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 ■ ■ BHUBANESWAR  MONDAY  SEPTEMBER 16, 2024  `9.00  PAGES 12  LATE CITY EDITION Slew of projects in 3 crore houses approved under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Modi 3.0 In infra sector, projects worth 3 lakh crore approved, most of them on roads, railways, ports and airways Approved Wadhavan Mega Port in Maharashtra at a cost of 76,200 crore Approval of construction/ upgradation of 62,500 km of roads and bridges to connect 25,000 villages 8 new railway line projects approved generating 4.42 crore man-days of employment Minimum support price for kharif crops increased Approved Polavaram project in Andhra Pradesh with an allocation of 12,100 crore Tax relief to the salaried class MUDRA loan limit increased from 10 lakh to 20 lakh PROJECTS WORTH 15 LAKH CRORE LAUNCHED WITHIN THE FIRST 100 DAYS OF MODI’S 3RD INNINGS AS PM DAYS 2 lakh crore PM package announced to promote employment and skill development among the youth 1 crore youth will receive internships at top companies, along with allowances and one-time assistance Employees earning up to 1 lakh will benefit from the government’s contribution to EPFO Employers to get reimbursement of 3,000 per month for 2 years for every new employee with an income up to 1 lakh Free insurance of up to 5 lakh to all senior citizens aged 70 years and above Waqf (Amendment) Bill aimed at reducing conflicts | MORE ON P7 B’desh, Rohingya infiltrations major threat to J’khand: Modi M U K E S H R A N J A N @ Ranchi AHEAD of the Assembly elections in Jharkhand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday accused the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) of playing vote bank politics by supporting Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators. Addressing the ‘Parivartan Maharally’ of the BJP in Jamshedpur, Modi charged that ‘the infiltrators’ have managed to gain influence over the JMM and are “usurping tribal land and forests”. “Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators have become a major threat to Santhal Parganas and Kolhan regions. The demography of these regions is changing fast. The tribal population is on the decline. The infiltrators are establishing control of the panchayat system, grabbing land, and committing atrocities against the daughters of the state. Every Jharkhand resident feels unsafe,” Modi said. Training his guns on the Congress, Modi called it one of the state’s three enemies, the JMM and the Rashtriya Janata Dal being the other two. He said the JMM is possessed by the ghost of the Congress. “When the ghost of Congress enters any party, appeasement becomes the only agenda of that party,” Modi said. Continuing his attacks on the Congress, he said the JMM leaders were taking lessons on corruption from the ‘Congress school of corruption’. He called the Congress family as the most dishonest in the country “All the streams of corruption . originate from there,” he said. The prime minister accused the JMM of not fulfilling the promises it made to the people ahead of the 2019 Assembly elections. “JMM had promised to pay unemployment allowance, but none of them got any allowance,” Modi said. Two-time Olympics medallist Neeraj Chopra came second in Brussels Diamond League with 87.86 m throw, 0.01 m behind Anderson Peters (87.87) | P11 KEJRI PLAYS RESIGNATION CARD Says, he will step down in a couple of days and name his successor; wants snap polls in November A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi AAM Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday sought to take the high moral ground by saying he will not occupy the chief minister’s chair until he gets a fresh mandate of honesty from the voters in the national capital. Seeking to wash the taint of corruption as two Central law enforcement agencies alleged he was the prime beneficiary of the Delhi excise scam, Kejriwal said he will resign as CM in a couple of days and name a successor. He also demanded snap polls along with the Maharashtra assembly elections in November. But the election process can begin only after the chief minister dissolves the assembly and writes to the Election Commission of India. Expecting it to be held in November might be way too optimistic. In the normal course, Delhi will be due for polls in February . Just a couple of days ago, he had walked out of Tihar Jail after getting bail from a Supreme Court bench in connection with the ex- EXPRESS READ Pramod Bhagat booked for drunk driving, car seized Bhubaneswar: Star para shuttler Pramod Bhagat, who was recently handed an 18-month suspension for breaching BWF’s anti-doping whereabouts clause and did not participate in Paris Paralympics, has once again found himself on the wrong side of law. The badminton ace from Odisha was allegedly found driving under the influence of alcohol and is set to face prosecution for the offence | P2 EARLY POLL JUMLA? 1 Advancing polls to November may not be possible as the EC will have only two months for preparations 2 In any case, the EC will come into play only after the Delhi CM dissolves the assembly and formally requests it to advance polls 3 Arvind Kejriwal waves during a party meeting in New Delhi on Sunday | PARVEEN NEGI I want to appeal to the public, if you think Kejriwal is honest, vote for me. If you think Kejriwal is guilty, do not vote for me. Every vote of yours will be a certificate of my honesty – Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi chief minister cise policy scam. But stringent bail conditions set by a coordinate bench disallow him from visiting the Chief Minister’s Office and the Delhi Secretariat. His signing of files in his capacity as CM was also restricted. Kejriwal made the surprise announcement while addressing party workers. “I will go to every street, I will go to every house. Un- til the public gives its verdict that Kejriwal is honest, I will not sit on the CM’s chair,” he claimed. As for his successor, the AAP said a meeting of the legislative party in the next two-three days will take the call. However, Kejriwal ruled out his former deputy as his successor. “The same things were said about him as were said for me. Sisodia Only a new CM can call a meeting of the Cabinet to take a decision on dissolving the assembly also says that he will take over the post of Deputy CM and education minister only when the people say he is honest. It’s up to the people to take the call about me and him,” the AAP chief said. The buzz is on Kejriwal’s wife Sunita getting the baton, as she has been active on ground since the Lok Sabha elections. She is also one of the star campaigners for the Haryana elections. Other names that are being tossed around as successors are ministers Gopal Rai, Atishi and Saurabh Bhardwaj. CBI gets custody of RG Kar’s ex-principal Ghosh S U L A G N A S E N G U P TA @ Kolkata A court on Sunday remanded former principal of Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital Sandip Ghosh and Station House Master (SHO) of Tala Police Station Abhijit Mondal in CBI custody till Tuesday in connection with the rape-murder case of a trainee doctor at the hospital. The two were arrested by the CBI on Saturday night. They have been charged with tampering evidence. Mondal is also accused of delaying the registration of FIR in the case. “We have got their custody for three days till September 17. Now, both will be questioned together. The duo played vital roles in the RG Kar case,” the CBI said. Both Ghosh and Mondal tried to “downplay the incident” as well as “shield” the heinous crime, the CBI told the Sealdah court. The arrests are the first by the CBI in connection with the rape-murder case. Ghosh had already been arrested by the CBI in connection with financial irregularities at the RG Kar Hospital and is currently in judicial custody . Meanwhile, junior doctors on Sunday took out a mega protest march in the Salt Lake area demanding justice for the victim.