FREE PRESS - VOL. 11 NO. 328 | BHOPAL | WEDNESDAY | MAY 11, 2022 | PAGES 16 Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2021-2023; Notify civic polls schedule in 2 weeks: SC tells MP govt WWW.FREEPRESSJOURNAL.IN EDITIONS: INDORE, BHOPAL, UJJAIN, MUMBAI, PUNE EDIT TOTAL REGIME CHANGE, A MUST IN SRI LANKA FOR 24X7 UPDATES OVER 23,263 civic bodies functioning without elected representatives NEW DELHI The Supreme Court Tuesday directed the Madhya Pradesh State Election Commission (SEC) to issue a poll programme for local bodies within two weeks, saying more than 23,263 such bodies are functioning without elected representatives for the last over two years and this is bordering on a "break down of rule of law". The apex court said the ongoing activity of delimitation or formation of the OUR STAFF REPORTER / city.bhopal@fpj.co.in Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that the state government would file a review petition in the Supreme Court against its judgment delivered on Tuesday to conduct panchayat elections in Madhya Pradesh without OBC reservation. "We are yet to study the judgment in detail but we will file a review petition with a prayer that the panchayat elections be held with OBC reservation," Chouhan told media persons on Tuesday. Notably, the Supreme Court through its judgment on Tuesday directed the state election commission to issue a notification regarding panchayat elections within two weeks. . the outgoing body A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar noted that until the triple test formality is completed "in all respects" by the state government, no reservation for the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) can be provisioned. GRANDIOSE MEETS GLITZ Pg-16 The bench, also comprising Justices A S Oka and C T Ravikumar, noted if the triple test exercise cannot be completed before the issue of the election programme by the SEC, the seats, except reserved for the Scheduled Castes and Tribes Scheduled the After Supreme Court's directive, the State Election Commissioner Basant Pratap Singh has said that the commission was all set to conduct elections and was waiting for government to issue notification on delimitation of seats. "The final electoral list has been published. All other arrangements have been made by the SEC to conduct panchayat polls. We are studying the SC order and can comment anything else after going through it," said BP Singh. which is a constitutional requirement, must be notified as for the general cate. gory CONTD. ON P6 CBI registers FIR against 9 in Nemawar massacre case STATE GOVT recommended CBI inquiry on Dec 29, 2021 OUR STAFF REPORTER city.bhopal@fpj.co.in News Brief RUCKUS AT QUTUB MINAR The Delhi Police on Tuesday detained 44 right wing activists from outside Qutub Minar in the national capital after they tried reciting the 'Hanuman Chalisa' outside the monument. The origins of Qutub Minar are shrouded in controversy. Some believe it was erected as a tower of victory to signify the beginning of the Muslim rule in India. Others say it served as a minaret for the muezzins to call the faithful to prayer. 9 PILOTS FAILED ALCOHOL TESTS Nine pilots and 32 cabin crew members failed preflight alcohol tests between January 1 and April 30, India's aviation regulator uesday. "Of DGCA said on T them, two pilots and two cabin-crew members have been suspended for a period of three years for being positive for the second time," the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in a statement. TAX ON CRYPTO CURRENCY The government is considering taxing cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, at par with casinos, lotteries, betting and racecourses, sources said. The highest decision-making body on indirect taxes, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, is considering levying 28 per cent GST on crypto-currencies. The proposed 28 per cent GST will be in addition to the 30 per cent income tax on earnings from crypto asset transactions. Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against nine people in Nemawar massacre . case, said the official on Tuesday On May 13, 2021, five persons of a family - Mamta Bai Kaste (45), Rupali (21), Divya (14) Puja Oswal (15) and Pawan Oswal (14) were killed and buried 10 feet deep in the ground in Nemawar, Dewas district. The state government had recommended a CBI inquiry into the case on December 29, 2021. The CBI, Bhopal, registered an FIR on Monday under Sections 363, 302, 364, 376, 376(2)(n), 120-B, 201 of IPC and Sections 5(l)/6 of POCSO Act, 2012, 3(2) (v) and 3(2)(va) of SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 and 66B, 66C of IT Act, 2002, against nine accused. CONTD. ON P6 After the attack on Punjab Police's intelligence headquarters in Mohali, a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has reached the crime spot and is examining the area. IANS on Tuesday morning said the NIA is in touch with the Punjab Police and the case is likely to be transferred to the central . probe agency Kuldeep Singh, NIA Director-General (DG), said a team was examining the site to get clues about the suspects behind the attack. He added that the Punjab Police was officially investigating the case while NIA FP NEWS SERVICE Sitamau (Mandsaur) being a central agency had come to inspect the area. The NIA DG said they had not registered any case but were waiting for instructions from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The Punjab Police have detained two suspects in the matter and were questioning them. A team of the NIA's terror unit got in touch with the Punjab Police soon after the attack took place. CONTD. ON P6 Three girls belonging to the same family drowned in a pond in Mandsaur district on Tuesday morning, police said. The incident was reported at around 8 am at Dalawada village of Mandsaur district which falls under the Sitamau police station limit, assistant sub-inspector O P Thakur said. Local police informed that all the three girls were aged between 13 and 15 years and the two of them were siblings. The deceased have been identified as Aarti, 15, daughter of Prakash Kushwah, her younger sister Gayatri alias Sona, 13, and one Radha alias Vidhya, 14, daughter of Lalram Kushwah. CONTD. ON P6 CMO faces music for holding obscene dance at religious fest MINISTER HAD demanded action FP NEWS SERVICE Shyamgarh (Mandsaur) Organising dance performances during the ongoing animal fair at Shyamgarh tehsil of Mandsaur district cost a chief municipal officer heavily as he was suspended by the district collector on the recommendation of the state cabinet minister. According to information, orders were passed by the district collector Gautam Singh on the recommendation of state cabinet minister Hardeep Singh Dang to suspend CMO Nasir Ali Khan in connection with an alleged obscene dance performed by some people at an animal fair organised by . the local civic body A video of the purported dance programme, held on Sunday evening during the 'Maa Mahishasur Mardini Devi Mela' in Shyamgarh town, some 70 kilometres away from the district headquarters, surfaced on social media. In the clip, a woman was seen dancing to the tune of an obscene song. The pictures of state cabinet minister Hardeep Singh Dang and Maa Mahishasur Mardini Devi were seen on a banner in the background. CONTD. ON P6 Ingenuity helicopter survives communications snag on Mars WASHINGTON NASA's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter has reestablished communications with the Perseverance rover, after facing snag last week due to cold and dust on the Red Planet. For the first time in over a year of operations on the Mars surface, the rotorcraft missed a planned communications session with the rover, mission teams said in a blog post. Ingenuity relies on Perseverance as the base station that enables it to send data to and receive commands from Earth. The team determined that the cause of the communications dropout on May 3 was a result of the solar-powered helicopter entering a low-power state, potentially due to the seasonal increase in the amount of dust in the Martian atmosphere and lower tem- THE CASE… On May 17, the mother of Puja reached police and filed a complaint that her daughter and her son Pawan were missing along with Mamta, Rupali and Divya. The police launched a manhunt but failed to get their whereabouts. In the meantime Rupali was found active on her social media. The police suspected that she would have eloped with someone and kept her social media account updating. The police got some clue that the accused Surendra Singh Chouhan and Rupali were into relationship. CONTD. ON P6 Mohali blast: NIA team 3 minor girls of a may take over probe family drown in pond AGENCIES / New Delhi `3 QUALITY AT VALUE WEATHER 41.70c. 27.10c Sunrise : 05.49 Sunset : 06.57 SANTOOR MAESTRO PT SHIV KUMAR PASSES AWAY WE ARE READY: SEC Will file review petition: CM ward cannot be a legitimate ground to be set forth by any authority to not discharge its constitutional obligation in notifying the election programme at the opportune time and to ensure that the elected body is installed before the expiry of five years term of RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 peratures as winter approaches. "The dust diminishes the amount of sunlight hitting the solar array, reducing Ingenuity's ability to recharge its six lithium-ion batteries," David Agle, from NASA's Jet Propulsion , Laboratory wrote in the blogpost. "When the battery pack's state of charge dropped below a lower limit, the helicopter's field-programmable gate array (FPGA) was powered down," he noted. The FPGA manages Ingenuity's operational state, switching the other avionics elements to maximise power conservation. CONTD. ON P6 MUMBAI Santoor virtuoso Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma, who took the stringed instrument to the global stage and successfully straddled the worlds of classical and film music, died here on Tuesday following a heart attack. He was 83. Sharma, one of India's most well known classical musicians, died between 8 and 8.30 am at his Pali Hill residence here, his secretary Dinesh told PTI. He had been active till the end and was due to perform in Bhopal next week. "He had a severe heart attack in the morning... He was active and was to perform in Bhopal next week. He was on regular dialysis but was still active," a family source said. CONTD. ON P6 CM expresses grief BHOPAL: Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday condoled the demise of legendary santoor player Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma. "The music world has lost a divine and famous santoor player and musician in the form of Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma," Chouhan said in his condolence message. SC POSERS ON SEDITION LAW: GOVT’S REPLY TODAY OUR BUREAU / New Delhi The Supreme Court on Tuesday put three posers to the Centre while agreeing to its request to defer the hearing on the Sedition law under Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) till it reconsiders the provision. Its posers are: Will it complete reconsideration of the British era law in threefour months? Will the law be kept in abeyance until the reconsideration? And, will all old cases under Section 124A be kept on hold until the reconsideration. The Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana, fixed another hearing on Wednesday to elicit the response of Solici- tor General Tushar Mehta on the posers, after he sought one day's time to take instructions from the government. All the three judges on the Bench wanted the Centre's specific stand on the status of pending and future cases till the government takes a decision, but Mehta tried to wriggle out claiming the arrests under the sedition law are mostly by the state govsenior The ernments. lawyers appearing for the petitioners objected to giving a long rope to the government, when the CJI asked the Centre to give an estimate of how long this exercise of reconsideration of the law would take. CONTD. ON P6