BHUBANESWAR l friday l may 27, 2022 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l lATE CITY EDITION number of road accidents declines since 2016: REport There were 4,80,652 accidents in 2016 as against 3,66,138 in 2020, according to a report by the Ministry of Road Transport only 12% fall in accident Deaths more deaths per 100 mishaps The number of accidents rose every year between 2005 and 2016. But between 2016 and 2020, the number has come down every year, except for a 0.46% rise in 2018, according to ‘Road Accidents in India - 2020’ report. The number of accidents dropped 23% between 2016 and 2020, but the number deaths fell only 12% to 1,31,714 from 1,50,785 ■ ■ Despite fewer accidents being recorded, their severity has been on a rise. Twenty-one deaths were reported per 100 accidents in 2005, which jumped to 36 deaths per 100 accidents in 2020 Accident deaths blamed on red-signal jumping increased by a whopping 79% from 266 deaths in 2019 to 476 in 2020 69% Accident deaths were in the 18-45 age group in 2020 CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Bengal proposes to make CM chancellor of universities Dhankhar and Mamata have been at loggerheads over a range of issues. The West Bengal cabinet on Last year, a row erupted Thursday approved a proposover suggestions that the al to appoint Chief Minister governor be replaced from the titular post of ChancelMamata Banerjee as the lor of state-run universities chancellor of all state govin West Bengal. ernment universities Dhankar alleged that the “Today, the state cabinet state government was makgave its consent to the proing appointments to the posal to make the chief vice-chancellor post in minister the chancellor PunchHi various universities of all state-run universicommission without consulting him, ties in place of the goverreport 2010 and he is being forced to nor. This proposal will The cabinet’s take a strong view of soon be introduced as a decision was such developments. bill in the assembly State ,” based on a Tamil Nadu governeducation minister Bratya Basu, who tabled the recommendation by ment last month adopted the Punchhi two bills to curb the govproposal before the state Commission in 2010 ernor’s power to appoint cabinet, said. that the practice of A member of the cabivice-chancellors to 13 net said a bill would be in- appointing governors State universities. In as chancellors of troduced in the Assembly Kerala, a row erupted universities be to change the chancellor last year when the state stopped of state universities. gover nor Arif Khan “Once the bill is passed, it complained of political will be sent to the governor’s office interference in the appointment of for his approval to amend the change vice-chancellors to state-run univeras an act. If there is no nod from the sities. Later, Chief Minister Pigovernor, an ordinance will be prom- narayi Vijayan made it clear that the ulgated to amend the change replac- state government does not want to ing the governor from the key post.’’ take over the position of the West Bengal governor Jagdeep chancellor. E x p r e ss N e ws Se r v i c e @ Kolkata Centre calls off BPCL privatisation as most bidders back off E x p r e ss N e ws Se r v i c e @ New Delhi THE Centre on Thursday withdrew its offer to sell its 52.9% stake in Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) after most of the bidders expressed their inability to go ahead citing the volatile conditions in the global energy market. “The multiple Covid-19 waves and geo-political conditions affected multiple industries globally particularly , oil and gas industry. Owing to prevailing conditions in the global energy market, the majority of Qualified Institutional Investors (QIP) have expressed their inability to continue in the current process of disin- E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar The State government’s ongoing recruitment process for university teachers has received a jolt with the University Grants Commission (UGC) rasing serious objections to it. The UGC has flagged violation of the Supreme Court stay order on Odisha Universities (Amendment) Act, 2020 by Odisha Public Service Commission (OPSC). In separate letters to Secretary of OPSC and Commissioner-cum-Secretary of Higher Education department on Wednesday, UGC Secretary Prof Rajnish Jain said despite the stay order on the Act for three months, the Cong to take a leaf out of Left’s ‘bucket collection’ NATIONWIDE may 25 may 26 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths odisha Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 2,124 1,977 31 2,628 2,167 18 may 25 may 26 03 13 0 11 12 0 Jab-o-meter Take your shot may 25 11,30,219 doses may 26 12,62,771 doses Total doses 1,92,95,87,987 Imran gives Pak 6-day deadline to announce polls Islamabad: A defiant Imran Khan on Thursday warned that he would return to the Pakistani capital with the entire nation if the “imported government” failed to announce fresh general elections within six-day deadline. “My message for the imported government is to dissolve assemblies and announce elections soumyadip sinha FACING massive funds crunch ahead of the big fight for 2024, the Congress is looking at the Left’s Kerala model of fund-raising where bulk of the party funds are collected from the masses through door-todoor campaign with slips issued against donations. The idea, suggested by former KPCC chief Ramesh Chennithala, was discussed in detail at the recently held Udaipur Chintan Shivir. “It is being considered seriously. There are some issues, such as how it can be implemented, how to ensure funds mana g ement and transparency etc. It will be discussed at the Task Force 2024 meetings,” party sourc- es said. According to an audit report submitted to the Election Commission, the Congress party’s income plunged 58% in FY21 to `285.7 crore, from `682.2 crore in the previous fiscal. In FY19, the party’s income was `918 crore. The Congress is facing acute pressure on the money front, especially after the demise of party treasurer Ahmed Patel, who used to handle party funds through his corporate and other c o n t a c t s. M a d hya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath has been also handling funds generation but ear nings have nosedived in the Modi regime. est in buying BPCL. Among these, only Anil Agarwal-led-Vedanta was in the race as the other bidders reportedly walked out over lack of clarity in fuel pricing. UGC throws SC spanner in teacher appointments KERALA MODEL RIC H A S H A R M A @ New Delhi vestment of BPCL,” said a notification by the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management. A decision on re-initiating the strategic disinvestment process will be taken in due course based on how the situation evolves, it added. The government had issued the expression of interest (EoI) for strategic disinvestment of BPCL in March 2020. However, due to global pandemic and other geopolitical tensions, it had to extend the EoI submission date multiple times. According to reports, only three bidders - Vedanta group, Apollo Global Management Inc. and I Squared Capital Advisors - have shown inter- Most of the CPI(M)’s funds come from its Kerala unit and there is a joke in party circles that the central party survives on funds from the southern state. The general rule for the party is that 70% of funding must be from door-to-door mass-contact funding drive, known as ‘bucket collection’. However, critics have questioned the credibility of such fund-raising drive and even the party itself has called for proper maintenance of funds. In 2013, the Kerala unit of CPI(M) collected `8 crore in just two days for establishing the Harkishan Singh Surjeet Bhawan and the EMS Research Centre. Of the `8 crore, as much as `5 crore was raised through bucket collection with the rest coming from direct contribution from party members. OPSC is continuing recruitment to the post of assistant professors in the subjects of sociology and commerce for universities. This action violates the Supreme Court order, it stated. The OPSC on May 24 had called for physical verification of documents/ certificates of 186 candidates who have been selected for assistant professor (commerce) posts from June 6 to 18. Similarly on May 23, it had published selection of 12 candidates to the posts of assistant professor (sociology). “Since the recruitment of teachers/faculty members by OPSC and the non-teaching staff by State Selection Board is directly in issue in the aforesaid SLPs pending before the Su- preme Court, the continuation of the recruitment process will be in the teeth of the stay order dated 20.05.2022 granted by the Hon’ble Supreme Court,” the UGC Secretary said. Jain has asked the State government to refrain from undertaking any further steps for such recruitment drives failing which, the UGC would take appropriate legal remedy in this regard. Sources in OPSC said the Commission will meet on Friday to seek legal opinion and plan the further course of action on the UGC letter. While the Orissa High Court had earlier upheld the amended Act, the apex court had issued a stay order for three months on it on May 20. CONTINUED ON: P5 It may be recalled that Vedanta Group’s chairman, in one of his interviews had said that his company was willing to spend $12 billion for the deal. BPCL’s current market value is around $11.4 billion. It owns 19,000 petrol pumps, 6,166 LPG distributor agencies and 61 out of the 260 aviation fuel stations in the country. It has 26 assets in Russia, Brazil, Mozambique, the UAE, Indonesia, Australia, East Timor, Israel and India. The buyer will get 35.3 million tonnes of refining capacity -- 12 million tonne Mumbai unit, 15.5 million tonne Kochi refinery and 7.8 million tonne Bina unit. e x p re s s read Karti gets interim protection from arrest New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday granted interim protection from arrest till May 30 to Congress MP Karti Chidambaram in a case registered by the ED in the Chinese Visas case. The CBI on Thursday questioned Karti for 9 hours Most children happy going to govt schools New Delhi: More and more children across the country are joining government schools from class III to 10, as per the latest National Achievement Survey, released by the department of school education and literacy | P7