Imran’S tough challenge TO SHARIF Early trends in Pakistan’s general election suggest independents supported by Imran Khan’s PTI were posing a tough challenge to PML-N candidates in Punjab. Voting began at 8 am and closed at 5 pm. Counting is on and the full results are expected by Friday. Four policemen were killed at a polling station leading to delay in the voting process. Polling was postponed in one seat | P9 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM l friday l February 09, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l LATE city EDITION 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 LDF govt stages protest in Delhi against Centre’s ‘neglect’ Historic battle to save spirit of federalism: Pinarayi Stir turns into show of strength of INDIA bloc india NOT A ‘Union over States’, asserts Pinarayi P r e e t h a N a i r @New Delhi Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury leading a march to Jantar Mantar as part of the LDF government’s protest against the BJP-led Centre’s alleged discrimination against opposition-ruled states in devolution of resources in New Delhi on Thursday | Shekhar Yadav A democracy that was envisaged as a ‘Union of States’ is slowly and steadily being crippled into an undemocratic ‘Union over States’. We are seeing its manifestations across the country, especially in oppositionruled states Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister March to Jantar Mantar show of support jibe at guvs Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, all his cabinet colleagues, eight MPs and 99 MLAs of the left took out a march from the Kerala House to the protest venue at Jantar Mantar on Thursday morning carrying the banner, ‘Fight to Protect Federalism’. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, DMK leader Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, CPI leader D Raja, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Kapil Sibal took part in stir. Most of the speakers at the protest spoke about how governors are acting at the “behest” of the Centre and disrupting state govts where opposition parties are in power. Saying it in Black & White Govt document alleges UPA rule ruined economy Congress counter flags unemployment, injustice Singh-led government, such as lack of leadership that The Narendra triggered a policy Modi-led governparalysis, project ment on Thursday delays, and unprecreleased a white edented scams. The paper on the Indipaper listed out 15 an economy load, scams of UPA era ed with the politiincluding those recal message that lated to 2G and coal the Congress-led blocks allocation. UPA government Brought out just considerably before the LS elecFinance Minister Nirmala weakened the tions, the white paSitharaman speaks in country’s econoper cherry-picked the Rajya Sabha during my during its 10data and quotes of the Budget session of Parliament | pti year rule from experts to attack 2004-14 whereas the UPA gover nthe NDA government revived ment for mismanaging public it through reforms and action- finances and making India exoriented policies. ternally vulnerable. Finance Minister Nirmala It termed the banking crisis Sitharaman tabled the white of 2014 as massive with gross paper in Parliament on Thurs- bad loan levels touching as day a week after she made the high as 12.3% of the advances , promise in her Budget speech ‘largely because of political inon February 1. The paper at- terference by the UPA governtacked the UPA government ment in the commercial lendfor its all-round failure in man- ing decisions of public sector aging the country’s economy, banks’. It stated the gross adwhich it said was in sound vances by public sector banks health in 2004. The white paper were only `6.6 lakh crore in sought to highlight the ineffi- March 2004, but ballooned to ciencies of the Manmohan `39 lakh crore by March 2012. 2012 but it rose to about 4 crore in 2022. 10 lakh sancIN a counter to the tioned central government’s white government posts paper, the Congress remain unfilled. on Thursday reThe unemployleased a ‘black pament rate for per’, also of 54 pagg r a d u at e s a n d es, highlighting postgraduates is what it termed the about 33%. This is social, economic, why engineers are and political ‘injusbecoming coolies tices’ committed by and PhDs are apCongress president the Narendra Modi Mallikarjun Kharge showing plying for railway government in its jobs,” it said. the ‘black paper’ on the 10-year rule. It said that the BJP govt to mediapersons Titled 10 Saal AnModi gover n| Shekhar Yadav yay Kal and released ment’s tenure has by Congress president Mal- seen an unprecedented reduclikarjun Kharge, the document tion in incomes. “The NSSO claims that in the past 10 years, data that the PM suppressed the Modi government has “dev- shows consumer spending fallastated the country’s economy ing for the first time since 1973, , aggravated unemployment, de- from `1,501 in 2011-12 to `1,446 stroyed the country’s agricul- in 2017-18,” it added. tural sector, abetted crimes Listing out the failures of against women, and commit- the government, the paper said ted grave injustices against the prices of essential comminorities in the country”. modities are at all-time high. On the jobs front, the docu- “Blunders like demonetisation ment said the BJP rule has wit- and a poorly-designed GST nessed the highest unemploy- completely derailed the economent rate in 45 years. “Total my and destroyed job-generatunemployment was 1 crore in ing small businesses,” it said. DI PAK M O N DA L @ New Delhi Preetha Nair @ New Delhi It is extremely difficult for opposition states to function as our funds are being cut. (Pinarayi) Vijayan is not here to seek money for his family, he is here to get the allocations due to Kerala. This is our right Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi Chief Minister With a battery of political stalwarts from across the country lining up along with the chief minister and his entire cabinet, the Kerala government’s protest in New Delhi against the Union government’s alleged attempts to undermine cooperative federalism, especially its “discriminatory fiscal policies”, on Thursday virtually turned into a show of strength of the INDIA bloc ahead of the 2024 general election. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was joined by his counterparts from Delhi and Punjab, Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann (both AAP), senior Tamil Nadu minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan (DMK), former Jammu and Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah (National Conference), CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury and his CPI counterpart D Raja, among Maldives issue Indian technical personnel to replace 88 troops Y e s h i S e l i @ New Delhi Amid bilateral talks with Maldives to resolve the issue of 88 Indian military personnel stationed in the archipelago, the foreign office on Thursday said they will be replaced with civilians. “let me say the present military personnel will be replaced by competent Indian technical personnel,’’ said Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal in response to a query from this newspaper. Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu I would like to say has been harping on the withdrawal of the 88 that the present military personnel who are primarily at- personnel will be replaced by tached to operating one helicopter and two competent Indian Dornier aircraft India had gifted. The planes technical are used for medical evacuation and rescue personnel... “We operations. remain an On February 2, India had issued a state- important ment after the second core group high level committed meeting with Maldivian officials in Delhi, development partner for the saying the matter was work in progress. Maldives However, the Maldivian statement said the Indian military will be replaced in phases — Randhir Jaiswal, MEA the first by March 10 and the rest by May 10. spokesperson During his first Presidential address in Parliament on Monday, Muizzu confirmed the position that the Indian military will withdraw from Maldives in a phased manner. The next round of the India-Maldives high level core group meeting is slated for the last week of this month in Male. The core group was set up following a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Muizzu on the sidelines of the COP28 summit on climate change in Dubai in December. Jumbo donated by Jayalalithaa among 2 tortured at Guruvayur M a n o j V i s w a n at h a n @ Kochi interest RATE UNCHANGED Reserve Bank left the key policy rate unchanged at 6.5% for the sixth time. Cost of borrowings for both individuals and corporates may remain stable | P12 The forest department has initiated steps to cancel the licence of four mahouts of the Guruvayur Devaswom for brutally torturing two captive elephants. A video of the mahouts torturing the elephants — Guvurayur Krishna and Junior Kesavan — went viral on Thursday triggering outrage. , The Kerala High Court initiated a suo motu case in connection with the incident and sought a report from the forest department. The Guruvayur Devaswom Board has ordered an inquiry and said stringent action will be taken against all involved. Guruvayur Krishna was donated by former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa during her visit to the temple on July 2, 2001, to fulfil a preelection vow. In the video, the mahouts are seen beating the elephants inside the Guruvayur elephant camp. Heritage Animal Task Force Elephant loses tusk in road accident A video grab shows a mahout beating an elephant at Guruvayur Thrissur: A captive elephant — Kolakkadan Kuttykrishnan — lost one of its tusks after the vehicle in which it was being transported was hit by an LPG truck on the Kodungallur-Paravoor route on Thursday. The elephant was being taken to a festival in Ernakulam when the accident took place. P4 secretary V K Venkitachalam said the video circulating on social media is an edited one. Venkitachalam said he has handed over the original video to the forest department. Forest Minister A K Saseendran said he has sought a report on the incident from the chief wildlife warden. “The forest department has booked two cases in connection with it,” he said. “The four mahouts have been identified as Sarath, handler of Guruvayur Krishna, and Vasu, Suresh Babu and Mohanan, mahouts of Junior Kesavan. Chief Wildlife Warden D Jayaprasad has directed us to initiate stringent action against the mahouts,” said Thrissur Assistant conservator of forest B ● More on P4 Sajeesh Kumar. others, on the dais at the nat i o n a l c a p i t a l ’s J a n t a r Mantar. However, the Congress, the lead player in the INDIA bloc, stayed away from the event. In his inaugural address, Pinarayi said Kerala’s’ “historic battle” is aimed at saving the spirit of federalism. “A democracy that was envisaged as a ‘Union of States’ is slowly and steadily being crippled into an undemocratic ‘Union over States’. We are seeing its manifestations across the country, especially in opposition-ruled states,” he said. He alleged that governors are acting at the “behest” of the Union government and disrupting state governments where opposition parties are in power. “In many states, including Kerala, we have seen governors trying to overreach their constitutional mandate by meddling with the autonomy of the legislature,” Pi● More on P4 narayi said. Free border travel accord with Myanmar scrapped M U KE S H RA N JA N @ New Delhi Union Home Minister Amit S h a h o n T h u r s d ay a n nounced the government’s decision to scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) along the borders with Myanmar so as to ensure the country’s security and the demography of Nor theaster n states. In a social media post on X, Shah said the Ministry of External Affairs is currently in the process of scrapping it after the Ministry of Home Affairs recommended its immediate suspension. The FMR was last amended in 2016 to allow citizens of both India and Myanmar living near the border to venture 16 km into each other’s territory without documents as part of the Act East Policy . Shah made the announcement two days after the decision to fence the entire 1,643 km India-Myanmar border, which passes through Mizoram (510 km), Manipur (398 km), Nagaland (215 km) and Arunachal Pradesh (520 km). Fencing has been a persistent demand of the Imphal valley-based Meitei groups, which have been alleging that tribal militants often enter India through the porous border. They also allege that narcotics are being smuggled in through the unfenced border. Shah had on Tuesday said besides fencing, a patrol track will also be paved to facilitate better surveillance. Two pilot projects of fencing through a hybrid surveillance system are under execution, he added. 16 pages, including 4 pages of THIRUVANANTHAPURAM Express
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