FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms FREE PRESS Vol. 14 No. 145 | BHOPAL | FRIDAY | NOVEMBER 8, 2024 | Pages 16 ` 3 | Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026 | RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 www.freepressjournal.in Sports Rachael announces retirement P.14 ESTD-1983 iii QUALITY @ VALUE EDITIONS: BHOPAL WORLD UJJAIN PUNE INDORE NASHIK MUMBAI E-paper Edit Data is a must for caste benefits P.8 Trump’s return: Stage set for ‘mass deportation’ Cinema Vikrant Massey receives death threats P.16 Consular camps cancelled in Canada over security issues PTI TORONTO Indian consulate in Canada cancels consular camps due over security issues Toronto, Nov 7 (PTI) The Consulate General of India in Toronto on Thursday said it is cancelling some of its scheduled consular camps after the Canadian security authorities conveyed their inability to provide minimum security protection to its organisers. The announcement comes days after an incident of violent disruption fp Briefs GANDHINAGAR Zika virus case in Gujarat Additional Director (Public Health) Nilam Patel in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, stated on Thursday that a 70-year-old patient recently infected with the Zika virus has been discharged after treatment. He noted that the patient was initially admitted to a private hospital in Ahmedabad with symptoms of fever and joint pain. NEW DELHI RG Kar case hearing begins The Supreme Court on Thursday commenced hearing a suo motu case related to the rape and murder of a doctor at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra is hearing the matter. SRINAGAR Terrorist killed In J&K A terrorist was killed in an encounter with security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara district, officials said on Thursday. The encounter began on Wednesday after security forces launched a cordon and search operation in Margi area of Lolab in north Kashmir. by protestors carrying Khalistani flags at a consular event co-organised by the Hindu Sabha temple in Brampton and the Indian Consulate. "In view of the security agencies conveying their inability to provide minimum security protection to the community camp organisers, the Consulate has decided to cancel some of the scheduled consular camps," the Consulate General of India said in a post on X. On November 3, the protest occurred at the Hindu Sabha temple in Brampton and unverified videos circulating on social media appeared to show demonstrators holding banners in support of Khalistan. The protestors clashed with people and disrupted the consular event. The incident was condemned by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who said every Canadian has the right to practise their faith freely and safely. India condemned the attack with an expectation that those indulging in violence "will be prosecuted". 4Continued on | P6 CANADA BLOCKS OZ MEDIA OUTLET FOR AIRING JAISHANKAR’S PRESSER New Delhi: India on Thursday said Canada blocked an Australian media outlet hours after it broadcast the press conference of External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar and his Australian counterpart Penny Wong. External Affairs Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said the Canadian action of blocking the social media handles and certain pages of Australia Today smacked of hypocrisy towards freedom of speech.” "We understand that the social media handles, pages of this particular outlet, which are important diaspora outlets, have been blocked and are not available for viewers in Canada. This happened just an hour or few hours after this particular handle carried the press conference of EAM Dr S Jaishankar with Penny Wong," Jaiswal said in response to a question at the weekly media briefing. SC RULING: Sets aside NCLAT order; invoking powers under Art 142, orders liquidation of assets, forfeiture of winning bidder's money END OF THE ROAD FOR JET AIRWAYS SC raps NCLAT PTI The impugned order of the NCLAT directing the SRA (successful resolution applicant) to adjust PBG of Rs 150 crore against first tranche of payment of Rs 350 crore was in flagrant disregard of the order of this court NEW DELHI In a major development in the Jet Airways insolvency saga, the Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the grounded airline's liquidation, forfeiture of Rs 200 crore infused by successful bidder Jalan Kalrock Consortium and permitted the lenders led by SBI to encash Rs 150 crore performance bank guarantee. Invoking its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra put the curtains down on the insolvency proceedings of the airlines by setting aside the order of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT). The bench termed the case as an "eye opener" and rapped NCLAT for allowing adjustment of performance bank guarantee (PBG) in view of Article 142 of the Constitution gives top court the power to make orders and decrees to ensure complete justice in any matter or cause pending before it payment of the first tranche by Jalan Kalrock Consortium (JKC). Insolvency appellate tribunal NCLAT had allowed JKC to take over Jet Airways without fully complying with its payment obligations, it observed. Pronouncing judgement for the bench, Justice Pardiwala allowed the plea of SBI and other creditors against the NCLAT decision that upheld the resolution plan of Jet Airways in favour of JKC. The apex court, as a result, allowed the appeals of the lenders and set aside the NCLAT order. "In the peculiar and alarming circumstances as discussed in this judgement, and also keeping in mind the fact that almost five years have elapsed since the resolution plan was duly approved by the NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) and there being Emotional Kamala concedes election, vows to defend Constitution, rights FP News Service WASHINGTON A highly emotional Vice President Kamala Harris Wednesday formally acknowledged her loss to President-elect Donald Trump, but defiantly defended her campaign as a fight for democracy that she would continue, even if not from the Oval Office. In a voice cracking with emotion and controlling her tears, she said: “While I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign. Hear me when I say, the light of America’s promise will always burn bright. As long as we never give up. And as long as we keep fighting.” Addressing her supporters at Howard University here, her alma mater, she made a 12-minute speech that moved many to tears even as she was set to lose both the national popular vote and the top seven battleground states. “Do not be afraid of the dark days ahead. It is only in the dark that we see stars. But I promise to defend the Constitution and the rights of the people of America,” the VP said in an obvious reference to Trump’s contempt and disregard for the Constitution. “Don’t you ever listen when anyone tells you something is impossible because it has never been done before,” said Harris. 4Continued on | P6 no progress worth the name, we are left with no other option but to invoke our jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution and direct to the corporate debtor be taken in liquidation," held the bench. The bench ordered that requisite steps be taken for commencement of liquidation process of the grounded airline and "the amount of Rs 200 crore already infused by the SRA stands forfeited". "The lender creditors are further permitted to encash the performance bank guarantee of Rs 150 crores furnished by the SRA," it added. It held that the NCLAT's approval of adjusting the performance bank guarantee as a partial payment was in "flagrant disregard" of an earlier directive of the top court, as well as the terms of the resolution plan and established principles under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. 4Continued on | P6 Ex-IAS of MP made director of Tata Steel Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL A former IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh Pramod Agarwal has been appointed independent director of Tata Steel Company. The board of Tata Steel appointed Agarwal as independent director for five years. At present, he is the chairman of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). From 2020 to June 2023, he was the chairman of Coal India. offgrid ‘Lancet study linking pollution to deaths not absolute’ In the absence of cause of death data, several extrapolations of data take place. Therefore, the deaths cannot be attributed to air pollution alone and thereby may not portray a correct comparison, the CPCP report said PTI NEW DELHI The Central Pollution Control Board in the National Green Tribunal opposed the findings of a Lancet study, which claimed poor air quality had severely affected mortality rates in 10 major Indian cities. Claiming the study's data may not be "absolute", the CPCP said the deaths couldn't be attributed to pollution alone and that the satellite data and modelling techniques used for extrapolations in it may not necessarily represent the "realistic Indian scenario". The NGT had taken suo motu cognisance of a newspaper report quoting the study, which stated approximately 33,000 annual deaths were linked to air pollution levels that exceeded the World Health Organisation guidelines. The study examined the cities of Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Shimla, and Varanasi. In its reply dated November 4, the CPCB said the study analysed the daily average particulate matter (PM) 2.5 concentrations at one square kilometre spatial resolution across the country between 2008 and 2020. It also used mortality records from each municipal corporation in the 10 cities. "The study concludes that short-term PM2.5 exposure was associated with a high risk of death in India, even at concentrations below the current Indian PM2.5 standard. These associations were stronger for locally generated air pollutants. However, the study has limitations...," claimed the CPCB report. According to the pollution control board, the "variability in the strength of death registration systems across different states and cities" and the analyses of "cause-specific mortality" as "the international classification of disease codes" was not done by the authors for most cities. Regarding the adverse health impact of PM2.5 and other pollutants, the CPCB report said air pollution was one of the factors affecting respiratory ailments and associated diseases. It said an individual's health was also influenced by several factors, including food habits, occupational habits, socio-economic status, medical history, immunity and heredity. 4Continued on | P6 Raipur lawyer summoned over death threat to Shah Rukh PTI MUMBAI/RAIPUR, Ex-min Deepak Joshi joins BJP Returns to party in presence of former CM Chouhan in Budhni Our Staff Reporter The Mumbai police have registered an extortion case and summoned a lawyer from Chhattisgarh in connection with a death threat to Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan and a demand for Rs 50 lakh, officials said on Thursday. The lawyer from Raipur has been summoned as the threat call was made from a phone number registered in his name, a senior police official from the Chhattisgarh capital said. 4Continued on | P6 BHOPAL Former minister Deepak Joshi, who was canvassing for the Congress candidate in Budhni, joined the BJP. Deepak Joshi, son of former chief minister and senior leader of the BJP late Kailash Joshi, defected from the BJP to the Congress last year. Joshi was continuously campaigning for the Congress candidate from Budhni, Rajkumar Patel. Joshi had a meeting with BJP candidate Ramakant Bhargava who held talks with Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, which paved Joshi’s path to rejoining the BJP. He return to the ruling party in the presence of Chouhan. A function for Joshi’s rejoining the BJP will be held in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and party’s state unit president VD Sharma. Joshi had been trying to return to the BJP since the end of the assembly election. 4Continued on | P6 ED searches 19 premises of Amazon, Flipkart vendors in FEMA probe PTI NEW DELHI The Enforcement Directorate Thursday conducted searches against some of the "main vendors" operating on platforms of e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart as part of a foreign investment "violation" investigation, official sources said. A total of 19 premises of these "preferred" vendors located in Delhi, Gurugram and Panchkula (Haryana), Hyderabad (Telangana) and Bengaluru (Karnataka) were covered as part of the action, the sources said. It is learnt that the ED inspected documents and took copies of some from the premises of about six such vendors who were not named. The sources said a probe has been initiated by the federal agency under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) after it received several complaints against the two large e- ‘Policy on counter terrorism soon’ PTI NEW DELHI The government will soon bring a national counter-terrorism policy and strategy to fight terrorism, terrorists and their ecosystem, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Thursday. Addressing an anti-terrorism conference here, Shah also said that while law and order is a state subject and states have the geographical boundaries and constitutional limitations, terrorism doesn't and hence all security agencies -central and states -- must work in close coordination, chalk out joint strategies and share intelligence. commerce companies where it is alleged that they were "violating India's FDI (foreign direct investment) rules by directly or indirectly influencing the sale price of goods or services and not providing level playing field for all the vendors". There was no immediate response from the two e-commerce companies. Meanwhile, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) welcomed the ED action. "The CAIT, along with several other trade bodies, has been raising these issues for the past few years. I welcome the Enforcement Directorate's actions as a step in the right direction," CAIT secretary general and BJP MP from Delhi Praveen Khandelwal said in a statement. He claimed that the the Competition Commission of India (CCI) had also issued "penalty notices" to Amazon and Flipkart, and their "preferred" sellers, for "engaging" in anti-competitive practices that have adversely affected small traders and 'kirana' (grocery) stores. It has been reported in the past that the CCI, which works to ensure fair business practices across sectors in the marketplace, is already looking into alleged anti-competitive ways of e-commerce companies. 4Continued on | P6 Sexual assault on 10-yr girl; dumped in forest Police announce Rs 10K reward FP News Service GUNA In a shocking incident, a 10year-old girl was allegedly assaulted and found in an unconscious state at a deserted place under Mayana police station limits in Guna district on Wednesday late in the evening. The incident was reported at around 9.30 pm and she was admitted to the district hospital, from where she was referred to Bhopal. The girl's parents and other villagers had reached the forest searching for her. They saw her in a bad condition as she was bleeding and preliminary assessment indicates she was sexually assaulted. They immediately informed Sirsi police about the incident. The girl was brought to the district hospital for treatment in the police's Dial 100 vehicle. Since the police station area is Mayana, now the Mayana police are taking action.Meanwhile, even after 15 hours of crime, police still groped in the dark till filing the report. 4Continued on | P6