FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms FREE PRESS Vol. XLII No. 238 | INDORE | WEDNESDAY | FEBRUARY 4, 2026 | Pages 16 ` 3 | Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026 | RNI No. 38281/83 www.freepressjournal.in Sports MP paddles to dominance at National Sprint Championship P.15 ESTD-1983 iii QUALITY @ VALUE EDITIONS: INDORE MONEY UJJAIN PUNE BHOPAL NASHIK MUMBAI E-paper Edit US deal shows India’s strength P.6 US tariff cut positive for labour-intensive sectors: Moody's Cinema I am in love with India: Tal Kravitz P.16 Govt will slowly BRIGHT FUTURE | India secured the best deal compared to all its neighbours, surrounding countries and competing nations, impose VAT cut on claims Commerce Minister. A joint statement is to be issued petrol, diesel: CM ‘INDIA-US TRADE PACT A As state won’t get its share of Central taxes on basis of poverty and suffering, it will work for increasing GDP: Yadav HISTORIC TURNING POINT’ Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar NEW DELHI Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL Managing petrol and diesel is a major challenge for the state government, although it is encouraging electric vehicles. It cannot ignore the sources of income but will slowly impose cuts on the VAT. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, who plans to find a solution to these problems in the upcoming budget, made the statement in reply to a question on VAT on petrol and diesel at a press conference on Tuesday. About the reduction of state’s share in the central taxes, Yadav has said it is not going to happen that the state will get funds from the Central Government on the grounds of poverty or the state being large. The states, which have more GDP will get more funds, he said, adding that the states can help people mitigate their sufferings, but they will not get their share of central taxes. Taking such a decision on the basis of the recommendations of the 16th Finance Com- RAJA RAGHUVANSHI MURDER CASE 2 discharged due to lack of evidence Our Staff Reporter mission requires guts, he said. According to Yadav, the state government is working on such schemes as can fetch more funds from the Centre. The state will also make efforts to increase its GDP, the Chief Minister said. It is a boon for MP to get funds for the development of tier-II and tier-III cities, he said. MP is one of the three states whose capital expenses are the highest in the country, Yadav said, adding that the employment rate is also lower, whereas in terms of population, it is the fifth largest state in the country. BJP’s state president Hemant Khandelwal, in charge of the state party unit Mahendra Singh, and Deputy Chief Minister Jagdish Devda were present at the press conference. CABINET DECISIONS Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL The registry of residential plots allotted to the displaced people of Narmada valley’s Sardar Sarovar dam project will be free of cost. The state government will bear the entire registry cost, which would amount to Rs 600 crore. A decision to this effect was taken in the cabinet meeting held on Tuesday. The Narmada Valley Development Authority will compensate the liable registry and stamp duty as per the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP). This decision will benefit 25, 600 families living in four districts, Alirajpur, Jhabua, Badwani and Dhar. Apart from this, the cabinet gave consent for continuation of 10 projects from 2026-27 till 2030-31, approving a sum of Rs 15009 crores. According to the 4Continued on | P8 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday told a parliamentary party meeting of National Democratic Alliance MPs that the India–US trade deal was a “big decision” that would “benefit everyone in the country.” At the meeting, Modi was received and felicitated by senior NDA leaders, including Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president Nitin Nabin, Nationalist Congress Party leader Praful Patel. The NDA partners also lauded him for reaching trade agreements with the European Union, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand 2 irrigation projects get green signal The cabinet approved the proposal to dissolve the Madhya Pradesh Rajya Samaj Kalyan Board and to merge employees with the women and child development department. 4Continued on | P8 ‘Big decision, will benefit all’ The cabinet gave its nod to two irrigation projects of Maihar and Katni. The cost of both projects is Rs 620 crore. Approval has been given for Dhanwahi Micro Pressure Irrigation project of Maihar and Katni. Its cost is Rs 53.73 crore. This will create an irrigation facility in 3500 hectares and 2810 farmers of nine villages will be benefited. Likewise, the Barhi Micro Lift Irrigation Project in Katni district, costing Rs 566.92 crore has also been approved. It will benefit 11,500 farmers of 11 villages of Barhi and Vijayraghavgarh tehsil of Katni. It will create an irrigation facility in 20,000 hectares of land. MP Rajya Samaj Kalyan Board dissolved were reduced from 50% to 18%, that information would naturally be given by Trump,” he said. Piyush Goyal, Commerce Minister fore Modi wrote about it in a post on X because it was the US which had imposed the reciprocal tariffs, and not India. “The US had imposed reciprocal tariffs, and when those FP News Service NEEMUCH Can’t play with ED attaches ex-IMC right to privacy: staffer’s `40L assets In a SC slams Meta INDORE: case disproportionate assets involving Chetan Patil, a former employee & WhatsApp of the IMC, the Directorate of FP News Service NEW DELHI approval, Rs 115.6 crores has been earmarked for 8 schemes of less than Rs 500 crore of the finance department. Likewise, a sum of Rs 5000 crore has been sanctioned for the Mukyamantri Jankalyan (Sambal 2.0) scheme of the labour department, more than Rs 3,376. 66 crores for assembly constituency area election plan, establishment and office The Supreme Court on Tuesday came down heavily on WhatsApp and its parent company Meta over the messaging platform’s 2021 privacy policy, warning that companies cannot “play with the right to privacy of this country” in the name of data sharing. It was hearing appeals filed by WhatsApp and Meta challenging a Rs 213.14 crore penalty imposed on the platform for alleged abuse of dominance. A Bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul Pancholi questioned the “take it or leave it” nature of WhatsApp’s privacy policy and flagged the absence of any meaningful 4Continued on | P8 4Continued on | P8 hive.  children.  Seeing the danger, Kanchan In the process, she was reBai Meghwal, president of the peatedly stung by the bees. ‘Jai Mata Di’ self-help She was rushed to hosgroup and the centre’s pital in a critical concook, allegedly rushed dition, where doctors to protect them withdeclared her brought out thinking about her dead. Her body was own safety. handed over to the She wrapped the family after a post-morterrified children in a Kanchan Bai tem examination on tarpaulin sheet and a Meghwal Tuesday. floor mat and sent them inside Villagers said Kanchan Bai a room, while she stood bewas the sole support of her tween the bees and the family as her husband Shivlal India successfully demonstrates solid fuel ducted ramjet tech Joins elite league of nations Agencies MOSCOW  The Kremlin on Tuesday said it had not received any indication from India about halting purchases of Russian oil, after U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that New Delhi had agreed to stop buying Russian crude as part of a trade agreement with Washington. Trump announced on Monday that the United States had reached a trade deal with India under which U.S. tariffs on Indian goods would be reduced to 18% from 50%. In return, Trump said, India had agreed to halt purchases of Russian oil and lower trade barriers. Responding to the claim, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was closely analysing Trump’s remarks on U.S.-India relations. Asked directly whether India had decided to stop buying Russian oil, Anganwadi worker dies saving kids from bee swarm An Anganwadi worker died while saving children from a swarm of honeybees in Ranpur village of Neemuch district on Monday afternoon. According to reports, the incident occurred when the children were playing outside the Anganwadi centre in Madawada Panchayat and were suddenly surrounded by a swarm of bees from a nearby suffers from paralysis. The couple have a son and two daughters. Local residents are now afraid to approach the Anganwadi because the beehive remains on a tree nearby, while the only handpump in the village is also in the Anganwadi premises. Residents urged the district administration to remove the hive immediately and provide financial assistance to Kanchan Bai’s family. Enforcement (ED) has provisionally attached immovable properties worth Rs 39.91 lakh under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The action was carried out by the ED’s Indore-based Sub Zonal Office. According to official information released on Tuesday, the attachment was executed on Monday (February 2). See Page 3 FP News Service NEW DELHI The Supreme Court on Tuesday sent a strong message to HCs across the country, saying judges must put an end to the practice of reserving judgments and then delaying their delivery for months. A Bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipin M Pancholi said such delays cannot be allowed to continue at the cost of justice. It also indicated a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to curb the problem will be issued soon, Bar & Bench reports. “We have broadly two types of judges. One is the hardworking judge who will hear long-range air-to-air missiles being developed by DRDO. It can also be used for surface-to-air missiles, he said. "The successful demonstration places India into an elite league of nations possessing this technology that enables developing longrange air-to-air missiles to give a tactical edge over the adversaries," the statement said. The demonstration was carried out by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar NEW DELHI Eight Congress MPs were on Tuesday suspended for the remainder of the Budget Session from the Lok Sabha for protesting vociferously against the denial of opportunity to the Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi to read from what he claimed was an authenticated article on the unpublished memoir of former Chief of Army Staff General M.M. Naravane (retired) -- titled ‘Four Stars of Destiny’ -- that gave a detailed account of the IndoChina clashes in 2020 and the handling of the situation by the Centre. Gandhi had raised the issue during the Motion of Thanks to the President’s Address on Monday too but was not allowed to speak then as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju objected to it. Speaker Om Birla had also not allowed him to speak on the issue citing Rule 349(1) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lok Sabha, which says, “a member shall not read any book, newspaper or letter except in connection with the business of everybody and reserve 10–15 matters even. There are some judges who after this (hearings), don’t deliver the judgments. We are not on anyone individually. This is a challenge before the judiciary and an identifiable ailment and it needs to end. It can’t be allowed to spread more for interest of consumers of justice,” the CJI said. The SC was hearing an application complaining about delays in uploading a HC judgment. The application pointed out that the Jharkhand HC had pronounced a judgment in December 2025, but the decision was yet to be uploaded on its website or made available to the litigant’s counsel. jected a man’s attempt to pry into his retired father-in-law’s finances to bolster his defence in a dowry case. In other words, RTI, it said, is not a matrimonial investigation tool. 4Continued on | P8 After one year, Manipur to get CM; BJP picks Yumnam Singh FP News Service MUMBAI The case revolved around Kulwant Singh, who filed an RTI plea in July 2025 seeking exhaustive details of his father-in-law Rishipal Singh’s financial life — salary, provident fund, loans, advances, and both movable and immovable properties. Rishipal Singh, a retired revenue inspector from Bijnor district, had hung up his boots in 2015. His son-in-law, however, was just getting started. 4Continued on | P8 4Continued on | P8 4Continued on | P8 RTI rejects family snooping The Right to Information Act (RTI) has been used to expose scams, corner babus and rattle governments. What it cannot do, the UP State Information Commission has now clarified, is help a disgruntled son-in-law audit his father-in-law’s life. In a ruling that drew the line between transparency and family vendetta, the UP State Information Commission re- the House”. Just as on Monday the issue led to commotion in Lok Sabha, leading to multiple adjournments before the House was finally adjourned for the day, today, too, the House adjourned multiple times over the matter before adjourning for the day due to protests by Opposition MPs. But things got out of hand when some MPs allegedly threw bits of paper towards the Well while protesting. It was past 3 p.m., when the House assembled for the third time following adjournments, that Chair Dilip Saikia mentioned a list which stated that Congress MPs Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, Gurdeep Singh Aujla, Hibi Eden, Dean Kuriakose, Prashant Padole, Kiran Kumar Reddy, S Venkataraman and Manickam Tagore had raised slogans and thrown paper bits in the Well of the House. BJP leader Yumnam Khemchand Singh  is set to be the next chief minister of Manipur, ending nearly a year of political vacuum in the violence-hit northeastern state that has been under President’s Rule since February 2025. Singh’s appointment comes almost a year after former CM N Biren Singh resigned on February 9, 2025, amid prolonged ethnic violence that paralysed governance and led to the imposition of President’s Rule just days later. The 60-member Assembly was then placed under suspended animation. Yumnam Khemchand Singh was elected leader of the Manipur BJP legislature party at a meeting held in New Delhi, attended by senior central leaders and observers. His name was finalised after extensive consultations between Manipur BJP legislators and the party’s central leadership, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah. offgrid FP News Service PTI Rahul again raises China issue; 8 Cong MPs suspended SC pulls up judges for delaying judgments MUMBAI BALASORE India on Tuesday successfully demonstrated the solid fuel ducted ramjet (SFDR) technology from the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur off the Odisha coast, a defence statement said. According to experts, SFDR is a missile propulsion system and is required for The entire country knows, how the PM cares for the welfare of our farmers, our brothers and sisters involved in animal husbandry, and the dairy sector. He protects their interests at every step. Free registry of plots allotted to Sardar Sarovar dam oustees INDORE Two of the accused in the case, Balbir Ahirbar and Lokendra Singh Tomar, who were arrested for allegedly destroying evidence in the high-profile murder case of city-based transporter Raja Raghuvanshi, have been discharged due to insufficient evidence. East Khasi Hills District Superintendent of Police Vivek Syiem stated that the arrests were made under compelling circumstances, but subsequent investigation revealed that they were not involved. "The final report conclusively ruled out their role, leading to their discharge," Syiem told media persons. A second chargesheet has been filed in the case, with only one of the three, Shilom James, arrested for evidence destruction, being chargesheeted. The court is expected to take up the matter shortly, with the trial proceeding on a fast-track basis. Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday described the India-US trade deal as one that “the public had been waiting for many months” and a “a historic turning point that will reshape bilateral relationship and accelerate our journey towards Viksit Bharat 2047” Addressing the media, Goyal lauded the role of PM Narendra Modi saying “India has got a good deal with the US because of the personal relationship between PM Modi and US President Donald Trump”. He added that India has secured the best deal compared to all its neighbours, surrounding countries, and competing nations. “This deal has been achieved for all of you, for all of us. It brings positive signs for a bright future for the country.” He also acknowledged the contribution of the “negotiating teams” that “maintained continuous dialogue with officials and ministers of the US” to clinch this deal. Goyal also explained that Trump first announced the deal late on Monday night be- No word on halting oil, says Kremlin