bhubaneswar l Saturday l february 04, 2023 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l jeypore EDITION IMF giving Pak tough time amid crisis: Shehbaz Sharif The conditions that the Fund wants Pakistan to meet are ‘beyond imagination’, the Pakistan prime minister said $7-billion assistance being reviewed Sharif added that Pakistan will fulfil the conditions, but refused to divulge more details. The IMF mission led by Nathan Porter is in Islamabad to hold talks with the Pakistan side headed by finance minister Ishaq Dar for the review of the $7-billion assistance package. Experts say Pak’s forex reserves have fallen to $3.09 billion, which would cover just around 3 weeks of imports ■ $1.1 bn Focus on fiscal consolidation ■ According to reports in local media, the IMF wants clear action to bridge the daunting fiscal gap between 2 and 2.5 lakh crore rupees Pakistan has agreed to increase petroleum prices and allowed a market base exchange rate but that seems too little and too late as the IMF wants more measures to increase revenues Outstanding amount Pakistan IS TO GET from IMF’S $7-bn bailout SECURED IN 2019 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 RBI, govt bid to calm nerves on Adani stock Dow Jones to drop scrip from sustainability index; Moody’s sees impact on fund raising SAC H I N K U M A R @ Mumbai India has a stable government and a well-regulated financial market. Our regulators are very stringent about governance practices. One instance should not be going to be indicative Nirmala Sitharaman, finance minister General audit by ‘big four’ In a bid to instill confidence among investors, Adani group said it will appoint one of the ‘big four’ global accounting firms to conduct a general audit of its business. Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings, which said there is no immediate impact on the ratings of Adani entities and their securities patient dead Moody’s said the recent sell-off in Adani shares could reduce the group’s ability to raise capital and that it is assessing overall financial flexibility, including liquidity position of Adani firms. Taking a harsh stand, S&P Dow Jones Indices said it would remove Adani Enterprises from the widely used sustainability indices on February 7, making the shares less appealing to environmentconscious investors. In another blow to the Indian conglomerate, S&P Global Ratings revised its outlook for Adani Ports and Special Eco- nomic Zone and Adani Electricity from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’. However, the Gautam Adaniled group found backing from Fitch Ratings, which said there is no immediate impact on the ratings of Adani entities and their securities. On Friday, shares of Adani Enterprises recovered after hitting a fresh 52-week low of `1,017.45 on the NSE. Meanwhile, amid opposition parties’ clamour for a Joint Parliamentary Committee, Union minister Pralhad Joshi said on Friday that the government has nothing to do with the Adani issue. n aba d a s m u r d e r No faith in cops, LoP Mishra drops PSO US bars eye drops import from Chennai pharma unit E x p ress N e w s S er v ice @ Sambalpur Even as the Odisha police is grappling with minister Naba Kishore Das’ murder case for close to a week, leader of Opposition Jaynarayan Mishra on Friday dropped his personal security officer (PSO) citing lack of faith in the security system. Coming down heavily on the government for failing to solve the murder of a sitting minister, the senior BJP leader alleged that efforts are on to suppre ss t h e matter. He alleged that Odisha police under the ruling BJD has not only failed to discharge its duties, but also is involved in criminal activities. The state police is being used for various unlawful activities be it booth capturing E x p ress N e w s S er v ice @ New Delhi The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has restricted imports of products by Chennai-based Global Pharma after its eye drops were linked to an outbreak of “extensively drugresistant” bacteria across 12 states in the US, which reportedly infected 55 people and led to the death of one person. After the FDA asked the company to recall its eye drops sold under the brand names EzriCare or Delsam Pharma, Global Pharma said it has voluntarily recalled them. These eye drops are not sold in India. Teams from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) and Tamil Nadu Drugs Control Department are on their way to inspect the plant in Chennai. Officials said it is a contract manufacturing plant supplying through others to the US market. V P Vijayalakshmi, Director in charge of Drugs Control, said details about the unit will be known after the inspection. This is the third incident of India-made drugs being linked with reported deaths abroad since last October. Earlier, the World Health Organization (WHO) had issued medical alerts twice for India-made drugs linked to alleged deaths of 66 children in The Gambia and 18 children in Uzbekistan. In a statement on Thursday, the FDA cited multiple violations of manufacturing regulations by the company including , a lack of appropriate microbial testing and a lack of proper controls concerning tamperevident packaging. WITH the Adani group saga still unravelling, the regulators and the Centre on Friday came up with clarifications to calm investors’ frayed nerves. While the Reserve Bank of India sought to allay the concerns about lenders’ exposure to Adani Group saying the banking sector remains resilient and stable, Union finance minister Nirmala Sithraman reiterated that the exposure of State Bank of India and the Life Insurance Corporation is within limits. Sitharaman said in a television interview that govern- ment-owned financial institutions do not have overexposure in Adani group stocks. On LIC’s exposure, the finance minister said even with valuations falling, the company is still sitting on profits. SBI chairman Dinesh Khara also chipped in, clarifying that the bank’s exposure to Adani group is only 0.88% of its total loans, or `27,000 crore, while Bank of Baroda said its exposure is one-fourth of the permissible ceiling. However, there was no respite for Adani as bad news kept pouring. Credit rating agency during elections, distribution of money and liquor or suppressing criminal cases for government. “Under such circumstances, I cannot trust Odisha police. I have dropped my PSO provided by the government as I do not have faith that I can be saved if something unforeseen happens to me,” he said. Referring to the briefing of director general of police (DGP) Sunil Kumar Bansal on Friday, Mishra said the top police officer of the state could not answer any question satisfactorily. Quoting the DGP who said only Lord Jagannath can predict such outcomes (the incident in which the minister was attacked and killed), Mishra asked what was the intelligence wing doing. “The state government and the Odisha police are deliberately trying to suppress the matter,” he added. The leader of Opposition wondered how the government and Odisha police failed to solve the murder mystery, when they can do “miraculous things like performing surgery on a dead body and find pieces of letter from a septic tank.” “They have not been able to find the bullet fired at the minister but they found remnants of a letter flushed down a septic sludge,” Mishra said.  Continued on P5 Probe will take time: DGP E x p ress N e w s S er v ice @ Bhubaneswar FIVE days after cabinet minister Naba Kishore Das was gunned down, Director General of Police (DGP) Sunil Kumar Bansal on Friday said the probe will take more time. “CID-CB is investigating the case under the monitoring of retired Orissa High Court Justice JP Das. Some facts regarding the murder have been unravelled. However, it will take some time to ascertain all the facts related to the crime,” Bansal told mediapersons here amidst growing political clamour over the case.  Continued on P5  Local languages in HCs disallowed by SC full court, says Rijiju Union law minister Kiren Rijiju on Friday told the Lok Sabha that the full court of the Supreme Court has refused proposals by various states to permit use of their local languages in their respective high courts. The proposals were made by Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Karnataka | P7 chock a block A major traffic jam is seen on the NH 16 from Acharya Vihar to Rasulgarh as a railway bridge is being demolished to make way for another heightened bridge near Rasulgarh Square in Bhubaneswar | DEBADATTA MALLICK l u c k y c h ar m Chhattisgarh chief minister’s 23 fixation E JA Z K A I S E R @ Raipur PEOPLE’s obsession with fancy car registration numbers matching numerology is nothing new. There are numerous examples of such people spending lakhs of rupees to secure the desired set of numbers, which they believe will bring them good luck. Politicians also do it to remain strong in the game of power, though some wouldn’t admit it publicly as they don’t want to be seen as superstitious. On Friday, the Chhattisgarh government acquired a fleet of new black Toyota Fortuner cars in Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s carcade, each carrying the number BB 0023. “The number 23 is lucky for Bhu- pesh Baghel. Before becoming the chief minister, he was the state Congress president and travelled on a Scorpio having number 0023. He also owned his personal black Fortuner car with number 0023. In election year 2023, the government has purchased new vehicles bearing number 0023. That augurs well for him and the party to move on towards yet another victory,” said Congress leader Ajay Sahu. Ahead of 2018 elections in the state, the then CM Raman Singh of the BJP had got a fleet of 19 Mitsubishi Pajero SUVs with identical numbers ending with ‘004’ for his convoy . Though Singh dismissed any astrological reasons behind the opted numbers — saying he didn’t believe in such numerology or black magic as any number given to him would be lucky — he was confident of securing a fourth-term with the luck numbers. It is another matter that the BJP lost the polls. New cars for security reasons On record, however, officials claim there is no superstition behind choosing the identical numbers, adding that the old cars of the CM had run more than 1.3 lakh kms and had to be replaced for security reasons. The new vehicles come with the latest safety and security features Odisha gets highest `10,012 cr allocation for railways development E x p ress N e w s S er v ice @ Bhubaneswar Odisha received the highest ever allocation of `10,012 crore, up by around three per cent from the previous budget, for development of railway infrastructure in 2023-24. The overall allocation for railways in 2022-23 was `9,734 crore, which included the state share and extra-budgetary resources. Briefing mediapersons, Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw on Friday said the Odisha government had sought an allocation of `8,400 crore but Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a provision of over `10,000 crore, which is the highest-ever allocation for the state. In a bid to improve rail connectivity and passenger amenities across Odisha, new railway lines of 280 km will be laid and 57 railway stations modernised with state-of-the-art facilities in the state in the coming fiscal. “Like several countries where travellers get an opportunity to visit a heritage destination in a world class train directly from the airport, we have planned to connect Lingaraj Temple Road station with Bhubaneswar airport by introducing battery-operated or hydrogen-powered vehicles. Visitors landing at the airport and wishing to visit Puri can board the train from Lingaraj station,” he said. On Vande Metro train, the railways minister said the shuttle service will be rolled out next year for people commuting between two big cities separated by a distance of 50 km to 60 km. “The prototype of the train will be ready by Au- WHAT’S NEW `284cr outlay for new Janjatiya Gaurav corridor 28 `57cr for new port connectivity stations identified under ‘One Station One Product’ initiative 57 stations to be modernised gust. Once introduced, cities like Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Puri can have the Vande metro service,” he said. In the railway allocation, the focus has been clearly on development of railway infrastructure in west and south Odisha districts. The long pending Khurda road-Balangir project has received the maximum budgetary provision of `1,599 crore, up by around 80 per cent than last year’s `891 crore. Prioritising ongoing projects, `300 crore has been allocated for 154 km TalcherBimlagarh railway line, `200 crore for 98.7 km Angul-Sukinda line, `115 crore for 130 km Jeypore-Malkangiri line, `100 crore each for 38 km JeyporeNabarangpur line and Talcher-Angul line with Y connection at Talcher, `50 crore each for 82 km Haridaspur-Paradip line and Nuapada-Gunupur new broad gauge line up to Theruvali.  Continued on P5 SC to have 5 more jugdes, strength to go up to 32 S H R U T I K A K K A R @ New Delhi The strength of the Supreme Court could go up from 27 to 32 within the next few days as the Centre on Friday informed the court that the warrants of appointment of five judges recommended by the collegium could be issued by Sunday . “It is happening. The five warrants of appointments are being issues. It goes to the President by evening. They will be issued,” Attorney General R Venkataramani told a bench led by Justice S K Kaul. On December 13, the Supreme Court collegium had recommended the elevation of Pankaj Roasts govt on transfer The bench said any delay in transfer of judges could result in administrative or judicial action, which may not be palatable. It observed that sometimes the govt clears names overnight. On other occasions it lets them hanging Mithal (Rajasthan HC Chief Justice), Sanjay Karol (Patna HC CJ), P V Sanjay Kumar (Manipur HC CJ), Ahsanuddin Amanullah (Patna HC judge) and Manoj Mishra (Allahabad HC judge) as SC judges. However, the bench expressed displeasure over the delay in even clearing recommenda- tions for transfer of high court judges, saying “it is a very very serious issue”. “Don’t make us take a stand which will be very uncomfortable.” “If transfer orders are not implemented, what do you want us to do,” the bench said, adding that “we withdraw judicial work from them, is that what you want?” The court also pointed out that one judge whose elevation as chief justice a HC was recommended, was to demit office in 19 days. “You want him to retire without being appointed as the chief justice?” the bench asked. The A-G said necessary action is being taken on it.