Tapan Kumar Deka SAMBALPUR l Saturday l june 25, 2022 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l CITY EDITION ex-ias officer parameswaran is the new ceo of niti aayog The former bureaucrat, who spearheaded the Swachh Bharat Mission, will replace incumbent Amitabh Kant Samant Goel Parameswaran Iyer Known for executing large projects Deka ib chief, Raw’s Goel gets 1-yr extn Parameswaran Iyer, a 1981-batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, had resigned from civil service in 2009. He came back as Secretary in the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation in 2016 and executed the Narendra Modi government’s flagship sanitation scheme. He resigned from the post in July 2020 and went on to work with the World Bank in the US ■ ■ In another appointment, Tapan Kumar Deka, the ‘crisis man’ who was put in charge of the counter-assaults during the 26/11 Mumbai attack, was named Director, Intelligence Bureau Meanwhile, the tenure of Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) head Samant Goel has been extended by one more year 7 Number of officers Deka has superseded to become ib chief CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■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 SC upholds SIT’s clean chit to Modi Sees no larger plot in the 2002 Gujarat riots E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @New Delhi The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a Special Investigation Team’s (SIT) clean chit to then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and 63 others in the 2002 post Godhra riots in the state and dismissed a petition by slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri’s wife Zakia Jafri. Bringing the curtains down on the bid to reopen the probe, a bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar said the material collected during the investigation does not ‘give rise to strong or grave suspicion regarding hatching of larger criminal conspiracy at the highest level’ for causing mass violence against Muslims. The bench, also comprising justices Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar, termed Zakia’s plea devoid of merit. It spoke of ‘the devious stratagem to keep the pot boiling, obviously, for ulterior design’ and said all those involved in ‘such abuse of process need to be in the dock and proceeded with in accordance with law’. The court also appreciated the SIT for its ‘indefatigable work’ in challenging circumstances and said it has come out with ‘flying colours unscathed’. The bench said no fault could be found with the SIT’s approach, adding its final report in 2012 is backed by firm logic, ‘expositing analytical mind and dealing with all aspects objectively for discarding the allegations regarding larger criminal conspiracy’. The bench upheld the decision of a magistrate in accepting the final report submitted by the SIT. Zakia Jafri had challenged the Gujarat High Court’s October 5, 2017 order rejecting her plea against the SIT decision. “We do not countenance the submission of the appellant regarding infraction of rule of law in the matter of investigation and the approach of the magistrate and the high court in dealing with the final report,” the bench said. Congress leader and former MP Ehsan Jafri was among the 68 people killed at Ahmedabad’s Gulbarg Society during violence on February 28, 2002. WFP to make Odisha’s food security success a global model E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar The World Food Programme (WFP) has highly appreciated the transformational progress made by Odisha in food security and sustainable livelihoods touching the lives of millions of people, specifically the marginalised communities and women, and is set to present it Landmark abortion law in US overturned The US Supreme Court on Friday ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years in the Roe v Wade case. The verdict is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the US states. The ruling came more than a month after the leak of a draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito indicating the overturning P9 as a model for other countries. At a meeting with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who on Friday visited the WFP headquarters in Rome and shared the work done by the State government on strengthening livelihood and food security its Ex, ecutive Director David Beasley said the success story of Odisha can provide learning insights for other similarly placed Naveen Patnaik interacting with WFP ED David Beasley in Rome | Express countries. “We have discussed, today, that the Odisha government and WFP will collaborate to take forward this learning experience and provide a global training platform,” he stated. Addressing a function at WFP, Naveen said that by attaining food sufficiency and initiating large-scale development programmes designed for Uddhav tries to wrest initiative, urges cadre to rebuild the Sena from scratch S u d h i r S u r ya w a n s h i @ Mumbai Two days after vacating his official residence in the wake of a massive revolt, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray sought to take back control by addressing a meeting of the party’s functionaries, invoking Shivaji Maharaj’s spirit to urge the cadre to rebuild the party from scratch. In his emotional address, he also said he was ready to step down as the Shiv Sena president if need be. He said he may have moved out of the official residence of the chief minister, but his determination to fight the crisis was intact. Saying he was pained by the desertion of the MLAs led by Eknath Shinde, he pointed out thet he gave him the plum portfolio of urban development and sent Shinde’s son to Parliament. “Despite this, they blame me for promoting Aditya Thackeray Every father will do . that for his son,” he reasoned. Uddhav also chaired a meeting of districts collectors and secretaries and asked them continue with development works related to welfare of the people irrespective of the political twists and turns. He also Back to the roots Of the total 96 Shakha pramukhs of the Sena, 85 attended the meet at Shiv Sena Bhavan at Dadar. Aditya Thackeray addressed them in-person while Uddhav spoke virtually discussed the Covid situation and a possible mask mandate in Mumbai, given that the infection count is going up. In the evening NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar called on Uddhav at his residence. NCP state president Jayant Patil and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar accompanied Pawar for the meeting. As for Shinde, he sought legal advice after Deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal approved the appointment of Ajay Chaudhari as the Sena’s legislative party leader replacing him (Shinde), and Sunil Prabhu as the chief whip. The Shinde camp had written to Zirwal seeking the appointment of Bharat Gogawale as chief whip instead of Prabhu. creating climate-resilient livelihood and nutrition, Odisha is moving consistently towards sustainable development goals (SDGs) and inclusive development. The Chief Minister lauded the partnership with WFP on several fronts which have not only been effective in the State but have also been scaled up naContinued on: P5 tionally  . e x p r e ss r e a d Odia actor Raimohan dies by suicide Veteran actor Raimohan Parida allegedly died by suicide in his house in Bhubaneswar’s Prachi Vihar area on Friday, leaving the Odia film industry and his fans in shock. The 58-year-old actor took the extreme step when his wife Ranjita and two daughters were away. P2