FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms FREE PRESS Vol. 15 No. 114 | BHOPAL | TUESDAY | OCTOBER 7, 2025 | Pages 14 ` 3 | Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026 | RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 www.freepressjournal.in Sports Catchphrase: Shutting out the noise, amplifying the dream! P.12 ESTD-1983 iii QUALITY @ VALUE EDITIONS: BHOPAL WORLD Trump urges negotiators to ‘move fast’ to end war UJJAIN PUNE INDORE NASHIK Cinema Saiyami to be the face for Ironman India P.14 DRUG CONTROLLER REMOVED, THREE OFFICIALS SUSPENDED CM orders crackdown on banned medicines, warns doctors over misuse Our Staff Reporter Madhya Pradesh Drug Controller Dinesh Maurya has been removed and three other officials suspended following the deaths of several children in Chhindwara after consuming poisonous cough syrup. Those suspended are Gaurav Sharma, Drug Inspector of Chhindwara; Sharad Kumar Jain, Drug Inspector of Jabalpur; and Shobhit Koshta, Deputy Director of Food and Drug Administration. Maurya has been transferred. Earlier, paediatrician Dr Praveen Soni had already been arrested. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav chaired a high-level meeting on Monday to review the situation and directed a series of strict measures. He ordered an immediate ban on the sale of Coldriff syrup and instructed that existing stocks in shops be seized. A door-to-door campaign will be launched to recover the syrup from homes in Chhindwara and nearby districts, with the help of ASHA and USHA workers as well as government staff. The CM also ordered a thorough assessment of other medicines recently sold in the area and said a campaign would verify whether warnings and precautions are clearly printed on drug labels. He stressed that combination drugs must not be given to children under four years of fp 157 Coldriff syrup bottles sold in Chhindwara, raids continue Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL As many as 157 bottles of toxic Coldriff syrup were sold to patients in Chhindwara district through at least eight medical stores. Meanwhile, 425 bottles have been seized from various stores by the Special Probe Drug Inspector squad. A total of 660 bottles had arrived in Jabalpur, of which 594 were supplied to Chhindwara. Among the stores, Apna Medical Stores, Parasia sold 75 bottles, Ashirwad Medical 24, Rasela Medical, Parasia 22, Shrivastava Medical, Parasia 5, Paras Medical, Parasia 6, Jain Medical, Chandameta 6, and New Apna Pharma 17 bottles (records incomplete). In Jabalpur, 50 bottles were frozen and 16 taken for testing. In circulation for yrs Sources in the Health De- be intensified to prevent such incidents in future. In the aftermath of the Coldriff syrup controversy, which claimed at least 16 children’s lives in Chhindwara and Betul, authorities conducted random checks of other syrups. Two more syrups failed tests and were immediately banned for being of Non Standard Quality (NSQ). The first NSQ syrup is Ambroxol HCL, Guaiphenesine Terbutaline Sulphate and Menthol Syrup (Batch LSL25160, Mfg Jan 25, Exp Dec 26), manufactured by Shape Pharma Pvt Ltd, Surendranagar, Rajkot, Gujarat. It contains 0.616% DEG. The second is Bromohexin Hydrochloride Terbutaline Sulphate, Guaiphenesine and Menthol Syrup (Batch RO1GL2523, Mfg Jan 1, 2025), manufactured by Rednonex Pharmaceuticals Pvt Ltd, Bavla, Ahmedabad.It contains 1.342% DEG, Health authorities have begun seizing stocks of both syrups. One of the companies reportedly had 100 bottles in Indore. Gujarat Drug Controller has been informed. 4Continued on | P8 4Continued on | P8 Stock of toxic cough syrup seized from various medical stores in Chhindwara district See also page 3 partment said Coldriffsyrup has been in use for 10–20 years, but this is the first time a batch was found toxic. The company, Sresan Pharmaceuticals, had obtained all required certifications from Tamil Nadu. Drug testing in Madhya Pradesh is done on a random basis, with the state lab conducting around 4,000 tests per year. Substandard drugs found in random tests are immediately banned. Raids, seizures continue The Drug Controller and Drug Administration team carried out raids at various medical shops in Chhindwara, seizing 248 bottles of Coldriff syrup. 4Continued on | P8 Dr Soni sent to jail, IMA against arrest Dr Praveen Soni, a paediatrician posted at Parasia Civil Hospital in Chhindwara, was sent to judicial remand on Monday in connection with the deaths of children caused by a poisonous cough syrup. The arrest has sparked strong protests from the Indian Medical Association (IMA). age and warned that strict action will be taken against doctors who violate this guideline. Yadav said that, with the support of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics and chemist associations, precautionary and awareness measures will SC notice to Centre, UT on plea by Wangchuk’s wife NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday sought response from the Centre and the Union Territory of Ladakh on a writ petition filed by activist Sonam Wangchuk's wife Gitanjali J Angmo, challenging his detention under the National Security Act and seeking his immediate release. A bench of Justices Aravind Kumar and N V Anjaria, however, refused to pass any order on her plea for providing her the grounds of detention and posted the matter for hearing on October 14. Lawyer tries to hurl shoe at CJI, BCI suspends licence PTI NEW DELHI In a shocking security breach, a 71-year-old lawyer allegedly attempted to hurl a shoe towards Chief Justice of India B R Gavai in his courtroom in the Supreme Court on Monday, prompting the Bar Council of India to suspend his license with immediate effect. The CJI, who remained unfazed during and after the unprecedented incident during the court proceedings, asked the court officials and the security personnel present inside the courtroom to "just ignore" it and to let off the errant lawyer identified as Rakesh Kishore with a warning. "Don't get distracted by all this. We are not distracted. These things do not affect me," the CJI, who was sitting on the bench with Justice K Vinod Bihar to vote in two phases on Nov 6, 11, counting on 14 Briefs NEW DELHI SC junks plea on TS OBC quota Dheeraj Kumar PATNA proteas march ahead South African players celebrate victory over New Zealand in women's cricket World Cup at Indore on Monday Pic: Anand Shivre The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea challenging the Telangana government's order to provide 42 per cent reservation to the Backward Classes in local bodies. After a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta showed its disinclination to hear the plea filed under Article 32 of the Constitution for the protection of fundamental rights, the counsel appearing for the petitioner withdrew it with a liberty to approach the high court. Two more syrups fail test, banned Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL E-paper Edit Killed by official indifference P.6 CHHINDWARA COUGH SYRUP CASE | Door-to-door campaign will be launched to recover syrup from homes in Chhindwara and nearby districts BHOPAL MUMBAI French PM resigns hours after proposing new cabinet Agencies PARIS French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has announced his resignation less than 12 hours after appointing a new cabinet. The French parliament is deeply divided over efforts to pass a new budget that would tackle rising debt. A former defense minister, Lecornu was the seventh prime minister appointed by French President Emmanuel Macron and the fifth in two years. See World The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday announced the dates for highstakes Bihar Assembly elections. The polls will be held in two phases—on November 6 and 11— while the counting of votes will take place on November 14. More than 7.4 crore electors are eligible to exercise their franchise in the election, which will see whether people will vote for continuity or change. There are 3.92 crore male voters and 3.5 crore female voters. The dates were announced by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in a press conference held at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The CEC has appealed to the people of Bihar to check if their name appeared in the fresh electoral rolls. He said that names could still be added, till 10 days before the filing of nomination papers by candidates. The date of filing nomination papers has been set at October 17 and 20 for the Bypolls on 8 assembly seats The ECI on Monday announced that by-elections for eight assembly constituencies across seven states and Union Territories will take place on November 11. The by-elections will take place in Jammu and Kashmir's Budgam and Nagrota districts, Rajasthan's Anta district, Jharkhand's Ghatshila district, Telangana's Jubilee Hills district, Punjab's Tarn Taran district, Mizoram's Dampa district, and Odisha's Nuapada district two phases. He said that 69 lakh voters have been deleted in Bihar's voting list due to deaths, non-citizenship, migration and duplication. The break-up of those whose names have been deleted is not available, he added. The CEC said polling booths would be made accessible with ramps and wheelchairs and webcasting would be done from all booths. Anganwadi workers will be present to help verify the identity of burqa-clad voters. With the announcement of the poll schedule, Model Code of Conduct (MCC) has come into immediate effect. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar inaugurated a section of Patna Metro, hours ahead of the announcement of the poll dates. The state has 243 assembly constituencies with 38 seats reserved for SCs and two for STs. The term of the present assembly will end on November 22. In the recent past, assembly elections in Bihar witnessed a direct contest between RJDled opposition alliance and NDA but this time, the polls are likely to throw up surprises with the entry of poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) into the electoral battle. 4Continued on | P8 Chandran, told lawyers and continued hearing the mentioning of cases. Bar bodies, SCBA and SCAORA, and lawyers including Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and political parties strongly condemned the incident as "an attack on the Constitution and the institution as a whole". Police said Kishore was aged 71. Kishore, a resident of Mayur Vihar here, was questioned for three hours by Delhi police officials inside the apex court premises and was later allowed to go at 2 PM as no formal complaint was lodged. Police also returned his shoes to him. Police sources said a note, containing the slogan 'Sanatan dharma ka apmaan nahi sahega Hindustan' (India will not tolerate insults to Sanatan Dharma), was recovered by the police from his possession. 4Continued on | P8 Attack on CJI angered every Indian: PM Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday spoke to Chief Justice of India B R Gavai to convey his condemnation of a lawyer's attempt to hurl a shoe at him, and said the attack has angered every Indian. "There is no place for such reprehensible acts in our society," he said and praised Gavai for maintaining calm following the incident Fire at Jaipur hosp kills nine patients Manish Godha JAIPUR Nine patients died, and five remained critical after a fire broke out in the neurosurgery ICU of the government-run SMS Hospital of Jaipur on Sunday late at night. Police said the exact cause of the fire is yet to be determined, though a short circuit is suspected. Officials said six deceased have been identified as Pintu from Sikar, Dilip and Bahadur from Jaipur, along with Shrinath, Rukmini, Khurma who were all from Bharatpur. By the time the firefighters had arrived, the entire ward was engulfed in smoke and they had to break a window to start extinguishing the fire. The Sawai Man Singh hospital, run by the state government, is one of the largest in Rajasthan and treats thousands of patients every day. The fire broke out just before midnight in the trauma centre of the hospital and soon spread through the building. Fourteen patients were evacuated from a nearby ICU ward as thick plumes of smoke engulfed the room. SMS Hospital Trauma Center In-charge Anurag Dhakad said that the fire started in the trauma ICU on the second floor and spread quickly, releasing toxic gases. “Our trauma center has two ICUs on the second floor: a trauma ICU and a semi-ICU. 4Continued on | P8 emerging tourism hub 3 scientists get Nobel in medicine for work on human immune system Foreign visitors in Varanasi up 120 times in 3 yrs Biswajeet Banerjee AP LUCKNOW STOCKHOLM Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell, and Dr Shimon Sakaguchi won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for their discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance. Brunkow, 64, is a senior program manager at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle. Ramsdell, 64, is a scientific adviser for Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco. Sakaguchi, 74, is a distinguished professor at the Immunology Frontier Research Centre at Osaka Uni- Mary E. Brunkow Fred Ramsdell versity in Japan. The immune system has many overlapping systems to detect and fight bacteria, viruses and other bad actors. Key immune warriors, such as T cells, get trained on how to spot bad actors. If some instead go awry in a way that might trigger autoimmune Dr Shimon Sakaguchi diseases, they're supposed to be eliminated in the thymus a process called central tolerance. The Nobel winners unravelled an additional way the body keeps the system in check. 4Continued on | P8 Varanasi has rewritten India’s tourism map, emerging as one of the fastestgrowing destinations in the country. Once known primarily as a sacred pilgrimage site, the ancient city has now transformed into a global tourism hotspot, attracting record numbers of domestic and foreign visitors. Official data from the Uttar Pradesh Tourism Department and the Ministry of Tourism show that over 11 crore tourists visited Vara- nasi in 2024, marking an 18.7 percent increase from the previous year. Even more remarkable is the surge in foreign arrivals, which have grown more than 120 times since 2021. In 2021, just 2,566 foreign tourists visited the city. The figure rose to 83,741 in 2022, then to 2,01,904 in 2023, and finally to 3,09,932 in 2024. By June 2025 alone, nearly 1.88 lakh foreign visitors had already arrived, indicating a strong upward trajectory. The boom in tourism has propelled Varanasi ahead of many traditional tourist hubs like Goa and Shimla. The total domestic footfall jumped from 30.7 lakh in 2021 to more than 10.97 crore in 2024, and the first half of 2025 alone saw a staggering 12.96 crore visitors. Tourism Minister Jaiveer Singh attributed this un- precedented growth to the city’s cultural revival and massive infrastructure push. “The government’s sustained effort to project Varanasi as a global spiritual and cultural hub has paid off,” he said. “Along with Ayodhya, Mathura, and Prayagraj, Kashi has become part of a religious tourism triangle attracting visitors throughout the year.” He added that Ayodhya alone recorded over 16 crore visitors in 2024, following the consecration of the Ram Temple, while Mathura and Prayagraj also witnessed sharp increases in footfall. Overall, foreign tourist arrivals in Uttar Pradesh rose from 16 lakh in 2023 to more than 22 lakh in 2024, with Varanasi contributing a significant share. 4Continued on | P8