FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms Vol. 14 No. 191 | BHOPAL | TUESDAY | DECEMBER 24, 2024 | Pages 14 ` 3 | Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026 | RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 FREE www.freepressjournal.in Sports Manu shockingly overlooked for Khel Ratna Award P.13 ESTD-1983 iii QUALITY @ VALUE EDITIONS: BHOPAL UJJAIN MONEY PRESS PUNE INDORE NASHIK Telecom subscriber base in India sees decline in October 2024 Nation Record govt jobs provided in one-and-a-half... Send Hasina back: B’desh the Bangladesh high commission today in connection with an extradition request. At this time, we have no comment to offer on this matter," said a source. There was no comment from the ministry. Hasina, 77, has been living in India since August 5 when she fled the country following a massive student-led protest that toppled her 16-year regime. Bangladesh-based International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) has issued arrest warrants for Hasina and several former Cabinet ministers, advisers, and military and civil officials for "crimes against humanity and genocide". Earlier on Monday, Home Adviser Jahangir Alam said his office sent a letter to the foreign ministry to facilitate the ousted premier's extradition from India. "We have sent a letter to the foreign ministry regarding her extradition. The process is currently underway," he told reporters in response to a query. Alam said an extradition treaty between Dhaka and New Delhi already exists and Hasina could be brought back to Bangladesh under it. NGT seeks response over stubble burning cases in MP Ex-SC judge appointed new NHRC chief PTI ‘NO COMMENT’ Bangladesh's interim government on Monday said it has sent a diplomatic note to New Delhi requesting for extradition of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been living in India since fleeing Bangladesh in August. Bangladesh's de facto foreign minister Touhid Hossain said Dhaka wants Hasina back to face the judicial process. "We have sent a note verbale to the Indian government saying that Bangladesh wants her back here for the judicial process," Hossain told re- fp Briefs NEW DELHI Jaishankar to kick off US visit today External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will pay a sixday visit to the US from Tuesday, in the first highlevel trip from India after Donald Trump won the US presidential election. An official readout said Jaishankar will meet his counterparts to discuss key bilateral, regional and global issues. "External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will visit the United States of America from December 24-29," the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a brief statement. It said Jaishankar will also chair a conference of the Consul Generals of India in the US. NEW DELHI ‘10L govt jobs provided in one-and-half yrs’ Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said his government has provided nearly 10 lakh permanent government jobs to youths in the last one or one and a half years which, he asserted, is a record. Addressing recruits at a Rozgar Mela through a virtual event, where over 71,000 people were given appointment letters, he said never before in the tenure of any previous government were jobs provided in such a India received a note verbale from Bangladesh in connection with an extradition request for Sheikh Hasina."We confirm that we have received a note verbale from the Bangladesh High Commission today in connection with an extradition request. At this time, we have no comment to offer on this matter," a source said. porters in Dhaka. It is learnt that the diplomatic note or note verbale was handed over to India's external affairs ministry by the Bangladeshi high commission in New Delhi. Indian government sources confirmed receiving the note verbale. "We confirm that we have received a note verbale from PTI NEW DELHI The National Green Tribunal has sought a response from pollution watchdog CAQM on Madhya Pradesh recording the highest stubble burning cases in the country. The green body was hearing a matter in which it had taken suo motu cognisance of a media report about the state recording 11,382 stubble burning incidents, surpassing Punjab's 9,655. In an order dated December 13, a bench of National Green Tribunal Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Expert Member A Senthil Vel said, "As per the article, the increase in stubble burning is linked to the rise in paddy cultivation, which has doubled over the last decade. The worst-affected districts are Sheopur (2,424 cases) and Narmadapuram (1,462 cases), where the practice is most prevalent." The bench noted in the report that some farmers alleged burning paddy was a compulsion without alternative methods to remove the stubble. It also noted that farmers of districts such as Betul and Balaghat had adopted sustainable practices to remove the stubble. "The news items attract the provisions of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, and the Environment (Protection) Act. 4Continued on | P6 E-paper Edit Poll rule tweaks raise questions P.8 EXTRADITION NOTE | Diplomatic note requests extradition of deposed B’desh PM DHAKA/NEW DELHI MUMBAI 4Continued on | P6 I-T dept to issue lookout notice against Sharma Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL The Income Tax department is contemplating to issue a lookout notice against former transport constable Saurabh Sharma in connection with the seizure of 52 kg gold and Rs 11 crore in cash from an abandoned car in Mendori village recently. Sources said that the I-T officers suspect that the gold and cash belongs to Sharma. Notably, Sharma went to Dubai much before the Lokayukta police raided his premises and the I-T department seized the abandoned vehicle late on Thursday night. The I-T officials were on a round in connection with the raid against the builders and by chance they were passing through Mendori village and reached the abandoned vehicle on the basis of information. PTI NEW DELHI Former Supreme Court judge V Ramasubramanian has been appointed the new chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, the rights panel said on Monday. The post of NHRC chairperson had been lying vacant since Justice (retd) Arun Kumar Mishra completed his tenure on June 1. Mishra served as the eighth chairperson of the rights panel and was appointed to its top post in June 2021. ‘Why Lokayukta was not informed’ Oour Staff Reporter BHOPAL Local police shall make it clear, why they had informed the Income Tax department about the car, not us, director general special police establishment (SPE) Lokayukta police Bhopal, Jaideep Prasad told media persons here on Monday. Lokayukta police Bhopal have served notices to the main accused of dispropor- 4Continued on | P6 Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL Chief Minister Mohan Yadav said on Monday that the government would take stern action to wipe out corruption. His statement came in the wake of the gold and cash found during the raids on the residential premises of a former constable of the Transport Department, Saurabh Sharma, by inquiry agencies. Yadav said it was his government that stopped extortions at the transport department’s toll barriers. The government has taken action immediately after receiving complaints. He said that his government took stern action and that it opted for zero-tolerance policy in corruption cases. The government will act whenever and wherever it is necessary, he said. From Yadav’s statement it is clear that the government will act against corrupt people in the coming days. After the raids on the residential premises of Sharma, rampant corruption in the Transport Department came to light. Afterwards, CM issued a statement on the issue for the first time. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a money laundering case against a former road transport department constable, who was recently searched by the Lokayukta police on allegations of possession of disproportionate assets and a "linked" seizure of Rs 52 crore gold and cash from an abandoned SUV, official sources said on Monday. The investigation agency has registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to book former transport department constable Saurabh Sharma and some others, the officials said. A case has been filed taking cognisance of the Lokayukta police FIR. The vehicle was found registered in the name of Chetan Singh Gaur, a "close associate" of Sharma. HC denies anticipatory bail to ex-IAS probationer Man kills wife over infidelity suspicion, jumps before train Our Staff Reporter PTI NEW DELHI The Centre has scrapped the 'no-detention policy' for classes 5 and 8 in schools governed by it allowing them to fail students who do not clear the year-end exams, according to officials. Following the amendment to the Right to Education Act (RTE) in 2019, at least 18 states and Union Territories have al- Naxal carrying Rs 25L bounty held in Ch’garh ready done away with the 'nodetention policy' for the two classes. According to a gazette notification, after the conduct of regular examination, if a child fails to fulfil the promotion criteria, as notified from time to time, he shall be given additional instruction and opportunity for re-examination within a period of two months from the date of declaration of results. "If the child appearing in the re-examination fails to fulfil the promotion criteria again, he shall be held back in fifth class or eighth class, as the case may be. "During the holding back of the child, the class teacher shall guide the child as well as the parents of the child, if necessary, and provide specialised inputs after identifying the learning gaps at various stages of assessment," the notification said. However, the government has clarified that no child shall be expelled from any school till the completion of elementary education. "The examination and re-examination shall be competency-based examinations to achieve the holistic development of the child.” 4Continued on | P6 Under-construction bridge wall caves in, 3 workers killed KANKER Our Staff Reporter A senior Naxalite leader, carrying a reward of Rs 25 lakh on his head, has been arrested by security forces in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district, a senior police official said on Monday and termed it as a significant success in fight against Left-wing extremism. Prabhakar Rao alias Balmuri Narayan Rao, a Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee Member of the banned CPI (Maoist), was apprehended on Sunday in the Antagarh police station area of the district, Bastar (Range) Inspector General of Police Sundarraj P said. BHOPAL/SEHORE Three workers were killed after the wall of an under-construction bridge fell in Siyagahan village under the Shahganj police station on Monday. Four labourers were working near the wall at the time of the incident. As soon as the wall fell, the workers came under the debris. Three died on the spot, the police said. The bridge was being constructed to connect Siyagahan and Mangrol villages. When a retaining wall was being constructed, another retaining BHOPAL PTI wall caved in. On getting information, a team of police and administrative officers rushed to the spot. One of the labourers, Sukhram Gaur, resident of Vidisha, was rescued from debris and sent to the Narmadapuram district hospital where his condition was stated to be serious. INDORE The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to grant anticipatory bail to former IAS probationer Puja Khedkar who has been accused of cheating and wrongly availing of OBC and disability quota benefits in the civil services examination. A man allegedly strangulated his wife with a wire and later committed suicide by jumping in front of a train in Lasudia police station area on Monday afternoon. The incident came to the fore after their speciallyabled daughter informed landlord that her mother was not responding. According to police, the deceased were identified as Lakshman Kulkarni and Mani Kulkarni, residents of Khategaon and were staying on rent at Phoenix Township where the incident occurred. Lakshman suspected Mani of infidelity, which often led to arguments between them. After the murder, Lakshman went about half a kilometer away from the house to a railway track and committed suicide. acknowledged Ray’s influence in “helping him” leave his advertising job to pursue the creative life of a filmmaker. In 1959, he started working as a copywriter at a Mumbai-based advertising agency, Lintas Advertising, where he steadily rose to become the creative head. Symbolically, Benegal’s ‘Ankur’ released in 1974 can be considered to be the foundation of an era of pathbreaking filmmaking. 4Continued on | P6 Years later, remembering the classic Ray, Benegal while addressing a nearly- packed auditorium at the launch of “Satyajit Ray Film Retrospective” in Israel said, “Ray's entry into the Indian cinema gave a sense that nobody knew what had hit them, changing the whole of filmmaking, particularly relating to subjects and the manner in which he handled them.” “Satyajit Ray was, of course, the most important Indian filmmaker. I don't think there has been another of that quality since,” Benegal said. 4Continued on | P6 The sources said the two instances could be "linked and that an investigation was underway to find the facts”. Sharma is stated to have availed voluntary retirement from service about a year ago. The ED, according to the sources, has obtained details of these instances from both the Lokayukta police and the IT department. It may summon these two persons and some others linked to them for questioning in the coming days, the sources said. Our Staff Reporter NEW DELHI ‘Ray’ of hope for parallel films over? If maestro Satyajit Ray had influenced parallel Hindi cinema in the late Sixties and the early Seventies, several budding talents had joined the bandwagon among whom the likes of Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani and Saeed Mirza can be named. Benegal was hugely influenced by the classics made by Ray and in several interviews later, Benegal had tionate property against known income Sourabh Sharma his family and his aides to appear in the office and to record their statements. The DG was annoyed and curious about the working of local police Bhopal, that they were having information that Lokayukta police was conducting raid and this vehicle may be the part of the raid, CM: My govt has stopped extortions at toll barriers Govt schools can now fail class 5, 8 students Now ED files PMLA case offgrid ROBIN ROY The seized gold biscuits in such a huge quantity have even surprised the I-T officers and they are trying to find the trail. Sources said that gold biscuits are mostly smuggled through Dubai and Switzerland. The other way of getting gold biscuits is to melt gold ornaments and mould them into biscuits. However, this work does not happen in Madhya Pradesh. The I-T department is going through the incriminating documents seized on the instance of Chetan Singh Gaur, the close aide of Sharma. It is trying to know how much cash transaction has been done by Sharma and which are the properties where he had invested the money. The diary recovered on the instance of Gaur also contains names of many bureaucrats and white collar persons. Ruling that a strong prima facie case was made out against Khedkar, Justice Chandra Dhari Singh said investigation was required to unearth the "larger conspiracy" to manipulate the system, which would be adversely impacted if the accused was granted pre-arrest bail. "Anticipatory bail plea is dismissed. Interim protection from arrest is vacated," Justice Singh said while ruling on Khedkar's anticipatory bail plea. 4Continued on | P6 Brought wife back home on Saturday The family members said that Lakshman worked as a labourer in a company. He had brought his wife back home only on Saturday. During Diwali, the couple had gone to the village with their children, where they had a dispute. Following the dispute, Mani refused to return with him. Lakshman brought her back two days prior to the incident, and after another quarrel, he killed her. Specially-abled daughter informs landlord Lakshman and Mani had a son and a daughter who is a specially-abled child. After killing his wife, Lakshman fled from the house. When the children returned home they tried to wake their mother, but there was no response. After repeated attempts failed, the children went to the landlord and said, "Mother isn t responding." The landlord then went upstairs to the room and found the woman unconscious.