bhubaneswar l tuesday l march 28, 2023 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION REVISED NCERT textbooks LIKELY FROM 2024-25 academic session The textbooks will be developed in accordance with the National Curriculum Framework, a key component of the new National Education Policy Books to be available in 22 languages New 5+3+3+4 structure to replace 10+2 On Monday, Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan held a high-level meeting on faster rollout of textbooks based on NEP 2020. During the meeting, he suggested that the textbooks be developed in 22 languages included in 8th Schedule of the Constitution. The new NCERT textbooks will also be available in digital format, education ministry officials said | P7 ■ NEP 2020 envisages a 5+3+3+4 academic structure, which will replace the traditional 10+2 model. Under this, children will spend five years in the foundation stage, which covers pre-primary till grade 2; three years each in the preparatory (grades 3 to 5) and middle (grades 6 to 8) stages; and four years in the secondary stage (grades 9 to 12) 2020 When the Central Government started the process to revise school textbooks 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 Big consolidation as TMC joins call to Congress to unite Oppn P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi Israel on the boil, Netanyahu blinks Thousands of Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan in Jerusalem on Monday. Sensing the mood, the PM later put the plan on hold, though he did not back down on the need for reform. Labour unions reciprocated by calling off their general strike | AP | P9 Postal dept to weed out fakes in last hiring A s i s h M e h ta @ Bhubaneswar EVEN as Balangir Police is set to dig into pan-India links in the certificate fraud by sending out teams to other states, the Department of Posts has launched an internal inquiry into its last phase of recruitment in the state. About 1,500 to 2,000 fake certificates of boards of secondary education, colleges and universities of different states were seized from prime accused Manoj Mishra during investigation by police. “Our initial investigation suggests he was being assisted by a native of Meerut,” said a senior police officer. Police suspect that apart from pro- express read Amritpal Singh likely in Nepal, under govt radar Kathmandu: Nepal on Monday put fugitive radical preacher Amritpal Singh, who is believed to be hiding in the country, on its surveillance list. The move is after India requested it not to allow him to flee to a third country using an Indian passport or any other fake passport. Singh is said to be possessing multiple passports with different identities | P8 Naveen appoints new party observers for dists Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik on Monday appointed new party observers for all the 30 districts, while giving charge of highest number of four districts to general secretary (organisation) Pranab Prakash Das. The change in district organisational in-charges has signalled that the ruling party is getting into poll mode | P3 viding fake matric certificates/mark sheets to Gram Dak Sevak (GDS) job aspirants in Odisha, Mishra may have arranged forged documents for candidates in other parts of the country too. The fraud came to fore after Department of Posts verified certificates and found 37 candidates had scored between 98 per cent and 99 per cent marks. All had got their certificates from Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad which prompted the officials to flag the cases. Department of Posts’ Odisha circle too has begun to scrutinise recruitments made in last six months when the previous batch of hiring was carried out. It is inquiring about candidates who were selected on the basis of their overwhelming scores in matric examinations, said reliable sources. Meanwhile, teams will be sent to states like Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand as the scam is suspected to have spread across the country, SP Kusalkar Nitin Dagudu said. Apart from providing fake certificates to GDS candidates, the accused were selling fake board/college/university documents since 2016 to aspirants of Indian Railways, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) besides jobs of teachers, pharmacists, revenue inspectors, amin, nurses and other state government posts. SC poser on uniform Gujarat application of remission tice Joseph asked. While posting the case for April 18, the court said it Terming the gang-rape of Bilkis would not be “overwhelmed by emoBano and the murder of her tions” and would only go by family members during the law. 2002 Gujarat riots as horrenRemarking that the pleas dous, the Supreme Court on involved a gamut of issues, Monday sought response the bench asked as to whethfrom the Centre, the Gujarat er the Gujarat government government and the 11 concould exercise its power of victs whose remission of granting remission and life imprisonment was chalcould the SC cloak an auMHA’s lenged by the victim and sothority with the power to approval cial activists. grant remission when the The convicts were rebody could not do so legally . Additional leased on August 15 last year Solicitor General Advocate Shobha Gupta by the Gujarat government. for Bilkis told the court that S V Raju, A bench of Justices K M CrPC was clear on the fact appearing for Joseph and B V Nagarathna the Union home that the remission was to be asked if the state had apdecided only by the state ministry, said plied the remission policy where the trial was held. the remission uniformly for all convicts “The presiding judge of the had the languishing in jail. “We have trial court said no remission ministry’s before us many murder casshould be granted. The CBI approval es where convicts are lanalso said remission should guishing in jails seeking renot be given... Both the polimission. Is this a case where cies of state and the Union bar the standards have been applied uni- remission,” advocate Vrinda Grover formly as in other cases too?” Jus- submitted. S h r u t i K a k k a r @ New Delhi Conservation matters Veer Sai’s legacy nurtures a safe haven for wildlife M aya n k B h u s a n Pa n i @ Sambalpur IN Bargarh’s Debrigarh sanctuary, love and reverence for Veer Surendra Sai is fuelling wildlife conservation in a cluster of villages where the venerated freedom fighter took refuge in his struggle against the British. Veer Sai is worshipped by natives of around seven gram panchayats for his valorous fight against the British and profound contribution to the Independence struggle. As a tribute to their hero, villagers protect the wildlife sanctuary which played a crucial role in Veer Sai’s life. To celebrate people’s conservation efforts in memory of their leader, the Hirakud wildlife division has installed a memorial at Barabakhra on the outskirts of Debrigarh wildlife sanctuary a key pro, The Veer Surendra Sai memorial near Debrigarh wildlife sanctuary | Express tected area of the region. Barabakhara with a huge cave and waterfall within the sanctuary is a popular pilgrimage of Western Odisha. Debrigarh sanctuary’s role in Western Odisha’s revolution against British under the leadership of Veer Sai is less documented. The freedom fighter constructed a chain of hill forts made of stone and mud at the top of Debrigarh hills, along the principal roads connecting Sambalpur with Raipur, Ranchi and Cuttack. The forts were constructed in and around Debrigarh sanctuary and the contiguous Barapahada hill range stretching from Western Odisha along Hirakud reservoir up to Singhoda of Chhattisgarh. Villages like Paharsirigida, Mundakati, Karla, Ghess, Khajuria, Lakhanpur fought the British from Debrigarh hills and because of Veer Sai’s contributions, the communities worship him at their homes and influenced by his principles, protect the sancContinued on P5 tuary till date.  Signalling a realignment of the Opposition bloc, 18 Opposition parties, including the Trinamool Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), came together and asked the Congress to take the initiative to coordinate with various Opposition parties outside Parliament to challenge the government on critical issues, according to sources. At a dinner meeting called by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Monday, the parties unanimously decided to work together to fight the BJP government ahead of the 2024 general elections. The meeting had representation from the DMK, NCP, JD(U), BRS, CPM, CPI and the AAP, among others. Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi participated. The meeting was called to protest Rahul’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha after his conviction in a defamation case. Earlier in the day, all 18 Opposition parties joined the Congress-led ‘save democracy’ protest in Parliament and later marched from Parliament to Vijay Chowk, reiterating their demand for a JPC to probe the Adani issue. Speaking to this newspaper, Rajya Sabha MP and CPI (M) leader Elamaram Kareem said all Opposition parties at the dinner meeting, including the Trinamool, asked the Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge with leaders of 17 other parties addressing the media after a protest march over Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification, at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi on Monday | PTI Congress to take the lead in co-ordinating the fight to save democracy . “The Congress being the largest party among the Opposition, all the parties agreed that it should take the lead in talking to other parties and fine-tuning strategies to challenge the government on issues, such as corruption (Adani issue) and Rahul’s disqualification. There was a consensus that the Congress should initiate a meeting with top leaders of all parties and take the discussion forward,” he said. According to sources, Rahul told Opposition leaders that “it’s a collective fight to save democracy”. Kareem said that the parties decided to hold more meetings in the coming days to plan strategies.  P7 Now, Rahul gets notice to vacate govt bungalow Disqualified Congress MP Rahul Gandhi was on Monday directed by the Lok Sabha Secretariat to vacate his governmentallotted bungalow at 12, Tughlaq Lane by April 22. “You are allowed to retain Bungalow No 12, Tughlak Lane along with its units, for a maximum period of one month up to 22.04.2023. The allotment... shall deem to have been cancelled w.e.f. 23.04.2023,” the notice said