DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 2021, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES JAISHANKAR MEETS HASINA IN DHAKA 75% FOR UNDER-RS 50,000 SALARY Delhireachesoutto Dhakafortiesbeyond ‘strategicpartnership’ Industry: Haryana quota law will slow recovery, cut jobs, bring inspector raj THE EDITORIAL PAGE KARUNJIT SINGH NEW DELHI, GURUGRAM, MARCH 4 BY PRATAP BHANU MEHTA PAGE 10 EXPLAINED 50 4.1% 40 SIMPLY PUT LEGAL ISSUES IN HARYANA QUOTA PAGE 13 societies and partnership firms with more than 10 employees to follow these local employment requirements and specifically empower the district administrations to enforce the new CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 UnemploymentRateMonthlyTimeSeries(%) 43.2% (Apr-2020) 1.8% 30 20 26.4% 6.9% 10 23.5% (Apr-2020) Aug-17 Nov-17 Feb-18 May-18 Aug-18 Nov-18 Feb-19 May-19 Aug-19 Nov-19 Feb-20 May-20 Aug-20 Nov-20 Feb-21 0 Law comes as jobless curve in state rises and govt pie shrinks Andhra law on hold after challenge; balkanisation of labour is a concern UDIT MISRA NEW DELHI, MARCH 4 HARYANA’S LAW making it mandatory for private sector firms in the state to reserve 75% jobs with a monthly salary up to Rs 50,000 for locals comes amid a rising unemployment curve and shrinking work opportunities in the government. Data compiled by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy shows that Haryana’s unemploymentratehasbeenfarinexcessof thenationalaveragesince PAGE 1 ANCHOR 3 COPS KILLED IN MAOIST ATTACK Three constables were killed and two others injured in a Claymore mine explosion triggered by Maoists in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand on Thursday. PTI REPORT,PAGE12 UNEMPLOYMENT:STATE WORSE THAN NATIONAL ■ India ■ Haryana SetsstageforPrimeMinister’svisittomark50thyearof 1971 THEZERO SUMBILL THE MOVE by the Haryana government requiring that locals — born in the state or living there for five years — account for 75% of allhiringbycompaniesinjobs with gross salary under Rs50,000 permonth will potentially slow the post-Covid economic recovery, increase compliance burden and usher in an “inspectorraj,” a cross-sectionof industry representatives have told The Indian Express. OnTuesday,the stateadministration notified the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act 2020, which requiresallcompanies,LLPs,trusts, August 2017. It reached a peak in April 2020 when four out of every 10 people looking for a job failed to get one. Worse still, as the Covid-induced lockdowns have been removed and the economy opened up, Haryana’s unemployment rate has continued to be high and is still rising. Both these trends explain why the BJP government in the state may have chosen to go ahead with this law. In the runup to the Assembly polls in October 2019, the ruling BJP had CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 `6.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 Could not obey junta, 19 Myanmar policemen cross over to Mizoram DEVJYOT GHOSHAL NEW DELHI, MARCH 4 AT LEAST 19 Myanmar police havecrossedintoIndiatoescape taking orders from the military junta that is trying to suppress protests against last month’s coup, an Indian police official said on Thursday, adding that more were expected. The men have crossed into Champhai and Serchhip, two districts in Mizoram that share a porous border with Myanmar, the official said, declining to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. All the men, who are lowerranking policemen, were unarmed, the official said. “We are Explain tight control over vaccinations, Delhi HC tells Centre expecting more to come,” he said, citing intelligence reports. There have been several instances recounted on social media of police joining the civil disobedience movement and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RELATED REPORT BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY At a vaccination centre in Delhi, Thursday. Tashi Tobgyal vaccination covers individuals older than 60 years and those betweenages45and60withassociated comorbidities. Healthcare and frontline CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Diplomacy atwork S Jaishankar, Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka on Thursday. PTI ingpointbetweenthetwocountries, Jaishankar reached Dhaka Thursday morning and framed Bangladesh’s importance as beingcentraltoIndia’s“neighbourhoodfirst”policyanditsgrowing relevanceinthe“ActEast”policy. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 India score in QS subject ranking: 25 programmes, 12 institutes in top 100 NEW DELHI, MARCH 4 THE EDITORIAL PAGE PARTLY FREE FreedomHousedowngradeisa cueforgovernment,civilsociety. TrashingitorbrushingitunderPR carpetwon’twork PAGE 10 TWENTY-FIVEPROGRAMMES— mostly in engineering — offered by higher education institutions in India rank among the top 100 in the world in their respective subject categories, according to thelatesteditionof theQSWorld University Rankings by Subject. Lastyear,thisnumberstoodat26. While the number of Indian universities/ institutes in the top 100 subject rankings has increased from eight to 12 this year, IIM-Calcutta, which is embroiled in a turf war between its Board and director, suffered its worst-ever ranking. INDIA REPORT 12 universities/ institutes in top 100 subject rankings (8 in 2020) ■ IIT-Guwahati, JNU, Anna University, O P Jindal Global University (law) new entrants ■ 25 programmes in top 100 (26 in 2020) ■17of 25inengineering While IIM-Ahmedabad, IIMBangalore, IIM-Lucknow and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 From yatras to shivirs, Baghel replicates his Chhattisgarh model to take on BJP in Assam For the first time in recent history, the party NEW DELHI, MARCH 4 hastaskeditschiefministers with election duIT IS an uphill battle and tiestoturnthecornerin theopponentisformidaother states — DECISION Chhattisgarh'sBhupesh ble, but the Congress is 2021 more confident than it Baghel in Assam and ASSAM was three months ago Rajasthan's Ashok andhopestogiveincumGehlot in Kerala. bent BJP a tough fight in Assam. And Baghel, sources said, is MANOJ C G SREEDHARAN IS BJP CM CANDIDATE PAGE 6 KASHYAP, PANNU RAIDS ON, I-T SAYS DISCREPANCIES OF RS 650 CR PAGE 12 AHEAD OF Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Bangladesh later this month, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar made a strong outreach to Dhaka Thursday on his bilateral visit, describing the country as a “key neighbour” and a “valued partner” not only “in South Asia but also in the broader Indo-Pacific region”. He said India's ties with Bangladesh “transcend even our strategic partnership”. The visits have been timed with celebrations to mark 50 years of the 1971 liberation war that led to the birth of Bangladesh. On his first visit since the CAA-NRC issue became a stick- EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, MARCH 4 INSIDE NEW DELHI, MARCH 4 A YEAR after the CAANRC issue strained the robust ties between the two countries, quiet diplomacy appears to have worked. The Prime Minister's visit later this month is timed with the celebrations to mark 50 years of Bangladesh. And with Bengal polls coming up, Kolkata and Dhaka will watch the visit carefully. PAGE 15 SOFI AHSAN THE DELHI High Court on Thursday directed the central government to explain the rationale for keeping “strict control” over the class of persons who can be vaccinated at present against Covid-19. The court observed that the governmentwaseitherdonating the vaccines or selling them to foreign countries “rather than” inoculatingitsownpeople,when its approach should in fact be to vaccinate Indians urgently — “yesterday and not tomorrow”. The ongoing second phase of SHUBHAJIT ROY Baghel has sent his key advisors to Assam replicating the Chhattisgarh model in Assam. His three key advisors — Vinod Verma, Ruchir Garg and Rajesh Tiwari — are stationed in Assam, and over two dozen teamscomprisinglocalCongress leaders from Chhattisgarh have beenmovedtoAssamtooversee the election efforts. This is additiontothecampaignalreadyput inplacebyAICCinchargeJitendra Singh,whoisconsideredcloseto CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EPFO board recommends 8.5% interest for 2020-21 ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU NEW DELHI, MARCH 4 THE CENTRAL Board of Trustees of the retirement fund body Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has recommendedthat theinterestratefor thefinancial year 2020-21 be retained at 8.5 per cent. This rate, the same as last year's, is the lowest offered by EPFO in eight years. The board meeting chaired by Labour and Employment Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar in Srinagar on Thursday, discussed the investment portfolio of the retirement fund body, and made its recommendation keeping the returns in view. “For FY2021, the EPFO decided to liquidate investment in equity and the interest rate recommended is a result of combined income from interest received from debt investment as well as incomerealised from equity investment. This has enabled EPFO to provide higher return to its subscribers and still allowing EPFO with a healthy surplus to act as cushion for providing higher return in future also,”theMinistrysaidinastatement.“Thereisnoover-drawlon CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Despite HC protection, father kills teen who eloped with Dalit man DEEP MUKHERJEE JAIPUR, MARCH 4 AN 18-YEAR-OLD woman who hadreceivedprotectionfromthe Rajasthan High Court so that she could live with a Dalit man, has been murdered allegedly by her father, state officials said on Thursday. The father, Shankar Lal Saini, told police on Wednesday that he had killed his daughter, Pinki, at his home in Dausa town, district Superintendent of Police Anil Kumar said. Police subsequently recov- eredthebody,whichboremarks of strangulation, the SP said. “PinkiSainihadbeenmarried off to a man on February 16. On February 21, she ran away with Roshan Mahawar (24). On February 26, the couple appearedbeforetheRajasthanHigh Court,andthecourtorderedthat they be provided protection by the local police, and taken to wherever they wanted to go,” SP Kumar told The Indian Express. Police took Pinki and Roshan to Jaipur, where they wanted to go, Kumar said. “On March 1, the two of them came to Roshan's house in Dausa. From there, the woman’s family members took herawayforciblythatsameday,” the SP said. “WeweresearchingforPinki. Yesterday (Wednesday) night, herfatherreachedthepolicestation and said that he had murdered his daughter. When we went to his house, we found the woman'sbody.Primafacie,itappears to be a case of strangulation,” Kumar said. A case of murder has been registered against Shankar Lal Saini,theSPsaid.Thepossibleinvolvement of other individuals in the crime is under investigation, he said. Pinki Saini, Roshan Mahawar approached HC in Feb. Express Lawyers for Pinki and Roshan blamedthemurderon“grossnegligence”onpartofthepolice,who were bound by the High Court's order to protect the couple. In his order of February 26, Justice Satish Kumar Sharma of Rajasthan High Court had said: “Boththepetitionersarepresent in person in the Court and they want to live with each other. Therefore, without expressing any opinion on merits of the case, learned counsel for the respondents is directed to advise his clients not to take the law in their hands and not to cause any sort of harm to the petitioners. “Further, learned Public Prosecutor is also directed to informthelocalpoliceauthorityto give protection to the petitioners and to take them at a safe place as per their wishes.” The court was scheduled to hear the matter again on March 9. After Pinki was abducted on March 1, members of Roshan's family registered an FIR against 11 people, including Pinki's father, uncle, and other relatives, and “15-20” other people. In the FIR — registered under IPC sections including those on abduction,criminalintimidation, and theft, and sections of The SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act — Roshan's family alleged that Shankar Lal Saini and the other accused abused them using casteist slurs, damaged their house, stole Rs 1.2 lakh, and forcibly took away Pinki. “It is gross negligence of the police that despite the High Court’s order providing the couple protection, Pinki was abducted and murdered. The couple had told the court that they feared for their safety, and wantedtolivewitheachotherof their own free will,” said Nawal Singh Sikarwar, the advocate CONTINUED ON PAGE 2