bhubaneswar l sunday l june 26, 2022 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l jeypore EDITION Romance of Wimbledon: Djokovic defends title Serbian Novak Djokovic and Spain’s Rafa Nadal will reignite their famed rivalry at SW19 from Monday No night sesssions | There are no night sessions, unlike at Record player All eyes on Serena Swiatek’s current winning streak of 35, which encompasses six tournament titles in a row. She is tied for the longest by a woman this century Ranked a lowly 1,204 in the world and without a competitive singles match in 12 months, Serena Williams returns to Wimbledon targeting a record 24th Grand Slam and eighth title at Big W the other three Grand Slam tournaments Women Top three seeds Iga Swiatek Anett Kontaveit Ons Jabeur FIRST Second third Men Novak DJokovic Rafael Nadal Carlos Alcaraz $50 mn Total player compensation. $2.5mn EACH to women & men champs 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 Shinde meets Shah, Fadnavis? Cong’s Suresh Routray PREZ ELECTION Said to request expediting of govt formation; Uddhav to sack six rebel ministers on Monday S u d h i r S u r ya w a n s h i @ Mumbai Amid buzz on rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde flying in to Vadodara on Friday night and meeting BJP leaders Amit Shah and Devendra Fadnavis to discuss government formation, the ruling coalition in the state sought to pressure the dissidents further. According to highly placed sources, Fadnavis was seen at the Mumbai airport taking a Gujarat flight. “Rebel MLAs are getting restless. If there is delay in government forma- tion, things can go awry Shinde . wanted to urge Shah to immediately intervene to resolve the crisis, hence the meeting,” said a source. The leaders, however, were not available for comment. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray called a meeting of the Shiv Sena’s national executive, which authorised him to take decisions to revamp the organisation. On Monday Uddhav is expected to , recommend the sacking of six ministers to Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari. Both sides continued playing mind games with the rebels calling their group Shiv Sena (Balasaheb) and Shinde as its leader. Parallelly, a technical battle was being fought with Deputy Speaker Narhari Jirwal rejecting a no-confidence motion against him sought by the Shinde camp as it was sent via a random email address and was not submitted in person to the Speaker’s office. In a counter-attack, the legis- Punjab in debt trap, says White Paper Jab-o-meter June 24 13,90,325 doses Take June 25 11,19,043 doses your shot Total: 1,97,06,96,547 NATIONWIDE June 24 June 25 odisha Fresh cases 17,336 15,940 Fresh cases Recoveries 13,029 12,425 Recoveries Deaths 13 20 Deaths June 24 June 25 61 24 0 62 47 0 W IT H T H IS ISSU E Anatomy of an Assassination PLUS 12 PAGES express read GST compensation cess levy extended till 2026 New Delhi: The Centre has extended the time for levy of GST compensation cess by nearly four years till March 31, 2026. It was to end on June 30 but the GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and comprising state FMs, on Saturday decided to extend it so that states can repay the loans taken in the last two fiscal years to make up for the shortfall in their revenue collection H a r p r eet B a j w a @ Chandigarh The AAP government in Punjab on Saturday admitted the state was being pushed deeper into a debt trap in a White Paper it tabled in the Assembly, but sought to blame the previous governments for the economic morass. The economies of quite a few state governments are under similar stress, but it is only Punjab that has accepted it upfront. Just last week, the RBI had warned that the economies of Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal, and Bihar are in deep trouble. But Kerala sought to rebut it. Punjab’s debt has spiraled to `2.63 lakh crore and the state has `24,351.29 crore worth liabilities to service in the immediate term, the document said. “The current debt indicators of the state are probably the worst in the country pushing it , deeper into a debt trap,” it claimed. The White Paper was tabled by state finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema on the second day of ongoing budget session. It quantified the current debt as a whopping 45.88% of the state GDP . Debt ballooned 44.23% in the last five years at a compounded annual growth rate of 7.6%, the document added. Pointing fingers at the previous Congress government, it said they left an immediate and medium-ter m liability of `24,351.29 crore. Of that amount, `13,759 crore will go towards non-payment of arrears of the sixth pay commission and `7,117.86 crore for power subsidy arrears. Seshadev’s life journey moves CM Naveen Patnaik to tears Trafficking: NCW proposes uniform SOP New Delhi: The National Commission for Women (NCW) plans to come out with a standard operating procedure (SOP) for Anti Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) in various states as each state has its own rules on rescue and rehabilitation of trafficked women. The SOP will not only guide the police, women welfare agencies and NGOs but also in rescue and rehabilitation. P7 BSP extends support to Murmu for President Lucknow: In yet another setback to the opposition parties in their efforts to present a united front against the BJP-led NDA during the Presidential election, Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has decided to support the NDA’s Presidential candidate, Droupadi Murmu. P8 Naveen Patnaik is seen weeping when Seshadev narrates his experiences in life at Rome E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar Beneath Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s persona of a tough administrator and astute politician lies a soft and sensitive heart. His deeply emotional side came to the fore during his ongoing visit to Rome, when his interaction with an Odia diaspora there left him teary-eyed. As Seshadev Kisan, a research associate in a German University who belongs to Sambalpur, spoke of immense hardships in his life and the constant support and encouragement of the Chief Minister for all that he has achieved today, Naveen became very emotional and was seen wiping tears from his eyes. Hailing from a humble background, Seshadev rose above the grim financial circumstances, overcame all sorts of odds to top examinations and became a gold medallist in Integrated Master of Sciences (MSc) from National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER). He had joined Georg-August University in Germany as a research associate with the help of a scholarship in 2018. He had then been invited by the Chief Minister to meet him. “I am pretty much delighted to meet you for the fourth time. The first time I had met you wearing bathroom slippers, faded shirt and a Nokia phone in 2018 when you had gifted me an iPhone.” With these words when the tribal youth started recalling the moments by waving his iPhone, Naveen was in tears. Seshadev thanked Naveen for supporting him and bringing from nothing to everything. He said he has been able to build a house of `30 lakh with the money he received as stipend during his research on nitrogen containing organic compounds. “Naveen Sir had first invited me to share my journey in front of bureaucrats, ministers, academicians and students at the State Secretariat four years back. He gave me the much-needed courage for an orphan and despondent like me. I have already lost my parents and my sister. He is my parent,” Seshadev CONTINUED ON : P5 said.  After SC verdict, Teesta, ex-DGP Sreekumar arrested E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Mumbai A day after a Supreme Court bench observed that people with vested interest had sought keep the 2002 postGodhra riots pot boiling and suggested action against them, the police arrested activist Teesta Setalvad and former Gujarat DGP R B Sreekumar in Mumbai and Ahmedabad respectively on Saturday . The Gujarat Police sent its AntiTerrorism Squad (ATS) to Mumbai to arrest Setalvad. The court’s ruling was widely read as pointing towards Setalvad’s NGO, Citizens for Justice and Peace, which worked e x t e n s ive l y w i t h many victims, including petitioner Zakia Jafri, whose family was a victim of the Gulbarg Society massacre. Setlavad was a co-petitioner in the case. As for Setalvad, she lodged a complaint at Santacruz against the Gujarat Police ATS for banging her door and assaulting her. Earlier in the day the Ahmedabad , Crime Branch arrested Sreekumar after registering a complaint and conducting a preliminary inquiry. The complaint named Sanjeev Bhatt, Sreekumar and Teesta Setalvad as accused, adding they misrepresented information, damaged the image of Gujarat and abused the legal process. According to the complaint, they had created a situation where false evidence was thrown against the Special Investigation Team probing the case, the trial court, the Gujarat High Court and the Supreme Court. lature’s secretary issued disqualification notices against 16 rebel Sena MLAs, seeking their explanations in writing along with supporting documents by Monday 5.30 pm as to why they failed to attend a party meeting in Mumbai on Wednesday or face disqualification. However, the rebels refused to blink. “Since Shinde has the majority, our side should be heard first. Else, we will approach court and urge the governor to ask the government to prove its majority in the House,” P7 Deepak Kesarkar said. State of crisis A2,63,265 cr Total outstanding debt* How it ballooned 2,63,265 crore (2021-22) 1,009 crore 83,099 crore (2011-12) (1980-81) * 44.23% growth in debt over past five years voices support for Murmu any decision of the high command. While other MLAs of the party have not come out in open Differences have cropped support of Routray it is suspect, up within Odisha Congress over ed that some of them are likely Droupadi Murmu’s candidature to go for the NDA candidate. in the presidential election with Congress has nine MLAs in a section coming out in support Odisha and all of them will be of her. proposers for the OppoSenior party leader sition candidate and MLA Suresh KuYashwant Sinha. The mar Routray on SaturMLAs who were sumAs an Odia I am day said he will seek moned to New Delhi proud that help from party high for an organisational Murmu, a tribal command to unanimeeting recently have lady from Odisha, mously elect NDA canbeen asked to go by has been didate Murmu as the announced as the party line in the presinext President of dential election. Presidential India. Besides, both presicandidate of the Routray told mediadent of the Odisha NDA. Party president Sonia persons here that as Pradesh Cong ress Gandhi should an Odia he is proud Committee Sarat Patthat Murmu, a tribal take steps for the tanayak and leader of unanimous lady from Odisha, has the Congress Legislabeen announced as the election of Murmu ture Party (CLP) Naras the next presidential candidate President of India asingha Mishra had of the NDA. “As an announced support for Suresh Routray, Odia, I am very happy the Opposition candiCongress MLA and want that party date and said that parpresident Sonia Ganty MLAs will not supdhi should take steps for the port Murmu. unanimous election of Murmu However, sources said that as as the next President of India,” the Odisha CLP is faction ridhe stated. den and some of the MLAs want The Congress MLA said that a change of the leadership of he will write to the party presi- the legislature party they may dent in this regard. He, however, not go by party line and vote for maintained that he will go with the NDA candidate. E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar