FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms FREE PRESS Vol. XLI No. 133 | INDORE | SUNDAY | OCTOBER 20, 2024 | Pages 18 ` 4 | Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026 | RNI No. 38281/83 www.freepressjournal.in ESTD-1983 iii QUALITY @ VALUE EDITIONS: INDORE UJJAIN PUNE BHOPAL NASHIK WEEKEND Sports Second innings collapse and early stumps leave... fp Briefs BHOPAL Govt staff to get salary on October 28 Chief Minister Mohan Yadav has issued directives for disbursing salary to government employees on October 28. Yadav said on Saturday that the salary would be disbursed on October 28 before Diwali instead of November 1. As the salary will be given before Diwali, festival will be more delightful, he said. MUMBAI E-paper Readers A turning point in Gaza conflict & Israeli security P.10 Husbands share fasting stories on Karva Chauth Cinema Kyunki raat jawan hai P.15 Gadkari’s dream: Indian infra better than USA’s Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL Takes dig at engineers who prepare DPRs without visiting site and only using Google Maps “ I have a dream that Indian road infrastructure will be better than America’s,” said Union Minister for Road Transport Nitin Gadkari during the inaugural session of the two-day IRC Seminar 2024 on Emerging Trends and Technologies in Road and Bridge Constructions and EPC Contract Execution on Saturday. This seminar is being organised by public works department at Ravindra Bhawan. He sarcastic commented against those engineers who said that such DPR makers are so great that every one of them should be given Padma Shri and Padma Bhibhushan. Quoting the lines of former American president John F Kennedy, he said, "America's roads are good not because America is rich. America is rich because of its good roads. " He said that the best technologies of road construction should be adopted. He said that 40 % of pollution in country is due to roads. PWD minister Rakesh Singh welcomes Nitin Gadkari during inaugural session of two day IRC Seminar -2024 make road design by not visiting the site and preparing Detailed Project Report (DPR) sitting at home using Google Maps. Chiding such engineers, he sarcastically 4Continued on | P8 SHOCKING DATA Gadkari said that 1.73 lakh people die in road accidents in country every year. Sixty per cent of the victims are in the age group of 18 to 34 years. It results in 3 percent loss of GDP. Road accidents are due to poor road and automobile engineering. He said proper study would be made to identify black spots where accidents take place. DEHRADUN Rs 1L fine for spitting on food Uttarakhand government issued guidelines to prevent people from spitting in food items and announced a fine of up to Rs 1 lakh for the offence. According to the Chief Minister's Office, a comprehensive Standard operating procedure (SOP) has been issued in this regard following the directions of the Chief Minister. "On spitting and mixing dirt in food items in Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami ji has made it clear that such incidents will not be tolerated at all in the state," CMO said in a post on X. NARAYANPUR 2 ITBP jawans killed in blast Two Indian Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), jawans, who were injured in an IED blast executed by naxals, succumbed to their injuries and two jawans of Narayanpur district Police injured in the incident on Saturday, according to the Narayanpur district Police. Earlier today, a major IED blast was carried out on Naxal patrol search operation in Narayanpur district of Chhattisgarh. CRAZY SITUATION: 70 hoax calls in a week 30 flights receive threats in 24 hrs PTI NEW DELHI/ MUMBAI, More than 30 flights of various Indian airlines, including Vistara, Air India and IndiGo, received bomb threats on Saturday, according to sources. So far this week, at least 70 flights of Indian carriers have received bomb threats and most of them turned out to be hoaxes. The sources said more than 30 flights, including domestic and international ones, operated by domestic airlines have received bomb threats through social media since Saturday morning. In at least one of the flights, a note was found in the lavatory saying there was a bomb in the flight. On Saturday, Vistara said five of its flights on international routes received security threats through social media while IndiGo said at least four of its flights got security-related alerts. The five flights of Vistara are UK106 (Singapore to Mumbai), UK027 (Mumbai to SAFETY BODY MEETS AIRLINE CEOS New Delhi: With flights operated by Indian airlines receiving an unprecedented 70 bomb threats in six days, officials from aviation safety body Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) met the chief executive officers (CEOs) of the airlines in New Delhi on Saturday. Officials said that at the meeting, held at the civil aviation ministry's office in Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, the CEOs were asked to follow the standard operating procedure (SOP) for tackling the threats, which have been causing inconvenience to passengers and losses to carriers. They were also asked to keep all stakeholders informed about the threats and the action being taken. Frankfurt), UK107 (Mumbai to Singapore), UK121 (Delhi to Bangkok) and UK131 (Mumbai to Colombo). "Following the protocol, all relevant authorities were promptly alerted and all security procedures are being adhered to, as per the guidance from the authorities and security agencies," an airline spokesperson said in a statement. Besides, there was a security concern regarding Vistara flight UK624 from Udaipur to Mumbai, and after landing, the aircraft was taken to an isolation bay for mandatory checks. A note was found in the lavatory of the aircraft saying there is a bomb in the flight, a source in the know said. IndiGo issued statements for at least four flights with respect to the threats. They are 6E17 (Mumbai to Istanbul), 6E11 (Delhi to Istanbul), 6E184 (Jodhpur to Delhi) and 6E108 (Hyderabad to Chandigarh). The airline said it is cognisant of a situation involving flights from Mumbai and Delhi to Istanbul. Regarding the Jodhpur to Delhi flight, the carrier said the plane landed in the national capital and customers have disembarked the aircraft. PM to virtually inaugurate Rewa airport today LPG blast damages houses in Morena GST on health, life insurance may go Agencies NEW DELHI Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL Prime Minister Narendra Modi will virtually inaugurate the Rewa airport on Sunday. The Rewa airport will be a historical achievement for Vindhya belt. It has come up on 102 hectare land and its No loss of life reported FP News Service MORENA construction cost is Rs 300 crores. It is going to provide air travel facility to tourists and investors and thus going to boost the economical activities of the region. State government has done all the preparations of the inaugural programme of Rewa airport. Chief Minister Mohan Yadav , Deputy CM Rajendra Shukla, Panchayat Minister Prahlad Singh Patel etc are going to remain present during the inaugural programme. It was sometime back that Rewa airport got the licence for operation from Director General of Civil Aviation. A woman and her daughter were trapped in debris after an explosion damaged over half a dozen houses near Bharoshi Dharamshala on Islampur road, in Morena, on Saturday. The rescue operations took time, because the JCB machines failed to reach the site of the blast due to lack of road. According to reports, the house, where the explosion occurred, belonged to Gajraj Singh Rathore. The trapped woman has been identified as Anjum and her daughter as Sahiba, the police said. The husband of Anjum, Ja- meel, works at an eatery in Delhi. The family is the tenant of Rathore. The Superintendent of police (SP) of Morena, Sameer Saurabh told the media that the State Disaster Emergency Response Force (SDERF) had been pressed into service to rescue the woman and her child. Because of the blast, many houses had their roofs and walls blown off, but no loss of life was reported. Stone chips flew to places, 100 meters away from the site of the incident. On getting information, a team of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) rushed to the spot and began to remove debris. The police said that an LPG cylinder may have caused the explosion. 4Continued on | P8 The Group of Ministers to decide goods and services tax on life and health insurance premium is likely to propose total exemption of the tax, a senior official, who was part of the meeting, said Saturday. The panel will place the proposal before the GST Council which will next meet in November. Currently, the GST on health and life insurance premiums is 18%. While majority states batted for exemption of GST on life and health insurance premiums, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Thangam Thenarasu said that he pitched for lowering GST on health insurance to 5% without the benefit of input tax credit. At the time when Thenarasu spoke to the media, he had said that the panel was still discussing the issue and was yet to take a final call. According to Saloni Roy, a tax partner at Deloitte India, if the GST rate on health or life insurance is reduced from 18% to 5% without the benefit of input tax credit, it could result in building up of input tax credit at insurers' end. RANCHI Cong, JMM to fight 70 seats Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday said that the INDIA bloc partners will contest the upcoming assembly polls together and the Congress and the JMM will field candidates in 70 of 81 seats.Seat-sharing talks are on with alliance partners - the RJD and the Left parties - for the remaining 11 seats, he said. SRINAGAR J-K LG clears resolution Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha has cleared a resolution passed by Chief Minister Omar Abdullahled cabinet urging the Centre to restore the statehood to the Union territory, officials said on Saturday. "The cabinet which met under the chairmanship of Omar Abdullah on Thursday passed a unanimous resolution for restoration of statehood in its original form," an official said. Man locks elderly mom inside room, woman dies BJP gives tickets to Bhargava from Budhni, Rawat from Vijaypur Our Staff Reporter Bibi’s house hit by Hezbollah drone Agencies TEL AVIV BHOPAL A startling incident has been reported from the Nishatpura area of the city on Saturday, where an elderly woman was discovered dead inside her house. The police said that the woman had been locked inside the house by one of her sons three days ago, who headed outstation with his wife and kids. When a foul smell emanated from the house on Saturday, the residents of the colony informed the police, who broke the door open to find the woman dead. Nishatpura police station TI Rupesh Dubey told Free Press that the incident took place in the Goya colony of the area. 4Continued on | P8 Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced its candidates for Budhni and Vijaypur by-elections, on Saturday. Forest Minister Ramniwas Rawat has been given a ticket from Vijaypur. Rawat defected from the Congress to the BJP. After joining the BJP, Rawat resigned from the Congress. Now, he has been made party candidate. Former MP Ramakant Bhargava has been given a ticket from Budhni. As Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan fought the Lok Sabha election from Vidisha, Bhargava was denied a ticket. Bhargava is considered close to Chouhan. A panel of five names was sent to the BJP’s central election committee. It also consisted of the names of Kartikey Singh Chouhan. The central election committee put its seal on the name of Bhargava. The Congress has yet to announce candidates for two seats. A drone launched from Lebanon hit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Caesarea on Saturday, his official spokesperson confirmed, according to Al Jazeera. The Prime Minister and his wife were not at the location, and there were no injuries in the incident," the statement from his spokesperson added, as per a BBC report. The attack comes after the Israeli military said three drones were launched from Lebanon into Israel early on Saturday morning, with one hitting a building in Caesarea. The Israeli government has not said whether the building was part of the Prime Minister's residence nor did they mention the extent of any damage. 4Continued on | P8 Indian diplomats in Canada are ‘clearly on notice’ ANI OTTAWA Days after India recalled six of its diplomats from Canada after they were d e clared ‘p e rsons of interest’ in the investigation of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar's killing, Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly warned the15 Indian diplomats who are still in the country to respect the law. "They're clearly on notice," Joly said as quoted by CBC News. "Six of them have been expelled, including the high commissioner in Ottawa. Others were mainly from Toronto and Vancouver. Clearly, we won't tolerate any diplomats that are in contravention of the Vienna Convention," she added. Joly's comments come days after Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) accused the Indian government, its agents and diplomats of links to criminal activity in Canada, including coercion, extortion and killings. The charges have been strongly rejected by India, which termed it "preposterous imputations" and accused the Justin Trudeau government of indulging in "vote bank politics." 4Continued on | P8 Vijaya Rahatkar is new NCW head PTI NEW DELHI Vijaya Kishore Rahatkar has been appointed the ninth chairperson of the National Commission for Women (NCW) succeeding Rekha Sharma, according to an official order. The appointment made under Section 3 of the National Commission for Women Act, 1990, will be for a period of three years or until she reaches the age of 65, whichever comes first, a government notification issued on Saturday said. 4Continued on | P8 offgrid Ex Indian spy, wanted by FBI, arrested last yr by Delhi cops PTI NEW DELHI Vikash Yadav, a R&AW official charged by the US authorities for his alleged role in a foiled plot to assassinate Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil, was arrested by Delhi Police in December last year in an unre- lated extortion and kidnapping case, police sources said. According to the sources, the Special Cell of Delhi Police arrested Yadav (39) on December 18, 2023, for allegedly kidnapping a businessman living in Rohini and demanding money in the name of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. He was granted bail in April Wanted for attempting to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, Yadav was charged with extortion and kidnapping this year, the sources said. According to the FIR filed by the Special Cell, Yadav told the businessman to meet him near the office of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in south Delhi on December 11, 2023, claiming he might face a "serious threat". Accordingly, the victim along with his friend met Yadav who was accompanied by a person named Abdullah. Yadav and Abdullah allegedly pushed the victim into a car and demanded money in the name of Lawrence Bishnoi, the FIR said. The accused duo also forced him to sign a blank cheque before dropping him near his car after threatening him with dire consequences if he told anyone about his ordeal, it added. After returning home, the victim came to know that Yadav and his associate also took Rs 50,000 kept in his cafe and deleted all the CCTV recordings, the FIR said. 4Continued on | P8