SATURDAY 20 JANUARY 2024 www.thestatesman.com Pages 12 |` 5.00|LC Twitter.com/thestatesman Facebook.com/thestatesman INDIA’S NATIONAL NEWSPAPER SINCE 1818 KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR ‘73 PC REDUCTION IN VIOLENT INCIDENTS IN N-E DURING PM’S TENURE’ ‘ASPIRATION OF 120 CR PEOPLE’ P7 SENSEX 71,683.23496.37 WEATHER MAINLY CLEAR SKY. DENSE TO VERY DENSE FOG IN THE MORNING. COLD TO SEVERE COLD DAY CONDITIONS AT ISOLATED PLACES. THE MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM TEMPERATURES WOULD BE AROUND 15 AND 07 DEGREE CELSIUS RESPECTIVELY. RAINFALL: NIL RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max. 97 % TEMPERATURE Max: 14.2 °C (-5) SUN RISES 7:14 hrs MOON RISES 13:07 hrs Min. 74 % Min: 07.1 °C (-1) SUN SETS 17:50 hrs MOON SETS 03:26 hrs THUMBNAILS Devotees offer Friday prayers during the Urs festival of Sufi saint Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, in Ajmer on Friday. ANI Ayodhya on high alert: 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 PM Narendra Modi's visit on 22 January and the consecration of the Ram temple. NIFTY 21,622.40160.15 NORTH KOREA TESTED UNDERWATER N-ATTACK DRONE P5 P9 GOLD 62,950330 ` vs $ 83.14 Always tried to provide honest governance: PM Modi dedicates over 1 lakh homes built under PMAY-U in Maharashtra STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 19 JANUARY P rime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday dedicated to the nation more than one lakh houses completed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban across Maharashtra and at a Solapur housing society. He said his government, inspired by Ram Rajya, has all through tried to provide honest governance which takes care of all. Addressing a large gathering of beneficiaries on the occasion, he said when he took office in 2014, he had declared “my government is dedicated to the poor,” and thereafter, it took decisions, one after another, aimed at reducing difficulties of the poor and to make their lives easy. The prime minister said he had gone round the society, and was happy that dreams of thousands of poor and working population of Solapur were realised today. As a child, he too wished he had lived in such a house. Modi got emotional and said the happiness of people on such achievements was his biggest treasure. He said he had started his 11-day regimen of fasts and regulated life at Nashik in the state, in preparation to the consecration of Ram Lalla idol at the Ayodhya temple on January 22, and was happy that one lakh families of Maharashtra will be able to light Ram Jyotis in their new homes on the evening of 22 January itself. “Ram had taught people that they must keep their word and promises, and he was happy that a decision to benefit thousands of people of Solapur had been successfully implemented,” he said. The Prime Minister said he had laid foundation stones of seven AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) projects worth around Rs 2,000 crore for different cities of Maharashtra. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had paid compliments to him for this, but the reality was the projects were the result of efforts of people and the development-oriented government of the state, Modi said. The Prime Minister said people had suffered indignities without houses or toilets. This led to his Gov- CMYK ernment’s attention on these issues and 10 crores ‘Izzat Ghar’ and four crore pucca houses have been provided in a mission mode. Instead of misguiding people, the path of the government is ‘dignity of labour’, ‘self-reliant worker’ and “welfare of the poor,” he said. The Prime Minister told people “You can dream big. Your dreams will be goals of my efforts. He mentioned affordable urban houses and fairrent societies for migrant labourers and said “We are making efforts to provide residences near to the place of work," he said. The Prime Minister said there were poverty alleviation programmes earlier also but they failed due to the absence of honest intent and pilferage by middlemen. Due to clean intentions, policies favouring the empowerment of the poor and commitment to the nation, the Prime Minister said “Modi has given the guarantee of taking the benefit of the government schemes directly to the beneficiaries.” AUS OPEN: NOVAK DJOKOVIC CHARGES PAST ETCHEVERRY P12 SILVER 75,700200 BRENT CRUDE (IN $) 78.050.090 Rajnath inaugurates 35 No place for simultaneous border infra projects elections in India: Kharge STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 19 JANUARY 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 connecting 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 high- lighted 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 worldclass infrastructure is created in these zones,” he said. Mr Singh stressed that connectivity is being provided to every border area in the country through roads, bridges and tunnels, describing the work as not only of strategic importance, but also pivotal for the welfare of the people residing in these regions. “People living near the borders are no less than soldiers. If a soldier protects the country by wearing a uniform, the residents of border areas are serving the motherland in their own way,” he said. 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 HighLevel 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’.
The Statesman is one of India's oldest English newspapers. It was founded in Kolkata in 1875 and is directly descended from The Friend of India (founded 1818). The Englishman (founded 1821) was merged with The Statesman in 1934. The Delhi edition of The Statesman began publication in 1931. The Statesman Weekly is a compendium of news and views from the Kolkata and Delhi editions. Printed on airmail paper, it is popular with readers outside India. The Statesman (average weekday circulation approximately 180,000) is a leading English newspaper in West Bengal. The Sunday Statesman has a circulation of 230,000.
