MONDAY 06 MAY 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 UNDERSTANDING A MONARCH ‘POK, AN INTEGRAL PART OF INDIA, IS BACK IN NAT’L CONSCIOUSNESS’ P7 P5 WEATHER Partly cloudy sky. Possibility of thundery development likely towards evening. Maximum and minimum temperatures likely to be around 36 °C and 29 °C respectively. RAINFALL: NIL RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max. 88 % TEMPERATURE P4 Entire Sandeshkhali row cooked up, says Mamata ‘PM must stop shedding crocodile tears as entire conspiracy has now come to light’ STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE BIRBHUM/BURDWAN, 5 MAY Min. 54 % Max: 36.4°C (+1.0) Min: 29.3°C (+3.2) SUN RISES SUN SETS 05:2 hrs 18:5 hrs MOON RISES MOON SETS 02:50 hrs 15:16 hrs Full Moon on 08 May THUMBNAILS Tourists enjoy river rafting on the waters of Beas River, in Manali on Sunday. ANI KKR thrash LSG by 98 runs: Sunil Narine put up an all-round display as Kolkata Knight Riders thrashed Lucknow Super Giants by 98 runs on Sunday. Narine slammed 81 off 39 balls as KKR posted a massive 235 for 6 after being put in to bat. KKR then bundled out LSG for 137 runs, with Harshit Rana taking 3 wickets for 24 and Narine picking up one. lleging that the entire Sandeshkhali imbroglio was the handiwork of the BJP, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday asked PM Narendra Modi to stop shedding crocodile tears as the conspiracy has now come to light. “You can get back the money but you can never never get back the selfrespect of mothers,” said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at an election rally in Birbhum today, referring to the alleged sting video footage of a BJP leader in which the latter purportedly admits that money was paid to some women to raise allegations against local Trinamul Congress leaders. Miss Banerjee said that BJP has mastered the art of scripting fake videos and the Sandeshkhali incident is their latest creation. “This party is now becoming uncontrollable. The PM is coming to Sandeshkhali and shedding his crocodile’s A Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and TMC candidate from Bardhaman-Durgapur constituency Kirti Azad greet supporters during a rally in Bardhaman on Sunday.  ANI tears for the women of Sandeshkhali, though at the same time he remains mum on atrocities on women in Manipur or in the Revanna sex scandal case in Karnataka,” Miss Banerjee said. The entire incident of Sandeshkhali is cooked up and money power has been used, she alleged. In the coming days the truth of the Sandeshkhali incident will be unveiled, the CM said. “It was a deliberate ploy to defame the ruling party of the state and get political gains in the elec- NADA SUSPENDS PUNIA FOR NOT GIVING DOPE SAMPLE FIR FILED AGAINST CHANDRABABU NAIDU tions,”she said. Miss Banerjee said that there has been a lot of development work in Birbhum due to team work. “Anubrata Mondal was an efficient organiser; he has been put behind the bars for a long time. If he had joined the BJP he would have been roaming freely outside. But it is a fact that one day definitely Anubrata Mondal will get bail and come out of prison. He has already been asked to work for the BJP in the polls and get bail. You just wait and see, after the polls of Birbhum are over Kesto will get bail,” Miss Banerjee said. “All three members of the Election Commission of India are selected by the BJP and they are changing (police) ICs, OCs, DIGs almost every day on the basis of the complaint of the BJP the CM said. ,” Miss Banerjee later participated in a roadshow in Burdwan town with party candidate Kirti Azad. She reached Burdwan on a helicopter from Labhpur at 4:45 p.m. today. She led the 3 kilometre roadshow, walking along the old GT Road stretch where nearly 10,000 people joined. The march started at the Spandan Sports Complex and ended at Burdwan Police Line. While crossing a gurdwara, she made a brief halt and the Sikh community members offered bouquets to her. She also halted at another crossing where emigrant labourers from Bihar were waiting for Kirti Azad and told them: “Kirti is a nice man. Vote for him.” P12 Campaigning for 3rd phase ends; BJP, Opp leave no stone unturned STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 5 MAY Campaigning for the third phase of the Lok Sabha elections that saw leaders of the BJP and the Opposition INDIA bloc leaving no stone unturned to woo voters in their favour, came to an end on Sunday evening. The polling for the third phase in 94 parliamentary constituencies spread across 12 states/Union territories, along with the Betul seat, will be held on Tuesday (7 May). The states/UTs where polling will take place 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. In all, 1,351 candidates are in the fray in the third phase. Prominent among the candidates from the BJP are Union ministers Amit Shah and Jyotiraditya Scindia, and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan, while from Congress for- Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with Telangana CM Revanth Reddy during a public meeting in Adilabad on Sunday. ANI mer Madhya Pradesh CM Digvijaya Singh is in the fray. Mr Shah is the BJP’s nominee from Gandhinagar (Gujarat) seat, Mr Scindia from Guna (Madhya Pradesh), Mr Chouhan from Vidisha seat, while Mr Singh is contesting from Rajgarh seat. Other key contenders in the fray are Dimple Yadav, wife of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, from Mainpuri (Uttar Pradesh) parliamentary constituency, and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Badruddin Ajmal from Dhubri (Assam) seat. The campaign was marked by a war of words between the BJP and the Congress over the grand old party’s manifesto ‘Nyay Patra’ with Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling Rahul Gandhi as Shehzada’ (prince). Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi countered PM Modi’s jibe calling him ‘Shahenshah’ (emperor), who lives in palaces. The general elections are being held in seven phases between 19 April and 1 June. The first phase of polling was held on 19 April, and second on 26th April. The first phase recorded 66.14 per cent voter turnout while the second saw a turnout of 66.71 per cent. ‘False & malicious’: Govt on reports that FSSAI No quota based on religion while I’m alive: Modi allows 10 times more pesticide residue in herbs STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE HARGAON (SITAPUR), 5 MAY STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 5 MAY The Union Health Ministry on Sunday said the media reports claiming that the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) allows 10 times more pesticide residue than the allowed limit in herbs and spices, are false and malicious. The Ministry said that India has one of the most stringent standards of Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) in the world and MRLs of pesticides are fixed differently for different food commodities based on their risk assessments. "Pesticides are regulated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA and FW) through the Cen- tral Insecticide Board and Registration Committee (CIB and RC) constituted under Insecticide Act,1968.The CIB and RC regulate the manufacturing, import, transport, storage of pesticides and accordingly the pesticides are registered/ banned/ restricted," it said. The ministry said the Scientific Panel on Pesticides Residues of FSSAI examines the data received through CIB and RC and recommends the MRLs after performing risk assessment considering the dietary consumption of Indian population and health concerns in respect of all age groups. Total pesticides registered by the CIB and RC in India are more than 295, out of which 139 pesticides are registered for use in spices. Codex has adopted a total 243 pesticides out of which 75 pesticides are applicable for spices, it said. "A pesticide is registered on many food commodities with different MRLs based on risk assessment data. For instance, the use of Monocrotophos is allowed on many crops with different MRLs such as rice at 0.03 mg/kg, citrus fruits at 0.2 mg/kg, coffee beans at 0.1 mg/kg and cardamom 0.5 mg/kg, chilli at 0.2 mg/kg," the Ministry said. The MRL of 0.01 mg/kg was applicable in case of pesticides for which MRLs have not been fixed. This limit was increased to 0.1 mg/kg only in cases of spices and is applicable only for those pesticides which are not registered in India by CIB and RC, it said. The Ministry said the MRLs fixed by CODEX for Myclobutanil used for chilli is 20 mg/kg whereas the limit set by FSSAI is 2mg/kg. Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) is the food safety and quality standard-setting body created by the UN. For Spiromesifen, used for Chilli, Codex limit is 5 mg/kg whereas FSSAI limit is 1 mg/kg. Similarly, Codex standards for Metalaxyl and MetalaxylM used for black pepper is 2mg/kg whereas the limit set by FSSAI is 0.5 mg/kg, it added. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that the Congress wants to implement its Karnataka model of reservation in the country and vowed that he would never allow it. “As long as Modi is alive, I will not allow reservation on the basis of religion," he declared at an election rally in Hargaon in Sitapur. The PM added that the Samajwadi Party and Congress are now eying women's Stridhan and their Mangalsutra. PM Modi said that BJP works on the mantra of Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas in which every section of the society is benefitted. But the princes of SP and Congress are doing appeasement politics to please ‘Political conspiracy going on against me’, says HD Revanna JD(S) leader HD Revanna being taken into custody by SIT officials in Bengaluru on Saturday.  ANI AGENCIES BENGALURU, 5 MAY Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Revanna, who was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in a kidnapping case linked to the obscene video scandal in which his son is embroiled, said on Saturday that it is a political conspiracy against him and he has never seen anything like this in his political career. Mr Revanna was brought to the Bowring & Lady Curzon Hospital for medical examination after he was arrested yesterday by SIT officials. “It’s a political conspiracy going on against me. In my 40 years of political life, I have never seen anything like this,” he said to the reporters outside the hospital. “There is no blame on me in politics. A complaint was made against me on April 28. However, no evidence was found in this case. With the malicious intent of arresting me, they filed a kidnapping case against me and arrested me," Mr Revanna added. Mr Revanna was later produced before a magistrate who remanded him in the SIT’s custody till 8 May. During his questioning by SIT officials on Saturday night and Sunday morning, sources said, Mr Revanna refuted the charges of kidnapping and sexual harassment levelled against him. Mr Revanna maintained that he was not involved in any of the cases and it was a conspiracy to finish him and his family off, the sources added. HD Revanna and his son, Prajwal Revanna, who is the sitting MP and candidate from Hassan Lok Sabha constituency are facing a probe by a SIT, constituted by the Karnataka government. CMYK Prime Minister Narendra Modi offers prayers at Ram Janmabhoomi Temple on Sunday. ANI a certain section of the society, he said. “The Constitution does not allow reservation on the basis of religion but the INDIA bloc, as part of its appeasement policy, is planning to give the share of reservation of SC/ST, OBC to Muslims. They also have an eye on your mangalsutra, your field, your property because even former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that Muslims have the first right on resources. The Congress wants to imple- ment the Karnataka model of reservation in the country," Mr Modi said. Accusing the Congress and the INDIA bloc of planning to redistribute the country's wealth to their vote bank, the PM said: “I will stand like a wall against them if they attempt to do this. They also say that they will bring back Article 370 in Kashmir but I will not allow that to happen." The Prime Minister also said that the opposition bloc also wants to end the free ration scheme, stop free healthcare schemes for the poor, and remove Vande Bharat trains, if they come to power. "Will they also convert Ram Mandir into a hospital or try to bulldoze the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor? To stop this, you will have to vote for BJP Mr Modi said. ,”