WEDNESDAY 01 MAY 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 NETANYAHU VOWS TO LAUNCH AN OFFENSIVE IN RAFAH ‘WILL IMPLEMENT UCC ACROSS COUNTRY AFTER COMING BACK TO POWER’ P9 P10 SENSEX 74,482.78188.50 NIFTY 22,604.8538.55 CSK LOOK TO CEMENT TOP-4 STAY AGAINST PBKS EAM DISCUSSES GLOBAL SITUATION WITH UAE MINISTER P5 ` vs $ 83.41 SILVER 83,500500 GOLD 72,600 PM targets Pawar on farmers’ plight P12 BRENT CRUDE (IN $) 84.120.47 T20 WC squad: Pant and Samson included, KL Rahul misses out Says time has come to punish ‘tall Maharashtra leader’ for not keeping his promise STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 30 APRIL WEATHER MAINLY CLEAR SKY. STRONG SURFACE WINDS (SPEED 30-40 KMPH) DURING THE DAY. TOMORROW'S MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM TEMPERATURES WOULD BE AROUND 35 AND 21 DEGREE CELSIUS RESPECTIVELY. RAINFALL: nill RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max. 57 % Min. 18 % TEMPERATURE Max: 36.5 °C-3) SUN RISES 5:40 hrs MOON RISES 01:49 hrs Min: 22.2 °C (-2) SUN SETS 18:57 hrs MOON SETS 11:38 hrs THUMBNAILS 10 Maoists killed in encounter in Chhattisgarh: Ten Maoists were killed in a fierce encounter with the District Reserve Guard (DRG) and Special Task Force (STF) personnel on Tuesday morning in the Abhujmarh area of the Narayanpur district near the Chhattisgarh-Maharashtra border. Among the deceased are three female Maoist insurgents whose bodies have been recovered from the scene along with a cache of arms and ammunition including (Pg 5) an AK-47 and explosives. P rime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday launched a blistering attack against NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar and said time has come to punish the “tall Maharashtra leader” for not keeping his promise to take water to the drought-affected Madha region of the State. Addressing a BJP election meeting at Madha, the Prime Minister said the Maharashtra leader had made the promise 15 years back and Madha, along with Vidarbha and Marathwada regions continue to suffer water scarcity. Without naming him, Mr Modi said the Maharashtra leader has not dared to come to Madha to contest election again. The Prime Minister said the whole world changed, but the Congress, even in 60 years of its rule could not provide water for irrigation. When he took over as Prime Minister in 2014, there were 100 pending irrigation projects, including 26 in Maharashtra. The State was cheated in a big way, he said. Mr Modi said providing water to every home and farm was a big mission of his life. After taking over as PM, he devoted his whole energy on the pending schemes and 63 of them have been completed. To mark the 75 years of Independence, his government could have undertaken any project to celebrate it. The government however initiated a proramme of Amrit Sarovar ponds, one each in every district of the country. These ponds would serve village communities for generations. The Prime Minister said the “tall” Maharashtra leader was Agriculture Minister in the Union Government but he made no efforts to ensure Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) to sugarcane farmers. “During his tenure as the agriculture minister no efforts were made to increase the FRP which was at that time Rs 200 per quintal, while the NDA government increased it to about Rs 350 per quintal,” he said. When Mr Pawar was Agriculture Minister, the Prime Minister said, farmers used to run to cane commissioners’ offices for payment of arrears. The situation is different today. Now there are no arrears, he said. In 2014, the NDA government paid Rs 57,000 crores as arrears and this year Rs 1.14 lakh crore have been paid to clear arrears, including Rs 32,000 crores received by sugarcane farmers in Maharashtra. Mr Modi said the sugarcane mills were worried about income tax since the Nineties. “We requested him for waiving of income tax for sugar mills, I was Chief Minister and wrote to him but he failed to do anything,” he said. When Mr Modi took over as PM in 2014, he settled the income tax demand of the mills. His government provided Rs 10,000 crore relief to cooperative sugar mills. From March, 2023, a loan of Rs 10,000 crores was also provided to the sugar mills so that farmers did not have to wait for any payments. When the “tall” Maharashtra leader was in the Union government, the government made procurements from farmers worth Rs 7.50 lakh crores in 10 years. In comparison, his government in its 10 years made procurements worth Rs 20 lakh crores, the Prime Minister said. The PM said the BJP was receiving support from people for its achievements, but Congress Prince (Rahul Gandhi) is talking of an x-ray machine to raid homes of people to assess how much money, jewellery is kept in the house, and then it will be distributed among party favourites. TRIDIB BAPARNASH NEW DELHI, 30 APRIL Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson were eventually entrusted with the wicketkeeping duties as the BCCI on Tuesday unveiled the 15member squad for the ICC T20 World Cup, starting June 1 in the US and the West Indies. As expected, the squad will be led by Rohit Sharma, and has Hardik Pandya as vicecaptain. This will also mark the return of Pant to international cricket for the first time since a near-fatal accident in December 2022 that kept him on the sidelines for more than a year. The southpaw has used the ongoing IPL 2024 as a perfect platform to prove his fitness, and has so far amassed 398 runs in 11 innings for the Delhi Capitals at a strike rate of 158.56. Over the course of the season, he has also allayed any doubts there may have been over his wicketkeep- India rejects The SC questions ED on timing of CM’s arrest Washington Postreport on plot to kill Pannun PARMOD KUMAR NEW DELHI, 30 APRIL STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 30 APRIL India, on Tuesday, rejected a report in The Washington Post about alleged plots by Indian officials to assassinate pro-Khalistan activists in the US and Canada, saying it makes unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations on a serious matter. “There is an ongoing investigation of the High-Level Committee set up by the Government of India to look into the security concerns shared by the US government on networks of organised criminals, terrorists, and others. Speculative and irresponsible comments on it are not helpful, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in response to questions. The news report had referred to an alleged plot to assassinate Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) leader Gurpatwant Pannun on American soil and the killing of pro-Khalistan activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada in June last year. The news report claimed that an RAW official, identified as Vikram Yadav, was involved in the plot to kill Pannun in the US and the move was approved by the then Indian spy agency chief Samant Goel. The Indian government has declared Pannun a terrorist. Stating that liberty is exceedingly important and cannot be denied, the Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned the Directorate of Enforcement on the timing of arresting Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal just before the general election. “Liberty is very exceedingly important; you can't deny that. The last question is with regard to the timing of the arrest, which they (Kejriwal’s counsel) have pointed out, the timing of the arrest, soon before the general elections”, the top court asked the Directorate of Enforcement to respond to during its submissions on Friday – May 3, 2024. The top court’s question to ED on the timing of the arrest of the Chief Minister Kejriwal is one of the five questions that a bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Dipankar Datta framed for the ED to answer after the two- hour long hearing in which senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appealing for Kejriwal took the bench through various statements including that of accusedturned-approver Sarath Chandra Reddy and the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure to highlight the flaws in the entire action of the central agency. The bench asked the Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju, appearing for the ED, to respond to these questions in the course of his submission on Friday – May 3, 2024, when he would be replying to the arguments advanced by the senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi for Kejriwal. The other questions that the bench asked the ASG Raju to answer in the course of his submissions on Friday, included the question - whether there being any adjudicatory proceedings, can you have criminal proceedings being initiated? In terms of what has been held in (an earlier) Vijay Madanlal case or otherwise. In this case, there has been no proceeding for attachment. Justice Khanna said that first there should be attachment - then offense - then finding in the offense. Attachment is followed by prosecution. Criminal proceedings cannot be standalone, unless there is confiscation, attachment and. Singhvi referred to the several statements by the different accused including earlier statements by the ‘accusedturned-approver’ not naming Kejriwal before the ED during questioning, ASG Raju said that they are not relevant as we (ED) have not relied upon ECI finally releases voting percentage in 1st two phases of LS polls STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 30 APRIL The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday issued the final figures of voting in the first two phases of Lok Sabha elections, amid criticism from Opposition parties over the delay in declaring the final figure. In the first phase of Lok Sabha elections, the voter turnout was recorded at 66.14 percent and 66.71 percent in the second phase, as per the final figure released by the poll panel. Voting for the first phase was held on 19th April and second phase on 26th April. “In the ongoing General Elections, voter turnout of 66.14 percent has been recorded in phase 1 for 102 PCs (Parliamentary Constituencies) and 66.71 percent in phase 2 for 88 PCs that went for polls in the two phases,” the ECI said in a statement. Earlier, Congress general secretary in-charge of Communications Jairam Ramesh in a post on X wrote, “For the first time, even 11 days after the first phase of the polls and four days after the second phase, the final voter turnout has not been published by the ECI. In the past, ECI used to publish the final voter turnout immediately after voting or within 24 hours. Only approximate polling figures are available on ECI's website. What accounts for this delay?.” “Additionally, the number of registered voters in each Lok Sabha constituency and the assembly constituencies included in that Lok Sabha constituency is also not available on the Commission's website. It only shows the total number of voters in a state and the number of voters in each booth. It is essential for the Election Commission of India to be as timely and transparent about all election-related data,” he said. Echoing similar sentiments, Trinamul Congress (TMC) MP Derek O’brien in a post on X wrote, “Modi got the law changed in Parliament to get his own umpire and destroy the Election Commission. Now, after two phases, the EC yet to disclose final polling data. Why the delay ? The first two phases didn’t go well, did they! And EC, why no press conference after every phase?.” ECI reviews preparedness for third phase of LS polls STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 30 APRIL The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday reviewed the preparedness for the third phase of Lok Sabha (LS) elections, scheduled to be held on 7th May. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar along with Election Commissioners-- Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu held a meeting with 265 Observers. “The Election Commission today reviewed preparedness for Phase 3 of General Elections 2024 with the 265 Observers deployed for monitoring the Phase. This includes Special, General, Police and Expenditure Observers,” the ECI wrote in a post on X. In the third phase, polling will be held in 94parliamentary constituencies spread across 12 States and Union Territories (UTs). The States and Union Territories included in the third phase are Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Goa, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. Voting for the first phase was held on 19 April and second phase on 26 April. In the first phase of Lok Sabha elections, the voter turnout was recorded at 66.14 percent and 66.71 percent in the second phase. them. Singhvi said that this statement made before the somersault by an accused may not be relevant for the ED but they are relevant for us. These statements cannot be expunged from the record merely because they are not being relied on by the ED. Recounting the sequence of v events leading to accusedturned-approver being granted bail without any opposition from the ED, Singhvi cited the instance of an accused in the case whose plea for interim bail on the grounds of his wife suffering from cancer was stoutly resisted by the ED. As Singhvi’s arguments remained inconclusive, he will continue them on Friday, followed by ASG Raju presenting the ED case opposing Kejriwal’s plea against his arrest and the subsequent remand. Kejriwal has approached the top court challenging the Delhi High Court’s 9 April, 2024, order rejecting his plea against his arrest by the ED and the subsequent remand. ing. While Pant could well be India’s first-choice keeping option, Samson’s performances in the ongoing IPL made him an automatic choice for the backup keeper’s slot. This is the first time the Kerala stumper has made it to the World Cup squad, after missing out to Dinesh Karthik in 2022. Like Pant, Samson has been in prolific form as captain of table-toppers Rajasthan Royals. He has led the franchise from the front, scoring 385 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 161.08. Meanwhile, leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has also found his way back into the squad on the basis of his impressive form in the ongoing Indian Premier League. Chahal, who wasn’t a part of India’s recent T20 international squads for the series in South Africa and at home against Afghanistan, (Turn to Pg12) Admiral Tripathi takes charge as Naval chief STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 30 APRIL Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi assumed command of the Indian Navy on Tuesday as the 26th Chief of the Naval Staff. He succeeds Admiral R Hari Kumar who retires upon superannuation, after an illustrious career in the Indian Navy. Admi Tripathi is an alumnus of Sainik School Rewa and National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla. He was commissioned on 1 July 1985 into the Executive Branch of the Indian Navy. A Communication and Electronic Warfare specialist, he has served on frontline warships of the Navy as Signal Communication Officer and Electronic Warfare Officer and later as the Executive Officer and Principal Warfare Officer of the Guided Missile Destroyer INS Mumbai. Adm Tripathi's Sea Commands include INS Vinash, INS Kirch and INS Trishul. During his career spanning nearly 40 years, he has held various important operational and staff appointments, which include Fleet Operations Officer of the Western Fleet at Mumbai, Director of Naval Operations, Principal Director Network Centric Operations and Principal Director Naval Plans at New Delhi. He was the Vice Chief of Naval Staff, prior taking over the helm as Chief of the Naval Staff on 30 April 2024. Doctored video case: Over 7 leaders summoned across 4 states, including other persons STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 30 APRIL Over seven political leaders across four states and other persons have been summoned, including Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy in connection with the case pertaining to doctored video on the Union home minister over SC, ST and OBC reservation, the sources said. The FIR was filed on Sunday by Delhi Police's Special Cell in this connection, the sources said. Police notice has also sought information about the video and also asked them to submit the same that was uploaded from their respective X handle. In addition, the police have asked to bring in the electronic device that was used to upload the said video as well as the one used to record the video would have to be sub- mitted as well. The FIR was filed over a complaint from the the Home Ministry which alleged that some doctored videos are being circulated by users of social media platforms, and the video seems to be doctored and spreading misleading information with intention to create disharmony among communities which is likely to affect the public. It also stated that a report was attached with the complaint which includes details about the links and the social media handles from which the doctored videos of the home minister are being shared. On Monday, two police officials from Delhi had reached Gandhi Bhavan, the headquarters of Congress in Hyderabad to serve the notice. They were asked to meet the investigating officer in Delhi with regard to the matter. Sales of luxury homes at and above `4 crore grow 10pc YoY STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 30 APRIL In the quarter that ended 31 March, sales of luxury homes, priced at Rs 4 crore and above, grew 10 per cent compared to the year before, said a real estate consultancy firm. As per CBRE's ‘India Market Monitor Q1 2024’ report, 4,140 luxury homes were sold between January and March 2024. As many as 3,780 were sold during the same period last year. The report highlighted that such sales have grown for at least the last two years. In 2023, the sales jumped 75per cent at 12,935 units. Luxury homes’ share in total sales doubled to 4 per cent from 2 per cent the year before. At the end of March 2024, their share had As per CBRE's ‘India Market Monitor Q1 2024’ report, 4,140 luxury homes were sold between January and March 2024. As many as 3,780 were sold during the same period last year. risen to 5per cent. Residential property sales across categories reached 85,000 units in January-March, growing 8per cent year-on-year. It highlighted that the largest sales were in the midend segment homes, priced between Rs 45 lakh to 1 crore, which comprised 47per cent share in total sales. It was followed by high-end, Rs 1-2 crore, and affordable projects, up to Rs 45 lakh. Luxury home sales ranked fifth. Further, Mumbai led in the March quarter by selling 1,330 luxury homes, 15 per cent higher than 1,150 units sold last year. It was followed by Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) at 1,150 units and Hyderabad at 800 units. Hyderabad saw a twofold jump in luxury home sales, demand for such properties in Delhi NCR fell from 1,880 units in the same quarter last year. Pune, Mumbai, and Bangalore cumulatively accounted for about 65 per cent of the total sales. The report said the demand has also led developers to focus on luxury homes. In the March quarter, there was a 64 per cent increase in new launches of luxury segment units.