FREE PRESS The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms VOL. XXXX NO. 232 | INDORE | MONDAY | JANUARY 29, 2024 | PAGES 12 `3 - CAT’S 9TH LIFE FOR SUSHASAN BABU r Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2021-2023; EDITIONS: INDORE, BHOPAL, UJJAIN, MUMBAI, PUNE EDIT TEAM INDIA NEEDS TO PLAN FOR LIFE BEYOND VIRAT AND ROHIT SPORTS NITISH KUMAR DOES IT AGAIN WEATHER FP 23.40c. 09.90c Sunrise : 07.09 Sunset : 06.09 r RNI No. 38281/83 QUALITY AT VALUE www.freepressjournal.in IMRAN’S PARTY COULD BE BANNED: REPORTS WORLD NITISH TAKES oath as CM for 9th term, says he was not happy with the functioning of the State’s grand alliance; but insiders say he was miffed at being passed over as a prime ministerial face in the INDIA bloc DHEERAJ KUMAR / PATNA The adage, cats have nine lives, which relates to a cat s ability to always land on its feet and wriggle out of each situation with dexterity and agility, seems to apply to JD (U) president Nitish Kumar. By an uncanny coincidence, on Sunday, he took oath as Bihar chief minister for a record 9th time in a no-frills ceremony organised at Raj Bhawan within hours of snapping ties with the grand alliance. With that, Nitish also has a dubious distinction: This is the fifth time in a decade the 72-year-old has changed sides — the frequency of the process having earned him the pejorative “Paltu Kumar”. As Nitish walked out of what a RJD leader said was a revolving door, he made it out that he had resigned from his CM s post as the state s grand alliance government was not functioning well. There were problems in running the government, he remarked. However, it was apparent to any- ‘JDU AS A PARTY WILL END IN 2024’ PATNA:Outgoing Bihar Dy CM Tejashwi Yadav on Sunday hit out at Nitish Kumar saying that the JD(U) will be 'finished' by 2024 as it will cease to exist as a political party. He also hinted at more developments and said that 'the game is yet to begin.Calling Nitish Kumar a 'tired CM', Yadav said, "Khel abhi shuru hua hai.’ khel abhi baki hain. ow am was before (in NDA) there is no NandInowback where Iquestion of going anywhere. NITISH KUMAR body with a ringside view of the recent developments that Nitish s exit had more to do with his being passed over as a possible Prime Ministerial candidate in the INDIA bloc formulation, the lack of clarity in the Opposition formulation s poll preparations and inordinate delay in initiating seat-sharing talks. True to script, RJD has decided to launch an offensive against Nitish, holding him responsible for the fall of the grand alliance government which was working for the ‘welfare of people. RJD has also published an advertisement in newspapers, giving full credit to deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav for whatever initiatives were taken during the former grand alliance government. The JDU has, meanwhile, officially severed ties with the Congress party , blaming them for the collapse of the INDIA alliance. CONTD. ON P6 NITISH 'EXPERT' OF BETRAYAL: CONGRESS NEW DELHI The Congress on Sunday called Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar a "chameleon" and said the people of the state will never forgive this "expert" of betrayal and those making him dance to their tunes. The party was reacting to Kumar's decision to resign as the chief minister of Bihar and leaving Mahagathbandhan. SC has strengthened India's vibrant democracy: Modi NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said that the Supreme Court (SC) has strengthened India's vibrant democracy . "Whether it is freedom of expression, personal freedom or social justice, the SC has strengthened India's vibrant democracy," Modi said while addressing the Diamond Jubilee celebration of SC at Supreme Court auditorium in Delhi. He also launched citizencentric information and technology initiatives which include Digital Supreme Court Reports (Digi SCR), Digital Courts 2.0 and a new website of the Supreme Court on the occasion. CONTD. ON P6 NEWS BRIEF CM Yadav meets Amit Shah Dindori SDM dies of cardiac arrest 1 dead, 17 injured at Delhi temple BHOPAL: A woman officer in Dindori district reportedly died of cardiac arrest on Sunday.The deceased officer was identified as Nisha Napit, who was posted as a Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) in Shahpura tehsil in Dindori. As per the information, around 3 pm, Napit, who was at her official residence, felt acute pain in her chest. She was immediately rushed to a nearby community health center by her husband Manish Sharma, but did there a few hours later. Upon getting to know of the shocking incident, senior officials from the district administration and police reached the community health centre. The police said that prima facie, it appears she died of cardiac arrest, however, the postmortem report would make the cause of death clear. BHOPAL: Chief Minister Mohan Yadav met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday. According to reports, Yadav’s meeting with Shah is connected to allotment various districts to the ministers. The ministers are yet to be made in-charges. After Shah gives his nod, the ministers may get districts. NEW DELHi A 45-year-old woman died and 17 people were injured when a stage set up for a religious function at the Kalkaji temple here collapsed in the early hours of Sunday, police said. The tragic incident occurred around 12.30 am, they said, the deceased has been identified as Tina, a resident of Tughlakabad extension. CULTURE OF ADJOURNMENTS MUST BE ADDRESSED:CJI NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud on Sunday said that structural issues affecting the judiciary, such as the pendency of cases, archaic procedures, and the culture of adjournments must be addressed. Speaking at the inauguration of the Diamond Jubilee year of the Supreme Court, CJI Chandrachud stressed that the legal profession must emerge from the adjournment culture to a culture of professionalism. JUBILANT PARTICIPANTS: Over 3000 students of more than 110 CBSE, ICSE and MP Board schools from across the city took part in Free Press' 13th "On-the-Spot Painting Competition" organized at Kalidas Sanskrit Academy premises, in Ujjain on Sunday. FP PHOTO Powerful officers of Shivraj-led govt sent to loop line Rastogi gets jails, Shukla sent as PS to Raj Bhawan Manu gets energy and Ahuja given PWD Mamata is strongest pillar of bloc: Cong ARITRA SINGHA / KOLKATA After a two-day break, the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra resumed on Sunday in North Bengal. The yatra moved from Jalpaiguri district to Siliguri, where Congress leader Rahul Gandhi urged the people of Bengal to show the way to the country. Bengalis had led the ideological fight during the Independence struggle. People will not forgive you if Bengal and Bengalis do not show the way to the country, Gandhi said. Gandhi took potshots at the BJP-led central government. The present central Gyanvapi report not conclusive: AIMPLB FP NEWS SERVICE Lucknow The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) has dismissed the findings of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) on the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi. The ASI’s survey report, conducted under court orders, purportedly indicated evidence of a Hindu temple beneath the mosque’s premises. AIMPLB executive member Qasim Rasool Ilyas condemned the ASI report, labelling it as inconclusive evidence in the ongoing dispute. Accusing the Hindu side of inciting chaos and defying court decorum by releasing the report to the media, Ilyas asserted that such actions foster an environment of insecurity and disorder within society . He further accused Hindu communal organisations of perpetuating misinformation regarding the Gyanvapi Mosque, citing the ASI report as their latest attempt to delegitimise its historical significance. The AIMPLB’s response was triggered by assertions by the Hindu plaintiffs’ lawyer, Vishnu Shankar Jain, who cited the CONTD. ON P6 government is spreading hatred across the country; due to the injustice the word Nyay (justice) has been added to our rally. The youth is dreaming of securing jobs. Today, people laugh at a poor person who dreams big. Youth who wished to join the Indian Army had their dreams shattered after the central government launched the Agniveer scheme. The present government is for big businessmen and not for the youth, the Congress leader said. CONTD. ON P6 103-year-old lovelorn man gets hitched to his 49-year-old flame Both cast the anchor at a simple ceremony OUR STAFF REPORTER city.bhopal@fpj.co.in Golden age is before us and not behind us, carolled the bard of Avon, William Shakespeare. But 103-year-old Habib Nazar, a freedom fighter and resident of Itwara in Bhopal, committed this maxim to reality when he got hitched to his 49-yearold lady love, Firoz Jahan. This lovelorn man has plighted the troth for the third time since he saw the first ray of the sunlight. The wedding came to light after a video of the ceremony went viral on social media on Saturday . Immediately after the video went viral, many people have congratulated the couple. The video shows the man, after leading his love to the altar, was returning home in an auto rickshaw. There were sniggers among the residents when Habib Nazar, sweetly called 'Manjhle Bhai' reached home with his wife. Yet that dishearten this young-at-heart man. He said, "I'm 103 years old and my wife is 49. I walked the aisles for the first time in Nasik. After she passed away, I went to Lucknow to tie the knot again. My second wife also left for the other world. I was feeling lonely So I resolved to mar. ry again. Jahan, who, too, was alone, was ready to take the plunge with me." Jahan who was all smiles after leading to the altar said she was happy and nobody had pressured her to get married. "My husband is absolutely fine and has no medical issues," she said. OUR STAFF REPORTER Bhopal The state government made another administrative reshuffle on Sunday when all the officers loyal to former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan were sent to the loop line. The officers, who were re- moved after Mohan Yadav became the Chief Minister, were transferred, though they were given insignificant departments. Manish Rastogi, who was principal secretary (PS) during the tenure of Chouhan, was sent as PS (jails). Similarly, Manish Singh was shifted as registrar to MP State Consumers Disputes Redressal Forum. Neeraj Vashisht was shifted as director of Semi Nomadic Tribes’ Welfare Department. Rastogi was given posting after 43 days, Singh after 40 days and Vashisht after 38 days. CONTD. ON P6 MP signs tripartite MoU with Centre, Raj on canal project BHOPAL: A tripartite MoU for the revised Parvati-Kali Sindh-ChambalEastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) link project, worth Rs 75,000 crore, was signed between Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and the Centre on Sunday . The MoU was signed in New Delhi in the presence of Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, MP Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and his Rajasthan counterpart Bhajan Lal Sharma, the MP government said in a release. After the signing of the MoU, Yadav said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this project, which has been pending for almost two decades, will now take shape. He said the project will Sheopur and the industrialisation of industrial belt districts like Indore, Ujjain, Dhar, Agar-Malwa, Shajapur, Dewas and Rajgarh will get a further boost, he said. Yadav said that the irrigation area of about 3 lakh hectares will increase in Malwa and Chambal regions of the state. As a result, the religious and tourist centres of these areas will Chief Minister Mohan Yadav meets also develop, he said Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal and added that this projSharma at the Officers Training ect will be a boon for Campus (OTS) in Jaipur on Sunday western MP. The CM benefit 13 districts of said that this project will Chambal and Malwa rebe completed in less than 5 gion of MP. years and its current cost Water availability will inis around Rs 75,000 crore. crease in the dry belt disAbout 1.5 crore populatricts of the state like tion of the state will beneMorena, Gwalior, Shivfit from this project, he puri, Guna, Bhind and said. CONTD. ON P6 AAP TIE UP FOR LS, SOLO FOR ASSEMBLY RAJESH MOUDGIL Chandigarh The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday announced that his party would contest the upcoming general elections in Haryana as a part of INDIA bloc. Addressing the Badlav rally at Jind town in Haryana, Kejriwal, however, said that the AAP would go solo in the ensuing assembly elections, due later this year, in the state. Kejriwal, who was accompanied by several state leaders as well as Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann, appealed to the people to form the AAP government in the state as well. He said that Haryana was looking for a change as its people were now fed up with the other political parties which had in the past only filled their own pockets. He held that only AAP could provide roundthe-clock power supply, quality education and health services like it had done in Delhi and Punjab. Accusing the BJP-led Centre of using the Income Tax department, CBI and Enforcement Directorate to implicate and arrest him, Kejriwal said he was not afraid of going to jail. Stating that he was a son of Haryana and thus wanted to tell the BJP not to try to scare him. He went on to say that he was a Lord Ram and Lord Hanuman s follower as well and that his party was not here for power but to serve the people. Mann said that the AAP government in Punjab had delivered its free power guarantee within three months of its government s formation from July 2022, and the people of Punjab were getting zero electricity bills, since. ‘Soup’ thrown at Mona Lisa PARIS: Two climate activists hurled soup on Sunday at the glass protecting the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum in Paris and shouted slogans advocating for a sustainable food system. This came amid protests by French farmers against several issues, including low wages. In a video posted on social media, two women with the words "FOOD RIPOSTE" written on their t-shirts could be seen passing under a security barrier to get closer to the painting and throwing soup at the glass protecting Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece. "What's the most important thing?" they shouted. "Art, or right to a healthy and sustainable food?" "Our farming system is sick. Our farmers are dying at work," they added. The Louvre employees could then be seen putting black panels in front of the Mona Lisa and asking visitors to evacuate the room. Paris police said two people were arrested following the incident. CONTD. ON P6