DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PATNA, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, JULY 4, 2025, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES `7.00 (`8 RAIPUR, `15 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 SPECIAL INTENSIVE REVISION OF ELECTORAL ROLL IN POLL-BOUND BIHAR Invillageaftervillage,achorus:‘Weonlyhave Aadhaar...howdowegetpapersECwants?’ From CM Nitish turf Nalanda to Lalu’s Raghopur, growing disquiet — and confusion over EC conditions for voting DAMINI NATH & SANTOSH SINGH WHAT WILL NOT COUNTINBIHAR AN EXPRESS SERIES PART 1 NALANDA, VAISHALI, PATNA, JULY 3 AN AADHAAR card, a voter card and an MNREGS job card. For Meghan Manjhi, a 37-year-old labourer, the three “sarkari kaagaz (official documents)” largely define his life. But now, the resident of Kalyan Bigha, the native village of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, must look for more. As per the Special Intensive Revisionof electoralrollsordered by the Election Commission ahead of the Bihar Assembly polls, residents of the state such as Manjhi whose names did not figure in the 2003 electoral rolls must provide one of 11 documentsnotifiedbytheECtoprove their “citizenship”. None of the three documents possessed by Manjhi, who belongs to a Scheduled Caste family, counts. “TheBLO(boothlevelofficer) Booth-level officer Pinki Kumari with residents of Kalyan Bigha in Nalanda. Rahul Sharma Jal Jeevan tender premium stopped, says Patil, flags ‘needless waste’ hastoldmethatifIgetaresidence or caste certificate made before July 25, my (voter enrolment) form can be filled,” Manjhi says. This story plays out in village after village in the state, from Nitish’s turf Harnaut in Nalanda district,toRJDchief LaluPrasad’s Raghopur in Vaishali. The Raghopur Assembly seat is currently represented by Lalu’s son and senior RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav. In the next 20 days or so, as the monsoon moves in, over 77,000 BLOs along with other government staff and political party workers must check the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 DOUBLE TON BY THE CAPTAIN INDIA CAPTAIN Shubman Gill celebrates after scoring a double century on the second day of the second Test between India and England at Edgbaston on Thursday. WITH HIS 269, Gill recorded the highest Test score by an Indian captain, surpassing Virat Kohli’s 254 not out against South Africa in Pune in 2019. AP REPORTS, PAGE 19 The Indian Express report on May 21 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY HARIKISHAN SHARMA NEW DELHI, JULY 3 AMID CONCERNS in sections of the government that work contracts have been inflated in some statesundertheJalJeevanMission (JJM), Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil has said that the Centre has stopped thepaymentoftenderpremiumunder the rural tap water scheme — tender premium refers to the additional amount a bidder quotes, higher than the government’s approved cost. Responding to a question at the Idea Exchange programme of The Indian Express (a detailed Jal Shakti Minister C R Patil at the Idea Exchange transcript of the interaction will be published next week), Patil said, “Tender premiumkabhugtanhumnerokdiya hai. Jo thha, jo gaya hoga woh alag baat hai, magar jo naya hai usse poori tarah hamne rok diya hai. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Justice Yashwant Varma EXPRESS NETWORK ENGINEER RAPED IN HERFLAT BYMAN POSINGAS DELIVERY AGENT PAGE 8 As India pitches for Olympics, IOC airs concerns on doping, governance MUMBAI, JULY 3 AN INDIAN delegation made a strong pitch to bring home the 2036 Olympics, outlining plans to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at the Olympic headquarters in Lausanne Tuesday,andofficiallypresented Ahmedabad as the candidate city. But the IOC’s response was candid: get your house in order beforepreparingthemasterplan. E E X P L A I NE D MIHIR VASAVDA Justice Varma case: Govt to fast-track bid to impeach ● Reality check AS INDIA hopes to host the Olympics in 2036, the IOC's message is a wake-up call. After the Commonwealth Games in 2010, which India hosted, there were allegations of mismanagement and corruption. Sources told The Indian Express that during the meeting — the first of its kind after India expressed interest to host the mega event — the IOC flagged concernsovergovernanceissues attheIndianOlympicAssociation (IOA); the rampant doping menace; and, the country's poor performanceattheOlympics.Atlast year’sParisGames,Indiafinished at 71 with just six medals in all. “It has been communicated very candidly that while India CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 LIZ MATHEW NEW DELHI, JULY 3 AN INQUIRY committee will be set up by the presiding officer of the House concerned to probe charges against Supreme Court judge Justice Yashwant Varma during the coming Monsoon Session of Parliament. Sources said the timeline for the panel to submit its report will be crunched from three months, so that action against the judge, from whose residence stacks of currency notes were allegedly recovered, is not delayed. “Matters related to the judiciary must be beyondpolitics, so thegovernmenthasreachedout to all the prominent parties and theprocess(of removalof Justice Varma)wouldbeaunifiedstand. The government will start collectingthesignaturesof MPs–afterdecidingwhichHouseshould initiatetheprocess–nextweek,” Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Thursday. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘Shouldn’t happen to anyone’: 22 yrs lost in proving innocence, Indian-origin man free PAGE 1 ANCHOR ADITI RAJA VADODARA, JULY 3 IN NOVEMBER 2001, in Thunderbolt, Georgia, a woman walked in on a burglar inside her house. The burglar sexually assaulted her at knifepoint and fled withherbelongingsinastolencar. ThecarbelongedtoGujaratiAmerican Sandeep ‘Sonny’ Bharadia, who had earlier reported his vehicle missing. The (From left) Georgia Innocence Project (GIP) senior attorney Christina Cribbs, co-counsel Olivia Vigiletti, Sandeep Bharadia, co-counsel Noah Pines day of the crime, Bharadia was in Lithonia, a Georgian city at least 400 km away from Thunderbolt. Yet, a bizarre twist of fate and circumstances led to Bharadiabeingconvictedof burglary and sexual assault in 2003. After two decades in prison, on May 16, at a hearing that lasted less than a minute in the Chatham County SuperiorCourt in Georgia, Bharadia was finally exonerated of all charges. “This should not happen to anyone,” Bharadia said as Senior Judge James F Bass read out the order clearing him. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Delhi Govt says pause fuel ban on end-of-life vehicles, cites tech issues, ‘public outcry’ SOPHIYA MATHEW NEW DELHI, JULY 3 CITING “CRITICAL operational and infrastructural challenges”, the Delhi government has asked the Centre’s Commission for Air QualityManagement(CAQM)to put the fuel ban on end-of-life vehicles “on hold with immediate effect”. The order to stop fuel supply to such vehicles — 10 years or older for diesel vehicles and 15 years or older for petrol vehicles – in the Capital came into effect on July 1. While 80 vehicles were seized and 98 issued notices on the first day, seven were seized and78issuednoticesonthesecond day. However, no vehicles wereimpoundedonThursday— the third day. In a letter to the CAQM on Thursday, Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, who also addressed a press conference on the issue, said it would not be feasible to enforce the ban “at this juncture”, and “immediate implementation... may be premature and potentially counter-productive”. He alsocited“publicdiscontentand outcry” over the move. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MORE REPORTS PAGE 3