FREE PRESS - VOL. 12 NO. 64 | BHOPAL | WEDNESDAY | AUGUST 17, 2022 | PAGES 16 WWW.FREEPRESSJOURNAL.IN Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2021-2023; RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 EDITIONS: INDORE, BHOPAL, UJJAIN, MUMBAI, PUNE FOR 24X7 UPDATES WORLD CONTROVERSIAL CHINESE SHIP DOCKS IN SL DESPITE CONCERNS NOT TAKING LIGHTLY Pg-16 `3 QUALITY AT VALUE WEATHER 27.10c. 23.00c Sunrise : 06.03 Sunset : 07.01 FIFA bans India for third-party influence WOMEN'S U-17 World Cup not to be held in India NEW DELHI News Brief Rs 30,000 cr for Ganga cleaning More than Rs 30,000 crore has been sanctioned for projects aimed at cleaning Ganga and its tributaries, Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said on Tuesday. Emphasizing on the importance of limited water resources, Shekhawat said the very beginning of economic development is "our water resource and energy". Shrikant Tyagi denied bail Politician Shrikant Tyagi's bail application in a cheating case was on Tuesday rejected by a local court in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar district. However, the district court has granted bail to two of Tyagi's aides who were accused of harbouring him during the period he went absconding from Noida, a lawyer said. Nepal-US joint military exercise The Nepali Army and the US Army on Tuesday began a month-long joint military drill here on Tuesday, focusing on law enforcement and military decision-making during a conflict, the Himalayan nation's Army said in a statement. A contingent of the US army arrived in Kathmandu earlier on Tuesday morning under the leadership of Captain Black Ducatel for holding the 39th edition of the 'ExBalance Nail' military exercise, according to the Directorate of Public Relations and Information statement. Threat to Ambanis: Accused remanded A holiday court in Mumbai on Tuesday remanded a jeweller, arrested for allegedly threatening to kill industrialist Mukesh Ambani and his family members, to police custody till August 20. The police had on Monday arrested the jeweller, Bishnu Vidu Bhoumik (56), for allegedly calling up the landline number of Reliance Foundation Hospital here and threatening to kill Ambani and his family members. Jill Biden tests Covid-positive First Lady Jill Biden tested positive for COVID-19 and was experiencing "mild symptoms," the White House announced Tuesday. President Joe Biden continues to test negative after recently recovering from the virus but will wear a mask indoors for 10 days as a precaution. Dalit boy's death: Strict action sought JAIPUR/NEW DELHI: The Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan came under more pressure Tuesday over the death of a Dalit boy with the apex child rights body seeking strict action and 12 Congress councillors in a municipal body sending their resignation letters to the chief minister. PG-7 Special supplement on 75th anniversary of Independence Day on Page 13, 14 & 15 In a massive setback for the country world football gov, erning body FIFA on Tuesday suspended India for "undue influence from third parties" and said the U-17 Women's World Cup "cannot currently be held in India as planned." The country is scheduled to host the FIFA tournament from October 11-30. This is the first time the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has been banned by FIFA in its 85year history with the apex , body saying there have been "flagrant violations of the FIFA Statutes". "The Bureau of the FIFA Council has unanimously decided to suspend the All India Football Federation (AIFF) with immediate effect due to undue influence from third parties, which constitutes a serious violation of the FIFA Statutes," the FIFA said in a statement. The Bureau of the FIFA Council said the lifting of the suspension will be subject to repealing of the Committee of Administrators' (CoA) mandate in full. In a statement, FIFA also said it wants the AIFF administration to "be fully in charge of the AIFF's daily affairs". "The suspension will be lifted once an order to set up a committee of administrators to assume the powers of the AIFF Executive Committee has been repealed and the AIFF administration regains full control of the AIFF's daily af- fairs." "The suspension means that the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup 2022, scheduled to take place in India on 11-30 October 2022, cannot currently be held in India as planned. FIFA is assessing the next steps with regard to the tournament and will refer the matter to the Bureau of the Council if and when necessary In the wake of the lat." est development, the Centre sought an urgent hearing in the Supreme Court on the matter. A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and A S Bopanna was told by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Incessant rain batters state, 13 dists on alert RIVERS’ WATER LEVELS inch closer to danger mark, dam gates opened OUR STAFF REPORTER City.bhopal@fpj.co.in Pashupatinath temple flooded Mandsaur district has been witnessing incessant rains since Monday evening. All the rivers including Shivna are in spate. The flood water of Shivna river has reached the sanctum sanctorum of Pashupatinath temple. and Narmadapuram divisions of Madhya Pradesh as well. Administration has put 13 districts on alert following incessant rains. Narmadapuram, Vidisha, Balaghat, Bhopal, Rajgarh, Harda, Narsinghpur, Jabalpur, Dewas, Raisen, Ratlam, Sehore, Barwani districts have been instructed to remain vigilant due to water discharge out of all the dams. CONTD. ON P6 Heavy rainfall has been battering Madhya Pradesh for the past few days. The IMD has sounded alert in Jabalpur, Bhopal and Narmadapuram divisions of Madhya Pradesh for the next 24 hours. Heavy rainfall continued in several parts of the state, including the capital city Bhopal, for the last two days. The weather department has predicted a continued spell of rain for the next two days. Schools in many districts such as Bhopal, Sehore, Betul, Raisen, Narmadapuram (Hoshangabad) were shut down on Tuesday . The state administration on Tuesday warned that a floodlike situation can also emerge in some other places, especially near the catchment area of Narmada and Tawa and other rivers. Orange alert was also sounded in Indore, Ujjain FP NEWS SERVICE / Sanawad Traffic movement on Mortakabridge over Narmada river near Mortaka stopped on precautionary measure after water level crossed 163 metre mark on Tuesday evening at around 7.10 pm. With this, connectivity between Indore and other southern cities including Akola, Buldhana, Amravati and other cities (via Indore - Icchapur state highway) snapped. Due to the closure of the bridge, long lines of vehicles have started on both sides of the bridge. About twoyear ago, traffic on the Mortaka bridge closed for 20 days after water level not only crossed danger mark, but flowing over 10 feet on the bridge. With Nimar region getting continuous rain, the dam gates of Tawa, Narmadanagar, Omkareshwar have been opened, the administration is engaged in evacuating the lower settlements by alert, high alert to the village on the banks of Narmada. Nitish inducts 31 ministers, more than half from RJD We're not running govt, just managing: K'taka minister AGENCIES Patna Chief Minister Nitish Kumar expanded his new cabinet on Tuesday by inducting 31 new ministers, including a huge contingent of 16 from key ally RJD, taking care to give due representation to all sections of society, including minorities. Of the council of ministers, 11 are from Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's JD(U), two from Congress and one from ex-CM Jitan Ram Manjhi's HAM, besides an Independent. The swearing in took place at Raj Bhavan, where Governor Phagu administered Chauhan oath of office to the inductees in batches of five and Kumar six. and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who had been sworn in earlier on August 10, were among those present. CONTD. ON P6 TRAFFIC MOVEMENT ON MORTAKA BRIDGE STOPPED SHANKAR RAJ Bengaluru Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and his government fell into a spot of embarrassment over an audio leak Tuesday wherein Law Minister JC Madhuswamy was heard saying "We are not running the government, we are just managing it." The audio clip of a perpetuated phone conversation that was leaked to the media reportedly took place between Madhuswamy and one Bhaskar, a resident of Chennapatna. In the audio, the minister is heard saying "our government is not working, we are only managing as there are only eight months left (before assembly elections)". Bhaskar had called to complain that cooperative banks were charging farmers Rs 3000 to renew alone of Rs 50000. Bommai has confirmed that the comments were au- thentic but taken out of context. "Everything is good, there's no trouble," he added. However, senior minister Muniratna, who jumped ship from the Congress to , join the BJP has called for resignaMadhuswamy's . tion. rod Tuesday CONTD. ON P6 Shivamogga clashes: Man involved in stabbing shot in leg Even as the situation in Shivamogga in Karnataka continued to be tense following clashes between two communities over putting up banners of Hindutva ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and 18th Century Mysuru ruler Tipu Sultan, the police Tuesday fired at a suspect, Mohammed Jabi, an accused in a stabbing incident that took place on Monday. He has been admitted to a local hospital. BILKIS BANO CASE PM, BJP face Oppn fire on convicts’ release AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI The ruling BJP on Tuesday faced the Opposition fire over the release of 11 people convicted for rape and murder in the Bilkis Bano case of the 2002 post-Godhra riots, while its government in Gujarat defended the move citing a 1992 remission policy and denied any violation of rules in the matter. While the convicts, sentenced to life imprisonment, walked out of the Godhra sub-jail on August 15 after the Gujarat government allowed their release under its , remission policy spoke about starting a new life, Bilkis Bano's husband Yakub Rasul expressed surprise over the relief granted to them. Bilkis Bano was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang raped while fleeing the violence that broke out post the Sabarmati train burning incident in Godhra. CONTD. ON P6 Rajnath hands over indigenous defence systems to Army NEW EQUIPMENT BOOST SOLDIERS’ COMBAT CAPABILITY IN LADAKH NEW DELHI Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday handed over to the Army a wide range of indigenous military equipment including unmanned aerial systems and quick reaction fighting vehicles to crank up its combat capabilities in eastern Ladakh in the backdrop of the prolonged border face-off with China. The other key equipment that the Army received included surveillance hardware, patrolling boats, 'Future Infantry Soldier as a System', a new anti-personnel mine 'Nipun', infantry protected mobility vehicles, rugged and automatic communication system, upgraded sights system for tanks and advanced thermal imagers. The handing over of the new equipment was part of the government's efforts to enhance the combat readiness of the armed forces in view of the military standoff with Chinese troops in several friction points for over two years. The new boats --Landing Craft Assault(LCA)--equipped with advanced surveillance gadgets and other equipment are being deployed to keep a strict vigil over the Pangong Tso lake in eastern Ladakh. The 134-km-long lake at an altitude of 13,900-feet is considered strategically significant. China controls around two-thirds of the lake. Last year, the Army had ordered 12 LCA boats to strengthen its existing fleets of vessels. CONTD. ON P6 Centre, that "important development" has taken place and FIFA has sent a letter suspending India which is in public domain and needs to be brought on record. This was after a fourmember FIFA delegation held a meeting with senior sports ministry officials and the CoA on Friday and Monday respectively . , "Till last evening it seemed consensus has been reached between all the parties but last night FIFA just informed us that they will have to ban AIFF as per its internal committee decision," a sports ministry official said. CONTD. ON P6 Seven ITBP jawans killed as bus falls into river SRINAGAR Seven ITBP jawans died and 32 security personnel were injured when the bus in which they were returning from Amarnath Yatra duty fell into a deep gorge in the Pahalgam area of Jammu and Kashmir, a police official said. The bus, carrying 37 IndoPolice Border Tibetan (ITBP) personnel and two policemen, was on its way to the police control room here from Chandanwari, he said. While two ITBP personnel died on the spot, five others succumbed to their injuries later, the officials said. CONTD. ON P6 Another Kashmiri Pandit shot dead FP BUREAU Srinagar A Kashmiri Pandit was shot dead and his brother was injured by terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Shopian district on Tuesday The area witnessed . similar attacks on Kashmiri Pandits in April. The victim, Sunil Kumar Pandit, had gone with his brother Pitambar Nath Pandit to his apple orchard in Chotigam village when they were attacked with an AK-47 assault rifle. Sunil Kumar, who leaves behind four daughters and his wife, died on the spot, while his brother is bat- tling for life at an army hospital. police A spokesperson said that while one terrorist opened fire, the other captured the act with his mobile phone camera. Terrorists had struck in the same village in April when they opened fire on Kashmiri Pandit chemist Balkrishen Bhat alias Sonu Kumar, who miraculously escaped death. He was injured and remained in hospital for a long period. After the incident, the administration had assured that the presence of security forces where minorities were living would be increased. CONTD. ON P6 Govt forms panel to probe Karam dam breach OUR STAFF REPORTER city.bhopal@fpj.co.in State government has constituted a four member committee to investigate Karam dam breach incident of Dhar. Ashish Kumar, Additional Secretary, Water Resources Department will be the chairman of the committee which has three more members. THE NAMES OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS ARE: Dr Rahul Kumar Jaiswal, Scientist, National Water Science Institution, Regional Centre, Bhopal, Deepak Sathpute, Chief Engineer, Bureau of Design and Hydel, Water Department, Resources Bhopal and Anil Sigh, Di, rector, Dam Security BOD- HI Bhopal. The committee is supposed to submit its report within 5 days, as per the order of the state government. Notably, Karam dam had recently developed a crack in its mud wall, forcing administration to evacuate people of at least 18 villages for safety reasons. CONTD. ON P6