FREE PRESS The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms VOL. 13 NO. 341 | BHOPAL | THURSDAY | MAY 23, 2024 | PAGES 16 KOHLI IS MY FIRST PICK: PONTING `3 - EDITIONS: INDORE, BHOPAL, UJJAIN, MUMBAI, PUNE NATION ‘CORRECT DISCOURSE, MAINTAIN DECORUM’ SPORTS WHEN INDIA SPEAKS, THE WORLD LISTENS: PM MODI EC comes down heavily on BJP, Cong SAYS TWO big parties not allowed to weaken our electoral democracy NEW DELHI: The Election Commission Wednesday came down heavily on ruling BJP and opposition Congress, asking them to desist from campaigning along caste, community, language, and religious lines. The Poll panel directed BJP president JP Nadda and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to issue formal notes to their star campaigners, urging them to "correct" their discourse, exercise care, and maintain decorum during their speeches. Noting that the country's socio-cultural milieu cannot be made a casualty to elections, it told BJP president J P Nadda and Con- gress chief Mallikarjun Kharge that utterances of star campaigners follow patterns and create narratives which can be damaging beyond the model code period. Referring to their respective replies to the notices issued to them on April 25, the elec- Accident kills 3 Indian-origin students in US WASHINGTON NEWS BRIEF VP pays tribute to Raisi in Tehran TEHRAN: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Wednesday met Iran's acting President Mohammad Mokhber here and conveyed condolences over the tragic demise of President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein AmirAbdollahian in a helicopter crash. Raj’s Barmer boils at 48 deg C JAIPUR: Rajasthan continued to reel under the grip of severe heat conditions with Barmer recording the highest temperature at 48 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. Looking at the situation, the state government cancelled the leaves of all divisional commissioners, additional divisional commissioners, district collectors, additional district collectors and sub divisional officers till further orders. SRK hospitalised with heat stroke AHMEDABAD: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was admitted to a hospital in Ahmedabad on Wednesday after suffering from a heat stroke, police said. He was admitted to multi-speciality K D Hospital, they said. Three Indian-American students were killed and two others were injured in a fatal road accident as their speeding car flipped over in the US state of Georgia, according to the police. The deceased were identified as Sriya Avasarala, Anvi Sharma and Aryan Joshi were passengers in a single-vehicle crash last week on Westside Parkway in Alpharetta, according to local police. Based on evidence at the scene, it is believed that the driver lost control of their car which then came to rest upside down in the tree line. Two of the occupants Joshi and Avasarala - were found dead at the scene. The remaining three occupants were transported to North Fulton Hospital for treatment. CONTD. ON P7 A Highest number of candidates in fray since 1996 total of 8,360 candidates are contesting the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, the highest since 1996, according to an analysis of official data. In the 2019 polls, there were 8,039 candidates, and in 1996, a record 13,952 candidates were in the fray for 543 seats of the Lower House of Parliament. tion authority said that "technical loopholes or extreme interpretations of other political party's utterances" cannot discharge the parties and their campaigners from the core responsibility of their own content which ought to be corrective r Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026; to the ongoing discourse "and not further plummeting the quality of campaign discourse". It reminded the two parties of provisions of the model code which state that no party or candidate will include in any activity which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic. Nadda was issued the notice on opposition charge that Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a divisive speech in Rajasthan's Banswara. CONTD. ON P7 WEATHER FP RBI approves mega dividend of Rs 2.11 lakh cr to govt for FY24 CINEMA Brace up for severe heat wave for next three days MUMBAI The Reserve Bank of India will pay a record Rs 2.1 lakh crore dividend to the government for the fiscal ended March 31, more than double of what was budgeted expectation, helping shore up revenue ahead of a new government taking office. The RBI board, at its 608th meeting on Wednesday, approved the transfer of surplus, the central bank said in a statement. The government had budgeted a receipt of Rs 1.02 lakh crore as dividends from the RBI, public sector banks and financial institutions in the interim budget for the fiscal year 2024-25 (April 2024 to March 2025) presented in February this year. The dividend or surplus transfer by the RBI to the Centre was Rs 87,416 crore for the fiscal 2022-23. www.freepressjournal.in MODERN SATI SAVITRI 43.10c. 29.00c Sunrise : 05.44 Sunset : 07.00 HIGHEST EVER QUALITY AT VALUE r RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 PIC: ANAND SHIVRE Normal life likely to be affected in isolated regions OUR STAFF REPORTER city.bhopal@fpj.co.in Amid scorching heat, weatherman has warned of severe heat wave condition in isolated places of Madhya Pradesh for the next three days. This is bound to adversely affect normal life as people would be exposed to extreme heat. The weather department warned of severe heat wave in Datia, Bhind and Niwari T Place Deg/Celsius Ratlam 45 Dhar 44.9 Khandwa 44.5 Guna 44.2 Datia 44.1 Ujjain 43.8 Tikamgarh 43.8 Gwalior 43.7 Satna 43 Raisen 42.4 Narmadapuram 41.7 Betul 41. 2 City's temperature hits two-year high he city’s maximum temperature rose to a two-year high of 43.4 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. Moreover, officials of the Regional Meteorological Department forecast no relief for denizens and said that there are chances of a heat wave for three days from May 24 to May 26. The night temperature on Tuesday was recorded at 29.1 degrees Celsius, four degrees above normal on Thursday On Friday . , Gwalior, Datia, Bhind, Chhattarpur and Niwari would experience severe heat wave. On Saturday it , would be the turn of Rajgarh, Gwalior, Datia, Bhind, Chhattarpur and Niwari to brave the severe heat wave. Residents of Rajgarh, Bad- wani, Alirajpur, Jhabua, Dhar, Ratlam, Mandsaur, Neemuch, Guna, Ashok Nagar, Shivpuri, Gwalior, Morena, Sheopur Kalan, Katni, Panna, Damoh, Chhattarpur and Tikamgarh would have to brave heat wave on Thursday . CONTD. ON P7 Calcutta HC scraps over Bomb threat rings alarm bells 5 Lakh OBC certificates at North Block; turns out hoax Justice Sheel Nagu to be Acting CJ of MP HC W DIDI REFUSES TO ACCEPT OUR STAFF REPORTER Bhopal est Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asserted that she "will not accept" the Calcutta High Court order scrapping the OBC status of several classes in the state. She hinted that the government could challenge the order in the Supreme Court. BENEFITS OBTAINED already not to be affected AGENCIES Kolkata The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday struck down the OBC status of several classes in West Bengal granted since 2010, finding such reservations to vacancies in services and posts in the state are illegal. Passing judgment on petitions challenging the provisions of the Act, the court clarified that the The bench directed that the state's executive orders classifying several other classes as OBCs from March 5, 2010, to May 11, 2012, were also quashed, in view of the illegality of the reports recommending such classification services of citizens of the struck-down classes, who are already in service or have availed the benefit of reservation or have succeeded in any selection process of the state will not be affected by the order. The number of enlisted persons under OBC in West Bengal after 2010 is likely to be above five lakhs, one of the lawyers representing the petitioners said. The court struck down several classes for reservation as Other Backward Classes (OBC) given under The West Bengal Backward Classes (Other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) (Reservation of Vacancies in Services and Posts) Act, 2012. The court said that the directions will be given prospective effect. CONTD. ON P7 Firefighters arrive at the Ministry of Home Affairs office after an email threat about a bomb was received, at North Block Bomb disposal squad rushed to spot NEW DELHI A bomb threat on Wednesday sent alarm bells ringing in the North Block, which houses the home ministry office, but was declared a hoax after nothing objectionable was found, officials said. The threat was received through an email around 3.30 pm by a senior officer posted at the ministry, according to a Delhi Fire Services (DFS) official. It was written in the email that the "building will explode as bomb is planted", a police officer said and added that the IP address and other details of the mail are being checked. Police and fire department personnel, a dog squad, and bomb disposal and detection teams were deployed for the search operation at the North Block. CONTD. ON P7 Justice Sheel Nagu will be the Acting Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. The Ministry of Law, Government of India, issued an order in this connection on Wednesday. Chief Justice of the high court Ravi Malimath is retiring on May 24. Justice Nagu was appointed judge of the high court in May, 2011. He passed LLB from Jabalpur and practised as lawyer in the MP High Court for a long time. Norway, Ireland & Spain B’desh MP who went missing IF I.N.D.I.A COMES TO POWER... Will set up JPC within a month found dead in Kolkata recognise Palestinian state to probe Adani scam: Cong ‘A PLANNED MURDER’ Palestinians welcomed the announcements as an affirmation of their decades-long quest for statehood in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war and still controls TEL AVIV: Norway, Ireland and Spain said on Wednesday they are recognizing a Palestinian state, in a historic but largely symbolic move that deepens Israel's isolation more than seven months into its grinding war against Hamas in Gaza. The announcements came as the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is considering allegations of genocide that Israel has strenuously denied. Israel recalled its ambassadors to the three countries and summoned their envoys, accusing the Europeans of rewarding the militant Hamas group for its October 7 attack that triggered the war. CONTD. ON P7 BENGAL CID CONFIRM murder but is yet to recover victim's body AGENCIES / Kolkata Hours after the Bangladesh government declared on Wednesday that Awami League MP, Md Anwarul Azim Anwar, who went missing from Kolkata on May 13, was "brutally murdered" in the city, the West Bengal police said that investigations into the case of the politician's "Anwar was murdered in a planned manner at a residence in Kolkata. Police forces of both India and Bangladesh are working simultaneously to unearth the motive behind the murder and who the culprits are. We are following all international protocols to get to the bottom of this," Asaduzzaman Khan, Bangladesh Home Minister, told reporters in Dhaka this morning killing has been taken up by the state CID. Stating that the police had "reliable inputs" that Anwar "may have been murdered", Akhilesh Chaturvedi, IG, CID, said that the police were yet to recover the victim's body . "We had no prior intimation of the Bangladeshi MP's arrival to this city. We came to know about him after his acquaintance in Kolkata, Gopal Biswas, filed a missing diary on May 18. A Special Investigation Team was formed by the Barrackpore Police Commissionerate to trace the missing politician. CONTD. ON P7 Meet India-born Nikesh, 2nd highest paid CEO in US EARNS MORE than Sundar Pichai and Mark Zuckerberg AGENCIES / Washington Nikesh Arora, the Indiaborn CEO of Palo Alto Networks, has been ranked America's second-highest paid CEO in 2023. With a compensation of $151.43 million, the 56-year-old's earnings have surpassed those of many tech giants, like Meta's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sundar Pichai. A total of 17 Indian-descent CEOs are in the top 500 rankings, accord- ing to an analysis published by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday . Shantanu Narayen of Adobe is the second-highest paid Indian-descent CEO, ranked 11 overall. Arora and Narayen earned $151.43 million and $44.93 million, respectively , more than Tesla's Elon Musk, who did not receive any compensation in 2023, according to the report. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg earned $24.40 million, while Alphabet's Indiaborn head Sundar Pichai earned $8.80 million during the period under review. A product of Delhi's Air Force Public School, Arora first drew international attention as the chief business officer at Google, which he left in 2014 to head SoftBank with a reported compensation that was said to be a record for Japan. Arora has been heading Palo Alto Networks, a cybersecurity company, since 2018. His compensation at Palo Alto Networks consists mostly of equity awards that include shares granted over three years. CONTD. ON P7 ‘Will throw Agniveer scheme in dustbin’ C NEW DELHI The Congress on Wednesday attacked the Modi government over a media report that claimed that the Adani Group passed off low-quality coal as far more expensive cleaner fuel in transactions with a Tamil Nadu PSU, and said that a JPC will be set up within one month of an INDIA bloc government taking office to probe such allegations. Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi claimed that a "huge coal scam" has come to light under the BJP government and through this "scam", "Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ongress leader Rahul Gandhi said Wednesday the Agniveer military recruitment scheme will be scrapped and thrown in the dustbin if the INDIA bloc comes to power, as he slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "turning India's jawan into labourers". In his first election meetings in Haryana for the Lok Sabha polls, Gandhi also attacked Modi over the issue of farmers' debts. SEE PG-6 favourite friend Adani" has looted thousands of crores of rupees by selling lowgrade coal at three times the price, which the common people have paid from their pockets in expensive electricity bills. There was no immediate reaction from the Adani group but in the past, the conglomerate has rejected all such allegations. CONTD. ON P7