SATURDAY 28 SEPTEMBER 2024 www.thestatesman.com X.com/thestatesmanltd. Fb/thestatesman1875 INDIA’S NATIONAL NEWSPAPER SINCE 1818 Pages 12 |` 5.00|LC KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR ‘BJP'S RESPONSIBILITY TO ENSURE JOBS FOR AGNIVEERS’ INVENT THE METAPHOR P6 SENSEX 85,571.85q255.83 WEATHER Thunderstorms. Rain developing late. Maximum and minimum temperatures likely to be around 31°C and 27°C respectively. RAINFALL: NIL RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max. 90% TEMPERATURE Max: 28.4˚C SUN RISES 05:27 hrs MOON RISES 01:29 hrs NIFTY 26,175.15q40.90 P7 ` vs $ 83.70 THUMBNAILS People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) supporters in collaboration with the Ashray Foundation and students of the JD Institute wearing horns and draped in red veils stage a protest against animal cruelty and the practice of Jallikattu, at Janta Mantar in New Delhi on Friday n ANI M V Shreyams Kumar elected president of Indian Newspaper Society: M V Shreyams Kumar (Mathrubhumi) has been elected President of the Indian Newspaper Society (INS) for the year 2024-25. He succeeded Rakesh Sharma (Aaj Samaj). Editor and Managing Director of The Statesman, Ravindra Kumar, is among the other 41 members of the Executive Committee of the INS for the year 2024-25. BRENT CRUDE (IN $) 70.78q0.31 Limitations on women’s working hours removed CAQM ‘needs to be more active’ to control pollution: Supreme Court ‘Rattirer Saathi’ guidelines revised in line with apex court directives NEW DELHI, 27 SEPTEMBER T New Moon on 3 October P12 SILVER 99,990 GOLD 77,900.00 NEW DELHI, 27 SEPTEMBER Min: 26.8˚C SUN SETS 17:28 hrs MOON SETS 15:05 hrs BRAVO RETIRES FROM ALL CRICKET P5 STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE Min. 80% he Bengal government has removed the proposed restrictions on working hours for women, including their not being put on night duty, in the guidelines framed as part of its ‘Rattirer Saathi’ initiative intended to address the issue of safety of women at their workplaces. The state chief secretary Manoj Pant on Friday issued an order stating, “After careful consideration of different aspects, clauses 11(v) & 11(vi) are hereby removed from the existing guidelines of “RATTIRER SAATHI – HELPERS OF THE NIGHT ,” issued vide No.217-Secy(HFW)/2024 dated 19.08.2024.” Clauses 11(v) and 11(vi) of the guidelines had stated: ‘Working hours of women including women doctors should not exceed 12 hours at a time,’ and ‘Wherever possible, night duty may be avoided for women to the extent possible.’ These provisions had evoked criticism from the Supreme Court, which is a hearing a suo motu case relating to the rape and murder of a post graduate trainee doctor at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, as casting a cloud on the basic constitutional premise of gender equally. The court had stated: “The basic purpose must be to ensure conditions of safety and security for all doctors, men and women. The women doctors do not demand any special concessions, but require the State to create Dynastic parties shedding crocodile tears for Jammu: BJP chief Nadda STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE JAMMU, 27 SEPTEMBER Hitting out at the ‘dynastic’ parties in Jammu and Kashmir, BJP President and Union Health Minister, JP Nadda on Friday said they always gave step-motherly treatment to the Jammu region whereas the BJP government focused on providing justice to the Jammu region and its overall development. Mr Nadda, who was talking to media-persons here, said that we will now rid the people of J&K of these ‘dynastic’ parties, including Congress, National Conference (NC) and PDP. The BJP President said that the people, particularly the youth in Kashmir, while voting in strength have chosen peace and development and rejected the bullet. He said while the Congress and NC talk of releasing terrorists from prisons and resuming talks with Pakistan, the BJP practices ‘zero-tolerance’ towards terrorism. ‘BJP WILL WIN IN DELHI’ The ‘dynastic’ parties shed crocodile tears for Jammu region but we have constructed Asia’s highest bridge on the Chenab river to provide rail connectivity to the Kashmir valley and also constructed the Shahpur dam that will irrigate the arid agricultural lands in the Jammu region, he said. The Jammu region has become the hub of quality education after abrogation of Article 370. The country’s premium institutions such as the AIIMS, IIM, IIT and Indian Institute of Mass Communication have been established here by the Modi gov- ernment. An AIIMS is also coming up in Kashmir, he said. To make J&K a powersurplus region, five hydroelectric projects are being set up. The electorate in the two phases of voting has supported peace, stability and development initiatives in J&K by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said. He was optimistic that the BJP candidates will get support of the people in the third and final phase of polling on 1 October. He said the polling has been peaceful without any terror attack, booth capturing or any untoward incident. Diplomats from 16 countries visited the Kashmir valley and witnessed the historical occasion of peaceful and unprecedented turnout of voters. Around 58 per cent polling has so far been recorded against the 6 per cent to 8 per cent in the past when the ‘dynastic’ families ruled J&K. conditions in which their safety at all times, during the day and night... On 17 August, the state government had announced the flagship initiative called Rattirer Shaathi (Helpers of the Night) for safety for women who work on the night shift. It had come against the backdrop of the horrific rape and murder of the PGT doctor at RG Kar Medical College Hospital on 9 August. On Thursday, the chief minister Mamata Banerjee said at Nabanna: “We are working on the implementation of the Rattirerer Sathi except the ones which the Supreme Court raised objections to.” The aim of the programme is to ensure safe working conditions for women on the night shift in government hospitals and medical colleges, hostels and other places engaging women during the night. Among others, the guidelines for the Rattirer Saathi initiative specified separate designated rest rooms with toilets for women, deployment of Rattirer Shaathi or woman volunteers on duty at night, creation of safe zones for women and development of a special mobile phone app with alarm devices which will be connected to the local police stations/police control room. The guidelines also prescribed security checks and breathalyzer tests at medical colleges and hospitals, superspeciality hospitals, district hospitals and reminded all organisations to set up Visakha Committees on sexual harassment on women in workplaces, if not done..” AGENCIES The Supreme Court on Friday said that the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) “needs to be more active” to combat the menace of air pollution in the national capital and adjoining areas. A bench presided over by Justice Abhay S Oka observed that though it cannot be said that CAQM has not taken any action, “the Commission has not performed the way it was expected to perform considering the object for which it was set up.” “We are of the view that though the Commission has taken certain steps, the Commission needs to be more active. The Commission must ensure that its efforts and directions issued actually translate into reducing the problem of pollution,” said the Bench, also comprising Justice AG Masih. It stressed that “some efforts” need to be taken to ensure that equipment (providing an alternative to stubble burning) is used at grassroots level. “The Commission must immediately take action to ensure that the equipment provided at the cost of the Central government to avoid stubble burning are actually used by the farmers,” the court said. It noted that though the “Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Act, 2021” has been in existence for more than three years now, hardly 85-87 directions have been issued so far by the CAQM. “No action has been taken even after finding that directions have not been implemented, possibly action could be taken under Section 14 of the 2021 Act,” the top court added. The SC expressed surprise at the CAQM chairperson’s submission that the sub-committees formed under the 2021 Act were holding a meeting every three months. “The sub-committee on monitoring and identification and sub-committee on safeguarding and enforcement have been assigned important tasks. We wonder how they are performing those tasks by meeting only once every PM Modi launches high-performance computing system tailored for weather and climate research STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 27 SEPTEMBER Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the High-Performance Computing (HPC) system - tailored for weather and climate research, acquired by the Ministry of Earth Sciences. The ambitious project represents an investment of Rs 850 crore, marking a significant leap in India's computational capabilities for more reliable and accurate weather and climate forecasting, particularly extreme events. It is located at two key sites—the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune and the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), Noida. The IITM system is equipped with an impressive capacity of 11.77 Peta FLOPS and 33 petabytes of storage, while the NCMRWF facility features 8.24 Peta FLOPS with 24 petabytes of storage. Additionally, there is a dedicated standalone system for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning applications with a capacity of 1.9 Peta FLOPS. With this augmentation, the Ministry of Earth Sciences will enhance its total computing power to 22 Peta FLOPS, a substantial increase from the previous capacity of 6.8 Peta FLOPS, an official release said Friday. In keeping with tradition, these state-of-the-art systems have been named after celestial entities connected to the sun. Previous systems were named Aditya, Bhaskara, Pratyush, and Mihir. The new HPC systems are named 'Arka' and 'Arunika,' reflecting their connection to Surya— the sun, the primary energy source for the Earth system. The enhanced computational framework will enable the development of sophisticated models leveraging advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, thereby significantly improving the last-mile services rendered to various stakeholders. The enhanced computational capabilities provided by the HPC System will allow the Ministry of Earth Sciences to further improve existing data assimilation capabilities and refine physics and dynamics of its global weather prediction models at higher horizontal resolution. Furthermore, regional models will achieve finer resolutions of 1 km or less over select Indian domains. These high-resolution models will significantly enhance the accuracy and lead time of predictions related to tropical cyclones, heavy precipitation, thunderstorms, hailstorms, heat waves, droughts, and other extreme weather phenomena. Leveraging these advanced HPC Systems, the Ministry of Earth Sciences aims to significantly improve the precision and reliability of weather forecasts, ensuring better preparedness and response to the challenges posed by climate variability and extreme weather events three months!” it said. Posting the matter for hearing on October 3, the apex court asked the CAQM to place on record the details of meetings held and decisions taken therein. The SC told Additional Advocate General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati, representing the CAQM, that the court will exercise its power under Article 142 of the Constitution to include senior officers in CAQM. Every year, Delhi and the entire NCR have to bear the brunt of air pollution from October to December mainly due to crop residue burnings. On Wednesday, the Delhi government announced a comprehensive 21-point winter action plan to tackle pollution in the national capital. Delhi’s Environment Minister said that last year's 14-point plan has been expanded to a broader 21-point strategy to combat the menace of air pollution, including emergency measures such as drone monitoring, anti-dust campaigns, road-sweeping machines, etc. The Minister claimed that incidents of stubble burning have reduced by 50 per cent in Punjab since the AAP government took office, following discussions with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. MUDA case: Lokayukta Police file FIR against CM Siddaramaiah AGENCIES BENGALURU, 27 SEPTEMBER In a major development, Karnataka Lokayukta Police has filed an FIR against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday in connection with the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) case, sources confirmed. In the FIR, CM Siddaramaiah has been named accused number one, his wife Parvathy the second accused and his brother-inlaw Mallikarjun Swamy the third accused. The FIR was filed following the clarification by the Lokayukta ADGP Munish Kharbikar on technicalities of law regarding the case. Mysuru Lokayukta SP Udesh had written to him on whether to lodge the FIR under the CrPC or BNSS. The court had pronounced the order on Wednesday. (Details on page 4) Jagan cancels visit to Tirumala, blaming police highhandedness Uttar Pradesh: Five people arrested over ‘sacrifice’ of school boy in Hathras STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE HYDERABAD, 27 SEPTEMBER YSRCP chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy cancelled his scheduled visit to Lord Venkateswara Swamy Temple at Tirumala Hills on Saturday alleging police highhandedness and slamming the BJP for supporting Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu who he accused of spreading misinformation about laddu prasadam for petty political gains. The former chief minister wanted to atone for the “sins” of Mr Naidu of allegedly tarnishing the sanctity of the holy shrine with his insinuation about laddu prasadam purportedly prepared with adulterated ghee containing ‘animal fat’. However, the TDP said Y S Jagan cancelled the visit as he did not want to furnish the declaration of faith to the deity at Tirumala that has to be given by people who belong to faiths other than Hinduism. Mr Reddy was slated to reach Tirupati in the evening and leave for Tirumala Hills on the same night and visit the temple in the morning. There was tension in the temple town as district police served notices to the YSRCP leaders and cadres threatening to book them under Article 30 of the Police Act as the programme did not have approval from the government, while various organisations protested against Mr Reddy’s visit to the shrine. After cancelling his visit to Tirumala, Mr Reddy held a prolonged press conference accusing the state government of preventing him from going for a darshan. “For the first time in this state and possibly in the country, people have been barred from visiting temples. This notice served to MLAs and cadres says ‘the ex-chief minister YS Jagan Reddy visiting TTD and that programme does not have the approval of the government and if a worker participates, cases would be booked against him’.” Mr Reddy also played video recordings of Naidu making the allegation that the adulterated ghee of laddu prasadam contained ‘animal fat’ and that of the executive officer (EO) of TTD who clarified the adulterated ghee was never used to prepare the laddu prasadam. Mr Reddy asked the BJP: “If you are truly representative of Hindutva as you claim how you support a person, who is tarnishing the sanctity of the temple and laddu prasadam for political gains just because he is part of the NDA. Naidu should be sent to prison.” “Worse still is the BJP joining the bandwagon. Its leaders from Telangana have come down to deviate the issue from laddu prasadam to my declaration. What is my religion? I reiterate, that in the four walls of my house, I read the Bible. When I go out, I am a Hindu, a Muslim, and a Sikh. Humanity is my religion.” Ahead of Mr Reddy’s visit to Tirumala, Chandrababu Naidu issued a fervent appeal to people, saying: “My sincere request to all pilgrims is that no devotee should act against the sentiments and temple rituals.” His party launched a more direct attack. “Why are you hesitating to sign the Declaration of Faith before entering Tirumala? If you truly respect Lord Venkateswara Swamy and Hindu sentiments, there should be no hesitation,” said Jyothsna Tirunagari of the TDP, addressing Mr Reddy. AGENCIES HATHRAS, 27 SEPTEMBER Uttar Pradesh police have arrested five people in connection with the alleged murder of a student at his school under Sahpau Police Station in Hathras, said an official. The accused have been identified as Ramprakash Solanki, Dinesh Baghel, Jashodhan Singh alias Bhagat ji, Laxman Singh, and Virpal Singh alias Viru. The five accused have been booked under section 103(1) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and sent to judicial custody, said police. During the investigation, police uncovered evidence which suggested that the killing was part of a sacrificial ritual, purportedly to bring success and fame to the school. The FIR was registered on the basis of the statement of a man, who stated that Dinesh Baghel and other accused told him that they strangled his son and killed him on 23 September. As per the FIR, the child lived in the hostel of the school. According to the police, the boy was allegedly murdered on 23 September at the hostel of a private school in Hathras. Hathras Additional Superintendent of Police, Ashok Kumar Singh, said: “On 23rd September, a student was murdered at the hostel of D.L. Public School under Sahpau PS. A case was registered under relevant sections on the basis of the statement of the complainant. Five accused, including the owner of the school, have been arrested. They have been sent to judicial custody. Police will take action by investigating all angles..." Reacting to the incident, Member of the Uttar Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR), Anita Agarwal, said that she would recommend to the State Administration to de-recognise this school. "This is a heinous incident. We will take action in this matter. I will recommend to the State Administration to de-recognise this school," Member of the Uttar Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR), Anita Agarwal, said.