case, and the decades they spent in pursuing it, but there was still satisfaction of a hard-won battle. The DA case dates to 2002 butitsrootsgoback12yearsbe- fore that, when Boby and Alexander Kuruvila were in their 20s. They belonged to Alappuzha’s prominent landlord family,Karivelithara,withtheir ancestors part of the erstwhile Travancore government. in 1990, Thachankary was posted in their town as an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP). he allegedly misused his position to implicate them in a case arising from a minor scuffle involving his distant relative. »CONTINUed ON PaGe 2 auG-26 Mar-26 8.0 Note: Growth rates are oN year-oN-year basIs; sourCe:MosPI sector whose output rose 9%. Policymakers,however,will keep an eye on the consumer goods segment. While production of durablegoodsrose11.1%inAugust, following up a 12% increase in July,non-durablegoods,which are primarily fast-moving con- sumer products or fMCG, saw a growth of only 2.1%. Rajani Sinha, Chief economistatCareedgeRatings,said the overall strong industrial performance was in line with other data such as GDP growth, lendingandexports,indicating »CONTINUed ON PaGe 2 Tata Trusts propose Tata Sons restructuring to avoid listing George Mathew 75 The SuPReMe Court Monday declined to advance the hearing of a plea regarding appeals against the exclusion of names from the West Bengal electoral rolls, pending before the tribunals constituted by it. Chief Justice of india Surya Kant, heading a three-judge bench, told the petitioner’s counsel who cited urgency in view of the upcoming bypolls in Nandigram and Rejinagar Assembly constituencies on October 6 that “these are only by-elections”. The counsel told the bench, alsocomprisingJusticeJoymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana, that though the case was listedforhearingonSeptember 29,the causelistwasnow showing it as listed for hearing on October 5. he contended that the excluded voters in these constituencies had already lost their chance to vote in one election andthattheywouldnotbeable to vote in the October 6 polls as well if their appeals were not decided urgently. The iNDiAN economy continued its impressive run with data released Monday by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme implementation showing industrial production in August was 8% higher compared to the same month last year. The overall growth was driven by a favourable base effect and the manufacturing Involves merging Tata Electronics Systems, Tata Consulting Engineers with Tata Sons 189 BengalSIR case:Noearly hearing,‘only by-elections’ ahead,saysSC New Delhi, September 28 oCt 25 ware, each, in effect, a request that the software let electoral RegistrationOfficers(eROs)exercise a discretion the law alreadygivesthem,TheIndian Express has learnt. Maharashtra CeO S Chockalingam’s requests that eROs be allowed to decide which “logical discrepancy” cases need a hearing, what docu- Siddharth Upasani JuN-25 vallabh Ozarkar CEC must CorrECt CoursE, not just do damagE Control p 8 election Commissioners had flagged,onrecord,thatthesoftware was curtailing the powers of the eROs. CeO Chockalingam could not be reached for comment Monday. The Indian Express sent a questionnaire to the eCi spokesperson who acknowledged receipt. A response is awaited. The Maharashtra draft roll, published August 31, left out 21.1 per cent of the state’s electors. its final roll is due on lStrongrunofindustrialgrowthcontinues 10% 8.8 7.0 8% 6.3 6.1 5.8 5.4 6% 3.0 3.4 5.0 4% 4.1 2.9 2% -0.9 2.2 0% -2% JaN-25 the editorial page For SIR notice process, seeks 4 changes in EC portal software, more options for EROs Manufacturing, favourable base effect behind strong IIP growth eleVeN DAyS after the Tata Sons board decided to pursue public listing to comply with Reserve Bank of india (RBi) mandates, Tata Trusts have proposed a sweeping strategic reorganisation that could keep therestructuredentityunlisted by ensuring it is neither a NonBanking financial Company (NBfC) nor a Core investment Company (CiC). The proposal, sent to the Tata Sons board, involves the merger of Tata electronics Systems Solutions Pvt ltd (TeSS) and Tata Consulting engineers (TCe) with Tata Sons Pvt ltd (TSPl). The move, if approved and implemented, would fundamentally alter the structure and nature of Tata Sons and couldtakeitoutsidetheregulatory framework that triggered the RBi’s listing directive. “The proposed strategic reorganisation of the business and operations of TSPl is not a new pathway,” Tata Trusts officials said on Monday. “TSPl has, for almost 80 years out of »CONTINUed ON PaGe 2