FP FREE PRESS The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms VOL. 13 NO. 237 | BHOPAL | FRIDAY | FEBRUARY 9, 2024 | PAGES 16 `3 - r Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2021-2023; EDIT ‘ECO WAS in fragile state when NDA took over’ ‘THE GAME IS TOO LONG’ SPORTS MAHABHARATA DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN GOVT'S ‘WHITE PAPER’ BLASTS UPA HANDLING OF ECONOMY NEW DELHI Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented a 59-page 'White Paper' in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, highlighting the economic mismanagement by the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, and comparing the country's economic performance between the UPA years and 10 years of the Narendra Modi government. The 'White Paper' reels out statistics to back the government's claim of the fragile state of the Indian economy in the UPA years and lists the steps taken by the NDA government to transform the economy into the 5th largest in the world. "In 2014 when we formed the government, the economy was in a fragile state; public finances were in bad shape; there was economic mismanagement and financial indiscipline, and there was widespread corruption. It was a crisis situation," it stated. It highlights the doubledigit inflation, ailing banking sector, high policy uncertainty marred India's business climate, dented its Cong counters with 'Black Paper' highlighting Modi govt's failure NEW DELHI: The Congress on Thursday released a 'Black Paper' to highlight the 'failures' of the Modi government and alleged that the last 10 years have been a period of 'injustice'. Congress president Malllikarjun Kharge released a 54-page 'charge sheet', titled '10 saal anyay kaal', against the Centre ahead of the government's tabling in Parliament of a 'White Paper' on the "mismanagement" of the economy prior to 2014 aimed at drawing lessons. "Whenever PM (Narendra) Modi presents his views in Parliament, he hides his failures. At the same time, when we speak about the failures of the government, it is not given importance. Therefore, we thought of bringing out a black paper and tell the public about the failures of the government," Kharge, who was flanked by party leaders Pawan Khera and Syed Naseer Hussain, said at a press conference at his residence here. In a sharp attack at Prime Minister Modi over his claim that the Congress was creating a narrative to divide the country into north and south, Kharge said those who falsely accuse others of dividing the country and of regionalism, 'those liars' do not even remember what they said. CONTD. ON P8 image and the people's confidence about their future, despite the Vajpayee-led NDA government having handed over a healthy and resilient economy with high growth potential in 2004. The 'White Paper' also discussed the mismanagement and short-sighted handling of the public finances during FY04-FY14. "Numerous scams were bringing colossal revenue losses for the exchequer and fiscal and revenue deficits spiralling out of control. In 2014, our government inherited a deeply damaged economy whose foundations had to be rebuilt to enable selfsustaining long-term economic growth." It highlights the telecom and coal scams "which have set the country back by 10 years". The 'White Paper' also points out that India has now become an investment destination for global giants such as Apple and Tesla. It states that the economy was severely weakened by the UPA government as it could not control inflation which soared to an average annual 8.2 per cent between FY04 and FY14. CONTD. ON P8 PM Modi not OBC by birth, claims Rahul JHARSUGUDA (ODISHA), NEWS BRIEF Pak election marred by sporadic violence ISLAMABAD: Voting concluded across Pakistan on Thursday in an election marred by sporadic violence and connectivity issues after the government suspended mobile and internet services to foil terror attacks. The polling started at 8.00 AM and continued without any break till 5.00 PM. A countrywide public holiday was declared to enable a total of 128,585,760 registered voters to cast their ballots. Gyanvapi hearing on February 15 VARANASI: A Varanasi court on Thursday fixed February 15 as the date for hearing the Gyanvapi Masjid committee's plea against the recently allowed 'puja' in a cellar of the mosque, the Hindu side counsel said. Advocate M M Yadav said he told District Judge Anil Kumar that since the Allahabad High Court was scheduled to hear the matter on February 12, there was no point in the district court hearing it now. Status of Indian troops in Maldives NEW DELHI: India will replace military personnel at aviation platforms in the Maldives with competent Indian technical personnel, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday. The Mohamed Muizzu-led Maldives government has formally requested that India withdraw its troops from Male. In this regard, a second high-level group meeting took place in New Delhi on February 2 and a third meeting is scheduled to be held later this month. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not born in an Other Backward Class family and he is "mis, leading" people by identifying himself as an OBC. Gandhi, while making a brief speech here on the third and concluding day of his 'Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra' in Odisha, said Modi "was born in a family that belonged to the general caste". "Modi ji has been misleading the people by saying that he is an OBC. He was born in a family of the 'Ghanchi' caste, which was included in the OBC list during the BJP govern- ment's tenure in Gujarat in 2000. "He changed his caste to OBC after becoming the CM of Gujarat. Therefore, Modi ji is not an OBC by birth," the Congress MP asserted. Gandhi had earlier in his address claimed that Modi belonged to the 'Teli' caste, but later clarified he meant the 'Ghanchi' caste. The former Congress president also alleged that the prime minister will never conduct a caste census in the country, without which social justice cannot be achieved. CONTD. ON P8 ‘About 3.4 cr elderly suffering from dementia in country’ NEW DELHI In India, an estimated 3.4 crore older adults, aged 60 years and above, are living with mild cognitive impairment, affecting their daily lives and activities in some manner, new research has found. It estimated that 2.4 crore and almost 1 crore older adults are living with mild and major neurocognitive disorders, respectively, impairing faculties like memory, attention, executive function and language, and signifying potential dementia. Using survey data from nationally representative sample of adults in India, researchers found a higher prevalence of these disorders in the older ones (over 80 years old) and in those with lower levels of education. Prevalence in women and men was found to be comparable and almost equal. The team also found the prevalence to be higher in rural-living older adults than urban ones, and more in the illiterate than the literate. About 13.4 crore adults in India are estimated to be aged 60 years and above, and are projected to constitute 20 per cent of the population by 2050, they said. For the study, the international team of researchers, led by Johns Hopkins University, US, and including those at St. John's Medical College, Bengaluru, Karnataka, recruited almost 4,100 participants residing in 18 geographically and linguistically diverse states such as Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Delhi, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, among others. The majority of the group was aged 60-79 years. This study is called the LASI-DAD, Harmonized Diagnostic Assessment of Dementia for the Longitudinal Aging Study in India, and the participants were recruited from the main LASI. CONTD. ON P8 GOVT HITS BACK WITH ‘FACT-CHECK’ NEW DELHI: The govt on Thursday afternoon hit back at Rahul Gandhi. In a brief note titled "facts regarding Rahul Gandhi's statement on PM's caste", the government said the Modh Ghanchi caste (and the sub-group to which Mr Modi belongs) "stands included in the Gujarat government's list... of socially (and) educationally backward class and OBCs"."...after a survey in Gujarat, Mandal Commission prepared a list of OBCs under Index 91(A),, which included the Modh Ghanchi caste. Farmers’ protests: Delhi-Noida borders witness traffic chaos NEW DELHI: Massive traffic jams were witnessed on the Delhi-Noida borders on Thursday as police put up barricades to check vehicles entering the national capital after a protest called by farmers in Noida and Greater Noida, officials said. Motorists spent hours in the crawling traffic at the Delhi-Noida link road near Mayur Vihar, as police personnel with heavy equipment were on alert to deal with any eventuality in case protesting farmers reached there. At the border, heavy duty bulldozers, backhoe machines, riot control vehicles and water cannons were parked strategically, the officials said. According to the Delhi Traffic Police, heavy traffic was also witnessed at DND, Chilla, and Ghazipur borders. Several farmers' groups in Noida and Greater Noida, who have been on protest since December 2023 demanding hiked compensation and developed plots against their acquired land, on Thursday gave a call to march towards Parliament to press for their demands. WEATHER EDITIONS: INDORE, BHOPAL, UJJAIN, MUMBAI, PUNE 26.10c. 12.10c Sunrise : 07.03 Sunset : 06.19 Aditya Singh new Harda collector, Abhinav Chokse appointed SP OUR STAFF REPORTER Bhopal The State government on Thursday appointed IAS officer Aditya Singh as new collector of Harda and IPS officer Abhinav Choukse as Superintendent of Police, a day after transferring the incumbents in the wake of an explosion at a firecrackers factory that killed a dozen people in the district. Their appointment orders were issued in the evening. Singh is a 2014-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, while Choukse joined the Indian Police Service in 2018. The state government had on Wednesday transferred Harda district collector Rishi Garg and SP Sanjeev Kanchan. On Thursday, the General Administration Department (GAD) issued an order appointing Singh as new collector of Harda district in place of Garg, who has been posted as a deputy secretary in the state secretariat at Bhopal. In a separate order, the state home department appointed Choukse as Harda SP in place of Kanchan. Kanchan has been moved to the state police headquarters in Bhopal as Assistant Inspector General (AIG). QUALITY AT VALUE r RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 www.freepressjournal.in DIDI SLAMS BJP FOR CHAOS DURING BUDGET NATION HARDA HORROR ‘BLAST WAS AKIN TO N-BOMB EXPLOSION’ OUR STAFF REPORTER city.bhopal@fpj.co.in Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said when he saw the video of Harda blast incident it looked that it was a blast akin to the nuclear bomb blast. When he inquired that how Shivakashi like factory came up there, he was informed that before the strictness was ensued one or two years back, explosive material was distributed in homes for making of the bomb and later these bombs were collected (in factory). " Now such kind of drama has been heard for the first time," he told. He was replying to the adjournment motion brought by the Opposition over Harda tragedy in assembly on Wednesday . He said in starting of the incident, it was not clear that whether it was a terrorist act or something else but when it was con- Toll reaches 12, 15 factories sealed OUR STAFF REPORTER city.bhopal@fpj.co.in WALK OUT BY OPPN As opposition was unsatisfied with the reply of CM on Harda incident, it staged walk out in the assembly. It demanded that judicial or open court of inquiry shall be done into the incident. firmed that incident is related with crackers, then government took the matter seriously CONTD. ON P8 . Team formed to estimate losses HARDA: A committee has been formed to estimate the losses in nearby areas because of the blast in Harda. Addln collector Nagarjun B Gauda has been appointed nodal officer The other members are SDM KC Parte, Tehsildar Lavina Ghagre and Nayab Tehsilder Roopkala Parmar. Another team was set up to visit each house in the area to take feedback on the losses. Besides, chief medical and health officer Dr HP Singh set up a temporary health camp to treat the injured. Meanwhile, collector Rohit Sisonia has directed the general manager of Madhya Chhetra Vidyut Vitaran Company to restore the power supply in Bairagarh area where the power supply was snapped after the blast. The body of an unidentified woman was found while clearing the debris of the firecracker factory in Harda where a blast took place on Tuesday. With this, the death toll has risen to 12. Meanwhile, in the past 24 hours, the administration had sealed 15 factories. On Tuesday morning, a blast occurred in a firecracker factory in Harda in which 11 people died and around 200 got injured. After the incident, the district administration launched a drive against the firecracker factories. SDM SK Parte told Free Press that a huge amount of debris from the factory and houses was scattered in around half a kilometre radius following the blast. CONTD. ON P8