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 ■ ■ SAMBALPUR SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 22, 2024 `12.00 PAGES 26 CITY EDITION Voting for the island nation Sri Lanka’s first presidential since 2022 was held peacefully with estimated turnout of around 75% | P11 US hosts Sikh leaders hours before Modi visit PM lands in US for Quad summit, to have one-on-one with President Joe Biden and address global challenges,” he said. PRIME Minister Narendra Quad is a diplomatic partnerModi arrived in the US on Sat- ship between Australia, India, urday evening for a three-day Japan, and the US to foster a visit. Modi has a packed sched- stable Indo-Pacific. ule in the US; he will have a biModi is to have a one-on-one lateral meeting with US Presi- with Biden before the Quad dent Joe Biden, attend the meet. According to sources, fourth Quad Leaders’ several key ag reeSummit in Biden’s ments are likely to be home town Delaware, signed. Also on the engage in high-level cards is a multi-billion meetings on the sidedollar deal to buy 31 lines of the summit, predator drones from and take part in disthe US. cussions at the United PANNUN MAY BE Meanwhile, the US Nations in New York. is also likely to rake up DISCUSSED The PM’s other enthe alleged assassinagagements include Senior White House tion bid on Khalistani joining an Indian di- officials on Thursday separatist leader Guraspora event at Long met Sikh leaders patwant Singh PanIsland and participat- sympathetic to nun, a dual US-Canada ing in a roundtable Khalistani leader citizen. On Thursday, Gurpatwant Singh with the CEOs of US senior White House companies working on Pannun, who was and US intelligence ofnew technologies such allegedly targeted by ficials met a group of Indian agents as artificial intelliSikh leaders sympagence, quantum comthetic to Pannun. Held puting, and semiconductors. inside the White House, the Soon after landing in Phila- meeting was attended by Pritdelphia, Modi said his meeting pal Singh of the American Sikh with Biden, Australian Prime Caucus Committee and repreMinister Anthony Albanese, sentatives from the Sikh Coaliand Japanese premier Fumio tion and Sikh American Legal Kishida at the Quad Summit Defence and Education Fund. would contribute to the better- The US officials reportedly asment of the world. “I am sure sured the Sikh delegates that the discussions will contribute they will not allow any transnain making our planet better tional aggression on its soil. Y ESHI S EL I @ New Delhi Folk poet Haladhar Nag recites one of his poems at OLF | DEBADATTA MALLICK Former CM Naveen Patnaik speaks to TNIE editorial director Prabhu Chawla Literature guides people BJP govt has failed on law on the path of truth: Nag and order front: Naveen B I J AY C H A K I @ Bhubaneswar WITH THIS ISSUE THE PARTITION OF PAKISTAN PLUS 12 PAGES CELEBRATED Koshali poet and Padma Shri awardee Haladhar Nag on Saturday said literature guides people on the path of truth, and true poets are Yugajanmas (born in ages) who take society on the right path. Inaugurating the 12th edition of the Odisha Literary Festival organised by The New Indian Express here, the poet, who is known as ‘Loka Ratan Kabi’ (people’s poet) for his down-to-earth writings on the basic issues and problems of the society, delved into the essence of humanism and literature. “There may be different castes, but every human being is one. There may be different languages, but literature is inherently one and has the singular object to uplift the human being. A person may belong to Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Atishi takes oath as Delhi CM, thanks political guru Kejriwal A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi EXPRESS READ Health camps in all dists soon: Majhi Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Saturday said the state government is planning to organise health camps in all the district headquarters of the state to ensure better healthcare services to the people. Majhi said, “We have been receiving complaints from people coming to the grievance cell about lapses in peripheral hospitals. We have been thinking of taking new initiatives for them.”| P7 Tribe or Brahmin, but his feelings towards others make him an ideal human being,” he said. Clad in a cotton dhoti and his typical cotton vest, the legendary folk poet from western Odisha thanked the TNIE for giving a platform to regional language writers like him. His rustic simplicity and inspiring words touched the hearts of the packed audience, who responded with loud claps and cheers to his every word. Nag recounted the difficulties of being born to an impoverished family which could not afford him education beyond class three. He became an orphan at the age of 10 and had to work in hotels and as a cook in school and college hostels to eke out CONTINUED ON P7 a living. ATISHI on Saturday took oath as the third woman chief minister of Delhi after Sushma Swaraj and Sheila Dikshit. At 43, she became the youngest CM of Delhi and is the second woman CM after Mamata Ban a r j e e i n I n d i a at present. Along with her, five cabinet ministers were sworn in — Gopal Rai, Kailash Gehlot, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Imran Hussain and Mukesh Ahlawat. After taking oath, Atishi took AAP supremo and her predecessor Arvind Kejriwal’s blessings by touching his feet at Raj Niwas. In her first press confer- ence after the ceremony, she profusely thanked him. “I thank my elder brother and political guru Arvind Kejriwal for entrusting me with the responsibility of looking after the people of Delhi. He is the one who shaped the future of millions of children, provided free bus travel to women, gave free electricity to the people, free medical treatment so that people do not have to mortgage their house or land for any of their family members,” she said. From now until the assembly elections, her only job will be to complete the work that has been stop-ped due to the conspiracies of the BJP and the Lt Governor, she said. B I J AY C H A K I @ Bhubaneswar FORMER chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik on Saturday lashed out at the BJP government for the deteriorating law and order situation in the state. “We can all see how the law and order situation in the state has declined from the initial period of the gover nment with the incident of Governor’s son at Puri. Recently , an army major and his fiancee were harassed in a violent manner at a major police station in the capital city This is not a good record,” . he said during a conversation with editorial director of The New Indian Express during the Odisha Literary Festival here. Naveen, who is now the leader of Opposition, also said that the stench of corruption has begun to permeate in a big way which will be have to be rectified. The former chief minister, however, refrained from rating the BJP government in the state and the NDA at the Centre on their performance on completion of their first 100 days in office. “It is too early to start counting. Elections to several states will be held in the near future. Let us wait for the results,” he said. Naveen said he will continue to serve the people of Odisha in his new role as the leader of the Opposition as he was doing for the last 24 years as the chief minister. He also adopted a non-committal approach on the issue of ‘One Nation, One Election’ plan of the Centre and said that details will have to be studied before taking a stand CONTINUED ON P7 on it. OLYMPIC 2036 BID Ahmedabad? Selected region name not sent to IOC I N D R A N E E L D A S @ Chennai IT is almost close to one year since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India would be bidding for the 2036 Olympics, but the name of the host city is yet to be sent to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Since last October, when the announcement was made during the IOC Session in Mumbai, there have been multiple reports that Ahmedabad would be one of the host cities. The IOC, however, is yet to receive any confirmation from the IOA. “The IOC has not been informed by the IOA of any selected region,” the IOC said in an email to this daily . Interestingly, countries like Indonesia and Turkey nations , considered as serious bidders for the 2036 Games, have selected the hosts/region. Though the IOC doesn’t reveal the number of interested parties or bidding process, its president Thomas Bach had reaffirmed that it was in double digits. However, the infight- ing in the IOA too seems to be a sour point. It is understood that even during the Paris Olympics, where some of potential hosts’ top officials met the IOC, there were apparently no meetings between the IOA and other stakeholders with the Future Hosts Commission. What needs to be more troubling is that the IOA is yet to formally announce a bid committee, which will deal with the IOC. Even for the 2030 Youth Olympics IOA would need to open dialogues with the IOC. In reply to this newspaper’s query whether the present unsavoury stand-off between the IOA president and the EC would affect the bidding process the IOC said: “IOC is happy to see interest in hosting from India, with its huge passion for sport and youthful population. To move forward, any project from India would need the official support of the National Olympic Committee (NOC).” The IOC has said that there are a number of “Interested Parties, including India, taking part in a non-committal Continuous Dialogue with the IOC.” This, according to the IOC, helps the potential host to “explore and improve its Olympic project, without linking it to any specific Games edition or year”.
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