SAMBALPUR l saturday l september 26, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l CITY EDITION The Centre has extended the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, in specified areas of Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur for six more months CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI NDA allies seek clarity from Gyanesh New model investment treaty coming Chirag, Kushwaha, Devarayalu urge him to publicly address misgivings Pa r v e z S u lta n & R a m a s h a n k a r tional body, the responsibility lies @ New Delhi/Patna with the CEC to present his stance clearly,” Paswan said. He added Amid mounting Opposition attacks that the poll panel should clarify its on the Centre and Chief Election position before the public, rather Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Ku- than addressing the concerns only mar over allegations of arbitrary to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. decisions in connection with the Devarayalu said that while the Special Intensive Revision SIR was conducted trans(SIR) of electoral rolls, parently in Andhra three BJP allies — the Lok Pradesh, a clarification Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas from the EC would be (LJP-RV), Telugu Desam beneficial. Party (TDP) and Rashtriya “From the perspective Lok Morcha (RLM) — on of Andhra Pradesh, havFriday sought clarity on ing closely observed the the electoral process to SIR exercise, I can say that When he was “dispel misgivings” among the process was conducted named in a suicide note voters. in a transparent manner. In a related developAdequate opportunities Present CEC ment, a plea was filed in and sufficient time were Gyanesh Kumar the Supreme Court chal- was in 2006 named provided to every voter to lenging the decisions, accused in a suicide participate and raise conguidelines and software note. He was Kerala cerns,” he said. changes allegedly made by Kushwaha said, “A great Works Secretary the CEC without the condeal of confusion has ariswhen a Malaysian currence of the two elecen regarding the SIR exerproject officer died tion commissioners, saycise. To dispel the confuby suicide after ing they violate the sion, the Election accusing Kumar statutory requirement of Commission should imand others of c o l l e c t ive d e c i s i o n mediately issue a clarificaharassment and making. delays in payments t i o n o n t h e c o r r e c t LJP-Ram Vilas chief position.” to his company for and Union minister Chirag As for the Congress, it a road project Paswan urged the Election held protests across states, Commission (EC) to publicly ad- with demonstrations turning viodress concerns about the electoral lent at some places. There were reprocess and dispel misgivings ports of clashes between the proamong voters, while RLM chief Up- testers and the security personnel. endra Kushwaha pressed for an im- The security forces had to use tearmediate clarification. TDP’s floor gas and water cannons to disperse leader in the Lok Sabha Lavu the protesters at some places. AcSrikrishna Devarayalu said trans- cording to Congress general secreparency from the poll panel would tary (Organisation) K C Venugopal, boost confidence in the constitu- as part of the second phase of the tional institution. protests, all District Congress Com“If questions are being raised mittees will organise similar about the Election Commission, marches to their respective District P7 which is an independent constitu- Collectorates on Monday  . Naveen joins ‘Gyanesh Out’ bandwagon E x p r e ss N e w s S e r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar Joining the growing Opposition demand for the removal of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, BJD president Naveen Patnaik on Friday sought his immediate resignation and called for a thorough review of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Naveen’s remarks came amid intensified criticism of the Election Commission following reports that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi had recorded objections on at least 1 4 oc c asion s over the past 10 months on issues concerning voter registration, deletion and restoration of names and electoral roll data management. “Because of the strong differences between the various Election Commissioners, the Chief Election Commissioner should immediately resign, and the entire SIR process should be thoroughly revisited. The BJD has been against this SIR process from the very beginning,” Naveen told mediapersons in Bhubaneswar. CONTINUED ON P5 P u s h p i ta D e y @ New Delhi An updated model framework for bilateral investment treaties (BITs) is awaiting Cabinet approval, sources said. It is expected to incorporate changes negotiated with countries such as the UAE and Qatar, while Canada will also be covered. The Cabinet is likely to approve it soon, the sources said, adding India has already begun negotiations with several nations under the new framework. Several foreign companies have criticised India’s existing BIT framework, particularly the dispute resolution mechanism, which they say is timeconsuming and creates a significant impediment to further investment. Under India’s current model, foreign investors are generally required to pursue remedies in Indian courts for five years before initiating international arbitration. India terminated BITs with more than 70 countries in 2016 and 2017 and adopted a more restrictive model treaty that narrowed the definition of investment, removed most-favoured-nation provisions and excluded protection against retrospective taxation and certain regulatory measures. Analysts identified the existing framework as one of the factors for stagnating foreign investment flows. The government is now seeking to update it based on its experience in negotiating treaties with the UAE and Qatar. “Four BITs will be finalised soon and people are already going to different countries for negotiations. We have negotiations with 20-25 countries as per the BIT framework of 2016. But later, during our negotia- tions with UAE and Qatar, we moved far away from the previous framework,” a finance ministry official said. However, the domestic judiciary will not be bypassed. The new framework will also maintain certain safeguards for India’s policy-making space. “The framework will be designed in a way to ensure some red lines will not be crossed,” the sources said, adding that tax-related provisions would be excluded from the model BIT. Gross FDI fell to less than 1% of GDP in 2025, compared with a peak of 3.6% in 2008. Golden hit after second chance s URUCHI Singh slept for 13 hours after finishing 25th in the women’s individual 10m pistol qualification event on Wednesday. Kamaljeet did not get a chance to brood over his so-near-yet-so-far moment in the men’s individual 10m pistol qualification event on Thursday . Yet, after getting to know that he would be part of the mixed team on Friday, he did not get proper sleep. He was tossing and turning; he was borderline obsessed with the mixed 10m air pistol event at the picturesque Aichi Prefecture Shooting Range. Though Suruchi had been a constant in the team, Kamaljeet was a late inclusion. The shooting team has had one of the worst outings in recent times. If things had gone as per calculation, India would have won more Kamaljeet and Suruchi Singh (R) celebrate their gold medal success | pti Indraneel Das Express @ asian games Nagoya than gold before the start of Friday’s medal events. The results have betrayed the team. With such a predicament, they started the mixed team campaign. Suruchi and Kamaljeet had shaken of the qualification blues. A pep talk from mother and coach, solitary walks and quiet times were enough for them to recoup. The two are young and are playing their first Asian Games. Nerves are raw and emotions high as the two went about their campaign. Just like the two shooters, the game too is being played at the Asian Games for the first time. Friday was different. A new day and a new beginning as Suruchi and Kamaljeet went about their chores in the final hall after a record performance during qualifications. With four teams in the final, India were the favourites to win gold. It was just a matter of time. “I always dreamt about winning a medal in the Asian Games,” said Kamaljeet. For Suruchi, it was exorcising the ghost of the qualification. More than them, India needed the gold in shooting. HC fiat to meta platforms The Delhi HC on Friday directed Meta Platforms to remove a woman’s morphed picture with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ordered police to provide protection to the victim