CORE SECTOR OUTPUT GROWS 18.1% IN MAY Cement Coal Electricity Fertiliser Refinery products Steel Natural gas Crude oil 26.3% 25.1% 22% 22.8% 16.7% 15% 7% 4.6% Higher expenditure pushed the Centre’s fiscal deficit at the end of May to 12.3% (`2,03,921 cr) of the annual budget target for 2022-23 (`16,61,196 cr) Fiscal deficit was at 8.2% of the Budget Estimate of 2021-22 during the year-ago period | P13 The eight core infra sectors had grown 9.3% in April 2022 These sectors had expanded by BENGALURU  FRIDAY  JULY 1, 2022  `9.00  PAGES 42  LATE CITY EDITION FISCAL DEFICIT WIDENS 16.4% in May 2021 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 Killer landslide in Manipur ANNOUNCEMENT Alert after river flow blocked We are pleased to announce the appointment of Santwana Bhattacharya as Editor of The New Indian Express with effect from today. She joined the group over a decade ago with rich experience in newspaper journalism and has been Executive Editor of TNIE. As Editor of TNIE and its Sunday Edition, she will be based in New Delhi. MANOJ KUMAR SONTHALIA Chairman and Managing Director EXPRESS READ K’taka bags top rank in Ease of Doing Business Bengaluru: Karnataka has bagged the ‘Top Achiever’ position in the implementation of Ease of Doing Business ranking of States/Union Territories released by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade on Thursday. Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Telangana were the other states in the category | P4 Garbage collectors to go on strike from today Bengaluru: Demanding regularisation of services, more than 42,000 safai karmacharis will go on an indefinite strike across the state from Friday, forcing homes, hotels and other establishments to manage solid and wet waste on their own. A protest will be held at Freedom Park in Bengaluru from Friday | P2 WHEN IT POURS Vehicles navigate through a flooded road following heavy rain in Mangaluru on Thursday. Normal life was hit as heavy rain lashed Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts throughout the day | EXPRESS | P7 KSPCB to seize plastic from stores E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bengaluru IN the wake of a nationwide ban on use of single-use plastic (SUP), Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) chairman Shanth Avverahalli Thimmaiah on Thursday said that from July 1 (Friday), all items will be seized from all retail stores and other sales units. Imposition of fine on violators will also come into immediate effect from Friday. Enough awareness has been spread, it is now time for action, Thimmaiah said. However, in the first phase of implementation of ban on SUP chips and biscuit pack, ets, water, cold drink and juice bottles, milk sachets and other such items have not been included in the list issued by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). Thimmaiah said Karnataka had implemented the ban on use of plastic since 2016. The manufacturers/suppliers should take back the plastic used for packing items and recycle them. This should be mandatoCONTINUED ON: P7 rily followed. The debris from the landslide has obstructed the flow of the Ijei river, creating a dam-like storage condition. The Noney district administration urged people to evacuate the area, warning that if there is a breach, the waters could inundate the low lying areas P R A SA N TA M A Z U M DA R @ Guwahati AT least eight persons were killed after a hillock crashed down on a railway construction site at Tupul in Manipur’s Noney district in the wee hours on Thursday in one of the worst landslides in the region. Seven of the dead were Territorial Army (TA) personnel, who were deployed for the protection of the under-construction railway line from Jiribam to Imphal. Solomon L Fimate, sub-divisional officer of Noney, said 18 were rescued while over 50 were missing. Several TA jawans, railway employees, labourers and villagers are also among the missing. The toll is likely to go up as many people are still trapped under the debris. The condition of some of the injured is said to be critical. Sabyasachi De, chief public relations officer of Northeast Frontier Railway said an entire hillock van, ished after the landslide. Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh said Prime Minister Narendra Modi telephoned him and offered all help. Multiple agencies, including teams from the National Disaster Response Force, were working at the site, he added. He also announced an ex-gratia of `5 lakh each for the next of kin of the deceased and `50,000 each for those injured. BJP curveball: Shinde CM, Fadnavis Dy Seen as Shah’s masterstroke to diminish the Thackeray brand and curtail the ambitions of the former CM Pawar quip on Fadnavis NCP chief Sharad Pawar said the body language of Devendra Fadnavis showed he was not happy with being asked to be the deputy CM but accepted it against his will because of the discipline RSS inculcated in him. He also said drawing as many as 38 Shiv Sena rebels is not easy but Eknath Shinde pulled it off. “I have spoken with him over the phone and congratulated him.” S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I @ Mumbai WITH the BJP on Thursday pulling off a massive surprise by offering the chief minister’s post to rebel Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde and persuading a reluctant Devendra Fadnavis to be his deputy, it appears to have killed multiple birds in one stone. From his humble beginnings as an auto driver to that of the CM, the rise of the four-time MLA and twice minister has indeed been meteoric. At the oath-taking ceremony, Shinde invoked Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray and Anand Dighe saying his government will follow in their footsteps. Sources saw in the day’s developments a masterstroke by Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde being administered the oath as Maharashtra Chief Minister by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari at Raj Bhavan in Mumbai on Thursday | PTI Union home minister Amit Shah. “By making Shinde the CM, the BJP has not just engineered a vertical split in elected representatives of the Shiv Sena, it also divided the party . More importantly it has dimin, ished the Thackeray brand and reduced him to a caricature. And Shinde will be controlled by the top leadership of the BJP for future manoeuvres,” said a source requesting anonymity . Besides, Shah clipped the wings of Fadnavis, the source said. “Fadnavis was CM from 2014 to 2019. He was also pro- jected as a potential prime ministerial candidate after Narendra Modi. And he has tacit support from the RSS. He was not ready to work as Shinde’s No 2. But Shah persuaded Modi that the Shinde-Fadnavis team would be best in the larger interests of the BJP in Marathadominated Maharashtra. Modi then called Fadnavis and persuaded him to take the job.” Shinde was light-weight minister in the Fadnavis cabinet earlier. The roles reversed on Thursday with Shinde becoming his boss. Fadnavis was hoping to be the new CM. “But it appears that the party leadership decided to not only rub salt on his wounds but also humiliate him by asking him to be deputy CM,” sources said. P9