First India-Delhi Edition-28th September 2022

New Delhi: The CBI on Tuesday arrested Vijay Nair, an aide of Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and communications chief of the AAP, for an alleged scam in the since-withdrawn liquor policy of Arvind Kejriwal’s government. Nair is one of 15 persons, including Sisodia, named in the FIR.

New Delhi: Passengers who were stranded here 2 days ago after a Delhibound Air India plane was forced to land at Kannur International Airport due to a bird hit, finally left for the national capital on Tuesday aboard another aircraft of the airline.

ANKITA MURDER CASE: ‘RESORT WAS A DEN OF PROSTITUTION, DRUGS’

Rishikesh: Amid ongoing probe in sensational Ankita Bhandari murder, former staffers of Pulkit Arya’s Vanantara resort, where the 19-year-old girl worked as a receptionist, told the police that resort was a den of prostitution & drug abuse. Cops said these depositions by ex-staffers will be taken on record. P6

CM MANN TABLES

TRUST MOTION IN PUNJAB ASSEMBLY

Chandigarh: Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann tabled a confidence motion in the state assembly on Tuesday after House was adjourned thrice with Speaker suspending 15 Congress MLAs for day for objecting to move.

Washington:

JAISHANKAR

IN THE MEMORY OF ‘DEAR FRIEND ABE SAN’!

Tokyo: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tues day joined several world leaders in Tokyo to at tend former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe’s state funeral. Japan began the state funeral with his widow Akie carry ing his ashes into a To kyo hall where thou sands of mourners gath ered. Tributes were paid with flowers, prayers and a 19-gun salute.

Ahead of the ceremo ny, PM Modi held a bi lateral meeting with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida. He not ed the contributions of former PM Abe in strengthening the In dia-Japan partnership as well as in conceptual izing the vision of a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific region. PM joined global leaders to pay tribute to Abe.

OBSERVERS SUBMIT REPORT TO SONIA ON MLAs

‘REBELLION’

Gehlot gets clean chit, show cause notice issued to Dhariwal, Joshi and Rathore!

portant role in the par allel meeting and Min ister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas gave statements to the me dia. Ignoring the in structions of the high command, the men did not even reach the CLP meeting.”

‘CM GEHLOT IS A FRONTRUNNER IN PREZ RACE’

l Shinzo Abe was assassinated on July 8 at a campaign rally

Operation Octopus 2.0: NIA tightens grip on PFI

New Delhi: After a sur prising and tumultous time spent in Jaipur on Sunday, Congress’ ob servers flew back to Del hi and submitted their report of the ‘findings’ related to Rajasthan Congress to party presi dent Sonia Gandhi.

In the 12-page report, the observers have giv en a ‘clean chit’ to Ge hlot stressing that tech nically Gehlot can not be considered guilty of the ‘rebellion’. Howev er, the report does rec ommend action against some leaders including Shanti Dhariwal, Pratap Singh Khachari yawas, Mahendra

Chaudhary and Dhar mendra Rathore. The report also accused Ma hesh Joshi of tricking the MLAs.

The report says, “The meeting was held at Shanti Dhariwal’s resi dence and ‘Mahesh Joshi and Mahendra Chaudhary had called the MLAs. Dharmendra Rathore played an im

Notably, it was Mall ikarjun Kharge who took the side of CM Ge hlot in the report while Ajay Maken was more strict towards the in discipline. Now, a disci plinary action based on the report of Congress Observers could be tak en by the disciplinary committee of which AK Antony is the chair man.

SC begins livestreaming of 3 Constitution bench hearings

IN A HISTORIC FIRST...

New Delhi: Supreme Court for the first time on Tuesday started live streaming its proceed ings of three separate constitutional benches which is now live on NIC’s YouTube channel.

l Case 1: Bench of CJI UU Lalit heard the Eco nomically Weaker Sec tion (EWS) quota case. The case challenges the 103rd Constitution Amendment.

l Case 2: Bench of Jus tice Chandrachud heard the petition re garding the rift in Shiv

Sena that saw the Ma harashtra’s party break into Eknath Shinde fac tion and Uddhav Thack eray faction.

THE VERDICT

CASE 1: SC reserved its verdict on pleas challenging validity of the 103rd Consti tution amendment providing 10% reservation to EWS persons in admissions and government jobs.

CASE 2: SC dismissed petition filed by Uddhav-led Shiv Sena faction seeking a stay on proceedings before EC on Maha CM Shinde’s claim for recognition as the real Shiv Sena and claim over party’s election symbolthe bow and arrow.

CM Ashok Gehlot is still the frontrunner in the race for the post of President. On Tuesday, senior Congress leader Ambika Soni was ques tioned about the latest developments in Ra jasthan and Soni bluntly said, “Gehlot Still Not Ruled Out.” Thus once again Gehlot’s name, for party presidency, has come in the discussion.

New Delhi: Days after the major crackdown on the top functionaries and workers of the rad ical Islamic outfit PFI, the NIA on Tuesday launched second round of its midnight raids in eight states and UTs.

NIA, along with other probe agencies, is car rying out raids on PFI members for allegedly supporting terror ac tivities in the country and held over 274 among max 80 from Karnata ka, 44 Uttar Pradesh, 30 Delhi, 25 Assam, 21 Madhya Pradesh, 10 Maharashtra, 10 Guja rat and many others.

PFI: PREVENTION OF RIGHT TO PROTESTS

“This is nothing but preven tion of the right to demo cratic protests against the Central govt’s witch-hunt targeting PFI is quite natural and expected under this autocratic system,” PFI said.

HIGH-LEVEL MEETING IN HOME MINISTRY

A high level meeting with NIA DG, IB Chief and DG of ED in the Home Ministry was held amid raids on PFI on Tuesday. Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla also present in the meeting.

l Case 3: Bench of Jus tice Kaul heard the mat ter relating to the valid ity of the All India Bar Examination.

CASE 3: AG for India KK Venugopal argued before a Bench of the SC on Tuesday that conducting AIBE prior to enrolment would the most appropriate course of action.

The apex court of India on Tuesday has directed the Agra Development Authority to immedi ately stop all commer cial activities within a 500-metre radius from the peripheral wall of the iconic Taj Mahal.

STOP COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES NEAR TAJ MAHAL: SC COLLEGIUM ADVICE ELEVATION OF BOMBAY HC CJ TO SC

The Supreme Court collegium in its meeting recommended elevation of Bombay high court chief justice Dipankar Datta as a judge of SC. CJ Datta was elevated as the CJ of the Bombay HC on April 28, 2020.

'Satyameva Jayate', says LG as court grants restraining order

First India Bureau

New Delhi: Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena tweeted “Satyameva Jayate” soon after the High Court on Tuesday restrained AAP leaders from levelling “false” al legations against him.

The Delhi High Court also directed the Aam Aadmi Party leaders

order has vindicated LG’s stance and called out AAP’s mud-slinging campaign.”

Saxena had sent legal notices to AAP leaders Sanjay Singh, Atishi, Saurabh Bhardwaj, Durgesh Pathak and Delhi Dialogue and De velopment Commission vice-chairperson Jas mine Shah.

He also sought damages and compensation of Rs 2.5 crore along with in terest from the

political party and its five leaders. The AAP leaders had alleged that Saxena had received and channelised de monetised currency in November 2016 while acting as chairman of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC). The party had also alleged that Saxena was involved in a Rs 1,400 crore scam in the year 2016.

According to the High Court, the AAP’s allegations against LG and his daughter were “unsubstantiated and reckless”. More on P2

l Representatives from over 100 countries attended Abe’s funeral

l PM Modi also held a bilateral meeting with PM Fumio Kishida

PM MODI, WORLD

ATTEND FORMER JAPAN PM SHINZO ABE’S FUNERAL IN TOKYO

Moni Sharma

First India Bureau

First India Bureau

He took the JapanIndia relationship to a greater level and also expanded it in many areas.

—Narendra Modi, Prime Minister HUMANE FACE OF PRIME MINISTER!

PM Modi on July 8 took to Twitter to share his feeling for former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, he wrote ‘In the passing away of Mr Abe, Japan and the world have lost a great visionary. And, I have lost a dear friend.’ A tribute to my friend Abe San...

PM Modi with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. PM Narendra Modi with Australian PM Anthony Albanese.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays homage at the State Funeral Ceremony of the former Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe, in Tokyo, Japan on Tuesday. PHOTOS BY ANI

Shanti Dhariwal Dr Mahesh Joshi Dharmendra Rathore

Over 274 held from 8 states, PFI looks at countrywide ban

PASSENGERS FROM BIRD-HIT AI LEAVE VIA ANOTHER PLANE

LIQUOR POLICY CASE: SISODIA AIDE VIJAY NAIR HELD BY CBI

on

with

Secy Antony Blinken, he

A view of a court when the Supreme Court started live streaming constitution bench proceedings, in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Gehlot speaks to Kharge, may write an emotional letter to Sonia pledging his allegiance to Sonia and hand over personally to her on Wednesday at New Delhi

EVACUATION ALERT IN AREAS ABUTTING YAMUNA

New Delhi (PTI): An evacuation alert has been declared for peo ple living in the lowlying areas near the Yamuna banks in Del hi with the water level in the river rising to 206.16 metres, well above the danger mark of 205.33 metres and the highest this year so far, following inces sant rains in the upper catchment areas, offi cials said on Tuesday.

East Delhi District Magistrate Anil Ban ka said the evacuation alert was issued Tues day morning after the water level crosses the 206-metre mark.

"People living in low-lying areas near the riverbanks are be ing evacuated and shifted to higher grounds. Arrange ments have been made for their stay at gov ernment schools and night shelters in near by areas," he said.

Announcements are being made to caution people about a further increase in the water level, Banka said.

The low-lying areas near the river in Delhi are considered vulner

able to flooding. They are home to around 37,000 people.

This is the second time within two months that the au thorities are evacuat ing the people living in the river floodplains due to flooding in the low-lying areas.

The Yamuna had breached the danger mark of 205.33 metres on August 12, follow ing which around 7,000 people were evac

uated from the low-ly ing areas near the riv erbanks.

The Delhi flood con trol room said the wa ter level at the Old Delhi Railway Bridge crossed the evacua tion level of 206 me tres at 5.45 am on Tuesday. The river swelled to 206.16 me tres by 8 am.

It predicted that the water level may in crease to 206.5 metres between 3 pm and 5 pm.

Take down defamatory posts: HC

The right to freedom of speech is not an unfettered right in the garb of which de famatory statements can be made to tarnish a person’s reputation

‘Completely disagree’: AAP on HC’s order

New Delhi (PTI): In an interim order, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday restrained Aam Aadmi Party and several of its leaders from making “defamatory” state ments against Lieuten ant Governor Vinai Ku mar Saxena, and direct ed them to take down all libelous posts, videos, and tweets against him on social media.

The high court said on a prima facie view, the various statements or interviews or press conferences or tweets or re-tweets or hashtags made by the AAP and its leaders are per se defam atory and they have been made in a reckless manner, without any

factual verification.

“The fundamental right to freedom of speech has to be coun terbalanced with the right of the reputation

New Delhi: The high court also issued notice to AAP and its leaders, Twitter, and YouTube on the suit and asked them to respond to it while fixing the matter for hearing on February 6, 2023.

The high court said in case AAP and its leaders fail to comply with the direction of taking down the offending material

Constitution bench to hear from November 9

of an individual, which has been held to be a ba sic element of the right to a life consecrated in Article 21,” Justice Amit Bansal said.

New Delhi (PTI): The AAP on Tuesday said that it completely disa grees with the Delhi High Court's interim order that directed the party and its leaders to take down alleged li belous posts, videos and tweets posted against Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena and also restrained them from making any further allegations against him.

We completely disagree with the order. We will study it thoroughly and let you know our next course of action

—Durgesh Pathak Senior AAP leader

The Arvind Kejri wal-led party said it will study the court or der thoroughly in con

NOTICES TO TWITTER, YOUTUBE

within 48 hours, Twit ter and YouTube are directed to take down the respective hashtags and also the tweets, re-tweets, and videos published on their social media platforms.

It said the statements made by AAP and its leaders that Saxena was allegedly involved in acts of corruption at the time

High Court laments deaths of two in sewer

of demonetisation, are completely unsubstanti ated.

“In the present case, the plaintiff (Saxena), being a Constitutional Authority, cannot meet the personal attacks being made by the defendants (AAP and its leaders) against him by taking resort to social media platforms. The de

fendants have not even bothered to respond to the legal notice dated September 5, 2022, sent on behalf of the plain tiff. Therefore, the only remedy available for the plaintiff to protect his reputation and prevent erosion of the same would be to approach the court of law and seek injunctive relief,” the

sultation with lawyers and decide its next course of action in the matter.

court said. It said the damage caused to the reputation of an individual is im mediate and far-reaching on the internet and so long as the impugned content continues to be in circulation and visible on social media, it is likely to cause con tinuing damage to the reputation and image of the plaintiff.

2 actors taken inside Tihar jail to ‘recreate’ meeting with Sukesh

New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi Police team took two actresses inside the Tihar jail to "recreate" their alleged meeting with conmon Sukesh Chandrashekhar as part of a probe into a ` 200-crore extortion case, officials said on Monday.

The police said ever since Chandrasherkar has been jailed, the pris on had become a hub of illegal activities which he carried out with the help of jail officials.

The team of Delhi Po lice's Economic Offenc es Wing took actresses Nikki Tamboli and Sofia Singh to the Tihar's cen tral jail number one on Saturday to "recreate" their meetings with the 'conman' as part of the ongoing probe, a senior police officer said.

Chandrashekhar, who is currently in jail, is accused of cheating various people, includ ing high-profile indi viduals such as former

During his stay in Tihar, many people in cluding celebrities ar rived in luxury cars and gained entry inside the jail by saying they were there to meet Sukesh Chandrashekar, the of ficer said.

Woman commits suicide over dowry demand, a day after approaching police

New Delhi (ANI): The Supreme Court's Con stitution bench to hear from November 9 the plea of the Arvind Ke jriwal-led Delhi govern ment on the conten tious issue of who should control adminis trative services in the city over the transfers and postings of officers in the national capital.

A five-judge Constitu tion bench of Justices

The case was slated to be heard by a Consti tution bench after a three-judge bench had in May this year decid ed to send it to a larger bench on a request by the Central govern ment. On February 14, 2019, a two-judge Bench had delivered a split verdict on the question of powers of the GNCTD and Union gov ernment over services and referred the matter to a three-judge Bench.

DY Chandrachud, MR Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli and PS Nar asimha asked the par ties to complete the compilation of papers in the case meanwhile and it will start day-today hearing from No vember 9.

New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court Tues day lamented the death of two persons who in haled toxic gases inside a sewer in the national capital earlier this month and observed that despite there being laws, scavenging work contin ues to be performed.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, who was hearing public inter est litigation (PIL) initi ated on its own based on a news report of the inci dent, granted time to the Delhi Development Au thority (DDA) to state its stand.

New Delhi (PTI): A 25-year-old woman al legedly ended her life by hanging herself over dowry harassment in southeast Delhi’s Govin dpuri area, police said on Tuesday.

Before taking the ex treme step, Arti Gupta made a video wherein she blamed her husband for her death, they said.

“My life has ended... This man (my husband) has gone leaving me alone in the house. They used to beat me up for dowry...,” the woman says in the purported

video while tears roll down from her eyes. She alleged that her husband used to beat her and blamed him for forcing her to take this step. On Saturday, a day

before she ended her life, Gupta reached to Govindpuri police sta tion suicide at around 10-11 pm where she was attended by a lady con stable, police said.

She told the police that her husband has left his house and blocked her mobile number. She requested the constable to trace her husband, they said.

A call was made to her husband who said he has left his house willingly and does not want to stay with her wife anymore, a senior police officer said.

When the police offi cial asked her to file a complaint, the woman denied. After that, the lady constable dropped her to her home, the of ficer said. However, On Sunday, a PCR call was received at Govindpuri police station about a woman hanging herself from a ceiling fan in her house, she said.

Clockwise: Shanties partially submerged in a flooded low-lying area as the water level of the Yamuna river crosses the danger mark, in New Delhi on Tuesday. A resident at her shanty in a flooded area in New Delhi on Tuesday. People residing in the floodplains of Yamuna shift their belongings and livestock on Tuesday.

Fortis Healthcare pro moter Shivinder Mo han Singh's wife Aditi Singh.

HUSBAND ARRESTED UNDER IPC SECTIONS 498A, 304B

DELHI GOVT VS CENTRE

The EOW has so far questioned Jacqueline Fernandez, Nora Fatehi, former TV anchor Pinky Irani & stylist Leepakshi

Nikki Tamboli and Sofia Singh

Court finds that AAP made libelous comments against LG in a reckless manner

—Justice Amit Bansal

BY

30 linked to PFI detained for planning violent protests

New Delhi (ANI): Del hi Police conducted overnight joint coordi nated raids at multiple locations in the national capital and arrested 30 people linked with the Popular Front of India.

The raids were con ducted in coordination along with the central investigative agency at places like Shaheen bagh, Nizamuddin, Ro hini district and in the northeast district areas, officials said. Total 30 members of the group were put under preven tive arrest after the raid.

According to Delhi Police, the suspects were planning a violent protest on a large scale across the city as well as a nationwide protest.

Electronic devices were also seized from these locations.

"Joint raids by a Cen tral agency and Delhi Police are underway at places related to PFI in cluding Nizamuddin, Shaheen Bagh area. 30 people were put under preventive arrest while some others were de tained," said the police.

According to the in put of the central agen cy, the raids were also conducted in the north east district including the Rohini district.

In Zone 1 of Delhi Po lice, 18 persons were taken under preventive arrest while in Zone 2, 12 people were taken under preventive arrest.

JAMIA TELLS STUDENTS & TEACHERS: NO ASSEMBLING

New Delhi (PTI): Ja mia Millia Islamia has asked its students and teachers not to assem ble in and around the campus as police have imposed restrictions under section 144 of the CrPC in Okhla.

In a notice issued on Monday, the chief proctor of the univer sity said the SHO of Jamia Nagar police station has informed that the restrictions have been imposed since September 19 as information was re ceived that some peo ple or groups may in dulge in activities

prejudicial to the maintenance of peace.

The SHO further said the restrictions would be in place in the entire Okhla (Ja mia Nagar) till Novem ber 17, the notice said.

The police have, however, denied that the order is related to

Cobbler set ablaze near New Delhi railway station, dies

New Delhi: A 48-yearold cobbler died at Lok Nayak hospital on Tues day of severe burn inju ries he sustained after two men set him ablaze near New Delhi railway station on September 22.

The cobbler, Jograj, was sleeping near New Delhi station when the accused came and poured kerosene over him and set him on fire.

As per the police, one of the accused was identi fied and arrested the same day. Jograj used to sleep near the station at night with other cob

blers. He had borrowed Rs 1 lakh from the ac cused and was unable to pay him back.

Police said the victim had sustained 80 per cent burns. On Tuesday morning, Jograj suc cumbed to his injuries.

“I promised that I will pay the amount in some time, but Rajiv was pres

suring me to return the money. On Thursday night, he came there, abused and threatened me. Later, I went to sleep near police barricades. At around 2.30 am, I saw a person pouring oil on me. Rajiv was having a matchstick and set me on fire,” Jograj had said in the police plaint.

the ongoing action against the Popular Front of India (PFI).

Section 144 of the CrPC prohibits the as sembly of four or more people in an area. Vio lation of the order is punishable under sec tion 188 of the IPC.

In view of the order,

all students, and teach ing and non-teaching staff of Jamia Millia Islamia are advised not to assemble in and out side the campus in groups or as part of any march, agitation, dharna or meeting, the notice by the chief proctor stated.

The notice came a day after Jamia's teach ers announced a peace ful protest march.

An order was issued by the ACP, New Friends Colony stat ing that section 144 was imposed in Jamia Nagar area on Septem ber 19.

ATROCITY IN AURAIYA

Sisodia lays foundation of three underpasses

n ` 59-cr worth projects to be completed in 1 yr n Underpasses will save 58k lt fuel annually

New Delhi (PTI): Dep uty Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday laid the foun dation stone of three new underpasses at Shalimar Bagh here that will be construct ed at a cost of Rs 59.5 crore, an official state ment said.

The underpasses will ease traffic conges tion around Mukarba Chowk and Haiderpur Badli Metro, it said.

The first underpass will be built at Haider pur Badli Metro near gate number three for pedestrians while the second will be con structed for vehicles plying between Badli or Outer Ring road and Shalimar Bagh, the statement quoting Sisodia said.

At present, vehicles going towards Badli or Outer Ring Road have to use a loop while moving between Mu karba Chowk and Shal imar Bagh.

Once the underpass is built, commuters will have to travel 1.5 kilometers less, he added.

The third will be built for ve hicles plying between San jay Gandhi Transport Nagar to Azadpur via elevat

15-POINT ACTION PLAN TO FIGHT AIR POLLUTION IN WINTER: GOPAL RAI

New Delhi (PTI): CM Arvind Kejriwal will launch his government’s 15-point action plan to fight air pollution in winter on September 30, Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Tuesday.

Rai said the Delhi government has made it man datory to install anti-smog guns at all construction and demolition sites larger than 5,000 sq m. Action will be taken against project proponents found violating this direction, he said.

Earlier, construction and demolition sites larger than 20,000 sq m were required to install antismog guns to control dust pollution.

The winter action plan will focus on stubble man agement, dust pollution, vehicular emission, open burning of garbage, industrial pollution, pollution hotspots, smog towers, public participation, fire crackers and joint action with neighbouring states among other aspects, he said.

Rai said the revised Graded Response Action Plan -- a set of anti-air pollution measures followed in Delhi and its vicinity according to the severity of the situation -- will come into force as soon as the Commission for Air Quality Management issues orders in this regard.

ed road which is sched uled to come up in the future, Sisodia said. This under pass will help ing traffic congestion

at Mukarba Chowk and save travel time for commuters, he said.

All the three under passes will be complet ed within one year and will ease the traffic congestion for com muters around Mu karba Chowk and Hai derpur Badli Metro, he said.

It will also reduce carbon emission of 1.35 lakh kg per year and save 58,000 litres of fuel annually, the deputy chief minister said.

Air hostess raped by acquaintance, accused held

New Delhi (PTI): An air hostess was alleged ly raped by an acquaint ance at her house in Mehrauli, police said.

“Accused Harjeet Ya dav of Khanpur, is a po litical party's block pres ident. He has been ar rested,” they said.

DCP (South) Chandan Choudhary said a PCR call was received at Mehrauli police station on Sunday. When police reached the spot, the victim told them that Harjeet Yadav, whom she had known for 1.5 months, came to her house in an inebriated condition and raped her.

INTERNATIONAL LINKS

Police unearth drugs supply chain, 2 foreigners among five held

lll

The substances recovered include methamphetamine crystal worth `20 lakh and MDMA category American drugs besides foreign weed worth `50,000

Noida (PTI): The Greater Noida police on Tuesday claimed to have unearthed a drugs sup ply chain in NCR and arrested five members of a gang, who also ille gally sent Indian mobile SIM cards to China.

“Among those arrest ed are two foreign-ori gin persons, one from Nigeria but staying in India without a valid visa and the other a Ti betan refugee,” DCP (Greater Noida) Ab hishek Verma said.

The arrests were made by officials of the Knowledge Park police station with the support of an anti-auto theft

ACCUSED SENT SIM CARDS TO CHINA

Besides, 279 active and 451 inactive sim cards, all issued on forged documents, were also recovered, he said.

team of Gautam Buddh Nagar police commis sionerate as they probed a tip-off amid a crack down on illegal drugs,

he said. The officer said the substances recov ered from the accused include methampheta mine crystal (55 gm

worth Rs 20 lakh) and MDMA (40 tablets) cat egory American drugs besides foreign weed (90 gm worth Rs 50,000).

“Our special opera tions cell had received an input that some for eigners visiting Greater Noida were engaged in drug trafficking. Inves tigation was taken up in the matter and five peo ple arrested,” DCP Ver ma told reporters.

“Among them, one person of Nigerian ori gin Sixtus Nnaemeka

Okuma had been living in India since 2013. The validity of his passport and visa have expired. Two passports have been recovered from him,” he said.

The other four--Tibet an refugee Taklah Nan duk, who lives in Delhi’s Majnu Ka Tila; Litton Das, Balram and Asim Khan--were engaged in providing mobile phone sim cards to foreigners, including Chinese and African nationals living in India, the officer said.

Joint raids conducted on Tuesday by a Central agency along with Delhi police

Shaheen Bagh, Nizamuddin, Rohini in north east Delhi main centres of raids

Several electronic devices also seized from the locations of the accused

Aneesh, an accused detained during a raid by Special Cell of Delhi Police for alleged association with PFI, being taken to a police station in New Delhi on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY PTI

SHAHEEN HELD

A police officer consoles family members and relatives of a Dalit boy, who died days after he was allegedly thrashed by his schoolteacher, in Auraiya on Tuesday.

—PHOTO BY PTI

First India Bureau

POLITICAL BUZZ OVER

NITISH-SONIA MEETING

Devi Lal, the former Deputy Prime Minister. The Congress was not invited for the rally.

GROWING IMPORTANCE OF THE KURMIS

With the political visibility in the national arena of Nit ish Kumar growing, ever since he severed ties with the BJP and joined hands with Lalu Prasad, the OBC Kurmi community, to which Nitish Kumar belongs has hogged the limelight. The Kurmi community is a community smaller than the Yadavs.

ITALY TAKES A SHARP RIGHT TURN WITH MELONI SET TO BE FIRST FEMALE PM

Kurmi’s were not included among the communities classified as ST in the 1931 census, and the community members were again excluded from the list of STs in 1950. However, in 2004, the Jharkhand government recommended that the Kurmi community be added to the list of STs rather than OBC. Meanwhile, political analysts will keenly watch Nitish Kumar’s movements in his bid to create an atmosphere to get as many parties under the same umbrella to create an Opposition front

ROBIN ROY

The writer is Senior Journalist and former Managing Editor, First India

Realising the importance of Congress’ role and position in spearheading an Opposition movement to take the lead in creating a front against the BJP, in a crucial move, on Sun day, Bihar chief minister Nit ish Kumar met Congress president Sonia Gandhi. This was apparently a move to send out a message to a section of Opposition parties who are already in the process of working in this regard. It was Nitish’s attempt to bring them under one umbrella.

This crucial meeting with Sonia took place days after NCP supremo Sharad Pawar said that TMC chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mama ta Banerjee was ready to bury differences with the Congress in the national interest.

While agreeing that a cred ible anti-BJP front was not pos sible by keeping the Congress out, some Opposition leaders have also said that the “de funct” UPA be revived and leadership positions like that of the convenor be given to re gional leaders in order to make the alliance broad-based.

Nitish suggested that Sonia should take the lead and try to place all parties on one plat form with a common agenda.

“Together, we met and held dis cussions with madam and you know that we believe several

MAIMING PFI FOR NATION’S SAFETY

parties of the country should unite and work together for the country and its progress. We discussed all these issues… But now elections for their party’s (the Congress’s) presi dent are underway… She will say something, finally, after all that,” Nitish told reporters af ter the meeting with Sonia.

Nitish, probably has real ised that an Opposition front currently without the pres ence of Congress, would not be the right formula to take on the might of the Saffron party and hence he met Sonia.

“The BJP has to be ousted to save the country. Everyone has to unite, like we came together in Bihar, and send the BJP packing. It has found a re sponse across the country. We are together and we requested Soniaji that you (the Congress) are the largest party… aap isme sab ko bulaiyiye (you call everyone for this). Together we will sit and talk and send off the BJP,” Lalu said.

‘OPPOSITION’ IN OPPOSITION

While the Aam Aadmi Party has always maintained its dis tance from such a front, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and INLD have been in favour of a non-Congress coali tion. The Opposition equation is quite mind-boggling. The Congress is one of the main rivals of the TRS and INLD in Telangana and Haryana, re spectively, while the Left is not willing to share the stage with the Congress in Kerala and with the TMC in Bengal.

However, Pawar’s state ment that Mamata was ready

Realising the importance of Congress’ role and position in spearheading an Opposition movement to take the lead in creating a front against the BJP, in a crucial move, on Sunday, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar met Congress president Sonia Gandhi. This was apparently a move to send out a message to a section of Opposition parties who are already in the process of working in this regard

With Nitish Kumar’s recent political decision, the politi cal aspiration of the Kurmis has gained prominence re cently and Yadavs (with whom the Kurmi never had a bonho mie), for the first time are will ing to accept them as “elder brothers”… and if the NitishLalu bond grows stronger the Yadav-Kurmi equation might worry the BJP and the Saffron party immediately has to do something in regards to social engineering in the states of UP and Bihar.

Kurmis are a landowning farming community whose status varies from state to state.

Unlike the Yadavs, the Kurmis use a variety of surnames like Patel, Verma, Sachan, Gang war, Katiyar, Baiswar, Jaiswar, Mahto, Prasad, Sinha, Singh, Pradhan, Baghel, Chaudhary, Patidar, Kunbi, Kumar, Patil, Mohanti, Kanaujiya, Chakrad har, Niranjan, Patanwar, and Shinde, etc.

Recently, train services of South Eastern Railway (SER) were affected in two of its di visions as Kurmis have been blocking two railway stations in West Bengal for three days.

The Kurmis, demanding Scheduled Tribe status for the community and inclu sion of the Kurmali language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, launched the agitation at various rail sta tions in West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand.

Italians have voted for Giorgia Meloni, lead er of the Brothers of Italy party, as their first female prime minister. She joins a growing list of female prime ministers and others in top positions in Europe including Liz Truss (UK), Kaja Kallas (Estonia), Sanna Marin (Finland), Elisabeth Morne (France), Katalin Novak (presi dent of Hungary), Zuzuana Capu tova (president of Slovakia) and Ursula von der Leyen (president of the European Commission).

Meloni will have to wait until Oc tober- end before the President appoints her as prime minister of a coalition government.

The concern in Europe is about Meloni’s admiration for Musso lini, the Italian dictator, whom she once called a good politician and her stand against abortion, LGBT lobbies and immigration. On fascism, her views have mel lowed. It is still feared that she may join forces with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, also a right wing leader. Given the hostility between several Euro pean nations and Russia, her ap proach towards Moscow will also be keenly watched.

Perform your obligatory duty, because action is indeed better than inaction. Bhagavad Gita

to work with the Congress makes it clear that consider able groundwork has already been done to iron out differ ences. Asked about parties like AAP, Nitish said: “Vichar ekta ka hi hai (the thinking is of unity)… there is no issue in that. But to say something, ka han, kahan kaun, kaun (where and who), that will take some more days,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nitish and So nia meeting incidentally took place hours after several Op position leaders, including Ni tish and Lalu’s son Tejashwi, shared the stage at an INLD event in Haryana’s Fatehabad to mark the 109th birth anni versary of the late Choudhary

Kurmi’s were not included among the communities clas sified as ST in the 1931 census, and the community members were again excluded from the list of STs in 1950. However, in 2004, the Jharkhand govern ment recommended that the Kurmi community be added to the list of STs rather than Oth er Backward Classes (OBC).

Meanwhile, political ana lysts will keenly watch Nit ish Kumar’s movements in his bid to create an atmos phere to get as many parties under the same umbrella to create an Opposition front.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

In a meticulously planned and wellcoordinated crack down on the Peo ple’s Front of In dia across seven states the National Investigative Agency arrested over 200 members of the organization. Arrests were still being made in some parts of the country. Believed to be an avatar of the Stu dents’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), the PFI was seen as a potential threat to the country. Investigative agen cies say that PFI hand was vis ible in Delhi riots a few years back and also in the anti-CAA protests. The secrecy around the first round of operation in which 106 members of the out fit were arrested from 15 states on September 22 was such that PFI leaders and members

Investigative agencies say that PFI hand was visible in Delhi riots a few years back and also in the anti-CAA protests. The secrecy around the first round of operation in which 106 members of the outfit were arrested from 15 states on September 22 was such that PFI leaders and members were literally caught napping

were literally caught napping. That the government had done proper groundwork be fore the raids is clear from the silence of maulanas and other members of the Mus lim community. The recent outreach to Muslim intellec tuals by RSS chief Mohan

Bhagwat, who even visited a mosque, and the BJP shifting focus on Pasmanda Muslims are understood to have been undertaken with the inten tion of winning over a major ity of the community. In July, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval had also urged Muslims to distance them selves from radical elements.

Formed in 2006 the PFI is accused of terror funding and radicalizing Muslims to join terrorist organizations and causing unrest in the country. Kerala and Karna taka have emerged as major hubs of its activities though it has sizeable presence in other states as well. The ar rests, especially of PFI’s sen ior functionaries and fund raisers, will cripple the or ganization, but why no ban?

TOP TWEETS

Vol 2 l Issue No.30

l RNI TITLE NO. DELENG/2021/19840

Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Impressions Printing and Packaging Limited, C-21, 22 Sector-59, Noida-201301. Published at G-20, 3rd Floor, 309, Preet Vihar, New Delhi-110092. Phone 011-49846474.

Editor-In-Chief: Dr Jagdeesh Chandra

Editor: Anita Hada Sangwan responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

Jyotiraditya M. Scindia @JM_Scindia

For the first time ever, India produced its own AVGAS 100 LL, a special aviation fuel meant for piston aircraft of our flying training schools. The move will bring cost savings for FTOs & benefits for the economy. Congratulations, @IndianOilcl. #MakeInIndia #AatmanirbharBharat

Kiren Rijiju

@KirenRijiju

Through Snow-capped Mountains & green valleys, from river beds to deep forests. On #WorldTourismDay let us all commit to keep our surrounding clean & visit the places never been before.

SPIRITUAL SPEAK

‘Healthcare improved after PM Modi assumed office in 2014’

Ahmedabad (PTI): Un ion Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday alleged instead of improving health infrastructure, Congress “made money” in the name of improv ing medical education facilities when the party was in power before 2014.

Addressing a gather ing in Kalol town, Shah said the healthcare sce nario improved after PM Narendra Modi assumed office in 2014.

“Under the Ayush man Bharat or PM-JAY scheme, 60 crore poor citizens are now getting free treatment up to Rs 5 lakh. In addition, PM Modi has also allocated Rs 64,000 crore to set up the required health in frastructure to imple ment that scheme. 35,000 new beds were added in hospitals across 600 dis tricts under this scheme,” said Shah.

IN THE COURTYARD

DELHI HIGH COURT QUASHES ED’S LOOKOUT CIRCULAR AGAINST INDIABULLS STAFF

New Delhi (PTI): The Delhi High Court has quashed the ECIR registered by the Enforcement Directorate against Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd. and several of its employees, and directed that no further coercive action be taken against them in a case in which the Bombay High Court has already quashed the FIR. The high court, in an order passed on Monday, also set aside the Look Out Circulars (LOC) issued against those employees and said there shall be no search, seizure or summons arising out of the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR).

AJAY MISHRA’S ACQUITTAL: HC DEFERS HEARING

Lucknow: The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court on Tuesday deferred till October 17 the hearing of an appeal filed by the UP government in 2004 against Union minister Ajay Mishra’s acquittal in a 22-year-old murder case. The case pertains to the murder of Prabhat Gupta in Lakhimpur Kheri in 2000. Mishra’s lawyer submitted that he has filed a plea in the Supreme Court seeking transfer of the hearing to the HC’s principal bench.

NOTE BAN: SC TO HEAR PLEAS ON VALIDITY TODAY

New Delhi: The Supreme Court will on Wednesday hear pleas challenging the constitutional validity of demonetisation six years after PM’s move. A 5-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice Abdul Nazeer will hear the pleas tomorrow. In total, four constitutional benches will preside on Wednesday. The bench is expected to fix the date of a detailed hearing. The matter was referred to the Constitution Bench on December 16, 2016, but the bench was yet to be constituted.

COURT RESERVES ORDER ON BAIL PLEA OF AMANATULLAH, TO BE ANNOUNCED TODAY

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Tuesday reserved its order on the bail plea of AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan in a case related to alleged irregularities at the Delhi Waqf Board. Special Judge Vikas Dhull said the order would be pronounced on Wednesday. The judge asked how the public exchequer incurred a loss from Khan’s alleged misconduct, while also seeking to know the amount if any. Meanwhile, Khan’s alleged aide Laddan was remanded in two days of ACB custody by the court. On Monday, the court had sent Amanatullah to 14 days of judicial custody.

MODI’S PACKED 2-DAY VISIT TO HOME STATE GUJ THIS WEEK

New Delhi (ANI): PM Narendra Modi will be on a two-day visit to his home state Gujarat starting Thursday, with several events lined up. He will also participate in Navratri celebrations. PM Modi will visit Surat, Bhavnagar, Ahmedabad and Ambaji during the two days. On Thursday morning, he will lay the foundation stone and dedicate projects worth more than Rs 3,400 crore in Surat. These include water supply and drainage projects, DREAM City, Biodiversity Park and other develop ment projects such as public infrastructure, heritage restoration, city bus/BRTS infrastructure, and electric vehicle infra structure as well as joint projects by the central and state government.

BJP national president Nadda meets party’s state in-charges

New Delhi (PTI): BJP president JP Nadda held a meeting with party’s state in-charges on Tuesday and dis cussed ways to strength en the organisation and prepare for 2024 general elections, sources said.

This was Nadda’s first meeting with the party’s newly appoint ed state in-charges.

Besides Nadda, BJP’s general secretary (organ isation) Santhosh was also present in the meet ing that took place at the party headquarters.

New Delhi (ANI): BJP national president JP Nadda will embark on a two-day visit to Odisha starting September 29 to strengthen the outfit in view of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. This will be Nadda’s first visit to the state after tak ing over the party’s topmost post in 2019. Before his visit to the state, BJP in-charge Sunil Bansal took stock of the preparedness in Bhubaneswar. He had held meetings with the party workers and assigned tasks. He also took part in the training camp on September 13 and 15.

Wide-ranging discus sions took place during the meeting on strength ening the party and pre paring for 2024 polls.

Former CMs Vijay Ru

AICC prez poll: Mistry submits voters’ list to Sonia

New Delhi (Agencies): Congress central elec tion authority (CEA) chairman Madhusudan Mistry on Tuesday sub mitted a list of delegates, who can vote in the par ty president’s election, to Sonia Gandhi Party General Secre tary Jairam Ramesh, said, “@INCIndia is only party with a wellestablished process to elect it’s President, which is free & transpar ent. Today, Chairman of our Central Election Au thority, @MD_Mistry, presented to Smt.Sonia Gandhi the final list of delegates of electoral college & her QR coded voter ID card.”

JeM terrorist killed in encounter in Kulgam

Srinagar (PTI): BA member of proscribed terror outfit Jaish-eMuhammad (JeM) has been killed in an ongo ing encounter with se curity forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kulgam district, police said on Tuesday.

The security forces had launched a cordonand-search operation in Kulgam’s Ahwatoo area following information

about the presence of terrorists there, a police official said.

He said the search op eration turned into an encounter after the ul tras opened fire on the security forces, who retaliated.

Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Kashmir Vijay Kumar said two JeM ul tras were trapped in the cordoned area.

Malappuram: The Congress’ Bharat Jodo Yatra entered Malappuram district of Kerala on Tuesday with hundreds of party workers and supporters walking alongside Rahul Gandhi. The yatra commenced from Pulamanthole junction in Malap puram district in the morning.

THAROOR, PAWAN BANSAL COLLECT NOMINATION FORMS

New Delhi (ANI): Nomination forms for the post of Congress president poll have been collected by Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor and AICC treasurer Pawan Bansal, but Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot has not done so yet, the party’s central election authority chairman Mad husudan Mistry said on Tuesday. Gehlot is likely to file his nominations on Wednes day, while Tharoor on September 30.

New Delhi: Amid Rajasthan crisis, interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday convened Congress’ Central Elec tion Committee meeting to finalise names of candidates for Himachal Pradesh polls. Among those present were Ambika Soni, Anand Sharma, Veerappa Moily and K.C Venugopal. The Congress is in a huddle to find a solution to the issue of Rajasthan.

NOT CONTESTING PARTY PREZ POLL, SAYS BANSAL

New Delhi: Meanwhile former Union Minister and AICC treasurer Pawan Bansal has said that he is not contesting the party’s presidential elections. Congress party’s central election authority chairman Madhusudan Mistry had said that Shashi Tharoor and Pawan Bansal had colected the forms but said that it was unclear if Pawan Bansal “took the form for himself or for someone else”.

New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday approved party tickets to all the 20 sitting MLAs in Himachal Pradesh and is learnt to have finalised the names of another 15 candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in the state, sources said. Some of the names approved at the meeting include Vikramaditya Singh from Shimla Rural and Mukesh Agnihotri from Haroli.

COURTESY MEET!

WORLD TOURISM

PM Modi’s tourism initiatives that have enhanced India’s soft power

New Delhi (Agencies):

Prime Minister Naren dra Modi’s targeted em phasis on promoting domestic tourism, espe cially in the post-pan demic era, will not only give a boost to the coun try’s economy, but also provide employment op portunities across India.

The most prominent initiative taken by PM Modi is the Statue of Unity. The Statue of Unity is the world’s tall est statue, with a height of 182 metres (597 feet), located in Gujara. Since its inauguration, as many as 7.94 million

people have visited the site till May 2022.

Other initiatives of PM Modi include Kutch Rann Utsav. Once a bar ren and marshy desert in Gujarat has now now turned into an interna

tional tourist destina tion. This initiative was taken by Modi when he was the Gujarat chief minister.

After taking over as Prime Minister of India in 2014, Narendra Modi

envisioned the tourism potential of Kashi (his parliamentary constitu ency Varanasi) and vowed to develop the city as India’s Kyoto.

PM Modi’s eye for promotion of other

tourist destinations is impeccable. PM Modi inaugurated the project of three different stretches of the Char Dham all-weather road in 2021 for promoting religious tourism in Ut tarakhand.

PM Narendra Modi introduced Ramayana Circuit for devotees to cover places from the lives of Bhagwan Rama. A special train which covers these places starting from Delhi upto Nepal’s Janakpur is being run by the In dian Railways to cover the circuit.

pani (Gujarat), Biplab Deb (Tripura), BJP’s gen eral secretaries Arun Singh, Vinod Tawde, Tarun Chugh and Sunil Bansal were also present.

VICE PRESIDENT JAGDEEP DHANKHAR PRESENTS NATIONAL TOURISM AWARDS TO 81 RECIPIENTS ON WORLD TOURISM DAY

New Delhi: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar presented the National Tourism Awards to 81 awardees at the programme organized by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, to mark the World Tourism Day. Union Minister of Tourism G Kishan Reddy and MoS Tourism Ajay Bhatt also graced the ceremony. Secretary Tour ism Arvind Singh and other senior officers of the Ministry were also present on this occasion.

BJP President JP Nadda holds a Prabhari meeting, in New Delhi on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY ANI

NADDA TO VISIT ODISHA TO FORMULATE STRATEGY FOR 2024 LS SABHA POLLS

CONGRESS’ BHARAT JODO YATRA ENTERS MALAPPURAM DISTRICT IN KERALA

SONIA HOLDS HIMACHAL CEC AMID RAJASTHAN CRISIS

CONGRESS TO FIELD ALL ITS SITTING MLAS IN HIMACHAL

SHAH LAYS FOUNDATION STONE OF 750-BED HOSPITAL IN GUJARAT

New Delhi (ANI): Union Minister Amit Shah laid the foundation stone of a modern 750-bed hospital in Gandhina gar on Tuesday. The hospital is under construction by Kutch Radiology and Imaging Centre. Shah also laid the foundation stone of the hospital in Kalol city. The laying of the foundation stone of the hospital is part of various programmes of the Union Home Minis ter in Gandhinagar on Tuesday.

Union Minister for Home Affairs and Cooperation, Amit Shah addresses at the foundation laying ceremony of the 750 bedded hospital, in Gandhinagar on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Flower petals being showered on tourists to welcome at the Agra Fort on World Tourism Day, in

Uttar Pradesh, on Tuesday.

BY PTI

Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi being presented her QR-coded voter ID card by Congress central election authority chairman M Mistry, in New Delhi on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla called on Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar at the latter’s official residence Uparashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, on Tuesday.

Stability of Indo-Pacific should be secured: EAM Jaishankar

Washington (ANI) :

During his bilateral talks with US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Aus tin in the Pentagon on Monday, External Af fairs Minister S Jais hankar said that the stability, security and prosperity of the IndoPacific should be se cured as the global situ ation has become very challenging.

“So for me, our meet ing today and my pres ence here today I do share with you that the global situation has be come a far more chal lenging variety of rea sons. Indo-Pacific in particular, it’s impor tant that the stability, security and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific should be secured which is best done amongst others,” Jais hankar said during the opening remarks at Pentagon.

He also emphasised creating stronger de fence industrial collab oration and military exercises between In dia and US during the talks.

Both the leaders ex pressed commitment to

INDIA’S WOMEN, DIGITAL PROWESS AND GREEN GROWTH POWER SDG DISCUSSIONS

New York (Agencies): Women in India trans forming communities with digital technologies could show ways to ac celerate progress towards the SDGs, said thought leaders in New York, at high-level discussions organised by Reliance Foundation, Observer Research Foundation and United Nations in India to complement the 77th UNGA discussions. The

deepening bilateral de fence cooperation and expanding informa tion-sharing and logis tics cooperation to

events included launch of Aspirations, Access and Agency: Women Transforming Lives with Technology, a publication by Reliance Foundation and Observer Research Foundation that narrates inspirational stories of women using digital tech nologies to bring entitle ments, financial services, healthcare, sanitation and more to India’s remotest corners.

drive deeper operation al coordination be tween the US and Indi an militaries, said Pen tagon Press Secretary

PENTAGON CHIEF CRITICISES CHINA’S “UNPRECEDENTED PROVOCATIONS”

Washington: US De fence Secretary Lloyd Austin sharply criti cised China for “un precedented provoca tions in the Taiwan Strait” during bilat eral talks with Exter nal Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar at the Pentagon and said that India and US, the two great de mocracies are work ing together toward a brighter future for the Indo-Pacific as the world faces sus tained challenges to peace, security and prosperity in the re gion and beyond.

“Our bilateral de fence ties are just one way that our two great democracies are working together

Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder in a readout. Austin and Jais hankar also discussed new opportunities for

toward a brighter fu ture for the Indo-Pa cific. The United States In India, along with a dozen other Indo-Pacific part ners, pushing to ex pand our region’s prosperity for the In do-Pacific Economic framework,” Austin said during his open ing remarks.

Responding to it, Jaishankar said, “The ripple impact of our defence coop eration, I think, has a larger beneficiary implication.”

bilateral defence indus trial cooperation in support of India’s con tributions as a regional security provider.

UP GOVT NOD TO BUNDELKHAND’S FIRST TIGER RESERVE

NASA CRAFT ON PURPOSE CRASHES INTO ASTEROID

Drugs, prostitution were rampant, says ex-staffer

Rajnath reviews preparation for upcoming DefExpo 2022

New Delhi (Agen cies): Defence Minis ter Rajnath Singh on Tuesday lauded the growing role of pri vate manufacturers in defence produc tion, describing it as an indicator in the sector’s growth.

He urged the man ufacturers to make a roadmap for the next 25 years and invest in research and devel opment (R&D) and bring new products as they are awaited all over the world.

Addressing the an nual session of the Society of Indian De fence Manufacturers (SIDM), Singh said that the defence pro duction budget has gone up to Rs 30,000 crore in the last eight years from around Rs 10,000 crore earli er. The Defence Min ister further said that by 2025, the fo cus should be on touching the Rs 1.75 lakh crore target for defence equipment procurement. “Gov ernment is there to lend a helping hand to the industry as both have to under take the journey to gether,” he said.

Prez nod to Hry law declaring child marriages

void ab initio

DEF MIN AT THE 5TH ANNUAL SESSION OF SIDM

New Delhi (Agencies): Union defence minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday urged the domestic defence manufacturing industry to identify and make cost effective products and technologies to help realise the prime minister’s vision for ‘New India’. “Seven-eight years ago, our defence exports were not even ₹1,000 cr. They have now crossed ₹13,000 cr,” Singh said.

FEMALE OFFICERS

FLYING FIGHTER

JETS NEAR LAC Tezpur (ANI): Amid the growing number of wom en pilots and ground crew in the Indian Air Force, females of the forces are operating fighter aircraft and choppers extensively in the eastern sector over AP and Assam. During a forward air base visit, team ANI witnessed operations by the female fighter aircraft crew and chopper pilots flying the indigenously.

New Delhi, (PTI): The DRDO on Tuesday success fully flight tested the Very Short Range Air Defence System (VSHORADS) missile in Chandipur off the coast of Odisha. The VSHORADS is an air defence system designed and developed indigenously by Hyderabad-based Research Centre Imarat of the Defence Research and Development Organisa tion (DRDO). “The DRDO

conducted two successful test flight of the VSHORADS missile from a ground based portable launcher at the integrated test range, Chandipur, off the coast of Odisha,” the defence ministry said in a state ment. “VSHORADS missile incorporates many novel technologies including miniaturized RCS and inte grated avionics, which have been proven during the tests,” the ministry said.

UP govt transfers 6 PCS & 2 IAS officers

New Delhi (Agencies):

NASA picked Dimorphos as a goal due to its dimen sion. A NASA spacecraft efficiently crashed into an asteroid roughly 6.8 mn miles from Earth in a take a look at to find out if the influence can nudge the house rock barely off target. NASA launched its DART spacecraft in November ‘21 with the specific objective of colliding with an asteroid.

Rishikesh (Agencies): Drug abuse and prosti tution were regular “services” at the Uttara khand resort owned by Pulkit Arya, a since-ex pelled BJP leader’s son who allegedly killed 19-year-old receptionist

ACTRESS

ASHA PAREKH TO BE CONFERRED WITH DADASAHEB PHALKE AWARD

New Delhi (ANI): Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur on Tuesday announced that the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2020 would be accorded to legendary actress Asha Parekh. A jury comprising of veteran singer Asha Bhosle, award-winning singer Udit Narayan, veteran actress Poonam Dhillon, actor-turned-MP Hema Malini, and Kannada direc tor-producer TS Nagabharana came to this decision. Thakur while making this announcement in Hamirpur said “it is a matter of pride for the Ministry of In formation and Broadcasting to announce this prestigious award for the veteran actress.”

ROAD SAFETY AUDIT RAISES CONCERNS OVER MAINTENANCE

Ankita Bhandari, for mer employees have al leged. “The resort man agement would provide illicit liquor, ganja and other drugs, and even girls, to the guests,” said Rishita, the receptionist while her husband, Vivek, worked as a housekeeper.

They had quit before Ankita Bhandari joined in August. Just days later, Ankita Bhandari was murdered allegedly by Pulkit Arya and two staff members of the resort — Vanantra, near Rishikesh, in Pau ri district — after she refused to be a part of the prostitution ring, police investigation has found so far.

SIT RECOVERS 2 VEHICLES USED IN CRIME, SAYS DIG Dehradun (ANI): The Uttarakhand Police probing the horrific Ankita Bhandari murder case said that the SIT had recovered two ve hicles allegedly used in the crime from a resort where Ankita worked in Rishikesh.

DIG P Renuka Devi said the SIT will now record the statements of the women employees of the Vantara Resort, owned by the main accused Pulkit Arya. “We are analysing all the evidence. A post-mortem report has been received. We will record the state ments of women who worked at the resort,” the DIG said.

AUTOPSY REPORT SUGGESTS ANKITA DIED OF DROWNING Dehradun, (Agencies): Post-mortem report of Ankita Bhandari, who was allegedly killed by Pulkit Arya, the son of now expelled BJP leader Vinod Arya, has suggested that she died because of suffocation and drowning in water. Ankita (19), who worked as a receptionist at a resort in Uttarakhand’s Pauri district, was reported missing a few days ago. On Saturday morning, her body was recovered. Ankita had reportedly refused to provide ‘special service’ to the guests at the resort owned by Pulkit Arya.

New Delhi (PTI): Pres ident Droupadi Murmu has given her assent to a legislation of Hary ana under which every child marriage that has been solemnised will be considered as “void ab initio” (having no legal effect from inception), thus making a marital relationship between a man and a girl aged be tween 15 and 18 years illegal.

The Prohibition of Child Marriage (Hary ana Amendment) Bill, 2020 was enacted follow ing a Supreme Court ruling. The apex court had declared that the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, be ing a special law, pre vails over the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and sex with a minor wife aged between 15 and 18 years, in accordance with the prevailing ex ception 2 of section 375 of the IPC, is arbitrary and violative of the Constitution.

PROTECTION FROM POACHERS

Ahtesham Siddiqui

Lucknow: The process of transfer of officers is going on in the bureau cracy of Uttar Pradesh as, on Tuesday, the state government once again transferred 6 PCS offic ers including two IAS.

Among the IAS - 2019 batch officer Prashant Nagar has been made CDO Mau, while IAS Pranata Aishwarya has been made CDO Eta wah.

Even though the re cruitment department is continuously making IAS officers of 2019 batch as CDOs in the state, but in the grada tion list, senior IAS Su mit Yadav, IAS Pooja Yadav are still posted as

Joint Magistrates. No tably, IAS lakshmi N and IAS Soumya Guru nani are currently on leave...

On the other hand, 6 PCS officers have been given new postings in which PCS Ram Singh Verma - CGM, UPSRTC; PCS Santosh Kumar as Special Secretary Medi cal Education Depart ment, PCS Ayush Chaudhary as ADM Fi nance and Revenue Etah, PCS Devendra Singh as City Magis trate Jaunpur, PCS Ma hendra Pal Singh as ADM Finance and Rev enue Auraiya, PCS Jyo ti Singh as City Magis trate Moradabad have been given appoint ments.

‘Super Sniffer’ dog squad to protect Namibian cheetahs

New Delhi (ANI): Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla chaired a crucial meeting with senior officials of Telan gana and AP over unsettled matters of the Reorganisa tion of Andhra Pradesh Act 2014. The meeting started in the Home Ministry with Telangana Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar and Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma along with some higher officials of both the states.Officials said that the agenda of the meeting was divided between the discussion on bilateral.

New Delhi (PTI): A safety audit on the highway, which witnessed the acci dental death of Tata Sons’ former chairman Cyrus Mistry, has raised concerns over poor maintenance, inadequate signages to guide drivers and over two dozen median openings along the stretch. The road safety audit of the 70-km stretch between Mandor in Maharashtra and Achhad in Gujarat of NH-48 was car ried out by a team of India chapter of the International Road Federation.

Panchkula (Haryana) (ANI): A five-monthold German Shepherd ‘Ilu’ is under training at Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force’s (ITBP) National Training Cen tre for Dogs to join the ‘Supper Sniffer’ squad in Madhya Pradesh.

Ilu will soon be de ployed in Madhya Pradesh’s Kuno Nation al Park to protect the recently released Na mibian cheetahs from poachers. She is among the six dogs that are be

ing trained to protect the wildlife at various national parks of the country.

After the completion of the basic training for three months and an advance training for four months will help instil qualities like obe dience, sniffing and tracking skills. The ca nines will get deployed on the job from April next year. During the training, the dogs will be trained to detect ti ger and leopard skins,

bones, elephant tusks and other body parts, bear bile, Red Sanders, and several other ille

—PHOTO BY ANI

gal wildlife products. Super sniffer squads trained at this camp have been deployed in

national parks in Ma harashtra, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. “Dogs develop an unbreaka ble bond with their handlers that makes them excellent in their job,” said Sanjeev Sharma, handler of Ilu, who is currently employed with the for est department at Kuno National Park. Sharma further said that Illu is like a child to him. She was just two months

old when he picked her here for training.

As per the norms, dogs stay with the same handler from day one till their day of retire ment.

“Ilu is not supposed to protect cheetahs be cause they can protect themselves, she will be deployed on the periph ery of the national park along with forest guards to protect chee tahs and other animals from poachers,” said Sanjeev.

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh cabinet on Tuesday gave the green signal for the first tiger reserve in the Bundelkhand region. In a meeting chaired by CM Yogi Adityanath, the cabinet approved to notify Ranipur Tiger Reserve under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The tiger reserve will include Ranipur wildlife sanctuary in Chitrakoot district of the state.

Protest against the murder of Ankita Bhandari, by owner and 2 managers of Vanantra Resort near Rishikesh. —FILE PHOTO

Ilu to be deployed at Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh.

Pranata Aishwarya Pashant Nagar

Jaishankar, India’s External Affairs Minister, makes a point during the discussion. —PHOTO BY PTI

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh reviewing the preparation for DefExpo-2022 on Tuesday in New Delhi. —PHOTO BY ANI

Reena Bhardwaj

DRDO CONDUCTS SUCCESSFUL TESTS OF SHORT RANGE AIR DEFENCE SYSTEM MISSILES

MUTHOOT, LULU PARTNERSHIP TO BENEFIT UAE NRIs

New Delhi: Muthoot Finance, one of India’s largest gold loan NBFC companies, has signed a Memorandum of Under standing (MoU) with Lulu International Exchange, one of the money ex change and transfer companies in the UAE, to work as its collection partner. Muthoot Finance through this partnership aims to drive conveni ence and ease of money transfer for over four lakh NRIs in the UAE region whose relatives have availed gold loans back home.

TORRENT PHARMA TO ACQUIRE CURATIO FOR `2,000 CRORE

New Delhi: Torrent Phar maceuticals Limited (Tor rent Pharma) on Tuesday said it has entered into definitive agreements to acquire 100 per cent stake in Curatio Healthcare for `2,000 crore. The consid eration includes `115 crore (on the date of sign ing) of cash and cash equivalents in the ac quired business indicating an Enterprise Value of `1,885 crore. “The trans action is subject to condi tions precedent and is ex pected to close within one month,” Torrent Pharma said in a statement. —ANI

ENTERTAINMENT

SECTOR MAY GROW TO $100 BN BY 2030

Mumbai: The size of the media and entertainment sector in India is likely to grow to over $100 billion by 2030, Union Secretary for Information and Broadcasting Apurva Chandra said on Tuesday. “India will be a 10 trillion dollar economy in the next 10 years, we should target that the media and entertainment sector should grow to more than 100 billion dollars by 2030. The Ministry of In formation and Broadcast ing will do whatever it takes to support the M&E sector and help it grow,” Chandra said.

GOLD, SILVER PRICES

FALL BY `195 AMID DEPRECIATION IN `

New Delhi: Gold price fell by `195 to `49,580 per 10 gram in the national capi tal on Tuesday amid ap preciation in the rupee, ac cording to HDFC Securi ties. In the previous trade, the precious metal had closed at `49,775 per 10 gram. Silver also declined by `195 to `56,155 per kg from `56,350 per kg in the previous trade. In the in ternational market, gold was quoting lower at $1,637 per ounce, while silver was flat at $18.69 per ounce.

‘

RBI is expected to reload fx reserves’

New Delhi (Agencies):

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to find ways to replenish its for eign exchange reserves such as encouraging nonresident Indians to deposit more funds, in order to sta bilise a depreciating rupee, HDFC Bank chief econo mist Abheek Barua said.

Barua said that the cen tral bank may need to think of ways to bulk up its forex reserves, should the pool shrink to near $500 billion in the coming months.

“The central bank should intervene to ensure that a falling currency does not eclipse India’s funda mentals,” wrote Barua.

The Indian currency has weakened 9.5% so far this year, with the central bank defending the rupee via dollar sales that have de pleted its forex reserves to $545 billion from the peak of $642 billion a year ago.

While there might be some benefits of a depreci ated currency in closing the trade gap, the damage to the capital account in terms of reduced confi dence of investors will out weigh this benefit, he said.

According to Barua, the central bank may need to think of ways to bulk up its

OTHER STORIES

‘INDIA HAS FAIRLY LARGE FOREX RESERVE TO DEAL WITH CURRENT SITUATION’ New Delhi (PTI): Economic affairs secretary Ajay Seth on Tuesday dismissed the concerns over depletion of forex reserve as “over blown” and said India has fairly large reserve to tide over the current situation. Foreign exchange reserves were down for a seventh continuous week, dropping to $545.65 billion on September 16. The reserves, which have been dipping as the central bank deploys the kitty to defend the currency amid a pressure caused majorly by global developments, had declined by $2.23 billion to $550.87 billion in the previous week. “There has been a depletion as inflows have come down and trade deficit is higher...I don’t see this as a concern, India has fairly large reserves to tide over this situation,” Seth said.

forex reserves, should the pool shrink to near $500 bil lion in the coming months.

“More capital is needed at this stage to stabilise the rupee and enable the RBI to replenish its reserves chest,” he said, as per Reu ters report.

In July, the RBI had al lowed banks to raise for

E-COMMERCE FIRMS SELL GOODS WORTH `24,500 CR IN FIRST FOUR DAYS OF FESTIVE SEASON SALES

Mumbai: E-commerce firms have sold goods worth `24,500 crore in the first four days of the festive season sales, a report said on Tues day. According to the report by strategy consultancy firm Redseer, during this period each minute as many as 1,100 mobile phones amounting to around `11,000 crore were sold on large e-commerce platforms, driven by the premium phones. Besides, fashion saw a 4.5x jump in terms of Daily Average GMV (gross merchandise value) compared to business-as-usual (BAU) days to reach `5,500 crore in the first four days, it added. The first four days of the previous year contributed to 59%, signalling a better-than-anticipated kickoff to the festive season this year, it noted. PTI

WTO CHIEF WARNS WORLD EDGING INTO ‘GLOBAL RECESSION’

Geneva: The World Trade Organization’s chief on Tuesday said she believes the world is heading to wards a global recession due to multiple colliding crises, and called for policies to revive growth. “I think a global reces sion. That’s what I think we are edging into. But at the same time, we have to start thinking of the recovery. We have to restore growth,” Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told the opening of the WTO’s annual public forum. PTI

TRAVEL INDUSTRY SEES 28% GROWTH IN JOB POSTINGS IN JUNE-AUG

New Delhi: The travel and tourism industry has witnessed 28% growth in job postings during June-Au gust, according to a report. Accord ing to chat-based direct hiring platform Hirect’s ‘Job Index Report’, the travel and tourism sector witnessed layoffs and salary reductions during the COVID pandemic. The number of job postings has increased by 28% in the June-August period, with an 8% month-on-month growth, the report said. PTI

BEZOS TAKES OVER

eign currency non-resident deposits at higher costs and permitted foreign in vestors to buy shorter term local debt as a way to en courage more inflows.

Those measures have only helped marginally, analysts say. It may be time for the central bank to ready other options.

LIC buys 2% stake in BPCL for `1,598 cr Sensex, Nifty end marginally lower

New Delhi (PTI): LIC has acquired over a 2% stake in state-owned refiner Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd for nearly `1,598 crore since December last year.

The state-owned life in surance behemoth in a regulatory filing on Tues day said its shareholding in BPCL has increased from 15,25,08,269 to 19,61,15,164 equity shares, increasing its sharehold ing from 7.03% to 9.04% of the paid-up capital of the company. As per Sebi’s norm, listed companies have to disclose sharehold ing in excess of 2%.

BPCL has a market capi talisation of `67,301 crore, which is in the refining of crude oil and marketing of petroleum products.

“There is an increase of more than 2% in the hold ing during the period from December 28, 2021, to Sep tember 26, 2022,” LIC said.

The shares were pur chased in the ordinary course of the transaction through the open market at an average cost of ` 336.43 per share.

Mumbai (PTI): Equity benchmark Sensex and Nifty ended marginally down on Tuesday tracking losses in metal, banking and financial stocks.

Investors also remained concerned over persistent foreign fund outflows, trad ers said. Falling for the fifth consecutive session, the 30-share BSE index ended 37.70 points or 0.07% lower at 57,107.52.

Similarly, the NSE Nifty shed 8.90 points or 0.05% to close at 17,007.40.

Tata Steel was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding 2.25%, followed by Titan, SBI, Kotak Bank, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank and HDFC twins.

On the other hand, Pow erGrid, IndusInd Bank, Dr Reddy’s, HCL Tech and Nestle India are among the gainers. Of the Sensex constituents, 18 stocks closed lower.

Employment in 9 non-farm sectors up by 10 lakh to 3.18 cr in Jan-Mar

New Delhi (PTI): Total employment in nine sec tors rose by 10 lakh to 3.18 crore during JanuaryMarch 2022 from a year-ago period, according to a quar terly survey released by the Union labour ministry on Tuesday.

Union Minister for La bour & Employment Bhu pender Yadav released the report on Fourth Round (January-March, 2022) of Quarterly Employment Survey (QES) as part of the All India Quarterly Estab lishment based Employ ment Survey (AQEES).

The nine selected sectors are manufacturing, con struction, trade, transport, education, health, accom modation & restaurant, IT/ BPO, & financial services.

The total number of em ployment in these nine sec tors stood at 3.08 crore dur ing January-March 2021.

TOP TALKING POINTS

z The nine selected non-farm sectors are manufacturing, construction, trade, transport, education, health, accommodation & restaurant, Information Technology/BPO, and financial services

During a press confer ence, S P Mukherjee, chair man of the expert group which brought out this QES, stated that the total employment was 3.08 crore

z The estimated employment increased from 3.14 crore in third quarter (Oct-Dec 2021) to 3.18 crore in 4th quarter (January-March 2022)

z Manufacturing sector accounts for the largest percentage (38.5%) of the total number of workers

on January 1, 2021 and 3.10 crore on January 1, 2022. Thus the number of em ployment in these nine sec tors has increased by 10 lakh in that period.

RUPEE RISES 9 PAISE TO CLOSE AT 81.58 AGAINST US DOLLAR

Mumbai (PTI): The rupee con solidated in a narrow range and settled 9 paise higher at 81.58 (provisional) against the US dol lar on Tuesday as the American currency retreated from its el evated levels. At the interbank fo rex market, the local unit opened at 81.45 against the greenback. It witnessed an intra-day high of 81.30 and a low of 81.64 during the session. It finally ended at 81.58, up 9 paise from its previ ous close. This is the first gain after four consequent sessions of losses for the rupee, during which it lost 193 paise against the American dollar.

Net direct tax mop-up rises 23% this year

Manila (PTI): The net di rect tax collection has in creased 23% to ` 7.04 lakh crore so far this fiscal, the income tax department said on Tuesday.

Central Board of Direct Taxes Chairman Nitin Gupta said the income and corporate tax collections were at a record high of `14.09 lakh crore in 2021-22.

“The momentum of the last fiscal continues in this fiscal with net direct tax collection of ` 7.04 lakh crore so far, which is a growth of 23% over the same period last fiscal,” Gupta said. Gupta said I-T refunds worth ` 1.41 lakh crore have been issued so far this fiscal

$7 bn gone! Gautam Adani loses No. 2 status in global rich list

New Delhi (Agencies):

With most Adani Group stocks trading in the nega tive amid the ongoing sell off in equity markets worldwide, billionaire Gautam Adani has lost around $7 billion with Am azon founder Jeff Bezos overtaking him as the sec ond -richest man in the world.

With an increase of $1.36 billion on Monday, Bezos has reclaimed his No. 2 po sition in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index with a total wealth estimated to be around $138 billion.

Adani, who lost $6.9 bil

lion in the market rout, is now worth $ 135 billion and the third richest in the world. Overall, he has gained about $58.5 billion so far in the calendar year 2022.

Barring Adani Power and Adani Total Gas, all other Adani stocks ended in the negative on Tuesday with losses going up to 3%.

Earlier on September 16, the 60-year-old Gujarati businessman had claimed the No.2 spot in the global rich list for the first time.

After the acquisition of ACC and Ambuja Cement, Adani Group has become India’s largest conglomer ate with a total market cap

of over `22 lakh crore. Out of the nine listed entities

$100 BILLION IN ENERGY, DATA

z Adani Group will invest more than $100 billion in the next decade in energy, data, Chairman Gautam Adani told a Forbes Global CEO Conference in Singapore

z ”We have earmarked 70% of this investment for the energy transition space. We are already the world’s largest solar player, and we intend to do far more”

from Adani’s stable, at least four of them have

more than doubled in the calendar year so far.

The recently-released IIFL Wealth Hurun India Rich List 2022 showed that Adani has been creating wealth at an unprecedent ed speed of ` 1,612 crore per day.

In the last five years, the Ahmedabad-based busi nessman’s wealth, fuelled by acquisitions and organ ic growth, has increased by an astounding 1,440%.

In the meantime, Muke sh Ambani, who was the second Indian in the top 10 global rich list, has also been pushed to No. 11.

Once

Army to boost fire power along LAC

n ANOTHER ORDER OF 100 K9 VAJRA HOWITZERS FROM PVT COMPANY L&T

First India Bureau

New Delhi: Faced with a belligerent China on the Line of Actual Con trol (LAC), the Army is set to order 100 more K9 Vajra Tracked Self-Pro pelled Howitzer from private defence major Larsen and Toubro (L&T) for their deploy ment at the northern borders.

The Army is also try ing to fast-track the re maining trials of the indigenous Advanced Towed Artillery Gun System (ATAGS) 155mm/52 calibre how itzers, which were used for the ceremonial fir ing at the Red Fort on Independence Day.

The new order for 100 more 155mm/52 calibre Vajras will be a repeat for the South Korean guns that are manufac tured indigenously by L&T at its facility in

`

Gujarat.

In 2017, L&T won the Rs 4,500-crore contract to supply 100 units of K9 Vajra under the ‘Make in India’ initia tive for which it signed a transfer of technolo gy contract with South Korean company Han wha Corporation.

Sources in the de fence establishment said the Army plans to

equip its Artillery units along the Line of Actu al Control (LAC) with Unmanned Aerial Vehi cles (UAV) with a range of up to 90 kms.

“We are looking at procuring UAVs having a range of 15-20 kms as well as those having ca pabilities to carry out surveillance at a range of up to 80kms having an endurance of four

n EFFORTS ON TO FAST-TRACK TRIALS OF INDIGENOUS ATAGS HOWITZERS

MORE PINAKA WEAPON SYSTEMS TO BE PROCURED

Indian Army sources said that induction of more advanced Pinaka weapon systems is in the offing, while 6 more regiments of the systems are being procured and their delivery would commence soon. The sources said the new Pinaka regiments will be equipped with electronically and mechani cally improved weapon systems capable of firing a variety of ammunition over longer ranges. One regiment of Pinaka has been inducted along North ern borders in high-altitude areas after extensive validation, they said, adding that the defence min istry has already approved procurement of guided extended range rockets for Pinaka.

ED raids Coda Payments India for fleecing users

New Delhi: The ED has conducted searches at three premises pertain ing to Coda Payments India Pvt Ltd as part of a money laundering probe into the fintech firm and Sea Ltd’s Free Fire. The ED also froze all Coda’s accounts, which had a total bal ance of Rs 68.53 crore.

hours,” said a source.

At present, almost all UAVs in the Army’s in ventory are being oper ated by the Army Avia tion units. The sources said the Army is set to procure a new batch of 100 more K9 Vajras howitzers, in addition to 100 such guns or dered in 2017. “The De fence Acquisition Council has cleared the

proposal for ordering 100 more K9 Vajras. The Request for Proposal (RFP) will be issued soon,” the source said.

The K9 Vajras were originally procured for deployment in deserts, but following the east ern Ladakh standoff, the Army deployed a significant number of the howitzers in that high-altitude region.

EX-GRATIA TO 28 MORE CORONA WARRIORS BY DELHI GOVT

The sources said mi nor adjustments were made for deployment of the tracked howitzers in eastern Ladakh.

“We are also procur ing winterisation kits so the howitzers work in sub-zero tempera ture,” the source said, adding the Vajra guns are roaring in high-alti tude areas along North ern borders.

The Enforcement Di rectorate (ED) said it had started an investi gation into the compa nies following com plaints that the plat forms made unauthor ised deductions from the accounts of online game users. Coda ena bles cross-border pay ments for games and other digital products, including Garena Free Fire, Teen Patti Gold, and Call of Duty.

As the children are

not aware of these tech nical terms, they just click on the notification in a routine manner and end up giving the au thorization to make all future payments with out any further authen tication, said the ED.

“Garena which pub lishes ‘Free Fire’ does not have a company or presence in India and is operated from Singa pore,” ED further said.

Prior to this, the Del hi government had given a ‘Samman Rashi’ of Rs one crore to families of 31 corona warriors.

The decision was taken in the meeting of

New Delhi: A sanita tion worker, a gastroen terologist who died al legedly of oxygen shortage, and civil de fence volunteers are among 28 corona war riors whose families will be given an ex-gra tia amount of Rs one crore by the Delhi government.

the group of ministers chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday.

“Corona warriors of Delhi worked selflessly during the pandemic and sacrificed their lives to protect human ity and society without caring for their own lives. Delhi Govern ment salutes their spir it,” Manish Sisodia said.

Constitution bench reserves order on 10% EWS quota

New Delhi: The Su preme Court 5-judge Constitution Bench headed by CJI UU Lalit after having heard 7 days of Arguments and over 20 counsels have reserves orders in the petitions challenging the validity of the 103rd Constitutional amend ment providing for a 10% quota to Economi cally Weaker Sections.

The 5-judge bench comprising CJI UU Lalit, Justices Dinesh Maheshwari, S Ravin dra Bhat, Bela M Trive di and JB Pardiwala heard this case for 7 days and on the final day, the petitioners’ law yers made rejoinder to the arguments made by the Union Government.

While tweeting about the Corona warriors, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, “Today, an amount of Rs 1 crore each has been sanc tioned for the families of 28 Corona Warriors who saved lakhs of lives, without caring about their own lives during COVID. The government stands with the families of Co rona warriors.”

CBI joint directors Aggarwal, Meena get tenure extension

Saab to make Carl-Gustaf weapons system in India

New Delhi (PTI): Swed ish defence major Saab on Tuesday announced that it will set up a man ufacturing facility in India for the production of its Carl-Gustaf M4 weapon systems.

It will be the compa ny’s first manufactur ing facility outside Swe den. The production of the shoulder-fired weapons having a range of 1,500 metres will start in 2024, said Gor gen Johansson, Saab’s senior vice president.

Almost all the for ward posts of the Indi an Army along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China have been equipped with previous versions of the weapon systems.

‘We haven’t done this in any other country. The facility will be the firm’s first manufacturing facility for the Carl-Gustaf M4 weapon system outside Sweden,’

New Delhi (PTI): The Centre has extended the tenure of Rakesh Ag garwal and Sampat Meena as joint direc tors in the Central Bu reau of Investigation, according to a Person nel Ministry order.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabi net has approved an ex tension in Aggarwal’s tenure for a period of

six months beyond Sep tember 2, 2022, it said.

Aggarwal is a 1994-batch Indian Po lice Service (IPS) officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre.

The committee has also approved an exten sion in the tenure of Meena, a 1994-batch IPS officer of the Jharkhand cadre, till September 21, 2024, the order said.

Johansson said the facility in India will sup port the production of the weapon systems for the Indian Armed Forc es as well as components for users of the system around the world.

The new company Saab FFV India, cur rently under registra tion, will make the lat est generation of the state-of-the-art weapon

‘DU most successful univ, but much more can be done’

New Delhi (PTI): Del hi University is the most successful “centre of excellence” in the country but much more can be done, Union minister Hardeep Sin gh Puri said on Tues day. Speaking at the launch of a book cele brating 100 years of the university, the housing and urban affairs min ister reminisced his time in DU’s Hindu Col lege and noted that a good institution is de

fined by its student body. “Great institu tions are made up of great faculty members. A good institution is de fined by its student body. Institutions are celebrating and we are having the first in the series of that celebra tion,” he said.

“The university is the most successful uni versity in the country. But there is much more that can be done,” Puri said.

BY ANI

Edited by Puri, ‘Del hi University: Celebrat ing 100 Glorious Years’ is a collection of per sonal narratives and reflections of some of the university’s most distinguished alumni and faculty, among them Amitabh Bach chan, Kiren Rijiju, Dinesh Singh, Meenak shi Gopinath, Shashi Tharoor, Bibek Debroy, Imtiaz Ali, Raian Karanjawala, Sanjeev Sanyal, Arnab Goswa

mi, Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, Laksh mi Puri, Namita Gokhale and Vijay Shekhar Sharma.

The event was also attended by other con tributors to the book -former DU Vice Chan cellor Dinesh Singh, former assistant secre tary-general at the Unit ed Nations Lakshmi Puri, lawyer Raian Karanjawala, writer Namita Gokhale and film director Imtiaz Ali.

in India, he said at a me dia briefing, adding Saab will also be part nering with Indian subsuppliers and the sys tems manufactured in the facility will fully meet the requirements of ‘Make in India’ programme.

“It is a natural step to set up a production fa cility for Carl-Gustaf M4 in India given the long and close associa

tion we have with the Indian Army as one of the foremost users of the system,” Johansson said.

“We are glad to be able to contribute to the government of India’s goals of developing a world-class defence in dustry and proud to of fer the Indian Armed Forces our Carl-Gustaf M4 made in India,” he added.

High Court refuses to stay 1986 batch IPS Verma’s dismissal IPS Satish Chandra Verma

New Delhi (ANI): The Delhi HC has refused to stay 1986 batch IPS of ficer Satish Chandra Verma’s dismissal from service. Verma was dis missed from service on August 30, 2022, just a month before his retire ment. However, the High Court has granted the Centre eight weeks’ time to file a reply on the peti tion moved by Verma against his dismissal.

Verma is an officer who assisted the CBI in the investigation of the Ishrat Jahan encounter.

One of the grounds for Verma’s dismissal was talking to the media.

His lawyer submitted that the interview was given under ‘compel ling circumstances’.

The court said the inter view pertained to subjudice matters.

File photo of Indian Army’s K9 Vajra Howitzer deployed along the LAC.

First India Bureau

The production of the shoulder-fired weapons having a range of 1,500 metres will start in 2024.

Saab’s senior vice president said.

YEARS OF DU

Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Prof Dinesh Singh, chancellor K.R. Mangalam University, Director Imtiaz Ali and others at the launch of ‘Delhi University: Celebrating 100 Glorious Years’ at Hindu College in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Rakesh AggarwalSampat Meena

—PHOTO

Jagdeesh Chandra paid a courtesy visit to Sanjay Arora, Commissioner of Police, Delhi at the Police Headquarters, Delhi on Tuesday morning. Chandra conveyed his appreciation for the exemplary work by the Delhi Police under Arora’s leadership. Sanjay Arora, who took charge as Commissioner of Police, Delhi on August 2, 2022 is a 1988 batch, Tamil Nadu cadre IPS officer who hails from Jaipur, Rajasthan and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Malviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur. Arora was also part of the Tamil Nadu Police’s special task force which brought down forest brigand Veerappan and was awarded the Chief Minister’s gallantry medal for bravery during this operation.

‘Festive

that aims to revive the slow and purist workmanship of their in digenous craftsmen and arti sans.

Jagdeesh Chandra graced the occasion with his presence and welcomed everyone to Pink City. While addressing the enthralled audience, he congratulated Rish ee Miglani, Brand Ambassador and Youth Icon along with Show Director Lokesh Sharma for put ting up a great show while call ing them the heart and soul of the show.

Rishee Miglani also paid im mense gratitude to everyone on the occasion and said, “The show wouldn’t have been a success without our entire team. I also congratulate team Fairmont, especially the GM, Mr Rajiv Kapoor for all the love and sup port.”

Manish Malhotra walked the ramp with his supermodels and concluded the magnifi cent showcase of roy alty by felicitating the pillars of support behind the successful show. The magical evening wit nessed a decorated guest list of lovers of art, craft, fashion and opulence and various who’s who of the Pink City.

Ace fashion designer Manish Malhotra brought his latest ‘Festive Collection’ to the Pink City for a pop-up showcase at The First India Fashion Connect Season 12 that was held at Fairmont, Jaipur on Sunday!

MITALI DUSAD mitalidusad01@gmail.com

Jagdeesh Chandra appreciates Rishee Miglani

Stunning supermodels donning Manish Malhotra’s ‘Festive Collection’

—PHOTOS BY SANTOSH SHARMA

Malhotra

Lokesh Sharma (L), Rishee Miglani

and the stunning supermodels at the

India Fashion Connect

Manish Malhotra felicitates the Title Sponsors, Narendra Singh Rathore and Hema Rathore Manish Malhotra felicitates Dr Preeti Bakshi and Akansha Bakshi

Jagdeesh Chandra with Mahendra Meena, Paltan Security Services MD and the security team

Manish Malhotra

TEASER LAUNCH

EMBRACE ALL THAT IS YOU!

After a few months, I switched my profession and got into modelling and now I enjoy being a model.

Iam doing what I have always dreamed about and it is the biggest achievement for me in my life," says Preity Sinha during the chit-chat session with City First

Tell us something about yourself.

My name is Preity Sinha and I was born in Prayagraj. I come from an academic background where eve rybody had been either a doctor or a teacher, fol lowing the norm I worked hard and got into my dream college and became an Urban Planner. Later to pursue my career in modelling, I left everything behind and moved to Delhi.

How did your journey begin?

After my graduation, I start ed working as an Urban Plan ner but I wasn't enjoying it.

What were some of the bat tles you fought and are still fighting in your journey?

I think my battle has always been to have the urge to stand out in the crowd, but I have decoded the only solution to it, which is to accept & em brace myself.

Talk to us about your achievements.

I am doing what I have always dreamed about and it is the biggest achievement for me in my life. I have walked for the biggest fashion weeks in India and shot for the most wellknown designers & brands.

Where do you see yourself after the next 20 years?

I wish to work in the fashion industry solely. Being in front of the camera is something I’d never trade for anything in my life. I might switch my role with time, but I am sure I’ll always contribute to fashion in some or other way.

ART IS A LANGUAGE

CITY FIRST

An ongoing event named 'Paradise Lost' by Saumik Chakraborty in associa tion with Art Multi Disci plines and Gallery 1000A is being held at Gallery 1000A, Lado Sarai, New Delhi. The event is curated by Ayan Mukherjee and will be in view from September 10 to Octo ber 10, at Gallery 1000A.

Saumik explores different me diums like charcoal, Conte, dry pastel, Ink, graphite and acrylic along with the usage of tech niques like photocopy transfer.

Most of his works come with a dominant surface which also acts

as a fantastic background and then we see the enactment of a subtle dialogue between the back ground and foreground.

"His work to me is a pure allego ry, an image of the contemporary social situation. They appeal and narrate not only to a restricted so ciety but on a much larger scale; the landscape stretches out to reflect the communities and their history throughout the world. His selection of colours and tones along with the way he tackles various mediums only recites the metaphorical situ ation that he chronicles through the melancholic nature and sensi tivity of his compositions" says Ayan Mukherji, Curator.

INTERACTIVE SESSION

After a long wait, the muchanticipated teaser and poster of the film ‘Adipurush’ directed by the ace director Om Raut will be unveiled on October 2 on the bank of Sarayu in the holy land of Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. The grand event will be graced with the presence of superstar Prabhas and Kriti Sanon along with Director Om Raut and Producer Bhushan Kumar. The film is based on the epic Ramayana, showcasing the triumph of good over evil. The film is produced by T-Series and Retrophiles.

SAIF AND HRITHIK SET THE STAGE ON FIRE

Saif Ali Khan and Hrithik Roshan collaborated on stage for the first time on Tuesday in New Delhi to pro mote blockbuster, "Vikram Vedha."

The movie is scheduled to premiere on Sep tember 30. Hrithik and Saif interacted with a lively crowd at Gurugram's SGT University. The students were enthralled with their offscreen friendship.

CHAOS OF THE CAPITAL CITY!

Delhi is the city of dreams and no one can keep oneself away from its beauty. Its majestic history and astonishing mon uments are example of real tribute to the country’s culture. It was such an apparent paradox in a society that values modesty so much. Long aesthetic buildings and old sto ries encarved on the walls of monuments depict many untold stories. There are countless, nuanced de grees of significance to recognise in India. Dhillika was the first of the seven settle ments to leave observ able remains in stone.

It was founded by the Tomars, who built gor geous temples and ef ficient waterworks at Lalkot and the town’s bounds were extended by the Chahamanas. It

was simple to follow the individual histo ries of Delhi’s seven historic cities up until 70 years, as you travel from south to north you will experience cool breezes from the hills that will definite ly win your heart. Later construction has partially blurred the borders of earlier his toric sites. They have been slightly muddied by subsequent building, neverthe less. However, there is a noticeable dif ference between Old Delhi and New Delhi, going from a maze of small, chaotic pas sageways crammed with mosques, tem ples, bazaars, and peo ple to the majestic splendour of “gardencity” New Delhi. It is sometimes referred to as the “Seventh Won der of Hindustan” and was one of the first Afghan structures in India.

“Self-acceptance entails realising that your worth extends beyond your own traits and deeds. Whether they are good or bad, you need to accept them with full grace”

MRIDULA SHARMA cityfirst@firtsindia.co.in

The official Twitter handle of the Police Families Welfare Society PFWS shared glimpses from an online interactive session organised on Monday in which PFWS president Ritu Arora discussed the use of technology and cyber security, she further said that being vigilant while using the mobile or computer for the purpose of online education. Dr Rakshit Tandon and IFSO Delhi Police family members were also present on the occasion.

CITY FIRST

MANYA DANGAYACH

Saif Ali Khan and Hrithik Roshan

Om Raut and Bhushan Kumar

Preity Sinha