FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms FREE PRESS Vol. 14 No. 41 | BHOPAL | THURSDAY | JULY 25, 2024 | Pages 14 ` 3 | Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026 | RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 www.freepressjournal.com Sports She’s in really good place P.13 ESTD-1983 iii QUALITY @ VALUE EDITIONS: INDORE ‘OUTRAGEOUS’ Kharge terms the budget a ‘kursi-bachao’ document "This is a deliberate attempt of the opposition parties, led by the Congress, to give an impression to people that 'oh, nothing has been given to our states, it has only been given to two states'. "I would challenge the Congress party for all the budget speeches they have delivered, that in each of the budget speeches, have they named every state of the country?" Sitharaman said. PTI NEW DELHI fp Briefs AHMEDABAD 8 killed in Guj rains As many as eight persons were killed in rain-related incidents and more than 800 people evacuated after swollen rivers and overflowing dams cut off several villages and inundated low-lying areas in large parts of Gujarat amid torrential downpour on Wednesday, officials said. NEW DELHI Sailor's body found The body of Leading Seaman Sitendra Singh, who went missing following a major fire onboard India's frontline warship INS Brahmaputra at the naval dockyard in Mumbai three days ago, was found on Wednesday, officials said. The warship was severely damaged and tilted heavily to one side following the fire on Sunday evening. CPP Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and other INDIA bloc MPs stage a protest against the Union Budget at Parliament in New Delhi structure - in the greed for power, other states of the country have been neglected and discriminated against. INDIA bloc will continue to raise its voice to provide equal justice to every state of India," Gandhi said in his post on WhatsApp channel in Hindi. 4Continued on | P6 ‘Mataji is expert...’ Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday said Bihar and Andhra Pradesh got "pakoda and jalebi" on their plates while other states got nothing. Engaging in raillery and hurling barbs at Sitharaman in the House, the Congress veteran called Sitharaman "mataji" and said she is an expert in speaking, prompting Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar to quip that she was more like his daughter. You’ll be isolated: Stalin to PM "The election is over... now we have to think about the country. Budget 2024 will save your rule... but will not save the nation. Run the government objectively... otherwise you will be isolated," Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Wednesday warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi. NASHIK Rahul meets farmers in Parliament Heavy rains wreak havoc in Bina, Chhatarpur PTI 59 rescued from marooned island in Chhatarpur NEW DELHI Our Staff Reporter The INDIA bloc will put pressure on the government and ensure that the farmers get a legal guarantee for MSP, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said on Wednesday after he met a delegation of farmer leaders in the Parliament House complex. The delegation comprised 12 farmer leaders from Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. It apprised Gandhi of the issues being faced by the farmers. "Our manifesto promised a legal guarantee for MSP. We have done a full assessment and it is feasible. We had a meeting and it was decided that we will have a discussion with INDIA bloc leaders and will try and put pressure on the government to ensure that the farmers get a legal guarantee for MSP," Gandhi told reporters after the meeting. Later, in a post on X, the former Congress chief said, "Legal guarantee for MSP is the right of farmers. INDIA will ensure that they get this right." After meeting Gandhi, a farmer leader said, "We met Rahul Gandhi and he gave us a patient hearing. A long discussion took place on our demand for a legal guarantee for MSP. 4Continued on | P6 19 ONBOARD Pilot the only survivor 1 min Security personnel inspect the remains of a Saurya Airlines flight after it crashed during takeoff at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu on Wednesday Terrorists will either land in jail or ‘jahannum’, says Rai PTI World's hottest day NEW DELHI Terrorists active in Jammu and Kashmir will either land in jail or be sent to 'jahannum' (hell), Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday while asserting that the Modi government has zero tolerance for terrorism. Rai was replying to a supplementary question from Congress MP Pramod Tiwari. Terrorist activities witnessed recently will soon end, the minister said. "They (terrorists) will not succeed in their design," he added. In the past few days, 28 terrorists have been killed in Jammu and Kashmir and some security personnel have also lost their lives, which is very unfortunate, Rai said. According to the minister, In past few days, 28 terrorists have been killed in J&K and some security personnel have also lost their lives, which is very unfortunate Nityanand Rai BHOPAL Heavy rains wreaked havoc in Bina and some other cities including Chhatarpur, Tikamgarh and Sagar during the last 24 hours. As many as 59 people were rescued from a marooned island in Chhatarpur. Some people were also rescued from flood-affected villages in Bina. Sources said that owing to heavy rains, Dhashan river was at spate in Chhatarpur. At least 59 people have gone to a place of worship situated on a hilly area and it got cut-off from all sides due to the flood in Dhashan river. ‘All of them were rescued by using boat,’Chhatarpur collector Sandeep GR told Free Press. As far as Bina is concerned it faced the fury of heavy rains. The problem got compounded BHOPAL Madhya Pradesh has got Rs 14,738 crore to carry out plans for railways under the Union Budget which was presented in Parliament on Tuesday. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw made the statement at a video conferencing on Wednesday. Eighty-one big projects of railways are going on in the Rainfall warning The weather department has issued heavy rainfall warning in most of the places of Badwani, Alirajpur, Guna, Ashok Nagar, Shivpuri, Datia, Sheopurkalan, Anuppur, Umaria, when backwater of an under construction dam reached villages and left them marooned. Sagar collector Deepak Arya rushed to Bina to took stock of the situation. Speaking to Free Press, he said that 7 vil- PAPER LEAKS ‘Prison term and Rs one crore fine’ Bihar passes anti-paper leak bill to enforce measure against malpractices state, and 80 stations are being developed under the Amrit Bharat Yojna, Vaishnaw said, adding that the railway has been fully electrified. The state government is cooperating with the Centre in carrying out these projects, and the process for land acquisition for schemes is moving very fast, he said. The work of Amrit Bharat Yojna began with the Rani Kamalapati railway station in Katni, Jabalpur, Narsinghpur, Chhatarpur, Niwari etc. while thunderstorm is likely in some places of Bhopal, Rajgarh, Harda, Burhanpur, Khandwa, Khargone, Indore, Ratlam, Ujjain and Dewas. lages of Bina were affected in the wake of heavy rainfall. Water gushed inside homes in affected villages and few of them have even collapsed. 4Continued on | P6 Shop catches fire: Elderly couple burnt alive in Tikamgarh OUR STAFF REPORTER BHOPAL PTI The Bihar assembly on Wednesday passed a bill aimed at curbing the scourge of question paper leaks and other malpractices in recruitment tests conducted by the state. The Bihar Public Examinations (PE) (Prevention of Unfair Means) Bill, 2024, was moved by state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary. and passed through voice vote amidst a walkout staged by the opposition. The new legislation targets curbing malpractices in competitive examinations, including the leak of question papers, in the state which, incidentally, has also been at the centre of the NEET 2024 paper leak controversy. The bill stipulates severe punishment for those involved in such malpractices, including a prison term of three to five years and a fine of Rs 10 MP gets Rs 14,738 cr for rail projects, says Vaishnaw Our Staff Reporter An elderly person being rescued by a team in Bina village lakh. Service providers, a term used to describe agencies entrusted with conducting such tests, could be slapped with a fine of Rs one crore besides debarment of services for up to four years and even attachment of properties, Chaudhary told the House. An elderly couple was charred to death after a home furnishing shop caught fire on Wednesday morning. The couple resided in house above the shop, said Tikamgarh police. The incident occurred in densely-populated Katra Bazaar area, police said. The shop owned by Manoj Jain was located in a residential building. He lived on the upper floor. His uncle used to live in a portion of the house along with his wife, Kotwali police station in-charge Anand Raj said. A fire broke out in Jain's shop amid rains in the wee hours of Wednesday. On seeing the blaze and smoke, pedestrians and locals gathered at the spot and woke up Jain, he said. Jain ran out from the rear door of the house, but his uncle - Devendra Jain and his wife Sulochana –failed to do so. 4Continued on | P6 4Continued on | P6 PATNA DEAD J&K TERROR ATTACKS E-paper Cinema TV actors will be way bigger than film stars... P.14 18 The accident happened less than a minute after the plane took off MUMBAI Edit When bigotry corrupts policing P.8 NEPAL PLANE BURSTS INTO FLAMES NEW DELHI The Earth experienced its hottest day in at least 84 years on July 22, with the global average temperature reaching a record high of 17.15 degrees Celsius, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). BHOPAL Kamala Harris leads Don 44% to 42% Discrimination, cries Oppn; stages walkout deceptive budget and injustice to the people." Sharing a picture of the protest on his WhatsApp channel, Rahul Gandhi said, "Today, along with INDIA janbandhan MPs, protested against NDA's 'Kursi Bachao Budget' in Parliament House premises." "This budget is an assault on the sanctity of India's federal PUNE WORLD BUDGET| INDIA bloc irked over neglect of Oppn-ruled states INDIA bloc MPs staged a protest in Parliament premises on Wednesday over the alleged discrimination against opposition-ruled states in the Union Budget, with Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi saying the budget is an "assault on the sanctity of India's federal structure". Besides Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Parliamentary Party chief Sonia Gandhi, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, several MPs of the Congress, TMC, Samajwadi Party, DMK and the Left joined the protest held on the steps leading up to the Makar Dwar of Parliament. Protesting against the budget, Kharge said, "This budget is anti-people, no one has got justice. They have talked about special package but special status has not been given. This is a UJJAIN Bhopal, which is going on across the country, Vaishnaw said. He, however, did not say anything about the number of trains the state would get under the budget. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav expressed gratitude to the Centre for giving facilities relating to railways. The amount allotted to the state to provide rail facilities is very important, Yadav said. The bill was passed through voice vote amidst a walkout staged by the opposition Go back to India: Pannun warns Indo-Canadian MP PTI OTTAWA In a staunch response to separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun's video demanding him and his HinduCanadian friends return to India, Canadian Member of Parliament Chandra Arya said that Canada is their land and that they have enriched the multicultural fabric of the country. He said the country was being "polluted" by Khalistani extremists. Sharing a post on X, the Canadian MP wrote, "In response to my condemnation of the vandalism of the Hindu temple BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir in Edmonton and other acts of hate and violence by Khalistan supporters in Canada, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun of Sikhs for Justice has released a video demanding me and my Hindu-Canadian friends to go back to India." Blocked roads Seoni twins delivered '3-Idiots style' Minister of State for Home Affairs Our Staff Reporter security forces have killed about 900 terrorists in the region after the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019. "Modi government has zero tolerance for terrorism. We will end terrorism. They (terrorists) will be either in jail or jahannum... I want to assure the House," Rai said. 4Continued on | P6 BHOPAL The child-delivery scene from the Amir Khan starrer ‘3 Idiots’ was re-enacted when a woman went into labour amid torrential rains in the Seoni area in Madhya Pradesh. As the torrential rainfall battered the city on Tuesday, it was difficult for the family to send the woman to a hospital. Then amidst thunder and rain emerged a trained midwife as a silver lining in the dark cloud. In this real life drama, the champions were Dr Manisha Sirsam and midwife Reshna Banskar. They delivered the twins successfully. DOCTOR AND TEAM STUCK IN RAIN... On the night of July 23, heavy rains pelted Seoni district, cutting off several villages, including Jorabadi in Seoni Tehsil. Raveena Banshilal Uike, a pregnant woman from Jorabadi, went into labour unexpectedly. With all routes to the city being blocked, the family of woman initially contacted an ASHA worker, who was unavailable, because she was busy at the district hospital. The family then contacted district health officer Dr Manisha Sirsam. 4Continued on | P6