FREE PRESS The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms VOL. 13 NO. 249 | BHOPAL | WEDNESDAY | FEBRUARY 21, 2024 | PAGES 16 THAROOR CONFERRED FRANCE'S HIGHEST CIVILIAN HONOUR NATION `3 - r Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2021-2023; EDITIONS: INDORE, BHOPAL, UJJAIN, MUMBAI, PUNE EDIT RESOLVE FARMERS’ PROTEST PEACEFULLY WEATHER FP 31.40c. 16.40c Sunrise : 06.55 Sunset : 06.25 r RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 QUALITY AT VALUE www.freepressjournal.in ‘YASHASVI HASN’T LEARNED FROM YOU’ SPORTS School edu dept asks schools to have Bag Less Day once a week ‘No place for party hoppers’ OUR STAFF REPORTER / city.bhopal@fpj.co.in In view of the upcoming education session 202425, school education department has asked all schools to strictly follow the "School Bag Policy 2020" formed by the Indian Government under National Education Policy The policy mandates . that schools shall fix one day as Bag Less Day and on this particular day activities related to voca, tional training shall be conducted. In the order issued to principals of all high and higher secondary school, directorate of Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 School bag limit 1.6 to 2.2 Kg 1.6 to 2.2 Kg 1.7 to 2.5 Kg 1.7 to 2.5 Kg 1.7 to 2.5 Kg 2.0 to 3.0 Kg 2.0 to 3.0 Kg 2.5 to 4.0 Kg 2.5 to 4.5 Kg 2.5 to 4.5 Kg public instruction, commissioner Anubha Shrivastava instructed that schools, whether they are government, private or aided shall display the chart related to bag weight on the notice board. Home work will not be given to students of Class 2. Every week, home work of only two hours shall be given to the students of Class 3 to Class 5. The home work of only one hour per day shall be given to students from Class 6 to Class 8. Likewise, home work of two hours per day shall be given to students of Class 9 till Class 12. CONTD. ON AAP CANDIDATE declared winner after SC intervenes NEWS BRIEF Sameer Wankhede gets relief CHANDIGARH MAYORAL POLL: MAJOR VICTORY FOR INDIA BLOC Apex Court orders prosecution of returning officer NEW DELHI MUMBAI The Enforcement Directorate on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court that it will extend till March 1 its previous statement that it would not arrest Sameer Wankhede, the former zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), in a money laundering case. A division bench of Justices P D Naik and N R Borkar accepted the statement and posted Wankhede's petition against the case on March contents with the CBI leading to the registration of a case against him.Cong''s The Supreme Court on Tuesday declared defeated AAP-Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar the mayor of Chandigarh after overturning the result of the controversial poll where the BJP nominee had emerged an unlikely winner, in an unprecedented intervention to set right a brazen attempt by the returning officer to rig the election. It ordered prosecution of returning officer Anil Masih, a BJP leader, for "serious misdemeanour" for making an allegedly Sonia, Nadda elected to RS Employees union demands CBI probe NEW DELHI - Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and Bharatiya Janata Party President J.P Nadda were . today elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. While Gandhi was elected to the Upper House from Rajasthan, Nadda was elected from Gujarat. Anushka-Virat have a baby boy - Akaay MUMBAI Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli have revealed they welcomed their second child, a baby boy, on February 15. They've named him Akaay. The couple shared identical posts on social media that read: "With abundant happiness and hearts full of love, we are pleased to inform everyone that on 15th February, we welcomed our baby boy Akaay and Vamika's little brother into this world. We seek your blessings and good wishes in this beautiful time in our lives. We request you to kindly respect our privacy at this time. Love and gratitude, Virat and Anushka." The comments thread on Anushka's post exploded instantly with messages from friends. "How beautiful, congratulations," wrote Alia Bhatt. Ranveer Singh left hearts and evil eyes. Shweta Bachchan wrote, "Congratulations" as did Sonam Kapoor. "God bless," commented brideto-be Rakul Preet Singh. KULDEEP KUMAR false statement before the court that he had invalidated eight ballots because they had been defaced. Exercising its plenary power under Article 142 of the Constitution to do complete justice, the apex court said the result declared by the returning officer, a nominated councillor, was clearly contrary to law. A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said in such a case, the top court was duty bound, particularly in the context of its jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution, to ensure that the process of electoral democracy is not allowed to be thwarted by subterfuge. The bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said the court must step in where exceptional situations develop to ensure that the basic mandate of electoral democracy is preserved. "We accordingly order and direct that the result of the election as declared by the presiding officer (Masih) stands quashed and set aside. The petitioner (Kumar) is declared to be the validly elected can- Fire again at Satpura Bhavan OUR STAFF REPORTER City.bhopal@fpj.co.in After eight months, fire again broke out at the fourth floor in Satpura Bhavan, which is one of three administrative buildings of state government, on Tuesday afternoon. Fire fighters were pressed into service to douse the fire. It took half an hour to douse the fire. Fire fighters were pressed from police fire brigade and Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC). According to firefighters, it was a deserted portion of Satpura Bhavan where goods damaged during the previous fire were dumped. Labourers were deployed to clean the waste where CIGARETTE BUTT BEHIND FIRE? BMC fire officer Rameshwar Neel said, "Fire broke out at fourth floor at Satpura Bhavan. It was in the rear of the administrative building. Waste of the previous fire had been dumped there. Labourers were cleaning the floor and someone might have thrown cigarette butt." Paralysed woman burnt alive, son suffocates OUR STAFF REPORTER city.indore@fpj.co.in In a tragic incident, a grocery merchant's wife, who was paralysed, was burnt alive while her son suffocated to death due to heavy smoke after a major fire broke out at their house in the Pardeshipura area on Tuesday morning. There was no another exit so he could not take his mother out of the house. He didn't receive burns but he suffocated and is undergoing treatment in a city hospital. During the incident, the husband of the local corporator, who had entered the house to save the woman the fire broke out. Previously, a massive fire broke out at Satpura Bhawan in Bhopal on June 15, 2023 and it was brought under control after over 13 hours of firefighting. Files and records of various departments were burnt to ashes. This incidence shows that after eight months, the waste was not removed in Satpura Bhavan and it again caught fire. CONTD. ON P8 and her son, also suffocated due to heavy smoke. The incident took place at the house cum grocery store of Jitendra Goyal in the Clerk Colony at around 10 am. Jitendra runs a grocery shop at his place in Pardeshipura area. He left for his second shop around 9.40 am while his elder son Vikas had gone to visit Khatu Shyam temple in Rajasthan. Jitendra's wife Anita and their son Mayank were at the home at the time of the incident. Police said that Anita is paralysed so she was unable to move from her bed. Mayank was in the bathroom situated on the third floor. CONTD. ON Maratha Quota Bill passed MUMBAI: The Maharashtra legislature on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill providing 10 per cent reservation for the Marathas in education and government jobs under a separate category, but the fasting activist Manoj Jarange appeared firm on his demand for quota for the community under the OBC head. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde tabled the Maharashtra State Socially and Educationally Backward Bill, 2024, in the Assembly during the one-day special session of the legislature called to resolve the months-long deadlock on the Maratha quota issue, which received a fresh attention after Jarange launched his first indefinite fast in August last year. Neuralink brain chip implant a success, claims Musk NEW DELHI Elon Musk has said that the first human implanted with a brain chip from his brain-computer interface company Neuralink seems to have fully recovered and is able to control a computer mouse using thoughts. "Progress is good, and the patient seems to have made a full recovery, with neural effects that we are aware of. The patient is able to move a mouse around the screen by just thinking," Musk said in a Spaces event on X. The tech billionaire also mentioned that Neuralink is now attempting to get as many mouse button clicks as possible from the patient. Following approval for human trial recruitment in September last year, the company successfully implanted a chip into its first human patient last month. Musk said that the company's first product, called Telepathy, would bring control of a phone or computer just by thinking. In November last year, the brain-computer interface company raised an additional $43 million in venture capital, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The filing showed that the company raised its previous tranche, led by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, from $280 million to $323 million in early August. DEMOCRACY SAVED The Congress on Tuesday hailed the SC decision and said it has saved emocracy from the fangs of an "autocratic BJP" that resorted to dirty election manipulation. THANK YOU SC: AK "Thank you SC for saving democracy in these difficult times," Kejriwal said in a post on X. didate for election as mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation," the bench ruled. The top court said in each of the eight ballot papers, which were invalidated by Masih, the votes were duly cast in favour of Kumar. CONTD. ON P8 MIST CLEARED ... 'SIR' Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra to start from Mar 2 OUR STAFF REPORTER city.bhopal@fpj.co.in Those who do not believe in Congress ideology can walk out of the party for such , people there is no place in the party said AICC general , secretary Jitendra Singh to media persons, here at PCC on Tuesday . The Congress leader is in Bhopal to hold meeting with party workers regarding Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. Singh further added that son of former chief minister Kamal Nath, Nakul Nath is going to contest Lok Sabha elec- Rahul gets bail in defamation case SULTANPUR: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi appeared in a special court here on T uesday in a defamation case filed by a BJP leader for his remarks against Union Home Minister Amit Shah in 2018, and was granted bail. The former Congress president entered the MP-MLA court at 11 am amid tight security and came out 25 minutes later. He headed straight to Rae Bareli. Slogans of "Rahul Gandhi Zindabad" and "Bharat Jodo" were raised as Gandhi, who could not attend the last hearing on January 18 as he was busy with his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, arrived for the hearing. The next hearing will be held on March 2. tion from Chhindwara constituency once again. At present he is representing the same parliamentary constituency . He further added that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Yatra will enter the state on March 2, and it will remain in the state for four days till 6th and after that it will move to Rajasthan. State Congress president Jitu Patwari said that Rahul Gandhi is going to At the meeting held to discuss Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Yatra, exCMs Kamal Nath, Digvijaya Singh, MLA Dinesh Gurjar, ex-LoP Dr Govind Singh, MP-Vivek Tankha joined virtually. Digvijaya expressed his feeling when he saw Nath in the meeting by stating 'Sir your presence has cleared all the mist, which was all pervasive for past two three days in the state'. Nath asked for the appointment of Yatra incharge for every kilometer and the list shall reach to him. take blessings of Lord Mahakal in Ujjain during his Yatra in the state. CONTD. ON P8 Akhilesh’s final offer to Cong: 17 SEATS AGENCIES New Delhi In signs of fresh trouble for the INDIA Opposition bloc in Uttar Pradesh, seatsharing talks between the Samajwadi Party and Congress have hit a roadblock. The Akhilesh Yadav-led party, sources said, has made a final offer of 17 seats, but the Congress is yet to accept it. Yadav has so far stayed away from the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, which is moving through Uttar Pradesh, and said his party will join the yatra once the seat-sharing arrangement for Lok Sabha polls is finalised. The Congress has been trying to drive a hard bargain in the politically significant state. The Samajwadi Party had first offered 11 seats to the Grand Old Party. But with the Jayant Chaudhary-led Rastriya Lok Dal switching to the NDA camp, the Samajwadi Party agreed to give 15 seats to the Congress. CONTD. ON P8