BHUBANESWAR l tuesday l july 30, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l JEYPORE EDITION S.C. refuses stay on Patna hc order nixing hike in caste-based quota No interim relief, final hearing in Sept The SC said it will list the petitions for final hearing in September. “We will list in September. No interim relief [at this stage],” CJI Chandrachud said. The HC had on June 20 set aside Bihar’s amended reservation laws that raised the quotas for Dalits, tribals, and backward classes from 50% to 65% in public employment and educational institutions, saying it violated the Consitituion The D Y Chandrachud-led bench, however, agreed to hear 10 petitions of the Bihar govt against the Patna High Court’s adverse verdict 50% HC ORDER erroneous, CLAIMS BIHAR GOVT ■ In its plea before the SC, the Bihar government termed the HC order erroneous, claiming it transcended beyond the legitimate scope of judicial review by substituting ‘opinion of State’ with its own opinion ■ The Nitish Kumar-led government’s amendments followed a caste survey, which put OBCs and EBCs at 63% and SC/STs at 21% of Bihar’s population Cap on reservations laid down by THE top COURT in the Indra Sawhney case 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 Chakravyuh rap by Rahul to put the Centre on the mat Uses Mahabharat metaphor to pin down govt, says Budget hasn’t addressed people’s concerns P r ee t h a N a i r @ New Delhi shooting for the stars Sarabjot Singh and Manu Bhaker advanced to the bronze-medal playoff in the mixed 10m air pistol event on Monday. If the duo finishes third, Bhaker will become the first Indian to win two medals at a single Olympic Games | Ap | P11 No third-party mediation in China border dispute: EAM Y E SHI S E LI @ New Delhi INDIA-China relations are not great at the moment and there are ongoing border disputes. However, that doesn’t mean New Delhi is looking for thirdparty mediation, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in Tokyo on Monday . “We have a problem, (but) it is for the two of us to talk it over and to find a way,” Jaishankar said while talking to reporters at a press conference in Tokyo on the sidelines of the Quad foreign ministers’ meet. Recalling his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi twice this month, Jaishankar said: “Obviously other , countries in the world would have an interest in the matter, because we are two big countries and the state of our rela- Foreign minister S Jaishankar at a press conference in Tokyo on Monday | PTI oN Ukraine & Russia The external affairs minister said India will be in constant touch with both Ukraine and Russia. Engagements by countries talking to both sides are important to resolve the conflict, he added tionship has an impact on the rest of the world. But we are not looking to other countries to sort out what is really an is- sue between us.” Last week, Jaishankar and Wang met in Laotian capital Vientiane, where they took part in the meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). During their meeting, both sides agreed on the need to give strong guidance to complete the disengagement process following the military standoff in eastern Ladakh in May 2020. Earlier this month, on July 4, the two foreign ministers met in the Kazakh capital city of Astana on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, is an informal strategic forum comprising four nations — India, the US, Japan and Australia — to ensure security in Indo-Pacific. Making a strong pitch for caste census and legalised minimum support price (MSP) for crops, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in his fierce speech in the Lok Sabha on Monday argued that the Union Budget had failed to address the needs of poor and the marginalised communities. In an hour-long speech during the discussion on the Union Budget, the Congress leader invoked the Mahabharat to allege that the chakravyuh of six persons had trapped the country, which led to an uproar. “In the 21st century, there is a new chakravyuh and that symbol is worn by the prime minister on his chest. What was done with Abhimanyu is being done with youth, women, farmers and the MSMEs. “This chakravyuh attacked and destroyed small and medium businesses. This was done through demonetisation and tax terrorism. The Budget did nothing to end this tax terrorism,” Rahul said. In his all out attack, Rahul said by removing indexation, the BJP stabbed the middle class in the back and by enhancing long-term capital gains tax, it stabbed the middle class in the front. He claimed the INDIA bloc would pass bills on caste census and legal guarantee for MSP if it captures power. The House witnessed uproar after Rahul displayed a picture of the ‘halwa ceremony’ held ahead of the Budget. “I wanted the budget to take up the caste census. Though the Budget was prepared by a 20-member committee, no Dalits, OBCs or Adivasis were in the pic- Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi speaks in the Lok Sabha, in New Delhi on Monday | PTI In the 21st century, another chakravyuh has been prepared... What was done with Abhimanyu is being done with India, with its youth, women, farmers Rahul Gandhi Heated exchanges There were heated exchanges between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Rahul over the latter’s remarks that youth have been trapped in the Agniveer chakravyuh and that there are no provisions in Budget for pensions for Agniveers ture,” he said, prompting intervention from Speaker Om Birla, who asked him to read the rules of the House, Parliamentary Affairs minister Kiren Rijiju echoed Birla. “Chakravyuh has three forces. First is the idea of monopoly that , two people should be allowed to own everything in India. One element is financial power. Second is the institutions, agencies (CBI, ED, I-T) and the third element is political executive,” Rahul added. Naidu ready for CM-level talks on Polavaram, says Majhi E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e I met Naidu during the Niti Aayog meeting. I proposed a chief minister-level meeting to find a solution to the vexed issue. He has accepted my proposal @ Bhubaneswar sha on the project and reiterated our concerns and demands. I proposed a chief minister-level meeting to find a solution to the vexed issue. He has accepted my proposal,” Majhi said. The state Assembly witnessed ruckus on July 25 after Congress members demanded Speaker Surama Padhi to constitute a House committee to assess the impact of the project SC nixes ED plea, says order on Soren bail well reasoned houses sanctioned to the minorities under the PMAY-U SCHEME 16,00,131 Zoroastrianism 1,127 Jainism 10,457 Buddhism 19,707 Total houses sanctioned Christian THE Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with a Jharkhand High Court order granting the state’s Chief Minister Hemant Soren bail in a money laundering case linked to an alleged land scam. While dismissing the Enforcement Directorate’s plea challenging the HC’s June 28 order, a bench of justices B R Gavai and K V Viswanathan termed HC’s order ‘very well reasoned’, adding: “We don’t directly dealing with the issue concer ning the land in question. The bench observed that the HC considered these aspects before granting bail. In Ranchi, Soren welcomed the SC order. He claimed his imprisonment was orchestrated. He lamented the wasted time during his five-month incarceration, stressing that many important issues could have been addressed. 13,45,820 @ New Delhi want to observe anything more... if we observe, you (ED) might be in difficulty .” The SC, however, added that the observations made by the HC while granting bail to Soren should not influence the trial court in the case. During the hearing in the SC, Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the ED, claimed the probe agency has evidence to show the CM’s office was Leader of Opposition and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik on Monday launched a fiery attack on the BJP government terming it a ‘name changer government’ which has cheated the people of Odisha. Initiating discussion on the annual budget for 2024-25 presented by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi in the Assembly last Thursday Naveen said the BJP formed , the government by promising people that they will bring ‘Paribartan’ (change). “ After going through the budget documents, I see the only Paribartan this government has done is to change the names of 45 schemes. The BJP said their government will be a game changer but unfortunately has ended up being a name changer,” he said. “This budget saw 80 per cent of our schemes being repeated. It shows the robustness, pro-people and progressive character of the schemes designed and I see the only implemented by the BJD government. Paribartan this The rest 20 per cent resource allocation government has is what they will use to implement their done is to change the manifesto promises,” he added. names of 45 Comparing the BJP’s promises with schemes. This the budget allocations, Naveen said the budget saw 80 party was well-known for its ‘Jumla’ per cent of our (gimmick) and it was proven by the fact schemes being that minimum required funds have repeated not been provided to meet the Naveen Patnaik, commitments. Leader of Oppn Mentioning a few promises, he said the BJP has promised `50,000 to every woman of the state under Subhadra Yojana. There are more than two crore women in the state. The government will need `1 lakh crore to fulfill this promise in two years. “You have kept only `10,000 crore in this budget. This will cover less than 10 per cent women of Odisha. What about the rest 1.80 crore women,” he questioned. Referring to the promise of enhancing support price on paddy to `3,100 per quintal, he said that the budget allocation will cover only 30 per cent farmers and sought to know how the government was going to cover the remaining 70 per cent. He also accused the government of cheating the Continued on P5 people on 300 units free electricity  . express read Panel to probe coaching centre deaths New Delhi: The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Monday constituted a high-level committee drawing officials from various Central ministries and the Delhi government to probe the deaths of three UPSC aspirants at a coaching centre in Old Rajinder Nagar in the national capital | P7 Muslims biggest beneficiaries among minorities Muslims SUCHITRA KALYA N M OHA N TY E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar H o u s i n g s ch e m e 49,670 Nicolas Maduro was declared the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election on Sunday but the opposition and key regional neighbours immediately rejected the official results | P9 CM Mohan Majhi being welcomed on his return from New Delhi | Express on the tribal population of Malkangiri district as a large chunk of its land will be submerged by the backwater of the dam. On potato price rise due to restrictions imposed by West Bengal government on interstate movement of vehicles transporting the vegetable, Majhi said he had also taken up the issue with Mamata Banerjee. “I took up the matter directly with my West Bengal counterpart as I don’t believe in writing letters. I requested her immediate intervention to lift the restriction and restore Sikh declared poll winner, Oppn coalition rejects it Mohan Majhi, chief minister 1,73,350 Maduro Days after the Assembly witnessed uproarious scenes over the controversial Polavaram multi-pur pose ir rig ation project being undertaken by the Andhra Pradesh government, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Monday said he had broached the issue with his AP counterpart N Chandrababu Naidu in New Delhi. Returning from the national capital after his four-day visit, the chief minister told mediapersons that he has requested Naidu for a chief minister-level discussion to which the latter has agreed. “I met Naidu during the Niti Aayog meeting and had an elaborate discussion on Polavaram project. I apprised him about the stand taken by Odi- smooth flow of potato supply to Odisha. Chief secretaries of the two states were present at the meeting. She has assured to do the needful,” he said. He said the supply situation is getting back to normal and the problem will be resolved soon. Prices of potato have started cooling in the market and there will be further drop in the prices after normal supp l y f r o m We s t B e n g a l resumes. Asserting that the proposals he had placed before the plan panel will be approved and executed in time, the chief minister said Odisha is poised for a huge leap in the next five years. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is giving special attention to the state which has been neglected for a long time,” he said. Not game changer, it is name changer: Naveen on BJP govt Pa r v e z S u lta n @ New Delhi A Rajya Sabha question seeking to quantify the beneficiaries among the minorities under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) threw up an interesting bunch of data. The government’s written response to the unstarred question last week said Muslims constitute 12.74% of the total pucca houses sanctioned for the minorities under the scheme launched in 2015 across the country The overall figure . for minorities under the scheme stood at 15.15%. In all, 1.18 crore houses were approved by the government, of which 1.14 crore units have already been grounded for construction. And 85.04 lakh units have already been completed or delivered. Of the 16 lakh houses sanctioned for the minorities, the share of Muslims is 13.45 lakh. Christians came a distant second with 1.73 lakh houses (1.64%). Sikhs have been sanctioned 49,670 houses (0.47%) and Buddhists 19,707 (0.19). Jains and Zoroastrians were at the bottom of the list with 10,457 dwelling units (0.10%) and 1,127 (0.01%), respectively . The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs released the data on July 22 in response to a question by Satnam Singh Sandhu, Chancellor of Chandigarh University and nominated member of the Rajya Sabha. The Centre is set to launch PMAY-U 2.0 to address the housing needs of 1 crore urban poor and middle class families with an investment of `10 lakh crore. “This will include a Central assistance of `2.2 lakh crore in the next five years,” finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her Budget speech.