All-party meet on SIR aimed at 'safeguarding democracy', all parties should join: Stalin
Tenkasi (PTI): The all-party meet over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is an attempt to "safeguard democracy" and all parties should attend it, setting aside political differences, Chief Minister M K Stalin said on Wednesday.
The ruling DMK and its allies have been opposed to SIR and the government has convened the all-party meet to decide on the next course of action after the EC recently announced the revision from next month in the poll-bound Tamil Nadu and other states.
The Chief Minister charged the ruling BJP with trying to "snatch" the voting rights of the people of Tamil Nadu through such an exercise.
"I reiterate from this stage--voting is the basis of democracy. We will not sacrifice it at any cost. We will overcome the BJP's efforts like snatching the voting rights and vote theft and protect Tamil Nadu people's voting rights."
He further said, "Kerala has joined us," apparently referring to the opposition from that state CM Pinarayi Vijayan to SIR.
"All political parties should participate in this effort aimed at safeguarding democracy by setting aside their political differences," Stalin said about the proposed all-party meet.
Continuing his attack on the BJP, Stalin said, "We all know what happened in Bihar. If defeat is evident, then the BJP decides to remove the voting population in that State. They are trying to implement the same formula here (through SIR)."
"We have been opposing this conspiracy (of the BJP) from the beginning. I once again reiterate from this stage that the foundation for democracy is voting rights. We will never give it up under any circumstances," he said.
Referring to the heavy rains following the onset of North East Monsoon, he said the government is taking welfare measures on a 'war footing' and that the DMK regime had faced three natural disasters since coming to power.
"Nobody needs to teach us the measures required for the safety of the people. We have faced three natural disasters after coming to power."
The CM criticised the Centre for not sanctioning Rs 37,000 crore towards welfare measures.
"Did the BJP government sanction Rs 37,000 crore for the welfare measures? No. So far, it has not released the funds. Why have they not released the funds? Because, if they had sanctioned, Tamil Nadu would grow. But they do not want that to happen," he alleged.
The DMK Chief stressed that protecting the people was the government's duty, with or without central funds.
"Whatever trouble they give, nobody can stop the development of the State," he said.
Taking potshots at AIADMK General Secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on paddy procurement, he accused Palaniswami of making false claims that the government did not procure paddy from the farmers.
"I have issued orders to ensure that paddy does not go waste amid widespread rainfall in the State. Based on this, in the last 4 years, procurement of paddy from the farmers has gone up as compared to the previous regime", he said.
Citing statistics, he said in the last four years 1.70 crore metric tonne of paddy has been procured from the farmers, averaging 42.61 lakh metric tonne annually. "But, in the previous regime, it stood at 22.70 lakh metric tonne a year," he said.
On the occasion, Stalin inaugurated 17 projects completed at a cost of Rs 1,020 crore.
He also took part in the ground-breaking ceremony for 83 new projects in the district. Later, he disbursed welfare assistance to 2.44 lakh beneficiaries costing Rs 587.39 crore to the exchequer, an official release said.
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Bengaluru: ISRO receives 1.5 lakh satellite collision alerts from US
Bengaluru: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) received over 1.5 lakh space debris and collision alerts for its Earth-orbiting satellites from the United States-led Combined Space Operations Centre, according to the Indian Space Situational Awareness Report for 2025 (ISSAR-2025), as reported by The New Indian Express.
The report was released by ISRO on Thursday for the public to assess. It was announced on April 8 during the international conference on spacecraft mission operations-2026, in Bengaluru.
According to ISRO, a total of four collision avoidance manoeuvres (CAM) were carried out for Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites, while 14 CAMs, including one for the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR), were performed for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites.
ISRO said that, wherever possible, collision avoidance requirements were being met by adjusting orbit maintenance manoeuvres to avoid exclusive CAMs. All manoeuvre plans were subjected to close approach risk analysis to prevent potential collisions with nearby space objects.
They accounted revising 82 manoeuvre plans to avoid post-manoeuvre close approaches with other space objects for LEO satellites, while two manoeuvre plans were modified for GEO satellites for the same reason.
Conjunction assessment and collision risk mitigation were also being followed for deep-space missions. Citing the case of Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, ISRO scientists said 16 orbital manoeuvres were carried out in the lunar orbit and on two occasions (January 1 and July 24, 2025), the orbits were readjusted to avoid collisions with NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO).
ISRO said the first such coordinated collision avoidance effort with NASA dates back to October 18, 2021. Since then, technological interventions have been strengthened for early detection of objects in orbit. ISRO scientists added that for spaceflight security, they have also been coordinating with many agencies, particularly for Chandrayaan-2 with Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines and iSpace.
The ISSAR-2025 report also detailed how the IRNSS-1D, the fourth of the seven Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System satellites, was raised to a graveyard orbit nearly 600 km above the geostationary belt and made inactive. ISRO said this was the first-ever disposal of an Indian satellite operating in an inclined geosynchronous orbit.
Similarly, the Cartosat-2A satellite, launched in 2008, was moved to a graveyard orbit after becoming non-operational in 2025.
Following the objective for a debris-free space environment, the Technology Experiment Satellite and POEM-4 re-entered Earth’s atmosphere through natural decay. Additionally, two upper stages of the SSLV-D3 mission, the Velocity Trimming Module (VTM) and the solid stage (SS3), also re-entered the atmosphere.
ISRO reported that eight debris objects from the PSLV-C3 mission re-entered the atmosphere in 2025, while 33 remained in orbit as of 31 December 2025. The total number of Indian objects re-entering the atmosphere in 2025 was 12.
