The Editorial Page: Our parched cities need to make every drop count, recycle water 8 MONDAY, JUNE 15, 2026 JouRNAlIsM of CouRAGE MuMBAI, LATe CITy, 18 PAGes ₹5.00 l www.indianexpress.com DA I Ly f r o M : A H M e DA B A D , C H A N D I GA r H , D e L H I , j A I P u r , ko L k ATA , L u C k N o w , M u M B A I , N AG P u r , PAT N A , P u N e , vA D o DA r A CBC 44101/13/0003/2627 ReG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNi ReGN. NO. 1543/57 118 146 181 85 In Bihar’s Samastipur, residents allege expressway route altered to spare Deputy CM aide’s land He denies using influence; CM, NHAI officials promise to look into issue Santosh Singh Patna, June 14 happening today lNoida iNterNatioNal Airport (code DXN) begins its commercial flight operations. The first arrival will be an IndiGo flight from Lucknow. a roW is simmering in the sarairanjan block of Bihar’s samastipur district over the route alignment of the central government’s ambitious PatnaPurneaGreenfieldexpressway, with local residents writing to the Union Minister for road transport and Highways (MortH), nitin Gadkari, alleg- ingan“arbitraryandpolitically motivated” alteration to the expressway’s original track along a five-kilometre stretch. thoughthepetitionershave not named anyone in their letter sent to Gadkari, dated June 1, more than two dozen home and shop owners claim thattheJd(U)MlafromsarairanjanandcurrentBihardeputy Chief Minister, Vijay Kumar Choudhary, influenced the samastipur revisedalignment ofproposedroad Land belonging to Deputy CM’s aide samastipur Patna BIHAr sarairanjan satan Pur sarangpur east movetobenefitacloseassociate who is also a distant relative. around 10.5 bighas of land be- proposed patnapurnea expressway longingtotheperson,Vinitishwar alias Bobby ishwar, and his family fell under the original alignment, records show. the route, if modified, could result in the demolition of over 150 homes and dozens of shops, as well as a section of the 65-year-old Kedar sant ramashray College, where over 6,000 students study. When contacted, ChoudharytoldTheIndianExpress,“i have not used any political influence. all people from sarairanjanbelongtome.itisentirely uptothenHai(nationalHighways authority of india) to say if they have changed the alignment. it is not my domain.” »CoNtiNued oN PaGe 2 8 killed as pick-up van falls into well in Solapur, probe ordered Manoj More & Sushant Kulkarni Pune, June 14 Rebel TMC MPs with Speaker Om Birla in New Delhi, Sunday TMC rebel MPs meet Birla, say have merged with a regional party Manoj C G & asad rehman New Delhi, June 14 ClaiMinG tHe support of 20 of the trinamool Congress’s (tMC) 28 lok sabha members, the party’s rebel MPs on sunday announced their merger withanoutfitcalledthenationalist Citizens Party of india (nCPi) and met lok sabha speakeromBirlaseekingaseparate seating arrangement in the House. this came moments after the tMC submitted to the speaker a letter by its ParliamentaryPartyleaderinthelok sabha,abhishekBanerjee,urging him not to accord “any recognition, status, or facility to any purported separate group or faction of the aitC (all india the city Business as usual By EP UNNY eiGHt Persons, including a six-month-old boy and three otherchildren,werekilledafter a pick-up van carrying 15 pilgrims plunged into a well near tandulwadi village in Malshiras area of solapur district on sunday.sevenpeoplewererescued, police said. this is the second such incident of a vehicle falling into an open well in the past two months in Maharashtra. in april, a similar incident took place in in dindori area of nashik district. according to police, the pilgrims were returning after visiting the siddhanath temple in Mhaswad, solapur district, when the pick-up van fell into a well. local residents were involved in rescue operations along with police and fire per- uNIoN MINIsTer of PArLIAMeNTAry AffAIrs AND MINorITy AffAIrs page 13 solapur rural, atul Kulkarni, said, “the eight deceased include four children and four Modi-Macron meeting: Plan to double trade in 5 yrs, adopt ‘Innovation Roadmap 2030’ Shubhajit roy ‘Anybody can create a political party but don’t undermine and ridicule Indian democracy’ KireN rijiju sonnel. officials from the district collectorate and political leaders also reached the spot. superintendent of Police, Trade to AI to innovation: India, France set new goals New Delhi, June 14 Six-month-old among 4 children who died; MP says govt ignored complaints Rescue operations underway after a pick-up van fell into a well in Solapur on Sunday. eXPress uPi at NiCe, PariS airPortS: MiSri india-flagged dhow sinks off oman coast; 14 crew rescued p 6 a MeCHanisM to double annual bilateral trade from the existing$16billioninfiveyears; an india-France innovation roadmap2030;ajointworking group focussed on ai (artificial intelligence) governance; an economicsecuritydialogue;increased cooperation on defence and space — these were amongthekeyoutcomesofthe bilateral meeting between Prime Minister narendra Modi and French President emmanuel Macron in nice, France, on sunday. Modi, who arrived in nice on saturday, is scheduled to travel to slovakia from June 1416. He will be back in France for the G7 meeting in evian-lesBains on June 16-17, and is also scheduled to go to Paris. addressing Macron in a PM Narendra Modi with french President emmanuel Macron in Nice, france, Sunday. X/@eLysee politics page 10 pm: india tech provider, offers gloBal solutions post on X, Modi said: “nice to have met you in nice. a productive first leg indeed. the india-France partnership will keep scaling new heights. see you in evian and Paris.” this wastheirfirstmeetingsincethe elevationofindia-Francetiesto a ‘special global strategic partnership’ earlier this year. »CoNtiNued oN PaGe 2 »CoNtiNued oN PaGe 2 Israel hits Beirut, Trump says deal 5 absent MPs & an uneasy Uddhav close, ‘all sides should stand down’ Sena amid ‘Operation Tiger’ buzz Parisa Hafezi & Phil Stewart sport Dubai, Washington, June 14 Vallabh ozarkar trinamool Congress)”. “We 20 MPs, who were elected from the aitC, have met the speaker and given him »CoNtiNued oN PaGe 2 page 4 containers stranded at jnpt after migrant drivers leave Mumbai, June 14 aMidsPeCUlationthatsome shiv sena (UBt) MPs might switchsides,partychiefUddhav thackeray on sunday chaired a meetingofhisparty’sloksabha MPs in which only four of nine MPs turned up, while four logged in virtually and one MP later spoke to Uddhav over the phone,partyclaimed. While arvind sawant, anil desai,sanjaydinaPatil,andrajabhauWajeattendedthemeet- Shiv Sena (uBT) chief uddhav Thackeray. eXPress ing in person, four MPs joined onlineandParbhaniMPsanjay Jadhav called thackeray later, sena (UBt) leaders said. this has caused concern in theparty,especiallyasadayearlier, party leaders had gathered at the thackerays’ residence, Matoshree, for aaditya thackeray’s birthday celebrations on June 13, saturday. However, the five MPs did not join in. Party sourcessaidtheMPshadalready been told to remain in Mumbai through the weekend. the leadership expected all of them to be physically present for two days at a time when the party »CoNtiNued oN PaGe 2 President donald trump criticisedanisraelistrikeonlebanonthatcouldcomplicateattempts to finalise a framework deal between the United states and iran on sunday on ending theirwar,butsaidanagreement was nonetheless close. iranian negotiator Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said israel's attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut, which israel said targeted iranian-backed Hezbollah militants, showed the Us lackedthewillorabilitytofulfil its commitments. page 17 playing today, iran on u.s. soil: tension, security, and divided fans tehran warned of a “strong response”, with its top joint military command saying the “finger(is)onthetrigger”ready to fire at the “enemy’s heart”. in a post on his truth social platform, trump said: “this morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace deal with iran." "We are very close to a deal that will bring peace to the region,includingtolebanon,and all sides should stand down... let's not blow it," he wrote. israel has said it is not party to the planned Us-iran deal and Prime Minister Benjamin netanyahu has clashed with »CoNtiNued oN PaGe 2 l AT AN eARlieR DiSCuSSiON, ONe Of GOveRNMeNT’S OwN exPeRTS hAD OveRRuleD OBjeCTiONS RAiSeD By SOMe MeMBeRS Of NCeRT ABOuT ‘NuDe’ DePiCTiON In NCERT Art textbook, Mohenjo-daro’s nude ‘Dancing Girl’ gets a cover-up ritika Chopra now features in the opening chapter, “History of arts”, of Madhurima — the new arts an iMaGe of one of the most education textbook for Class 9. recognisable artefacts of the intheimage,thefigurine’storso indus Valley Civilisation, the has been shaded over from the iconic “dancing Girl” of Mo- shoulders down, obscuring henjo-daro, appears in a new anatomical details visible in avatar in an nCert photographs of the page 1 textbook — with the original and giving bare torso covered. the impression that thisisdespitethe she is clothed. factthatatanearlierdiscussion the depiction is significant related to the famous bronze fi- because the “dancing Girl” has gurine, one of the Govern- appeared in nCert textbooks ment’sownexpertshadpushed for at least 25 years, including back,andprevailed,overobjec- during the nda government tions raised by some members whenMurliManoharJoshiwas of nCert over what they said in charge of education as Minwas the nude depiction. ister of the then Human rethe retouched photograph source development ministry. Mumbai, June 14 anchor a review by this newspaper of earlier editions shows that while the figurine has long featured in school textbooks, its torso had never previously been covered. the retouched image appears in a textbook that is part of nCert's first-ever arts education series, introduced from Classes 1 to 10 under the national education Policy (neP) and the national Curriculum Framework (nCF) to integrate arts into mainstream education. textbooks from Classes 1 to 9 have been released so far. the approximately fourinch-high “dancing Girl”, discovered at Mohenjo-daro, depicts a young girl with her hair The photo with masked torso in the new Class 9 Arts textbook; (right) the photo in the new Class 6 Social Science textbook tied in a bun, adorned with bangles, a bracelet and a necklace.Herconfidentpostureand the sophistication of her craftsmanship have made her one of the defining symbols of the Harappan civilisation. archaeologists have long viewedthefigurineasevidence of the civilisation's advanced metallurgical knowledge. the original is housed in the national Museum in new delhi. inaninterviewwithTheIndianExpresspublished on May 27, historian Michel danino, whoheadedthetextbookdevelopment committee for nCert's new Class 6 social science books, had disclosed that the nCert objected to placing the “dancing Girl” on the opening page of a chapter on indus Valley Civilisation becausethefigurinewasnudeand could become “controversial”. “i even told nCert that if the dancing Girl is not age-appropriate, then perhaps children of that age should not be allowed into the national Museum either because the figurine is displayed there,” danino had said. While he initiallyresistedthesuggestion,he eventually agreed to move the image from the chapter opener to an inside page and reduce its size. the image, however, was retained in the textbook. askedwhetherthemasking of the torso was linked to con- cerns over nudity, nCert director dinesh Prasad saklani told The Indian Express: “no, i don’t think there is any specific reason. in Grade 6 sst (social sciencetextbook),thedancing Girl is very much there along with many other findings related to Harappan civilisation as it is one of them. For art textbooks you may also contact the related tdt (textbook development team) members.” sandhyaPurecha,chairperson of the sangeet natak akademi and head of the textbook development team for arts education, was unavailable for comment. Commenting on the image »CoNtiNued oN PaGe 2 Mumbai