FREE PRESS Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2021-2023 INDORE BHOPAL UJJAIN MUMBAI `4 RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 PUNE - VOL. 10 NO. 241 | BHOPAL | SUNDAY | FEBRUARY 14, 2021 | PAGES 14 RAHUL BECOMING DOOMSDAY MAN: NIRMALA Pg-7 WORLD OXFORD UNIVERSITY TO TEST COVID-19 VAX SAFETY IN KIDS Pg- 10 J&K will get statehood at right time: Shah Quality at Value WEATHER 32.20c. 15.30c Sunrise : 06.59 Sunset : 06.22 THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Truth has many levels. Fanatical or dangerous people believe their opinion is the only Truth. Master Choa Kok Sui www.freepressjournal.in DRIVE AWAY LAST-MINUTE BLUES Pg-12 Lok Sabha passes J&K Reorganisation Bill 2021. Bill seeks to merge J&K cadre of civil services with Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram UT cadre News Brief Phase-1 of Budget Session ends NEW DELHI: The first phase of Budget Session concluded on Saturday with the Lok Sabha announcing adjournment of the House till March 8 after day-long proceedings. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House till 4 p.m. on March 8 after the passing of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 6 of family killed in accident LUCKNOW: Dense fog continues to take more lives on Expressways in Uttar Pradesh. Six people from a family were killed when their car rammed into a stationary truck on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway near Kannauj early Saturday morning. Quake strikes Tokyo, no tsunami TOKYO: An earthquake of magnitude 7.0 was reported near Tokyo, Japan on Saturday evening, according to India's National Centre for Seismology. The epicentre of the quake was 306 km NE of Tokyo. The quake struck at 7:37 PM IST at a depth of 60 km from the surface. There was no threat of a tsunami from the quake. Parl panel plans visit to Galwan NEW DELHI: The parliamentary standing committee on defence intends to visit the Galwan Valley and Pangong Lake, which has witnessed violent standoff between Indian and Chinese troops. However, it may seek the permission of the govt before visiting the strategically-located areas, they added. The 30member committee, chaired by BJP leader Jual Oram and of which Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is a member, intends to visit the Ladakh region in May or June. 7 face pay cut for neglecting parents AURANGABAD: The Latur Zilla Parishad has started deducting 30% salaries of seven of its employees for not taking care of their old parents, its president Rahul Bondre said on Saturday. Notably, six of the 12 employees against whom complaints of neglecting their parents were received, are teachers. The deducted amount is transferred in the bank accounts of the parents of these employees. The Latur ZP passed a proposal to cut 30% of salaries of all employees who refuse to take care of their parents in November last year. Development is top priority, says Home minister FROM OUR BUREAU NEW DELHI: Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday declared in the Lok Sabha that Jammu and Kashmir will get the status of a state at an “appropriate time." The Lok Sabha on Saturday passed the J&K Reorganisation Bill 2021. Replying to a debate on the J&K Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill that was passed earlier on February 8 by the Rajya Sabha, he said: “I have said in this House and say it again that this Bill has nothing to do with the statehood of J&K.” Even at the time of bringing the J&K Reorganisation Act in August 2019 to abrogate Article 370 from the Indian Constitution, Shah had assured to grant the statehood to J&K after deand works velopment . restoration of normalcy The Bill is to merge the J&K cadres of IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service in cadre of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories, including Delhi, (AGMUT) to enable the government to depute the officers in J&K from other union territories. Many opposition MPs said the Bill indicates that the J&K would never get back the statehood. "Nowhere it's written that J&K won't get statehood. Where are you Expedite execution of development projects in J-K: LG to officials Jammu: Lt Governor Manoj Sinha on Saturday reviewed the functioning of Jammu and Kashmir Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation here and directed officials to expedite execution of development projects in the Union Territory. He also launched JKIDFC's e-Book IV, which gives details about the 800 physically completed projects funded by it, an official spokesperson said. drawing such a conclusion," Shah asked. He went on to defend abrogation of Article 370, pointing out that devolution of power has been affected after that and the Panchayats have been given administrative and financial powers. “Nobody, not even our rivals can say that there was fraud or unrest during the elections (DDC). Everyone voted fearlessly and peace. fully 51% votes were cast in the Panchayat elections. Jinhone Dhara 370 waapis laane ke aadhar par chunav lada tha, woh saaf ho gaye saaf (Those who contested on the basis of return of Article 370 were swept away), Shah said. Shah as well as his junior G Kishan Reddy, who piloted the Bill, said the Government will connect the Kashmir valley with the Railways by 2022. Raising objections to the Bill, Congress group leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury questioned as to what was the need to bring an Ordinance for this, stressing that regularly promulgating an ordinance is not good in a Parliamentary democracy as an Ordinance should be brought only in an urgency or an emergency situation. CONTD. ON P8 2 NAXALS KILLED IN ENCOUNTER AIMPLB moves SC opposing plea seeking 'uniform grounds of divorce' for all WERE CARRYING Rs 8 L reward OUR STAFF REPORTER BHOPAL Two Naxalites including a woman having reward of Rs 8 lakh each on head, were killed in an encounter with a joint team of MP Police and Hawk force in village Lalpur of Mandla district on Friday night. The encounter took place in Motinala police station limit and the bodies of Naxals were recovered by the police on Saturday morning. The police received tip-off that six Naxals would reach Lalpur village of Kanha Bhoramdev Badola committee outfit, and before they could reach, the police laid an ambush and waited for them for two days. When they arrived on Friday evening at 7, the police asked them to surrender. However, the Naxals refused to surrender and opened fire at the police, who retaliated, resulting death of two Naxals. The police used 150 cartridges in the firing. SP Mandla Yashpal Singh Rajput on Saturday told the media persons: "Encounter is over. The search is still going on. Two Naxalites, a male and a female, have been killed in the encounter. CONTD. ON P8 NSA slapped against two for illegal trade in organic seeds INDORE: Indore district administration in Madhya Pradesh has invoked the stringent National Security Act (NSA) in two cases of illegal trade of organic fertilisers, an official said on . Saturday DM Manish Singh has issued an order to invoke the NSA against Shailendra Patidar (43) and Yogendra Singh (35), said additional district magistrate Abhay Bedekar. On February 11, separate cases were registered under the Essential Commodities Act and Fertiliser (Control) Order on the complaint of an officer of the department Agriculture against the two accused at Lasudia PS in Indore. They were booked on charges of illegal production, storage and sale of or- ganic fertilisers, he said. Samples of the organic manure seized from the illegal storage centres of the accus ed duo have been sent for laboratory examination, an official said. The NSA of 1980 empowers the Central government and state governments to detain a person to prevent him/her from acting in any manner prejudicial to the security of India. NEW DELHI :The AIMthe moved has PLB Supreme Court against a "uniform seeking plea grounds of divorce" for all citizens of the country, keeping with the spirit of the Constitution and international conventions. The AIMPLB has opposed the plea filed by advocate and BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay seeking uniform grounds of divorce on the basis that personal laws cannot be tested on the anvil of Articles 14, 15, 21 and 44 of the Constitution. “The applicant would like to submit that the expression and 'Custom and Usage' in Article 13 of the Constitution does not include faith of a religious denomination embedded in personal laws," the plea said while seeking impleadment in the petition . filed by Upadhyay The Constituent Assembly was aware of the istinction between 'personal law' and the 'custom and usage' and chose advisedly to exclude personal law and include custom and usage in Article 13 of the Constitution,” it said. Petrol price in Bhopal touches Rs 100 per/L OUR STAFF REPORTER BHOPAL price petrol Premium crossed Rs100 per litre mark . in Bhopal on Saturday Earlier, the price crossed in Anuppur and Shahdol districts. Anuppur had price Rs 102 per litre while Shahdol had a price Rs100.49 per litre. Ajay Singh, president of petrol pump dealers association, confirmed it stating that price of premium petrol crossed Rs 100 per litre pegged at Rs 100.04 per litre in Bhopal after Anuppur and Shahdol districts in the state. However, he attributed this hike to high VAT and Madhya in cess Pradesh. CONTD. ON P8 JP state “It Agrwal BRajneeshsecretarysaid, to is established mechanism regulate petrol price in India. It is directly linked to global prices of petrol and diesel. The State government has neither slapped any tax nor cess on it this time. We hope soon, it will come down.” ongress spokesman CBhupendraincreasing Gupta said, “Petrol price is consistently in the state but it hardly matters for the state government, which has nexus with rich class of the society. People are highly religious in the state and they believe that Lord Rama himself is watching closely on working of the government. ” Rohit Sharma raises his bat after he scored 150 runs during the 1st day of second cricket test match between India and England, at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday Right to protest cannot be anytime and anywhere: SC FP BUREAU New Delhi The Supreme Court on Saturday dismissed review petitions filed by 12 activists against its earlier verdict, which ruled that "the right to protest cannot be anytime, and everywhere." A three-judge bench of the SC, headed by Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Aniruddha Bose and Krishna Murari on February 9, 2021, had passed the order on the review petitions filed by 12 activists, including that of Kaniz Fatima. The top court also refused a request made by the petitioners, in their review petition, to list the matter in an open court. The 12 peti- tioners had moved the apex court and filed the review petition challenging the SC's earlier October 2020 order, holding that 'demonstrations expressing dissent have to be in designated places alone.' While dismissing the review petitions, the top court said, “We perused the review petition and are convinced that the order of Farmer unions seek high-level judicial inquiry into tractor rally violence AGENCIES New Delhi Protesting farmer unions on Saturday demanded a high-level judicial inquiry into the violence during the tractor rally in Delhi on January 26 and the alleged 'false" cases slapped on the peasants. Addressing a press conference at the Singhu border, Samyukta Kisan Morcha leaders asked farmers who are getting police notices not to appear before the force directly and instead approach the legal cell constituted by the unions for any assistance. Kuldeep Singh, a member of SKM's legal cell, said that a retired judge of the Supreme Court or high court should probe the incidents to unravel the "conspiracy" behind the January 26 violence and the alleged "false cases" against the farmers. According to SKM leaders, 16 farmers who had participated in the tractor parade are still untraceable. In the R- Day violence, over 500 police personnel had been injured, while a protestor had died. Tara Gandhi Bhattacharya, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, with BKU spokesperson Rakesh Tikait at farmers' protest site in Ghazipur, on Saturday On January 26, thousands of protesting farmers who reached ITO from border Ghazipur the clashed with the police. Driving tractors, many of them reached the Red Fort and entered the monument, where a religious flag was hoisted. At the press conference, another leader Ravinder Singh said that 122 farmers had so far been arrested by Delhi Police in connection with 14 of the 44 FIRs, adding that SKM will pro- vide legal and financial aid to all the arrested farmers. leaders Morcha The claimed that "false" cases were being slapped on farmers charging them with serious offences like dacoity and attempt to murder to "harass" them. "Ten farmers have been granted bail so far and five bail applications have been filed. Priority is being given to those farmers who are not booked under Section 307 or other serious offences," the SKM said. (October 2020), which review has been sought, does not suffer from any error apparent warranting its consideration.” “The right to protest cannot be anytime, and everywhere. There may be some spontaneous protests, but in case of prolonged dissent, or protest, there cannot be continued occupation of public places affecting the rights of others," the SC said in its order. It also said: "We have considered the earlier judicial and pronouncements recorded our opinion that the constitutional scheme comes with a right to protest and express dissent, but, with an obligation to have certain duties." JeM man recced Doval's office, sent videos to his Pak masters NEW DELHI/JAMMU The video clip of NSA Ajit Doval's office and several other top locations in the national capital were recovered from the phone of an arrested Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist. The development has sent security officials into tizzy leading to additional security measures being deployed, official related to the devel. opment said in Saturday A senior Jammu police official said: "The Jammu police arrested a person named Hidayat-Ullah Malik on Feb 6. During interrogation he confessed that he has done recce of Doval's office and several other locations and sent it to the commanders of JeM in Pakistan." The official said that Malik, a resident of Shopian was arrested and a case was registered against him under several sections of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act at the Gangayal police station in Jammu. The official said that Malik is the chief of a Jaish front group, Lashkar-e-Mustafa, and was arrested from Anantnag. Police also recovered arms and ammunition from his possession. Indian-origin staff at UN to run for Secy-Gen WILL CHALLENGE Antonio Guterres AGENCIES United Nations An Indian-origin employee at the United Nations has announced her candidacy to be its next SecretaryGeneral, the first person to throw her hat in the ring against incumbent Antonio Guterres, who is seeking a second five-year term beginning January 2022 as chief of the world organisation. 34, Akanksha, Arora working as an audit coordinator for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said she will run for the post of the world's top diplomat and launched her campaign #AroraForSG this month. "People in my position aren't supposed to stand up to the ones in charge. We are supposed to wait our turn, hop on the hamster wheel, go to work, keep our heads down and accept that the world is the way it is," Akanksha said in a two and minute campaign half video posted online. The video shows Akanksha walking inside the sprawling United Nations her as headquarters, voiceover says that people who have come before her have failed to hold the UN accountable. "For 75 years, the UN has not fulfilled its promise to the world - refugees haven't been protected, humanitarian aid has been minimal, and technology and innovation has been on the backburner. We deserve a UN that leads progress," she said. "That is why I am running for the Secretary-General of the United Nations. I refuse to be a by-stander. I will not accept this is the best the UN can do," she said in the video.