kozhikode l friday l February 16, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION ROHIT, JADEJA hold Raj-court as England toil in first innings Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja Senior pros step up in the time of need Having lost three early wickets after opting to bat, India needed Rohit Sharma and the local boy to take up the responsibility. And they did just that with Rohit (131) and Ravindra Jadeja (110 batting) scoring centuries. The two mixed caution with aggression, ensuring that India were in control. The hosts finished the day at a healthy 326/5 at stumps Hundreds by India captain and all-rounder rescue the team after it was reduced to 33/3 in the first innings of the third Test on Thursday Dream debut Sarfaraz; jurel make cut ■ ■ After piling runs in Ranji Trophy, an emotional Sarfaraz Khan finally got his India cap on Thursday in front of his dad and wife. The other debutant was Dhurv Jurel who replaced K S Bharat as the keeper Living up to his reputation, Sarfaraz took on England spinners with ease and smashed 62 runs before getting run out I P11 36 Y, 291 days rohit surpasses vijay hazare as oldest captain to score Test ton 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 Farmers protest BJP had made electoral bonds a medium for bribe and commission. Today a stamp has been put on this SC has delivered a verdict, we respect it. Electoral bonds had laudable objective of bringing transparency It is the most historic judgement that we have got from the SC in 5-7 years. It is a great boon for democracy It is a historic judgment, it’s in the interest of a clean democracy. I hope that political parties will learn their lessons Welcome this unanimous judgment scrapping the electoral bonds that legalise political corruption Rahul Gandhi, Congress Ravi Shankar Prasad, BJP S Y Quraishi, former CEC T S Krishnamurthy, ex-CEC Sitaram Yechury, CPM Orders SBI to give EC data on buyers and recipients Poll panel told to upload info on its site Verdict weeks before LS polls SC nixes electoral bonds S u c hitra K a lya n M oha n t y @ New Delhi In a landmark judgment, a five-member Constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously struck down the electoral bond scheme notified by the BJP government at the Centre in early 2018, as unconstitutional. The verdict is a moral blow for the government ahead of the general elections. The bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud gave the State Bank of India, the issuing bank, time till March 6 to share with the Election Commission of India full data on the purchasers of the electoral bonds and their recipients. It went on to instruct the poll body to upload the SBI’s information on its official website within a week of receipt of the data — by March 13. The court also declared the amendments to the Income Tax Act and Section 29C of the Representation of the People Act to facilitate the electoral bonds, null and void. The CJI also said the amendment to the Companies Act that opened the door for blanket corporate political funding was unconstitutional. “The Union has been unable to establish the measure adopted in clause 7(4)(1) of the electoral scheme is the least restrictive measure (on fundamental rights),” the verdict authored by the CJI for himself as also for justices B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said. Justice Sanjay Khanna wrote a separate verdict. He had a different reasoning but arrived at the same conclusion. “The scheme is not fool-proof. There are sufficient gaps in the scheme which enable political parties to know the particulars of the Bearer instrument An electoral bond has the nature of a promissory note, which is bearer in character. A bearer instrument does not carry the name of the buyer or payee SA m p le contributions made to them,” Justice Chandrachud said. Information about funding of political parties, he added, is essential for the effective exercise of the choice of voting. Data shows that 94% of the donations were in the denomination of `1 crore. In other words, electoral bonds provide economically powerful contributors access to lawmakers and the ability to influence policy decisions while giving them selective anonymity vis-a-vis the public. The court said information about political funding would enable voters to assess if there is any correlation between policy making and financial contributions. In an affidavit filed in the SC on March 27, 2019, the EC had informed that it had written to the Centre ques- express read Prime Minister to visit state on February 27 ‘Salary, pension payments higher than state’s revenue’ Kochi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the valedictory function of NDA’s Kerala Padayatra in Thiruvananthapuram on February 27, said BJP state president K Surendran. The prime minister will arrive in the state capital on February 27 to attend an event at ISRO. P5 T’Puram: The revision of government employees’ salary and pension in line with the suggestions of 11th Pay Commission dealt a blow to the state’s finances, the CAG report for 2021-22 said. The state’s spending on salary and pension rose to D 72,678.77 crore, higher than state’s own revenue, it said. P4 Ganesh Kumar, Antony Raju play musical chair with a difference “This electric bus is my child as well. It doesn’t matter who takes care Politics is often described a game of its upbringing,” said Raju, adding of musical chairs. However, a minis- that his visit was out of curiosity. ter changing the venue of the inaugu- “The officials first told me that the ration of his predecessor’s pet inauguration would be held at project to deny the latter a Nayanar Park in East Fort, chair on the dais is not that which is the centre of the city . common, especially when Now it has been shifted to a both belong to the same politidesolate corner. Irrespective cal front. The launch of of the flag-off venue, the bus KSRTC’s electric double deckshall be operated from ThamAntony Raju er in Thiruvananthapuram panoor which is under my has such a rare story to tell. constituency,” he added. The rift between Transport As many as 103 electric busMinister K B Ganesh Kumar es were purchased under the and his predecessor Antony Smart City project during RaRaju is not a secret. ju’s tenure. KSRTC-Swift reThe venue for the electric ceived the buses in the first double decker inauguration week of January. Raju also on Thursday was shifted from K B Ganesh Kumar criticised the delay in starting East Fort, which comes under the bus service. Raju’s constituency, to Vikas Depot “Kerala is the second place after just outside it almost at the last hour. Mumbai to get an electric double Raju made his displeasure clear at decker. We are the first to start an not being invited for the flag-off func- open roof double decker service,” ● More on P4 tion with a visit to the depot. said Raju. E x p re s s Ne w s Ser v i c e @T’Puram Videograb of the five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra | PTI Denomination up to L1 crore The scheme allows Indian citizens and domestic companies to donate these bonds issued in multiples of C1,000, C10,000, C1 lakh, C10 lakh and C1 crore to parties of their choice. These bonds have to be redeemed within 15 days No cap on buying No limit on the number of electoral bonds that an individual or corporate entity can purchase. Scheme does not require parties to mention the names and addresses of the contributors in their annual reports to the Election Commission tioning the changes in several laws relating to political funding, saying it will have serious repercussions on transparency It had also warned the . government that changes in the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 could allow unchecked foreign funding of political parties. “In a situation where electoral bonds were not reported, it cannot be ascertained whether the political party has taken any donation from government companies and foreign sources.” Justice Sanjiv Khanna, in his separate verdict, said retribution, victimisation or retaliation against any donor to a political party is an abuse of law and power. It needs to be corrected but cannot be seen as justification to make the scheme anonymous. “Transparency and not secrecy is the cure and antidote,” he said. Borrowing cap row Talks with central team not fruitful, says Balagopal E x p re s s Ne w s Ser v i c e @ T’Puram The Supreme Court-prompted meeting between the representatives of state and Union governments on the dispute over restrictions on the borrowing limit failed to resolve the impasse on Thursday Finance Minister . K N Balagopal, who led the state delegation, said the discussion did not yield the desired result. The meeting was held as per the direction of the Supreme Court, which is considering a petition filed by the Kerala government alleging Centre’s “illegal interference in the state’s finances and budgeting”. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Balagopal said the central team refused to discuss some key issues citing the matter was being considered by the court. The state delegation handed over a memorandum to the central team. “The meeting was neither positive nor did it yield any result. The only decision taken was to hold a secretary-level meeting to sort out the dispute over certain accounts,” the minister said. Balagopal said the Union government took an unfair stand that important matters cannot be discussed because of the court case. ● More on P4 Day 3 largely peaceful, third round of talks on H ar p reet B aj w a @ Chandigarh THE third round of talks between the Centre and farmer leaders were held in Chandigarh on Thursday night, even as the stand-off between protesters and security personnel continued on the Punjab-Haryana border. The meeting between three Union ministers—Arjun Munda, Piyush Goyal, and Nityanand Rai— and farmer leaders started three hours later than scheduled. Sources said the Union ministers were closeted with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann at a five-star hotel ahead of their meet with the delegation of 14 farmer leaders, including Jagjit Singh Dallewal, Sarwan Singh Pandher, and Jarnail Singh. The meeting between the Central ministers and farmer union leaders was ongoing at press time. Two previous rounds of talks on February 8 and 12 were not successful. CM Mann and Punjab finance minister Harpal Singh Cheema also joined the negotiation talks at the Mahatma Gandhi State Institute of Public Administration. The situation at Shambhu and Khanauri on the Punjab-Haryana borders remained calm compared with the past two days. However, train services were disrupted following the ‘rail roko’ call by the Bharti- Security personnel deployed at the PunjabHaryana Shambhu border during a protest march, in Patiala district | pti ya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) and the BKU Dakaunda (Dhaner) as farmers squatted on rail tracks at many places in Punjab. Meanwhile, the Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) has called a ‘Bharat bandh’ on Friday “We have called for . a Gramin Bharat Bandh. The farmers should not go to their farms to work tomorrow. The labourers will also go on strike. A new line of thinking will emerge out of this. This will show how many people are participating in the movement,” said BKU leader Rakesh Tikait. The farmers are seeking legal guarantee for MSP, pension, and farm debt waiver among others. Modi invites Qatari Emir to visit India Ye s hi s e l i @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday thanked the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, for the recent release of eight naval veterans who were under custody in Doha since 2022. The PM invited the Emir to visit India, Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said. The two leaders held detailed discussions, first in a delegation level format and then in a restricted format. The topics of d i s cu s s i o n i n cluded bilateral cooperation, trade par tnership, investment cooperation, energy partnership, regional security, cultural affinity and people-to, people ties. “My visit to Qatar has added new vigour to the India-Qatar friendship. India looks forward to scale up cooperation in key sectors relating to trade, investment, technology and culture. I thank the government and people of Qatar for their hospitality Modi said. ,’’ Modi also thanked the Emir for his support for the welfare of the Indian community in the Gulf nation.
Express Network Private Limited publishes thirty three E-paper editions of The New Indian Express newspaper , thirty two E-paper editions of Dinamani, one E-paper edition of The Morning Standard, one E-paper edition of Malayalam Vaarika magazine and one E-paper edition of the Indulge - The Morning Standard, Kolkatta.