BENGALURU  SUNDAY  MAY 29, 2022  `12.00  PAGES 26  LATE CITY EDITION RAJASTHAN FACE TITANIC CHALLENGE IN IPL FINAL Gujarat Titans and Rajasthan Royals brace themselves for one last battle in Ahmedabad on Sunday to attain glory CONTRASTING JOURNEY TO THE TOP GUJARAT BOWLERS vs ROYAL BATTING While Rajasthan rode on the consistency of Jos Buttler with the bat and Yuzvendra Chahal with the ball, Titans provided the most consistent team performance throughout the league stage with one player or the other coming to their rescue. On the big day, it will be all about whether the collective team effort can pip the individual stars ■ ■ For Rajasthan, it will be about finding their heroes in the middle-order against a top-quality bowling attack, led by Rashid Khan, as they have struggled once the top-order falls Titans have relied heavily on David Miller and skipper Hardik P13 Pandya, but they would want Shubman Gill to step up `20 cr PRIZE MONEY FOR THE WINNERS WHILE THE RUNNERS-UP WILL GET `13 CRORE 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 ‘In 8 yrs, haven’t given reason to hang head in shame’ D I L I P S I N G H K S H AT R I YA @ Ahmedabad PRIME Minister Narendra Modi, who completed eight years in office on May 26, said on Saturday that his government has left no stone unturned in protecting the dignity of all Indian citizens. Keeping people-centric governance as the motto, the government has not given a single reason to make anyone hang their head in shame in the past eight years, Modi claimed while speaking at an event in Gujarat’s Rajkot. “In the past eight years, we have tried to make our country the kind of India Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel dreamt of. I have not done anything, even by mistake, which would make any citizen feel ashamed. We have given priority for good governance,” Modi said while inaugurating a multispecialty hospital at Atkot in Rajkot district. Modi claimed his government has eased the life of the Fresh plea in SC against Places of Worship Act EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi ECO LOSS Rock bees prefer safe bldg corners B O S K Y K H A N N A @ Bengaluru DIMINISHING tree cover and emphasis on 3D architectural structures in cities are causing honey bees — especially rock bees (Apis dorsata) — to seek niches in such structures to build honeycombs, much to the fear of residents and occupants of such buildings. 3D spaces are corners of buildings where three sides are covered with structures, providing sufficient shade, little sunlight, and additional pillar spaces without any base below them. Such spaces to build their honeycombs provide protection from predators like Honey Buzzard. Entomologists said since use of glass structures, airconditioners, cement and stone is high in architectural designs these days, additions which are done using pillars for aesthetic beauty keep corners of buildings cool, proving ideal for bees to build their colonies in these spaces. The rise in bee colonies on tall residential and commercial buildings has caught the attention of All India Council of Honey Bees and state organisations to check on reasons and their numbers. As per a 2021 survey there , were 8,000 such bee colonies in Bengaluru alone. This year, even as the survey is ongoing, entomologists have seen a drop by 5- 10 per cent because of such hives being destroyed by residents and occupants with help of lay experts specialising in beehive demolition — a thing discouraged by apiarian experts and P5 entomologists. NO BARS HERE P2 W I T H T H I S I SSU E HOW YOUNG12INDIA THINKS PLUS PAGES ATTEMPTS to challenge the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 have reemerged amid the controversy over a Shivalinga-like structure being found in the Gyanvapi mosque. The latest to move the Supreme Court is Devkinandan Thakur, a Mathurabased religious guru. His petition challenges certain sections of the 1991 law, claiming these violate the rights of religious groups to seek judicial intervention to reclaim their places of worship. The 1991 law passed by the then Congress government, preserves the character of a religious place as it stood on August 15, 1947. The plea states that the Centre has “transgressed its legislative power” by barring remedy of judicial re- view which is a basic feature of the Constitution. The plea by Thakur challenges the validity of Sections 2, 3, and 4 of the law. “The injury caused to the Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs is extremely large because sections 2, 3, 4 of the Act has taken away the right to approach the court and thus right to judicial remedy has been closed,” he said. While Section 3 deals with the bar of conversion of places of worship, Section 4 pertains to the declaration as to the religious character of certain places of worship and the bar of jurisdiction of courts. “The Hindus are fighting for restoration of the birthplace of Lord Krishna but while enacting the Act, the Centre has excluded the birthplace of Lord Ram at Ayodhya but not the birthplace of Lord Krishna in Mathura, though both are incarnations of Lord Vishnu,” it said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking at an event in Gujarat on Saturday | PTI poor and the middle class. “When everyone gets their due, there is no scope for discrimination or corruption,” he said. Modi pointed out that Mahatma Gandhi wanted an India in which the poor, Dalits and women are empowered, where cleanliness and good health are part of life, and where economy is based on swadeshi solutions, adding that his government has scored on all these. Extolling the achievements of his government, he said, “When pandemic began, the poor began facing a food crisis. We opened the food grain stores for the people. For a life of dignity to women, direct transfer was made to Jan-Dhan bank accounts. Money was transferred to the bank accounts of farmers... free gas cylinders were given to the poorest of the poor. We also ensured free Covid vaccines for every Indian.” Targeting the Opposition, he said some parties blindly oppose anything and everything his government does for political reasons. Curious delay in military sat launch C H A N D A N N A N D Y @ New Delhi ARE misplaced priorities of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) hurting Indian armed forces’ communication and navigation systems? Four dedicated navigation satellites of the Indian armed forces, which would have improved the defence establishment’s communication systems by several notches, are yet to go up in space. Reason: ISRO’s “misperceived priorities” in general and the decision by its former chairman K Sivan to put their launch in the backburner, sources said. Curiously, another critical component of the Navigation JAB-O-METER TAKE YOUR SHOT May 27 12,64,122 doses May 28 12,17,432 doses TOTAL DOSES 1,93,26,76,918 NATIONWIDE MAY 27 MAY 28 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 2,710 2,296 14 2,685 2,158 33 KARNATAKA MAY 27 MAY 28 Fresh cases Recoveries Deaths 171 121 0 196 125 0 Hold-up not due to priority issues: Sivan The delay was not because of priority issues but due to difficulty in procuring a particular type of sensor, said former ISRO chairman K Sivan, adding that the pandemic also played a role with Indian Constellation (NavIC) programme built and designed to provide accurate real-time positioning and timing services to the Indian defence forces has also been delayed by three years at the defence ministry level. Sources said NavIC’s accuracy has been hampered because the satellites are not in place. The navigation component, called ‘reference stations’, which are used in heavy artillery for locating very precisely enemy targets on mountainous terrain as well as plains, was first delayed by three years as the Directorate General of Quality Assurance (DGQA) under the defence ministry posed several questions to Indian suppliers. According to some Indian firms, said there is now a threemonth delay in the process because the DGQA has been insisting on several tests of the equipment before they are fiP10 nally commissioned. CODE VIOLATION Police file FIR against Minister Ashwath Narayan E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Mysuru THE Mandya West Police have registered an FIR against Higher Education and IT/BT Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan and BJP candidate M V Ravishankar on charges of violating the model code of conduct while campaigning for Karnataka Legislative Council elections from the South Graduates’ Constituency scheduled to be held on June 13. The FIR was filed following directions from the Second Judicial Magistrate of First Class Court under the Representation of People Act and under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for campaigning for Ravishankar in Mandya Pre-University College and Mandya Medical College. CONTINUED ON: P4 EXPRESS READ HC sets deadlines for speedy probe of cases Bengaluru: Classifying criminal offences as petty, serious and heinous offences, the HC issued guidelines for speedy probe, fixing 60 days for petty offences and 90 days P3 for serious, heinous offences.