SATURDAY 20 JANUARY 2024 www.thestatesman.com Pages 12 |` 5.00|LC INDIA’S NATIONAL NEWSPAPER SINCE 1818 Twitter.com/thestatesman Facebook.com/thestatesman KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR WEATHER Partly cloudy with Fog/Mist in the morning. Maximum and minimum temperatures likely to be around 22 °C and 15 °C respectively. RAINFALL: 1.8mm RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max. 95 % TEMPERATURE Max: 19.2°C (-7) SUN RISES 06:19 hrs MOON RISES 11:53 hrs Min. 73 % Min: 16.1°C (+2) SUN SETS 17:15 hrs MOON SETS 00:24 hrs Full Moon on 25 January THUMBNAILS Devotees offer Friday prayers during the Urs festival of Sufi saint Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, in Ajmer on Friday.  ANI Centre appoints Daljit Singh Chaudhary as new Sashastra Seema Bal chief: The Central government on Friday appointed senior IPS officer Daljit Singh Chaudhary as Director General of Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). Chaudhary, a 1990-batch Uttar Pradeshcadre IPS officer, has been appointed to the post till November 2025, the date of his superannuation, or till further orders. Eye on polls, CM meets No place for simultaneous elections in India: Kharge Murshidabad leaders Focus on your work, don’t worry about Adhir, Mamata tells TMC leaders STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE KOLKATA, 19 JANUARY ith an eye on the Lok Sabha polls, Trinamul Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee on Friday met with party leaders and workers from Murshidabad and asked to work together to put up a united fight. Miss Banerjee, who met with the party leaders at her Kalighat residence this evening, will also be meeting leaders from all the districts over the next few weeks. She will meet the leaders from Birbhum on 21 January. She will visit the districts from February. Abhishek Banerjee, party’s national general secretary, Subrata Bakshi, state president of the party, Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim attended the meeting. All the MLAS and MPs from the district were present at the meeting. Miss Banerjee reportedly told the leaders to concentrate on their own work and not to worry about W Congress MP and PCC president Adhir Chowdhury. “Remove Adhir Chowdhury from your head and if we work together Adhir is no factor,” she is said to have told the leaders. The Trinamul Congress has 22 MLAs in the district and two Lok Sabha MPs from Murshidabad and Jangipur seats, while the Congress’s Adhir Chowdhury was elected from Behrampur. The Trinamul utilised the massive erosion in the electoral support base of Congress in the district and has virtually made the party insignificant in a district which was its stronghold since 1952 when the first national election was held. Mr Chowdhury is said to have demanded eight Lok Sabha seats in Bengal for the Congress for the coming elections. Mr Abhishek Banerjee has already called this described this claim as absurd. The Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge has not said anything about Adhir’s demand. In view of the situation, Miss Banerjee, it was learnt, told the MLAs to increase their contact base and talk to the people and inform them about the various pro-people schemes of the government. They should also make people aware as to how the Centre has deprived the state and refused to issue the stipulated funds. She cautioned the leaders and said the party would not tolerate any highhandedness and those who are seeking to make personal gains should stay away from the party. Mr Banerjee, Mr Bakshi and Mr Hakim also spoke at the meeting. Ayodhya on high alert after detention of 3 suspects Rajnath inaugurates 35 border infra projects to boost Army preparedness STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE AYODHYA, 19 JANUARY NEW DELHI, 19 JANUARY NEW DELHI, 19 JANUARY A high alert has been sounded across Uttar Pradesh, particularly in Ayodhya, after three suspected 'Khalistan' supporters were detained by security personnel late Thursday evening. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath rushed to Ayodhya on Friday to check the security and other arrangements for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit on 22 January and the consecration of the Ram temple. Meanwhile, journalists in Lucknow and other parts of UP received recorded calls from 'Khalistan' supporters, originating from Britain, since last night alleging detention of their sympathisers by UP Police. DG(Law and order) Prashant Kumar on Friday said three suspects were nabbed last evening in Ayodhya near the Ram temple, though no evidence was found of their connections with any terror outfit. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday dedicated to the nation 35 strategic infrastructure projects of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), built at a cost of Rs 670 crore, during an event at Joshimath-Malari Road in Uttarakhand to bolster the operational readiness of the Army. Out of these 35 projects, 29 are bridges and six are roads. Eleven of them are in Jammu and Kashmir; nine in Ladakh; eight in Arunachal Pradesh; three in Uttarakhand; two in Sikkim; and one each in Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh. These projects have been constructed under challenging weather conditions at the most inhospitable terrain. In his address, the defence minister commended the BRO for strengthening the border infrastructure of the country and asserted that by constructing roads, bridges etc., the organisation is con- Ahead of the Republic Day, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued a circular directing all states and Union territories to ensure that flags made of paper are not discarded or thrown on the ground during significant national, cultural, and sports events. The circular emphasized the importance of preserving the 'dignity of paper flags' used by the public during these occasions. The MHA directive underlines that the Indian National Flag symbolizes the hopes and aspirations of the nation's people and deserves to be treated with the utmost respect. The circular addressed a noticeable lack of awareness among individuals and organizations regarding laws, practices, and conventions related to the display of the National Flag. necting the far-flung areas with the rest of the nation geographically, while also linking the hearts of the people residing in remote villages with the rest of the citizens. He highlighted the government's approach towards border area development which, he said, completely differs from the previous governments. “Other governments did not focus on development of border areas as they considered these zones as the last areas of the country. We, on the other hand, consider border areas as the face of India, which is why we’re ensuring that world-class infrastructure is created in these zones,” he said. MHA directs states, UTs to ensure strict compliance of flag code AGENCIES R-Day : India, France to deepen defence, security relations during Macron’s visit STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 19 JANUARY India and France are expected to further strengthen their defence and security partnership when President Emmanuel Macron arrives here as the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations on January 26. A contingent from the French Army is also set to participate in this year's Republic Day. Macron’s visit for the Republic Day comes amid an unprecedented upswing in bilateral ties, ranging from defence and security to clean energy, trade and investment and new technologies. Sources said the French leader will be accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising several ministers, CEOs, personalities from the cultural and scientific fields. The French President will arrive in Jaipur on 25 January where a roadshow with Prime Minister Narendra Modi is planned. A bilateral meeting is likely between the two leaders when major announcements are expect- ed in defence and strategic sectors. India and France also expressed commitment to cooperate in the co-development and co-production of advanced defence technologies, including for the benefit of third countries. PM Modi earlier this year was Guest of Honour at the Bastille Day parade in Paris on 14 July. This will be the sixth time that a French leader will be the chief guest at India's Republic Day parade, reflecting the growing friendship between the two countries. Earlier, the US president was extended an invite for the Republic Day celebrations but Washington recently conveyed to New Delhi the inability of the American leader to come without specifying any reason. This led to media speculation that it could be a fallout of the recent allegation made by the US about the involvement of Indian nationals in a plot to assassinate 'Khalistan' leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. As a consequence of the US President's inability to travel to New Delhi, the planned Quad summit in the Indian capital has also been postponed. Prior to Mr Macron, former French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac was the chief guest at the Republic Day in 1976 and 1998, and former Presidents Valery Giscard d'Estaing, Nicolas Sarkozy, and Francois Hollande in the years 1980, 2008 and 2016 respectively. CMYK Dhupguri becomes new subdivision STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE KOLKATA, 19 JANUARY The state government on Friday issued a notification creating three sub divisions in Jalpaiguri district. They are Jalpaiguri Sadar, Mal and Dhupguri. On 2 September 2023 Mr Abhishek Banerjee, Trinamul Congress national general secretary had told the people of north Bengal during his outreach campaign that Dhupguri would be a new subdivision. “I'm delighted to announce that today the Ma, Mati Manush Government has finally fulfilled a long-standing demand of the people of #Dhupguri," West Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee posted on X. (Page 3) STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 19 JANUARY Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has said his party strongly opposed the idea of ‘One Nation, One Election’ and demanded that the High-Level Committee (HLC) constituted by the Centre over the matter should be dissolved. Mr Kharge, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, also urged the chairman of the HLC and former president Ram Nath Kovind not to allow “his persona and the office of former President to be abused by the government to subvert the constitution and parliamentary democracy in the country”. The Congress president made the statement in response to HLC secretary Niten Chandra’s letter to him on 18 October, 2023 through which he invited suggestions for consideration of the panel constituted for the purpose of the ‘One Nation, One Election’. In his letter addressed to the secretary on 17 January, Mr Kharge wrote: “We are distressed to state that the composition of the HighLevel Committee on ‘One Nation One Election’ seems highly biased without giving substantial representation to the Opposition parties that head various state governments that would be affected by the recommendations of this committee.” “When the committee is headed by no less than the former President of India, it is distressing when even common voters feel the consultations of the committee are likely to be a pretence since minds have already been made up. Firm views in support of the proposal have already been expressed in public and a dispassionate analysis of pros and cons is not being attempted in a serious and systematic manner,” he said. Claiming that former President Kovind while addressing the joint session of Parliament in 2018 had advocated for simultaneous elections saying frequent elections impede development process, Mr Kharge said: “Your letter also repeats the same point. We would like to submit that the development process and governance is being brought to a standstill frequently because Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) is actively involved in electioneering rather than governance.” The argument that the cost of conducting elections are extremely high seems baseless, he asserted. Asserting that the holding of simultaneous elections would require the dissolution of several legislative assemblies which are still halfway (or less) through their terms, he said this would be a ‘betrayal’ of the electorate in those states. The Constitution nowhere authorises the Union Government to dissolve the state assemblies or to suspend the state governments, except under the Emergency clauses.”