WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM Paint like Nobody’s Watching While art education is restricted to basic principles, new platforms are enhancing the visual vocabulary of children, making room for exploration and curiosity NEW DELHI, NOvEMBER 23, 2025 LATE CITY 18+4 PAGES ₹7.00 SPOTLIGHT Chef Lakhan Jethani on a Sindhi staple (₹8 RAIPUR, ₹15 SRINAGAR) D A I L Y F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , Happening today lNEARLY TwO MONTHS after 41 people were killed in a stampede at his rally, TVK chief and actor Vijay will resume his public outreach with a limitedaccess event in Tamil Nadu's Kancheepuram district. C H A N D I G A R H , D E L H I , J A I P U R , K O L K A T A , L U C K N O W , SIx PROPOSALS BY MODI AT G20 SUMMIT IN JOHANNESBURG Drug-terror nexus a global threat, act now: PM to G20 lNATIONAL SECURITY advi- M U M B A I , N A G P U R , Centre’s Bill to let Delhi run Chandigarh directly sets off uproar in Punjab Kanchan Vasdev, Man Aman Singh Chhina & Jatin Anand TRACK THESE AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPRESS.COM INsIDE Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Saturday. PTI Reaches out to Africa with skills-multiplier initiative, wORLD TRUmP, mAmDANI proposes formation of global healthcare response team INDIA, CANADA AND AUSTRAlIA To foRm TECH AllIANCE P 6 Shubhajit Roy New Delhi, November 22 FLAGGING THE issue of drug trafficking including that of fentanyl, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the G20 leaders’ summit Saturday that thisposesaseriouschallengeto global security and is a major Delhi chokes, but 15 of 35 power units in 300-km radius don’t treat sulphur dioxide means of financing terrorism. To effectively address this global threat, he proposed the “G20 Initiative on Countering the Drug-Terror Nexus” to “weaken” the “drug-terror economy”. Modi,whoarrivedinJohannesburg Friday and was welcomed by South African Presi- dent Cyril Ramaphosa at the summit, reached out to Africa by proposing a G20-Africa Skills Multiplier initiative that will train one million certified trainers in Africa over the next 10 years. Healsoproposedformation of a G20 Global Healthcare Response Team, creation of a Glo- bal Traditional Knowledge Repository,anOpenSatelliteData Partnership and a Critical Minerals Circularity Initiative. In all,thePrimeMinister,elaboratingIndia’sapproachtogrowth, development and well-being for all, proposed six ideas for the G20 to consider. In the joint declaration, sourcessaidIndiaensured“terrorism in all its forms and manifestations”iscondemned. Modi,inhisstatementatthe »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Three weeks before Red Fort, Umar met other terror group members in Valley After detention of cleric, ironed out differences within module Naveed Iqbal Srinagar, November 22 A smog-filled afternoon in Delhi on Saturday. AMIT MEHRA Pratyush Deep New Delhi, November 22 EVEN AS Delhi’s air quality deteriorates, many units of thermal power plants in a 300 km radius of the capital city, continue to operate without flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) systems, which are critical for reducing sulphur dioxide emissions. Sulphur dioxide causes fine particulate matter PM2.5;itreactswithothercompounds in the air to form air particles with a diameter of 2.5 micrometers or less, which are not visible to the naked eye. An analysis of Central Electricity Authority (CEA) data from November 1-19 shows there are at least 15 units across six thermal plants within Delhi’s300kmradiuswhichdo not have a FGD system and wereoperatingthroughoutthis period. These include four units in Haryana (two each in Yamuna Nagar and Panipat thermal power stations), and 11 units in Punjab (three in Talwandi Sabo, and four each at theGuruHargobindandRopar thermal power stations). Panipat and Yamuna Nagar plants are operated by the Haryana Power Generation Corporation Limited (HPGCL), Guru Hargobind and Ropar by Punjab State Power CorporationLimited(PSPCL),andTalwandi Sabo plant by Vedanta. Overall,thereareatotalof11 thermal power plants comprising 35 units (a single plant »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE CENTRE proposes to include Chandigarh under the ambit of Article 240 of the Constitution that empowers the President to make regulations for the Union Territory and legislate directly. This will pave the way for the appointment of an independent Administrator or Lt Governor, a move that is likelytoweakenPunjab’sclaim to the city. According to a bulletin of theLokSabhaandRajyaSabha, the government will introduce The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill 2025 in the upcoming winter session of Parliament that gets underway December 1. This has led to an uproar in Punjab where the ruling AAP and Opposition Congress are targeting the BJP-led Centre, saying it is a move to weaken thestate’sclaimtoChandigarh, NOVEMBER 10 CAR ExPLOSION IN DELHI andWagay—wereoftennoton the same page as Umar. While thegroupwasmoreinclinedtowards an Al Qaeda ideology, Umar considered ISIS or Daesh cleric Mufti Irfan Wagay was his model. detained in the Valley, Umar A source explained the difrushed to Kashmir’s Qazigund ference: “Al Qaeda leans on aton October 18 to tacking Western mend bridges culture and farExPREss withtherestofthe away enemies, group and “keep whiletheISISgoal themontrack”,inistoestablishacavestigators have liphate and find a told The Indian Express. nearbyenemy.Thegroups,barAccording to highly placed ringWagay,hadtriedandfailed sources, the arrested accused togotoAfghanistan,sotheyde— Muzammil Ganai, Rather, cided to find a target back BECAUSE OF differences over ideology, finances and the method of executing an attack with the rest of the members of the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror module, Red Fort car bomber Umar Nabi skipped the wedding of his co-conspirator Adeel Rather at the beginning of October. However, once exclusive NATION PAgE 8 oNE HANDlER lIkElY To BE IN AfgHANISTAN home.” SourcessaidUmaralso“saw himself as a successor to the militantlegaciesofBurhanWani and Zakir Moosa in Kashmir”. Investigators said he had been researching IEDs since 2023. Another contentious issue »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EC seeks report on West Bengal BLO E. suicide as kin allege work pressure ExPlAINED key difference Number of suicides across country five — two in West Bengal and one each in Kerala, Gujarat and Rajasthan Tanusree Bose, Anand Mohan J & Kamal Saiyed Kolkata, Bhopal, Surat, New Delhi, November 22 RINKU TARAFDAR, a 53-yearold booth-level officer (BLO) in West Bengal’s Nadia district, al- legedly died by suicide Saturday,withherfamilyblamingthe “severe mental stress” she was underduetoworkrelatedtothe SpecialIntensiveRevision(SIR) of electoral rolls in the state. While the EC has sought a report in the case, it has yet to comment on whether work- load is an issue and if any steps are planned to address it. Withthelatestincident,five suicides have been attributed to added responsibilities as BLO: Rinku Tarafdar, Kolkata: A purported suicide note »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 V A D O D A R A BILL PROPOSED fOR PARLIAMENT wINTER SESSION Chandigarh, New Delhi, November 22 NATION P U N E , Mann, Punjab parties say move to weaken state claim to Chandigarh sors from France, Britain and Germany will meet European Union, US and Ukrainian officials in Geneva to discuss Washington’s proposed peace plan for Ukraine. mEET, BoND ovER NEW YoRk P 12 P A T N A , Unlike the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Bihar, the current phase of SIR places the onus on BLOs to match the elector details on the forms with the old rolls of electors or their parents during the enumeration phase. The workload, officials say, is higher since the forms have to be physically matched. E. ExPlAINED Why Punjab is upset The proposed inclusion of Chandigarh in Article 240 will result in the appointment of an independent Administrator or Lt Governor for the Union Territory. Ever since 1984, the Punjab Governor has been holding charge of the Chandigarh Administrator. Punjab parties see the new move as a bid to weaken the state’s claim to Chandigarh which currently serves as the capital of both Punjab and Haryana. which it currently shares with Haryana as a joint capital. Currently, the Punjab Governor also holds additional charge as the Administrator of the UT of Chandigarh. The Bill seeks to include Chandigarh in Article 240, in alignmentwithotherUTswith- out legislatures such as Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, and Puducherry (when its Assembly is dissolved or suspended). After Punjab was reorganised on November 1, 1966, Chandigarh was administered independently by the Chief Secretary. But that changed on June 1, 1984. Ever since, Chandigarhwasadministeredbythe Punjab Governor and the Chief Secretary’s position was converted to Adviser to the UT Administrator. In August 2016, the Centre sought to restore the earlier practice of having an independentadministratorbyappointing former IAS officer K J Alphons to the post. But the then Punjabgovernment,ledbyParkash Singh Badal, whose SAD wasanallyoftheBJPandapart of the NDA, and other parties, including the Congress and AAP, opposed the move. The Centre’s new move comesdaysafterthemeetingof the Northern Zonal Council in Faridabad where Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann reiterated Punjab’s claim to Chandigarh and demanded its »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 COP backs push against trade curbs linked to climate change, silent on fossil fuel roadmap US absent from meet, developing countries hold sway in Belem Amitabh Sinha New Delhi, November 22 SIGNALLING A shift in power balance in the absence of the US,theCOP30climatemeeting at Belem in Brazil adopted an agreement that accommodated the main concerns of developing nations like India and China. It also left out any mention of a roadmap on fossil-fuel phaseout, which the EU and some other countries had identified as non-negotiable. The showpiece outcome fromCOP30,beingreferredtoas apoliticalpackage,hastakenon board two big issues flagged by developing countries — implementation of a key finance provision in Article 9.1 of Paris Agreementandunilateraltrade measures like EU’s Carbon BorderAdjustmentMechanism (CBAM) — though not in the same way as was demanded. It has proposed to establish a two-year work programme to discuss all issues on climate finance, including Article 9.1 of A delegate reacts during a plenary session at the COP30 summit on Saturday. AP Paris Agreement. Developing countries, led by India, have beeninsistingthatthisparticular provision, which says that developedcountries“shallprovide financial resources”, has been ignored till now, including in the comprehensive finance agreement last year. These countries have argued that all decisions on climate finance till now have addressed only Article 9.3, which only asks the developed world to “take the lead in mobilising climate finance”. On the issue of unilateral trade measures, the agreement has acknowledged the concern of countries like China and India that response measures on climate change must not »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 l COORDINATED THEFTS OF HIGH-vALUE POMEGRANATES; POLICE AND FARMERS POINT TO SOARING PRICES OF THE FRUIT In Maharashtra, strange case of missing pomegranates leaves farmers clueless Sushant Kulkarni July left Walunj and his village stunned. It was not an isolated inciSURROUNDED BY waters of dent. the Chincholi dam on three Coordinated thefts of large sides, Shindodi village in quantities of these large-sized Pune’s Shirur taluka had never high-valuepomegranateswere reported a theft until this year. reportedacrossMaharashtra— SomuchsothatShafrom Sangola in SoPAGE 1 haji Walunj, a 50lapur district to Shriyear-old local pomrampur in Ahilyanaegranate farmer, gar and Deola in “never even bothered” to lock Nashik — in July and August his tractor. Which is why the this year. theft of 4.5 tonnes of primeThe reason, police and quality Bhagwa pomegranates farmers say, is clear: Soaring — as the variety is known — prices of this fruit. from his three-acre orchard in TheBhagwapomegranateis Pune, November 22 anchor celebratedasthejewelofIndian varieties — an opulent fruit witharichsaffron-redrindand deep ruby-coloured aril, which is the juicy sac that encases the seed. While the FIR registered in the Shindodi case values the fruit at Rs 100 per kilo, pegging thetotalvalueofthestolenfruit atRs4.5lakh,theWalunjfamily issurethatthefruitwouldhave fetched Rs 200 per kilo wholesale and Rs 300 per kilo in retail. “The yield was seven months old when it was stolen and ready to be harvested. Seven months of hard work Shahaji Walunj shows his 3-acre pomegranate orchard from where 4.5 tonnes of the fruit were stolen. SUSHANT KULKARNI and care by my family, and investment of time and money, was behind it. The night of July 1, all the trees were studded with fruits; the next morning, the best fruits were gone,” says Walunj, the farmer. “This year, pomegranate prices in wholesale and retail markets rose to almost double last year’s rates, reaching their highest point in several years. The surge is due to a drop in supplycausedbyuntimelyand heavy rains, subsequent disease outbreaks and disrupted flowering cycles that reduced both yield and quality. At the same time, demand for premium-grade fruit has risen, andhigherinput,transportand market costs have further pushed prices upwards,” says Walunj's nephew, Rushikesh, an engineering graduate. “There is a major difference between the per-kg price of fruits of 150g each and more than 350g each. Those who stoletheready-to-harvestfruits from our 750 trees knew which fruits to pluck, the larger ones. It shows that those who executed the coordinated theft knew the business. The fruits that were stolen could have fetchedRs180-200perkginthe wholesale market in retail and even more on home delivery apps in cities,” says Rushikesh. At Hatid village of Sangola taluka in Solapur, Altaf Mulla, a 39-year-old pomegranate farmer recalls that he woke up ona“cloudymorning”inJulyto findthatallofhis300treeswere stripped of their prime-quality fruits. “I lost three tonnes of the best-qualityBhagwapomegranate. I had never heard of a theft like this in my life. From that night,westarteddoing‘rakhan’ (community patrol) with »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2