ESTD-1928 Vol. 67 No. 223 | TUESDAY | JUNE 18, 2024 | 24 Pages | `5 & for Pune `6 only THE FREE PRESS JOURNAL ✩✩✩ Reg.No Mcs 0482021-23; RNI No. 1541/1967 M.p.c.s office Mumbai. PIN 40001 QUALITY @ VALUE www.freepressjournal.in NATION Yogendra, Suhas object as their names are not removed from NCERT textbooks EDITIONS: MUMBAI INDORE PUNE BHOPAL Aritra Singha KOLKATA Nine passengers died and another 41 were injured after the rear coaches of a stationary Sealdah-bound Kanchanjunga Express derailed after a goods train rammed into it from behind. The mishap, which took place at around 8:30 am near Rashidiya station at New Jalpaiguri district, brought back memories of the Coromandel triple train tragedy exactly a year ago in Odisha’s Balasore district. Some local reports put the casualty count at 15. Among the deceased were the pilot of the goods train and the guard of the passenger train. The army rushed to the spot with cutters with which the derailed bogies were cut open to extricate the bodies and to look for survivors. The injured have been shifted to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital. "The collision happened because the goods train disregarded the signal and hit the Kanchanjunga Express, which was on its way to Sealdah from Agartala," Railway Board Chairperson Jaya Varma Sinha told reporters in Delhi soon after the accident. An internal document showed that the goods train was allowed to cross all red signals as the automatic signalling had "failed," reports PTI. The document, a written authority called TA 912, was issued to the driver of the goods train by the station master of Ranipatra, authorising him to cross all red signals, the PTI added quoting railway sources. According to the sources, the automatic signalling system between Ranipatra and CAT was defective since 5.50 am. As a result of the accident, the North Frontier railways cancelled or diverted the routes of several trains. Rail Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who too reached the spot, told media persons that the cause of the accident would be known once a probe is complete. Contd on | Nation E-paper Driver of goods train was authorised to cross all red signals as the automotive system was defective Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw reached the spot riding on a mobike Rescue work underway after a collision between the Kanchanjunga Express and a goods train near Rangapani railway station on Monday. Pic: PTI Cinema Ishq Vishk Rebound is on online relationships: Pashmina Prodded by RSS, Shah takes stock of Manipur FPJ News Service NEW DELHI A week after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat flagged his concerns over Manipur, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday chaired a high-level meeting to review the security situation in the North-Eastern state. The meeting comes a day after Manipur Governor Anusuiya Uike called on the Home Minister at his office and is learned to have briefed him on the situation in the state. It also came on a day when more than 100 trucks carrying essential items to Imphal were stopped on NH 53 near Tatbung in Manipur's Tamenglong district on Monday by people who have called for an indefinite blockade of the Imphal-Silchar highway to protest against violence in Jiribam district, police said. The trucks were carrying fuel, LPG and other essential items. India's top security managers attended the meeting, including Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, Intelligence Bureau Chief Tapan Deka, Army Chief General Manoj Pande, Contd on | Nation No ‘Kavach’ track protection in West Bengal FPJ News Service KOLKATA The ‘Kavach’, an automatic train protection system, which prevents accidents and collisions when two trains are on the same track, was not operational on the tracks in Darjeeling. The Railways plan to deploy the safety system on the DelhiGuwahati route under its much-vaunted goal to cover over 6,000 km of tracks by next year. Incidentally, Bengal falls within the ambit of 3,000 km of tracks set to be protected by ‘Kavach’ this year. The system will be applied to the DelhiHowrah route," Jaya Varma Sinha, Chairman of Railway Board told a TV channel. Soon after the crash, a video of Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw explaining the ‘Kavach’ system went viral triggering a debate, Contd on | Nation India tightens embrace of critical US knowhow Pannun plot: Czech deport accused to US PTI WASHINGTON Lalit K Jha NEW DELHI TDP feelers: Cong, Pawar caution UBT Rohit Chandavarkar MUMBAI The perceived discontent among the ruling NDA partners and those partners not getting plum portfolios in the Union cabinet, has prompted the Shiv Sena (UBT) to ask its Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) partners to open dialogue with the Telugu Desam Party (TDP). The Shiv Sena feels that MVA allies Sharad Pawar and Rahul Gandhi should offer the Lok Sabha Speaker’s position to the TDP and ask the party to vote for the INDIA bloc during the trust vote in Lok Sabha. The Congress party seems none too eager and has reportedly asked the Sena to ‘slow down for now and wait for the right opportunity’. There was considerable talk in the national capital ahead of the portfolio allocation announcement – whether or not Nitish Kumar’s JDU and Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP would bag some plum portfolios. There was buzz in New Delhi that the Contd on | Nation India and the US on Monday unveiled a raft of transformative initiatives to deepen cooperation in areas of semiconductors, artificial intelligence, critical minerals, advanced telecommunication and defence space, while pledging to remove longstanding barriers to strategic trade. This happened when the National Security Adviser Ajit Doval met his counterpart Jake Sullivan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also met Sullivan subsequently, a meeting in which he said India is committed to further strengthening its comprehensive global strategic partnership with the US for global good. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said Sullivan briefed Modi on the progress in vari- Member: Audit Bureau of Circulation (Jan to Dec 2023) Edit 'The country is saved!' How far is this true? Netanyahu dissolves influential war cabinet after key partner's departure NINE DIE AS GOODS RAMS INTO PASSENGER TRAIN Collision happened because goods train disregarded the railway signal KONKAN WORLD KOLKATA | The accident comes a year after the Coromandel Express tragedy in which over 290 people were killed System Failure NASHIK Cong double engine in Uttar & Dakshin Gandhi siblings say "both constituencies would now have two MPs each" Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar NEW DELHI Congress leader Priyanka Vadra Gandhi is set to fight her maiden electoral battle from Wayanad in Kerala after her brother and senior party leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday vacated the seat while retaining Rae Bareli seat in Uttar Pradesh. The announcement was made by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge late on Monday afternoon following a meeting with the Gandhi FPJ SPECIAL siblings, their mother Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary K.C. Venugopal at his residence. As per the Representation of People Act, a candidate can contest from two Lok Sabha constituencies, but can hold only one seat at a time. Since one seat is required to be vacated within 14 days of announcement of the result, Rahul Gandhi was supposed to take a decision in the Vinod Mathew Those four words encapsulate the essence, the emotions that grip the Wayanad voters, who it could be argued, have reasons to feel let down by their elected Parliamentarian’s firm decision to cut ties with them. Because, what they stand to lose on the swings, they are surely going to regain in the roundabouts. And, to be fair to the people of Wayanad, they would like to believe that at least Priyanka Vadra would The FPJ broke the story about Priyanka’s debut stop using their constituency as a fall-back option. It is not as if Priyanka is an unknown commodity for them. Sure, she did turn up Pakistan’s disastrous ICC T20 World Cup campaign has triggered rumblings within the team and to make matters worse head coach Gary Kirsten has lambasted the team for its disunity and incoherence. Kirsten’s remarks apparently came in a team meeting after the victory in their last inconsequential group stage match against Ireland while Rahul filed his nomination and then turned up once to fill in for her brother during the 2024 election campaign. Perhaps what they remember more vividly goes back five years. The year was 2019. The place, Wayanad. And the occasion. The Lok Sabha elections. It was towards the fag end of the campaign period, either the second or the third week of April. Contd on | Nation AI food service on razor’s edge BJP picks two ministers for state election FPJ NEWS NEW DELHI Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar MUMBAI ous areas of bilateral cooperation. The wide-ranging talks between Doval and Sullivan were under the framework of the India-US initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), aimed at ensuring that technology is designed, developed and deployed in sync with democratic values and with a mutual recognition that the future security of the IndoPacific will hinge on the strength of the ties between the two sides. In the meeting, Doval and Sullivan set the vision for the next chapter of the strategic technology partnership between India and the US, a factsheet on the talks said. It said both sides emphasised the need for continued efforts, particularly under the strategic trade dialogue, to address outstanding barriers to technology collaboration. Contd on | Nation Indian national Nikhil Gupta, accused of being involved in a murder plot against a Sikh extremist on American soil, has been extradited to the US from the Czech Republic, media reports here. Gupta, 52, was arrested in the Czech Republic last year at the request of the US government on charges of being involved in a plot to assassinate Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun -- an American citizen -- in New York. The Czech Constitutional Court last month rejected a petition by Gupta against his extradition to the US to face the charges. US federal prosecutors allege that Gupta had been working at the behest of an unnamed Indian government official. early ouster from the tournament. The former World Cupwinning coach of the Indian cricket team also felt Pakistan’s batting was below-par with batsmen struggling with their shot selection. “No one knows which shot to play when,’’ was the scathing criticism from the highly regarded Kirsten with a firm warning that only players who improve their The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday announced the names of its state election incharge and co in-charge for the upcoming Assembly elections in Maharasthra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir. The decision on the names was taken by party president J.P Nadda and the appointments have come into effect immediately. For Maharashtra, the party has given the responsibility of the state election in-charge to Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, whereas Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav has been Union made the co in-charge. Yadav is also the national general secretary of the BJP and was an advocate in the Supreme Court before he entered politics. He is seen in the party as someone who could keep various factions together. Yadav was appointed the national secretary of BJP in 2010 when Nitin Gadkari was the party president. He has also functioned as a key strategist of the party and was connected to its successful election campaigns in Rajasthan in 2013, Gujarat in 2017, Jharkhand in 2014 and Uttar Pradesh in 2017. He was also the party’s in-charge for the Bihar assembly polls in 2020. In the case of Haryana, the party has chosen Education minister Dharmendra Pradhan as the state election incharge and former Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb as the co in-charge. Contd on | Nation Contd on | Nation Contd on | Nation It has taken Air India more than a week to respond publicly to the complaint of a passenger, who found a metal blade in his meal on the flight to the US from Bengaluru; the passenger, a journalist, had aired his grievance on X social media platform, along with the images of the blade. The metallic object was found in ‘fig chaat’, served by Air India’s in-flight food service. "Air India food can cut like a knife. Hiding in its roasted sweet potato and fig chaat was a metal piece that looked like a blade. I got a feel of it only after chewing the grub for a few seconds," the passenger Mathures Paul had posted. "Thankfully, no harm was done,’’ he added. Paul, however, reasoned that "the incident doesn't help the image I have of Air India", adding that "what if the metal piece was in the food served to a child?" The Air India on Monday confirmed the presence of the "foreign object" in the food. It came from the vegetable processing machine used at the facilities of its catering partner, the airline said in a statement. The airline said it is working with its catering partner to strengthen measures to prevent any recurrence, including more frequent checking of the processor, especially after chopping any hard vegetables. Contd on | Nation Kirsten says Pakistan team unity is in tatters Haridev Pushparaj Contd on | Nation Goodbye, Rahul Hello, Priyanka offgrid MUMBAI matter by Tuesday. Early on Monday, he had stated that “it was a dilemma” for him which constituency he should retain and which one he should vacate. While he is a sitting MP from Wayanad, Rae Bareli, from where he lost to Smriti Irani of BJP in 2019, has traditionally been close to the Nehru-Gandhi family. in Lauderhill, Florida. The South African tore into the team stating there was a complete lack of unity among players and they were a disjointed bunch of cricketers. The revelations came after a Pakistani sports journalist shared the details through his sources. “There’s no unity in Pakistan’s team. They call it a team, but it isn’t a team. They aren’t supporting each other; everyone is separated, left and right. I’ve worked with many teams but I’ve never seen such a situation,’’ Kirsten said. Kirsten didn’t stop with just the lack of unity within the Pakistan team and harped on their poor fitness levels which he felt were dated. Pakistani batter Azam Khan has come under severe criticism for his place in the World Cup squad despite his poor fitness standards and the team bore the brunt during their shock defeat to USA which ultimately led to their