4 CONFERRED SECOND-HIGHEST GALLANTRY AWARD ON I-DAY EVE THURSDAY 15 Colonel Manpreet Singh, Rifleman Ravi Kumar, Major Malla Rama Naidu and J&K DySP Himayun Bhat were conferred Kirti Chakra AUGUST, 2024 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard The Morning Standard wishes its readers a A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS NEW DELHI J8.00 TAX BONANZA FOR MINERAL STATES @ New Delhi Soren: It’s big victory Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren said the ruling is a ‘big victory’, adding that the state expects to receive `1.36 lakh crore dues from the Centre MP, Raj to forego Responding to the govt’s submission that MP and Rajasthan don’t wish to collect dues, SC said it is up to the states to forego dues IN a boost to mineral-rich states but a major setback to mining companies and the Centre, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said that its July 25 judgment granting states the power to tax mineral rights and mineral-bearing land would apply retros p e c t iv e l y. T h e o r d e r empowers mining states such as Odisha, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh to recover royalty and tax dues on mineral rights and mineral-bearing lands worth thousands of crores of rupees with effect from April 1, 2005 from mining companies as well as the Central government. The apex court said the tax arrears can be paid to states over a staggered period of 12 years starting April 1, 2026. It also clarified that the states cannot impose any penalties for the dues. During the hearing on July 31, the Centre had opposed the demand of states for a refund of royalty levied on mines and minerals since 1989, saying the PSUs would lose more than `70,000 crore. Meanwhile, industry estimates put the total arrears at `1.5-2 lakh crore with the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries saying the verdict will further push the industry, which is already saddled with high taxation, into penury . In its judgment on July 25, a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court had held that states have competence and power to levy tax on mineral bearing lands. The majority 8:1 judgment authored by the Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud-led bench ruled that the power to tax mineral rights lies with the state legislature and not Parliament. PM’s economic advisory council member Shamika Ravi said the “spectre of retrospective taxation” is back, adding laws must protect against expropriation of property by individuals as well as by the state. Meanwhile, experts warned of a litany of litigation as states have been given unbridled powers to impose levies. F AYA Z W A N I @ Srinagar Deepak Singh Army personnel near the site of an encounter between security forces and terrorists in Doda on Wednesday | PTI GUNFIGHTS ON SINCE TUESDAY NIGHT Terrorists slipped into Doda after a brief exchange of fire with forces in Udhampur on Tuesday evening, an official said. A search was conducted during the night, but they could not be located. Later, on Wednesday morning, fresh gunfights broke out in Doda E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ B’luru Senior IAS officer Govind Mohan was on Wednesday appointed the next Home Secretary, succeeding Ajay Kumar Bhalla. He at present is Secretary, Ministry of Culture THE Karnataka government has decided to stop all its transactions with State Bank of India and Punjab National Bank citing financial irregularities in the deposits of the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board and Karnataka State Pollution Control Board. KIADB deposited `25 crore in PNB on September 14, 2011, as fixed deposit for E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ New Delhi World joins Bengal protest against rape and murder of PG student of a Kolkata hospital | PTI AIIMS faculty comes out in support of protesting docs A S H I S H S R I V A S TA V A @ New Delhi THE decision to call off the strike by the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) on Wednesday after a meeting with Health Minister JP Nadda has sparked a backlash, with protesting medicos rejecting it. The fallout was swift and intense. Numerous resident doctors’ associations responded by removing their presidents and continued their protest against the rape and murder of a PG student at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. Aviral Mathur, FORDA president and leader of Maulana Azad Medical College resident doctors’ association, was ousted from his post by fellow mem- bers for his role in the decision. At the University College Of Medical Sciences, RDA chief Dr Rajat Sharma, who was part of the FORDA team, too faced a revolt. Most hospitals, including AIIMS, Safdarjung and RML, continued to stand their ground. The faculty association of AIIMS joined the protest march of resident doctors and underlined the need for the Central Healthcare Protection Act. The FORDA’s decision reinvigorated the protest, which spread to other hospitals, which formed resident doctors’ bodies only to join the strike. These hospitals include Rao Tula Ram Memorial Hospital, Pt Madan Mohan Malviya Hospital, among others. P8 WRESTLER Vinesh Phogat will return empty-handed from Paris despite assuring herself a 50kg silver last week at the 2024 Olympics. The application she filed with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) challenging her disqualification and seeking a shared silver was dismissed on Wednesday . The operative part of the CAS decision says the application filed by Vinesh on August 7, 2024 is dismissed. It is understood that the decision was communicated to the Indian Olympic Association. A detailed decision is expected on August 16. Despite reaching the 50kg final by winning three straight bouts, including the opener against reigning Olympic and world champion Yui Susaki of Japan at the Games, the 29-year-old wrestler from Haryana was disqualified for being 100 grams overweight on August 7 morning. IOA chief PT Usha expressed her disappointment over the decision and said it is exploring legal options. Meanwhile, Vinesh is expected to reach the country on August 17. Vinesh, who featured in her third Olympics in the Paris after 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Games, announced her retirement hours after the disqualification. Cuban wrestler Yusneylis Guzman, who lost to Vinesh in the semifinal, contested the gold-medal bout against Sarah Hildebrandt of the US. The latter won the gold. P11 ‘Dead’ girl comes alive after a month U J W A L J A L A L I @ New Delhi THE Delhi Police has found a 16-yearold girl — who was declared dead by UP cops last month after she had gone missing from her house. The UP police claimed that her suspected body was found in Sambhal district. On July 18 the girl’s father, Rakesh Kumar, lodged a missing complaint with the police, following which an FIR was lodged and a search began. However, the exercise didn’t yield any result. On July 27, UP cops found an uni- dentified body in Sambhal district. “The girl was found with her hands and legs tied with a rope. The description of the body resembled the girl who went missing from Delhi,” DCP (Rohini) GS Sidhu said. On August 10, a Delhi Police team along with the complainant and family members reached Rajpura police station in Sambhal, where the father identified the body as his missing daughter. “The UP police had already cremated the body after conducting post-mortem and the complainant’s AN Army captain was killed in an encounter with terrorists in the dense Akar forests area of the Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir on the eve of Independence Day . An official said Captain Deepak Singh sustained serious injuries during the encounter on Wednesday. He died at a hospital. After the encounter, the terrorist fled and the Army along with the local police launched a search operation. During the search, a US-made M-4 rifle and three blood-stained backpacks were recovered. As the search continued, there were more exchanges of fire between the security forces and the terrorists. A terrorist was killed and a civilian was injured during one of these exchanges. As the operation stretched, specially trained para-commandos were rushed to the area to assist the troops. A security official said on Wednesday evening that the operation was going on. The official said they suspect three to four heavily armed militants are hiding in the forest area. The gunfire and blasts could be heard outside the forest area. HOME K’taka to close SBI, PNB a/cs SECY Vinesh petition for silver medal in Paris denied ‘RECLAIM THE NIGHT’ PAGES 12 ARMY CAPTAIN KILLED IN JAMMU ENCOUNTER They can claim dues retrospectively from 2005: SC S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y (From left) Col Manpreet Singh, Maj Malla Rama Gopal Naidu, Rifleman Ravi Kumar and J&K DySP Himayun Muzzammil Bhat | P7 father was made to identify the girl with the help of some photographs,” the DCP told this newspaper. Though the family members identified the body through photographs as of their daughter, the Delhi Police decided to go for collection of scientific evidence to establish the identity. “More teams were formed to trace the location of the missing girl,” the DCP said. On August 12, the location of the missing girl was tracked to Panchkula. The cops went to Panchkula and brought the girl back to Delhi and handed over to her family . one year. After a year, `13 crore was encashed. “However, in the second FD (for `12 crore) the money was not returned due to alleged irregularities by the bank officials,” reads a government circular. In the second instance, the KSPCB deposited `10 crore All govt dept, PSUs, boards, local bodies & universities should withdraw all deposits in SBI and PNB K’taka govt circular with the then State Bank of Mysuru as FD for one year in August 2013. “Bank officials by using fake documents adjusted the money to a loan taken by a private firm. Despite several meetings, the bank did not agree to return the money This case is now in . court,” the circular adds. The CAG in its report raised objections over both cases. It was also discussed in Public Accounts Committee meetings. The drastic decision was taken at one such meeting. EXCISE POLICY Jolt to Kejriwal as SC turns down interim bail plea S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi T H E S u p re m e C o u r t o n Wednesday denied interim relief to Arvind Kejriwal arrested by the CBI in connection with the excise policy case and sought the probe agency’s detailed response on the CM’s plea challenging the arrest. “We will not grant any interim relief. We issue notice,” said a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan and fixed the matter for further hearing on August 23, when the CBI would file its reply . During the hearing, Kejriwal’s counsel, senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, termed the CM’s arrest by the CBI, in June, an “insurance arrest’ as it was effected at a time when Kejriwal was on the cusp of getting bail in the more stringent ED case under PMLA. Singhvi pleaded to the apex court for interim bail to Kejriwal on health grounds, which was declined. On August 5, the Delhi High Court upheld Kejriwal’s arrest by the CBI in the alleged excise policy scam. The decision marks a blow to the AAP leader’s efforts to challenge the arrest.
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