chennai l saturday l june 08, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 l LATE CITY EDITION May heat wave was 1.5° Celsius warmer than previous extremes Findings of a new rapid attribution study underscore that heat waves in India are reaching unbearable temperature thresholds human-driven climate change blamed Urbanisation making heat waves worse Researchers at ClimaMeter said the intense heat wave India endured in May was a result of the naturally occurring El Nino phenomenon and the rapidly increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to fossil fuel burning. They called it “a largely unique event” that can be ascribed to human-driven climate change | P9 ■ ■ “Warming resulting from climate change has led to an increased frequency, intensity, and duration of heat-related events, including heat waves in most land regions,” the researchers noted They said rapid urbanisation as seen in India can enhance heat waves as concretes trap heat during the day and release them at night 56 deaths due to heat reported in india since the start of March 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 Swearing-in of the new council of ministers to be held tomorrow at 7.15 pm Modi appointed PM-designate by President Murmu leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party, NDA leaders submitted their letters of support. President Droupadi Murmu The delegation included J P on Friday appointed Narendra Nadda, Rajnath Singh, Amit Modi prime minister-designate Shah, Ashwini Vaishnaw and C after the latter staked his claim N Manjunath (all BJP), TDP to lead the NDA government chief N Chandrababu Naidu, for the third consecutive time. JD(U)’s Nitish Kumar, Shiv The ceremony to administer Sena chief Eknath Shinde, the oath of office and secrecy to JD(S) leader H D Kumarashim and his ministerial col- wamy, LJP(Ram Vilas) leader leagues will begin at 7.15 pm on Chirag Paswan. Sunday at Rashtrapati The day began with Bhavan.After Modi met the NDA ParliamentaMurmu, she satisfied ry Party electing Modi herself about the NDA as its leader. Nitish was If we look at coalition commanding seen trying to touch numbers, then majority in the 18th Modi’s feet but the latthis is the Lok Sabha before issuter stopped him. strongest ing the appointment In his address, Modi coalition government in letter. The letter said spoke about the vital the history of the BJP was the single role of consensus in coalitions largest party and the running the governNDA the largest prement. Having a “bahuNarendra Modi, poll coalition. mat (majority)” is necPM-designate Emerging from Rashessary to form trapati Bhavan, Modi told the government but “sarvmat (conmedia, “As NDA partners have sensus or unanimity)” is much entrusted me with their leader- needed for running the counship once again, I will take oath try he said. , as the PM on June 9. NDA-III “I want to assure people of will put in even more efforts for the country that you have given developments of India and the us the good fortune to run the r e a l i s a t i o n o f p e o p l e ’ s government by handing us a aspirations.” majority, and it has then beEarlier in the day, an NDA come our responsibility that delegation called on Murmu. we continuously strive to enWhile the BJP handed her a let- sure unanimity in taking the ter on Modi’s election as the country forward,” Modi said. B e n n K o c h u v e e d a n @ Mumbai Resolute inflation policing despite stronger growth indicators persuaded the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank on Friday to stand pat on the rates front as well as the policy stance for the eighth time in a row. Ever since the February 2023 review, the Reserve Bank’s panel has left the repo rate — the benchmark rate below which a lender cannot extend loans and the rate at which banks borrow from the central bank — unchanged at 6.50%. The policy boosted both the equity and money markets with indices closing at record highs while the rupee gained 14 paise against the greenback. However, fearing delayed rates cut, the bond yield remained above 7% to close at 7.016%. RAJESH KU M AR THAKUR @ New Delhi As June 10 inches closer and preparations for the first BJP government’s swearing-in get intense in Odisha, action shifted to Delhi on Friday. Sources said a number of MLAs have been summoned to the national capital where the Central leadership is likely to take the call on the new leader of the BJP legislature party . Separate meetings of the MLAs and all the MPs of Odisha have reportedly been fixed Pazee scam: HC discharges IPS officer from case R SIVAKU M AR @ Chennai In a big reprieve to Tamil Nadu-cadre IPS officer Pramod Kumar, the Madras High Court has discharged him from the cases relating to alleged extortion of money from Pazee Forex India Trading Limited and set aside the orders of a special court for CBI cases and framing of charges against the officer. Justice Vivek Kumar Singh, passing orders on two petitions filed by Pramod Kumar on Frid ay, s a i d t h e Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has failed to prove the charg es of extortion. The CBI, which took over the investigation into the multicrore scam in 2011 following a HC order, arrayed the IPS officer as the first accused along with a few other police officers of the crime branch of Tiruppur police for extorting money from the directors of Pazee Forex India Trading Limited to save them from the multi-crore scam. Continued on p5 with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda on Saturday over the selection of chief minister of the BJP government which will take oath on June 10 as announced by Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi. All the newly-elected MPs from the state had left for Delhi on Thursday for the meeting of the NDA members held at the Central Hall of the old Parliament on the day The . BJP parliamentary board was Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das at a press meet in Mumbai | PTI The decision to hold the rates was not unanimous, as two of the six members on the panel — Dr Ashima Goyal and Prof Jayanth R Varma — voted for a rate cut by 25 basis points and change in the policy stance. Expecting the economy to fare better on the back of the unexpected jump in the growth numbers to 8.2% in the just concluded fiscal 2024, Reserve debate after debacle Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays respects to the Constitution of India at the NDA Parliamentary Party meeting at Samvidhan Sadan in New Delhi on Friday | PTI Nitish suggests names of ministers President expected to get final list today Nitish Kumar and others NDA leaders went to BJP chief J P Nadda’s house to discuss the probable candidates for the Union cabinet. Nitish is learnt to have submitted the names of his three party MPs who could be inducted as Cabinet ministers and ministers of state from the JD(U) quota TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, too, met the BJP chief and handed over his list of five MPs who could be inducted as ministers. There is no clarity yet on the post of LS Speaker. The final list of the council of ministers is expected to be submitted to the President by Saturday evening Action shifts to Delhi for Odisha CM selection B i j o y P r a d h a n @ Bhubaneswar RBI keeps rates unchanged for eighth consecutive time scheduled to meet in the evening after the PM designate Modi and leaders of NDA partners met President Droupadi Murmu. Apart from working out details of the council of ministers, sources said the BJP parliamentary board is likely to take a call on the new chief minister of Odisha. The BJP state unit chief Manmohan Samal and Sambalpur MLA Jayanarayana Mishra, both members of the BJP parliamentary board, are already in the national capital. “Meeting of the legislators in Bhubaneswar will be a mere formality as it would be attended by two Central observers who will announce the name decided and approved by the Parliamentary board of the party the sources said. ,” “The BJP legislature party will approve the name decided by the parliamentary board at its meeting on Saturday new,” ly-elected MLA Rabi Narayan Nayak said. express read Rahul Gandhi gets bail in BJP defamation case Seven Maoists shot dead in Chhattisgarh Issues lay bare pitfalls in NEET system, says CM Bengaluru: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was on Friday granted bail by a special court in Bengaluru in a case filed by the BJP’s Karnataka unit for issuing “defamatory” ads in mainstream newspapers, which accused the state’s BJP government of 20192023 of corruption | P5 Raipur: At least seven members of the banned CPI (Maoists) were killed in an exchange of fire with the security forces at Mungedi village along the interdistrict border of Narayanpur, Dantewada and Kondagaon on Friday night. Chennai: CM MK Stalin said issues such as question paper leaks, clustering of toppers at centres, and award of mathematically impossible marks show the pitfalls of NEET and the need to restore school education system in determining criteria for professional course selection | P2 CBI files final chargesheet against Lalu and 77 others T M u r u g a n a n d h a m @ Chennai M u k e s h R a n j a n @ New Delhi After the BJP drew a blank in the Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu and a few of the party candidates got the second spot, the internal rumblings in the party seemed to have boiled over. Several leaders have started openly questioning the election strategy adopted by BJP state president K Annamalai and blamed him for promoting a coterie. “Any man with little morals left in him will resign or at least make a drama that he is resigning. I know Annamalai lacks morals,” said state BJP’s intellectual cell leader Kalyaan Raman. On Thursday, after warning BJP’s social media activists of stringent action if they write anything wrong about party leaders, Tamilisai Soundararajan, former president of the state unit, lamented how a lack of strategy has put paid to the party’s chance of winning seats. “Had we devised a strategy, we would have won this election. We (the candidates for LS polls) may not have ended as runners-up. We devised strategy (in the past). But Annamalai did not want that. Us emerging as runners-up won’t help because only by winning we can serve people better,” she said. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday filed its conclusive chargesheet in the alleged land-for-jobs scam involving Lalu Prasad Yadav. The third and final chargesheet submitted by the probe agency before a special court in Delhi names 78 accused, including Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi, son Tej Pratap Yadav and daughter Hema Yadav. It covers all railway zones where the recruitment was made allegedly in return for land taken by members of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s family a CBI of, ficial said. “During the investigation, it has been found that the accused in conspiracy with the Railways officials and engaged persons as ‘substitutes’ in lieu of land either in their name or in the name of their close relatives. This land was acquired at p r i c e s l owe r than the prevailing circle rate and much lower than the market rate,” a senior CBI official said. The official added that no public notice or advertisement was issued for these appointments, yet candidates from Patna were employed in Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur and Hajipur. The CBI found Lalu Prasad, in furtherance of a criminal conspiracy along with officers of Railways, his family members and others, engaged candidates as Group D substitutes in 11 zones of Indian Railways in complete violation of the extant guidelines, the CBI spokesperson said. Meanwhile, the central agency informed the court that prosecution sanction from competent authority was still awaited. The court cannot take cognizance of the case without such sanction. Officials said the court will take cognisance and hear the matter on July 6. Earlier, on May 29, the court had directed the CBI to file its conclusive chargesheet at the earliest and expressed displeasure over the delay . Besides Lalu and family, 29 Railways officials, 37 candidates and six other private persons have been named in the chargesheet, they said. Velumani’s remark not AIADMK’s view: Ex-min Chennai: A day after senior leader S P Velumnai said if the alliance between AIADMK and BJP had remained intact it would have won 35 seats, former minister D Jayakumar asserted that the AIADMK will never have an alliance with the BJP, and Velumani’s remark was not the view of the party | P4 She also backed the view of former AIADMK minister S P Velumani who had said that if the alliance between the AIADMK and BJP remained intact, around 30 seats could have been won in the election. Vinoj P Selvam, state general secretary and BJP candidate for Chennai Central constituency who came second in the seat, also said that had the AIADMK and BJP contested together, the alliance would have won many seats. P5 CWC gives nod for `11K crore Cauvery rejuvenation project After a long delay and detailed review, the union government’s Central Water Commission (CWC) has given its approval for the `11,250 crore Nadanthai Vaazhi Cauvery project which aims to rejuvenate hundreds of waterbodies linked to the Cauvery river and its tributaries across the state to prevent them from pollution and effluents. The rejuvenation programme will be executed in two phases at a cost of `1,958 crore and `8,753 crore respectively. Both centre and state will share the funding for the project, officials said. The project aims to conserve, rejuvenate, and enhance water resources in the Cauvery basin on the lines of Namami Gange Programme, a flagship scheme of the union government implemented with the objectives of effective abatement of pollution, conservation and rejuvenation of Ganga. The Cauvery project proposes to address pollution concerns by identifying sewage and effluent inflow into waterbodies through setting up of sewage treatment plants (STPs) and ecological conservation of the Cauvery river and its tributaries. Ten common effluent treatment plants for textile units will be built at a cost of `119.56 crore under the project in Erode and Namakkal regions and 65 sewage treatment plants (209.30 MLD combined capacity) will be built in areas from Mettur to Tiruchy under the Land for jobs TN Bjp leaders put Annamalai on mat for loss Pristine river S G URUVAN M IKANATHAN @ Chennai Bank governor Shaktikanta Das revised upwards the central bank’s growth forecast by 20 basis points to 7.2% for the current fiscal. In the past two reviews, the GDP projection was maintained at 7%. Underlining the MPC’s resolve to fight inflation, which it fears may spike from the third quarter partly due to the low base effect and partly due to the still adamant food prices, the panel also decided to maintain the policy stance of withdrawal of accommodation to ensure that inflation progressively aligns to the target, while supporting growth. On the rationale for raising the growth numbers, Das said high frequency indicators of domestic activity are showing resilience in FY25. And the Southwest monsoon is expected to be above normal. P14 project. Riverfront development will also be taken up at Bhavani Kooduthurai, Karur, Kodumudi, Mettupalayam, Mettur, Pallipalayam, Sathyamangalam Bridge site and upper anicut, sources said. A senior Water Resources Department official told TNIE, “The CWC recently held a highlevel meeting with bureaucrats from southern states in Nagpur. We discussed interstate water disputes and other issues. The CWC said an official order for the Cauvery programme will be issued after the new union government assumes office.” The first phase from Mettur to Tiruchy will be implemented at a cost of `1,958 crore, and second phase from Tiruchy to the river’s confluence with sea at different points will be implemented at `8,753 crore cost. Continued on p5
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