HYDERABAD  TUESDAY  JULY 30, 2024  `9.00  PAGES 16  LATE CITY EDITION S.C. REFUSES STAY ON PATNA HC ORDER NIXING HIKE IN CASTE-BASED QUOTA The D Y Chandrachud-led bench, however, agreed to hear 10 petitions of the Bihar govt against the Patna High Court’s adverse verdict 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 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 APEX 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 GARG POWER PRODUCTS PVT.LTD. 5-36, Type-I, 10/A, Prashanthi Nagar, Kukatpally, Hyderabad - 500 072, India. Phone: +91-40-23074040 / 50, Cell No. 99481 23459, E-mail: garg@gdpl.org, Website: www.gdpl.info 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 E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi S W E T H A V I M A L A M @ Hyderabad THE case of alleged GST fraud of nearly `1,400 crore booked against former chief secretary Somesh Kumar and four others, including an IIT-H assistant professor and commercial tax department officials, will be transferred to the Crime Investigation Department (CID). Official orders in this regard would be issued soon, confirmed sources. The accused commercial tax officials allegedly hid information regarding `10,000 crore belonging to various companies, according to unconfirmed reports. Officials are clueless about the motive behind this. Officials suspect that the state exchequer might have suffered a loss to the tune of `10,000 crore and said investigation would throw more light on this. Sources in the department added that the transfer to the CID is being initiated as the case involves alleged tax eva- sion from various states. It is learnt that as many as 75 taxpayers, including major companies such as the Telangana State Beverages Corporation Limited, are reportedly involved in this alleged scam. The transfer comes less than a week after former chief secretary Somesh Kumar, who also served as an advisor to former CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, was named accused number 5 after a complaint was filed by the commercial taxes department. On July 26, joint commissioner (CT), Central Computer Wing, K Ravi Kanuri filed a complaint at the Hyderabad Central Crime Station alleging that Somesh Kumar, two higher officials of the commercial tax department — SV Kasi Visweswara Rao and A Siva Rama Prasad — along with IIT-H assistant professor Sobhan Babu and private company Plianto Technologies were involved in the input tax credit CONTINUED ON P5 scam. 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. EXPRESS READ Students back in protest on streets of Bangladesh Dhaka: Bangladeshi students held scattered street protests on Monday after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government ignored an ultimatum to release their leaders and apologise for those killed in deadly unrest. Student rallies against civil service job quotas this month sparked days of violence that killed at least 205 people including several police officers | P9 2ND TRANCHE OF CROP LOAN WAIVER TO BE LAUNCHED BY CM TODAY | P4 BRS twisting SC order on PPA probe panel, will appoint new head: CM B K A R T H E E K @ Hyderabad CHIEF Minister A Revanth Reddy on Monday came down heavily on the Opposition BRS for “misleading” the Legislative Assembly by “twisting” the Supreme Court directions on the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) that is probing irregularities in the power sector during the pink party regime. The chief minister said the Supreme Court only wanted the replacement of the chairman of the inquiry panel if the state was willing and that it had dismissed the BRS plea for scrapping the commission. The CM said he would appoint a new chairman for the judicial commission, duly following the directives of the Supreme Court. He also proposed a debate on the 10-year rule of the BRS for two days, on August 1 and 2. “If you keep uttering lies, I will keep speaking truths,” Revanth warned the BRS, while responding to the comments of former energy minister and BRS MLA G Jagadish Reddy during the discussion on Demands for Grants for 2024-2025. “The former energy minister [Jagadish Reddy] sounds as though he was already in Cherlapally jail. Wasn’t he who wanted a judicial inquiry?” the chief minister asked and pointed out that BRS supremo K Chandrasekhar Rao went to the Telangana High Court and Supreme Court for a direction for quashing the inquiry . The Supreme Court had clearly stated that quashing the commission was not possible but allowed replacing the chairman of the commission and sought the opinion of the state government. “We will appoint a new chairman soon,” he said. Levelling serious corruption allegations against the previous BRS government, Revanth said that a fraud of thousands of crores of rupees had taken place in the construction of the Yadadri Thermal Power Plant (YTPP). CONTINUED ON P4 HOUSING SCHEME Muslims biggest beneficiaries among minorities HOUSES SANCTIONED TO THE MINORITIES UNDER THE PMAY-U SCHEME 16,00,131 Total houses sanctioned Zoroastrian 1,127 CID to probe `1,400 cr GST fraud case against Somesh Jain 10,457 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 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 directly dealing with the issue concerning the land in question. 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- Buddhist 19,707 @ New Delhi 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 49,670 S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y ON UKRAINE & RUSSIA Sikh SC upholds HC order on bail for Hemant Soren Foreign minister S Jaishankar at a press conference in Tokyo on Monday | PTI 1,73,350 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- sue between us.” Meanwhile, the joint statement issued after the foreign ministers’ meeting targeted China’s expansionist policies. In a clear message to Beijing, it said one country cannot dominate others. “All countries have a role in contributing to regional peace, stability, and prosperity, while seeking a region in which no country dominates and no country is dominated, competition is managed responsibly, and each country is free from coercion in all its forms and can exercise its agency to determine its own future,” the statement said. 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. Christian Y E S H I S E L I @ New Delhi 13,45,820 No third-party mediation in China border dispute: EAM Muslim 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 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- 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.