DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, MARCH 4, 2024, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 14 PAGES BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY root out corruption Over ₹ 32 lakh crore transferred directly to beneficiaries’ accounts through DBT Hamara Sankalp Viksit Bharat cbc 22201/13/0325/2324 Means Guarantee to Modi Sarkar ki Guarantee Government of india `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 Scan for more information COUNCIL OF MINISTERS MEETS LAST TIME BEFORE ELECTION Confident of return, Govt readies 100-day action plan after polls PM Modi chairs day-long meeting, will tour five states over next three days Justice Gangopadhyay of Calcutta HC says quitting to join politics, slams TMC BJP, Cong say he is welcome; TMC calls him political party worker SWEETY MISHRA & APURVA VISHWANATH KOLKATA, NEW DELHI, MARCH 3 CHAIRMAN, US-INDIA STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP FORUM PAGE 12 BENGALURU BLAST Looking to join dots, probe agencies speak to accused in 2022 cases JOHNSON T A BENGALURU, MARCH 3 A BUNCH of cases lodged in Karnataka in 2022 involving a group of 10 youths, aged between20and26years,hascome back into focus in the backdrop of theMarch1lunch-hourbomb blast at the popular Rameshwaram Cafe in Whitefield area of Bengaluru which left nine persons injured. Investigators from multiple agencies are trying to establish the identity of a young man caught on CCTV footage at the restaurantwearingacap,glasses and a mask — who is being treated as a suspect — by talking to the 10 youths arrested in the 2022 cases. Police sources said the probe agencies have spoken to some of the accused who are currently lodged in Bengaluru Central Prison. Thethreecasesfrom2022,including two related to terrorism, registered in Mangaluru and Shivamogga,havegainedprominence in the aftermath of the Rameshwaram Cafe blast as the IEDusedissimilartotheIEDsand materialsfoundinthe2022cases. “There are similarities (with the Mangaluru and Shivamogga cases)inthesensethattheyhave Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the meeting of the Council of Ministers in New Delhi on Sunday. ANI HARIKISHAN SHARMA & LIZ MATHEW NEW DELHI, MARCH 3 MEETING IN New Delhi for the last time before the announcement of the schedule for the Lok Sabha elections, the Union Council of Ministers, confident that the ruling alliance would be voted to power for a third consecutive term, discussed Sunday a 100-day action plan to be implemented by the new government after the polls. The day-long meeting of the Union Council of Ministers, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saw presenta- saturation of welfare schemes. Modi was quoted as having toldtheofficerstocontinuetheir work on government projects and schemes and not treat the election period as a vacation when the political leadership will be busy with the electoral process. tions by Secretaries on a vision documentforViksitBharat2047 and a detailedactionplanfor the next five years. In these presentations, the PrimeMinister’s visionfor Viksit Bharat was outlined, sources said, underlining that these included zero poverty, skill to every youth, and 100 per cent CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 TO CONNECT WITH YOUTH On Cong manifesto table: Germany-style apprenticeship, paper leak compensation MANOJ C G NEW DELHI, MARCH 3 HAVING DECIDED to frame unemployment as one of its major talking points against the BJP government during the Lok Sabha poll campaign, the Congress is set to come up with some “out of the box” promises in its manifesto to ease joblessness and soften the blow of repeated exam paper leaks, hoping they would strike a chord with the youth. The Congress think tank is said to be looking at the much- praised apprenticeshipmodelof Germany and tailoring it for Indian conditions. The German dual education model (vocational education and training system) allows smooth education-to-work transitions with young people getting on-the-job time at a companywhilestudyingata vocational school. The model, Congress leaders believe, offers the youth an attractive way to enter the job market. The challenge is to tailor the model to suit Indian conditions since the private sector as CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INSIDE FARMERS TO TAKE BUSES, TRAINS TO DELHI ON MARCH 6: PROTEST LEADERS NAVY MAN FROM J&K MISSING PAGES 5 & 6 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay in Kolkata on Sunday. PTI In a divided Bar, judge’s move raises questions on independence of judiciary APURVA VISHWANATH NEW DELHI, MARCH 3 Under fire from TMC for ‘vulgar’ songs, BJP’s Asansol pick opts out SANTANU CHOWDHURY INDIA bloc leaders at the rally in Patna on Sunday. PTI Lalu to Tejashwi, Rahul to Akhilesh: Opposition targets PM at Patna rally INDIA bloc leaders raise BJP’s ‘divisive politics’ and Nitish Kumar’s flip-flop theyarebuildingtheirpartycampaigns. Rahul spoke about the Congress’s opposition to the Agniveerscheme,the“love-hate” binary, and representation for marginalised communities. Tejashwi, whose 11-day statewideyatraculminatedinthe rallySunday,playeduphispartin the state’s scheme for 10 lakh jobs. His father Lalu, in signature style, launched barbs at Modi. “Ye Modi kya hai? Modi koi cheezhai?NarendraModiparivarvaadparboltahaiaurkitnenetaon SANTOSH SINGH PATNA, MARCH 3 THE INDIA bloc Sunday held its first joint rally since Nitish Kumar’s exit as top leaders, includingCongress’sRahulGandhi, SP’s Akhilesh Yadav and RJD’s Lalu Prasad and Tejashwi Yadav, converged in the Bihar capital to target Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “divisive politics” ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Alltheleaderstouchedonthe key talking points upon which CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 KOLKATA, MARCH 3 A DAY after the BJP announced his name as its candidate from Asansol for the Lok Sabha polls, Bhojpuri singer-actor Pawan Singh Sunday said he will not contest from the constituency in West Bengal. Although he did not give a reason, Singh's candidaturehaddrawncriticismfrom TMC leaders, who claimed some of his songs had vulgar refer- didate against Congress’s Zakir Hussain. Barely six weeks before his retirement, former SC judge BaharulIslamresignedin 1983 to contest the Lok Sabha elections from Barpeta, Assam, as a Congress candidate. ● Yet, Calcutta High Court Judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay’sannouncement of his resignation and that he E A SITTING judge of a Constitutional court resigning to join politics is not new. Former Chief Justice of India Koka Subba Rao in 1967 had resigned three months before his retirement to contest Presidential elections as the Opposition can- EXPLAINED ‘India will outgrow the rest of the world if it continues on the path of inclusion’ JOHN CHAMBERS IN AN UNPRECEDENTED move, Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay, a sittingjudgeof theCalcuttaHigh Court, said Sunday that he will resign Tuesday as a judge and join politics. Thejudge,whoisduetoretire in August, has been at the centre ofcontroversyforhisfrequentremarks against some of his own colleagues,therulingTMCandits leader Abhishek Banerjee. “I will enter the field of politics. I am not telling you today which party I will start with. I wanttofirstfinishthelittlework that is still left in court. Tomorrow, I will wrap that up. I will verbally inform the Chief Justice. And the day-after morning, I will send my resignation to the President,” Justice Gangopadhyay said in an interview with Bengali TV news channel ABP Ananda. His announcement came a Bhojpuri singer-actor Pawan Singh ences to Bengali women. AstheBJPcameunderattack, Singh in a post on X said: “I express my heartfelt gratitude to the top leadership of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The party CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE WORLD SHEHBAZ BECOMES PAK PM, VOWS TO BUILD, IMPROVE TIES WITH NEIGHBOURS ISRAEL BOYCOTTS GAZA TRUCE TALKS, SEEKS CLARITY ON HOSTAGES PAGE 10 To break SP’s hold on Yadav votes, BJP deploys Mohan Yadav in UP MAULSHREE SETH LUCKNOW, MARCH 3 A SURPRISE choice as Madhya Pradesh chief minister, the BJP has utilised Mohan Yadav not just in his state but also in Bihar and is now looking to do the samein UttarPradesh.Theparty hasinvokedHindudeityKrishna and made Yadav the face of its MP chief minister Mohan Yadav at Yadav Mahakumbh in Lucknow, Sunday. Express outreach to the community. InhissecondvisittoUPinless than a month, the Madhya PradeshCMaddressedthe“Yadav Mahakumbh”inLucknow,telling the crowd they should be proud to be “Yaduvanshi (from the lineage of Krishna)”. A petitioner in theKrishnaJanmabhoomicasein Mathura, Manish Yadav, organised the event. CONTINUED PAGE 2 Where clean air funds allotted to states went: Drains, fountains, roads PAGE 1 ANCHOR ABHINAYA HARIGOVIND NEW DELHI, MARCH 3 A FOOTBALL ground; fountains; roads; underground drains. Theseareamongtheitemslisted bystateswhenquestionedbythe National Green Tribunal (NGT) about how they utilised funds meant for tackling air pollution. These funds were allocated under the National Clean Air Programme(NCAP)andthe15th Finance Commission (FC) be- tween the financial years (FY) 2019-20 and 2023-2024. According to an Environment Ministry submission in the NGT last month, 19 cities flagged by the tribunal for their deterioratingairqualityreceived`1,644.40 crore in this period. But records show that a number of states underutilised the funds and some of them spent a notable chunk on projectswhoseconnectiontoairpollution may not seem readily apparent — a point brought up by the tribunal itself. The NGT, in November 2023, had flagged the deteriorating air qualityof 53townsandcities,in- cludingthe19mentionedabove. It told the respective states to take “remedial measures” and submit details of how they utilised the funds they received under the NCAP and 15th FC. A month later, the tribunal noted that the states which had filed the reports until then had not fully utilised the funds and that “only few states have used it for setting up AQI monitoring stations”. Itsaid:“Insomestates, we have found that the funds have been utilised under the headswhichmaynothavedirect connection with improving air quality.Infact,fundsarerequired tobeutilisedaspertheapproved CITIES THAT GOT MOST FUNDS (in ` cr) Released between 2019-20 and February 2024 under NCAP/15th Finance Commission City ■ Fundsutilised Lucknow* 238.74 Patna 194.26 Bhopal 178.40 Ghaziabad 114.71 ■ Fundsreleased 385.83 298.6 183.85 136.25 102.64 (utilisationamountunavailable) Gwalior Kota 64.57 101.25 Ludhiana 71.39 97.75 *Allotment amount till FY24. Utilisation amount till FY23 Source: Environment Ministry, reports submitted by states to NGT action plan….” So far, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Maharashtra,Punjab,Meghalaya and Delhi have submitted their reports to the green tribunal. Here is an overview of how the funds were utilised in various cities: ■Jharkhand’sreportonactivities in Dhanbad, submitted last month,includedtheconstruction offourplaygrounds(allotmentof `9.37crore,`5.1 crorespentsofar) includingafootballground.Italso included the purchase of a “desludging machine” for `3.03 crore.Thelargestchunkofexpen- diture,`17.27crore,wasfor“endto-end pavement”, followed by `9.12 crore for bituminous roads and `7.37 crore to set up 10 air quality monitoring systems. ■TheBihargovernment,too, submitted its report on Patna to the NGT last month. It said funds from the 15th FC (`184.58 crore spent) were used for activities including “construction of roads and underground drain work”, “desilting of drains”, renovation of old parks, procurement of CNG buses, purchase of water sprinklers and sweeping machines, and establishment of an electric crematorium. Of NCAP funds, `9.68 crore was spent on activitiesincludingtheestablishment of a vermicompost unit, awareness through radio jingles and “development of parks”. ■ Delhi is in the process of spendingitsNCAPfundson14mechanical road sweepers, 28 antismogguns,twopotholerepairmachines, “creation of green buffers along traffic corridors”, “end-toendpaving”,andconstructionand demolitionwastemanagement. ■ Faridabad’s funds have been spent on end-to-end paving of roads, “regular collection, segregation and scientific disposal of waste”, water-sprinkling machines and urban CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lucknow
Indian Express Limited is an Indian news media publishing company. It publishes several widely circulated dailies, including The Indian Express and The Financial Express in English, the Loksatta in Marathi and the Jansatta in Hindi.