FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms FREE PRESS Vol. 14 No. 275 | BHOPAL | THURSDAY | MARCH 20, 2025 | Pages 14 ` 3 | Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026 | RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 www.freepressjournal.in ESTD-1983 iii QUALITY @ VALUE EDITIONS: BHOPAL UJJAIN WORLD Sports Hardik 3.0| Grit, Passion & Challenges P.12 PUNE INDORE NASHIK MUMBAI E-paper Edit Judiciary for sanity P.6 Israel launches fresh Gaza strikes, 13 dead Cinema What’s next for this IIFA winner? P.14 CM PROPOSES, PWD DISPOSES Yadav has thrice announced construction of Parikrama Path, but PWD denies it in House Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL Two different statements on the construction of the Narmada Parikrama Path – one from Chief Minister Mohan Yadav and the other from the Public Works Department – have come out. NARMADA PARIKRAMA PATH Yadav has thrice announced the construction of Narmada Parikrama Path. On the other hand, PWD Minister Rakesh Singh, in reply to a question in the House, said there was hardly any proposal for construction of Narmada Parikrama Path. Yadav announced construction of Narmada Parikrama Path at Omkareshwar on December 3 last year. Then Yadav said shelter homes would also be built on the Narmada Pa- rikrama Path. At a meeting in Indore, in January this year, Yadav again said Narmada Parikrama Path would be developed. Yadav also announced that the Ghats would be developed and houses built. Construction in other areas would also be done, Yadav said. The Chief Minister set up a committee of ministers for total development of the Narmada. A meeting of the committee was held in September last year when it was decided that the Narmada Parikrama Path would be phase-wise developed. CLOSE SHAVE FOR YADAV Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL Chief Minister Mohan Yadav had a narrow escape at Karila temple in Ashok Nagar on Wednesday. When Yadav was coming down through the railings of the temple and talking to media persons, the staircase caved in. Yadav visited Janki temple at Karila where a fair is organised on the occasion of Rang Panchami every year, and lakhs of devotees reach there to have a glimpse of the deity. Just as the staircase caved in, Yadav almost lost his balance. Because Yadav was at the end of the staircase, he was just safe, but those who were at the top fell. 4Continued on | P8 4Continued on | P8 WELCOME HOME | NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams returned to Earth after nine months ‘GRAH’ WAPSI AP Bharat Ratna for Sunita: Mamata CAPE CANAVERAL Stuck in space no more, NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams returned to Earth on Tuesday, hitching a different ride home to close out a saga that began with a bungled test flight more than nine months ago. Their SpaceX capsule parachuted into the Gulf of Mexico in the early evening, just hours after departing the International Space Station. Splashdown occurred off the coast of Tallahassee in the Florida Panhandle, bringing their unplanned odyssey to an end. Within an hour, the astronauts were out of their cap- West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said astronaut Sunita Williams should be conferred with Bharat Ratna for the challenges she faced while spending nearly nine months in space sule, waving and smiling at the cameras while being hustled away in reclining stretchers for routine medical checks. It all started with a flawed Boeing test flight last spring. The two expected to be gone just a week or so after launching on Boeing's new Starliner crew capsule on June 5. So many problems cropped up on the way to the space station that NASA eventually sent Starliner back empty and transferred the test pilots to SpaceX, pushing their homecoming into February. Then SpaceX capsule issues added another month's delay. Sunday's arrival of their relief crew meant Wilmore and Williams could finally leave. NASA cut them loose a little early, given the iffy weather forecast later this week. 4Continued on | P8 Ancestral Gujarat village over the moon Welcome back, Crew9! The Earth missed you Residents of NASA astronaut Sunita Williams' ancestral village Jhulasan in Gujarat's Mehsana district on Wednesday celebrated her safe return by bursting firecrackers, distributing sweets, dancing and offering prayers to the local deity Narendra Modi Prime Minister fp Briefs ‘States show high per capita for devpt, say 75% population BPL for subsidies’ CHANDIGARH PTI Cops clean up Shambhu Border NEW DELHI Punjab Police on Wednesday removed farmers from the Punjab-Haryana Shambhu Border who were sitting on a protest over various demands. Police also removed temporary structures erected by farmers at the protest site. Several farmer leaders including farmer leader Jagjit Singh Dallewal who is on an indefinite fast and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha leader Sarvan Singh Pandher were detained by the Police. The Supreme Court on Wednesday said states showed a high per capita growth when asked to highlight the development index but claimed 75 per cent of their population was below poverty line when it came to subsidies. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh said the benefit of subsidies should reach the genuine beneficiaries. "Our concern is that are benefits meant for the genuinely poor persons percolating to those pockets who do not deserve it? Ration card has become a popularity card now," said Justice Surya Kant. The judge went on, "These states just say we have issued these many cards. 4Continued on | P8 drenched in colours Over 5 lakh participate in Indore’s traditional Gair on Rang Panchami pic: Pintu Namdev WMO report CO2 levels at 8,00,000 year-high PTI NEW DELHI Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels reached 420 parts per million in 2023, the highest in the last 8,00,000 years, according to the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) State of the Climate report published on Wednesday. The report said long-term global warming is currently estimated to be between 1.34 and 1.41 degrees Celsius compared to the 1850-1900 baseline. It said that tropical cyclones, floods, droughts and other disasters in 2024 led to the highest number of new displacements recorded in the past 16 years. These events also worsened food crises and caused massive economic losses. Carbon dioxide levels in 2023 (the latest year with complete global data) were 420.0 ± 0.1 parts per million (ppm), 2.3 ppm higher than in 2022 and 151 per cent of the pre-industrial level (1750). The WMO said 420 ppm corresponds to 3,276 gigatonnes (or 3.276 trillion tonnes) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The report said the past 10 years (20152024) were the warmest on record, with each of the last eight years setting new highs for ocean heat content. Around 90 per cent of the extra heat trapped by greenhouse gases is absorbed by the ocean, warming it and affecting marine life, weather patterns and sea levels. In 2024, global mean sea level was the highest since satellite records began in 1993. The rate of sea level rise from 2015-2024 was double that of 1993-2002, increasing from 2.1 mm per year to 4.7 mm per year, the UN weather and climate agency said. 4Continued on | P8 Nagpur violence mastermind arrested PTI Ganjbasoda tense after woman’s suicide; car, bike, pipes set ablaze Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL NAGPUR Minority Democratic Party (MDP) leader Fahim Khan has been arrested for allegedly leading a protest outside a Nagpur police station on Monday after VHP workers staged an agitation for the removal of Aurangzeb's tomb, which triggered violence. Khan's name is mentioned in one of six FIRs registered so far along with 50 others in connection with the violent clashes that left several police personnel injured. Police are investigating whether Khan played any role in instigating riots, an official said on Wednesday. 4Continued on | P8 A car, a motorcycle, plastic pipes and wooden logs were set on fire as tension flared between two communities at Ganjbasoda in Vidisha district, following a woman’s suicide, police said on Wednesday.Police have arrested the accused under abetment of suicide sections of the BNS, officials said. Superintendent of Police Rohit Kaswani said that on Tuesday, a woman was found hanging in her home. Her family rushed her to a nearby hospital, where doctors declared her dead on arrival. According to family, the woman had a relationship with a man from another community, which they claim led to her taking her own life. The police arrested the accused on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, after postmortem, the body was handed over to the family. However, they demanded harsher charges against the accused and called for his house to be demolished.The family tried to block the road with deceased’s body in protest. Police managed to calm them and urged them to proceed with the last rites. Meanwhile, violence broke out in the village, with people targeting property belonging to the other community. 4Continued on | P8