KALABURAGI  TUESDAY  OCTOBER 22, 2024  `9.00  PAGES 14  CITY EDITION GOLD PRICE SOARS, SILVER MOVES CLOSER TO `1 LAKH / KG MILESTONE Gold price on Monday surged `750 to hit `80,650 per 10 grams (99.5% purity), while silver zoomed `5,000 to `99,500 per kg in the national capital DIWALI, GEOPOLITICAL FACTORS PUSH DEMAND PRECIOUS METALS SHINE IN FUTURES TRADE Bullion traders attributed the jump in gold prices to pick-up in buying by local jewellers to meet increased demand in the festive and wedding season. According to experts tracking the commodities market, the price escalation is also driven by the rising tensions in West Asia and uncertainties related to the US elections, prompting investors to pool their money into safe-haven assets ■ ■ ■ Further, a positive trend in the overseas markets as well as a fall in equity markets boosted the gold’s safe-haven appeal, experts said In futures trades on the Multi Commodity Exchange, gold contracts for December delivery jumped B493 or 0.63% to B78,242 per 10 grams Silver contracts bounced B2,822 or 2.96% to hit a high of B98,224 per kg `1,00,564 PRICE OF 1 KG SILVER ON MCX ON MONDAY FOR MARCH 5, 2025 DELIVERY CONTRACT 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 CHINA SIACHIN GLACIER DAULAT BEG OLDI KARAKORAM PASS AKSAI CHIN Y JUNCTION, DEPSANG INDIA, CHINA IRON OUT WRINKLES Both sides arrive at patrolling agreement on LAC Y E S H I S E L I A N D M AYA N K S I N G H @ New Delhi INDIA (LADAKH) DEMCHOK The fine print The pre-2020 situation was that the Army was patrolling till its line of perception in Demchok and Depsang. “Whether we can return to those areas will be clear in the fine print,” sources said FOREIGN Secretary Vikram Misri’s primary briefing on Monday was about the upcoming 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, but what was casually mentioned became the story of the day — that India and China have arrived at a patrolling agreement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh. The jaw-dropping announcement of the thaw in eastern Ladakh came in response to a question from this reporter on the buzz on the possibility of Prime Minister Narendra Modi having a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jingping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit. RG KAR IMPASSE PROTESTING doctors in West Bengal called off their hunger strike on Monday following a two-hour meeting with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. They also cancelled their proposed strike across hospitals in the state on Tuesday . The decision was taken after a general body meeting of the doctors in the wake of their meeting with Banerjee in the state secretariat. The doctors had launched the fast-unto-death protest on October 5 in response to the horrific rape-murder of their colleague at RG Kar Hospital in August. Their demands included safety and security within hospitals, systemic reforms in the healthcare sector, and removal of West Bengal’s health secretary . In the meeting, which was streamed live, Banerjee assured the doctors of her government’s resolve to address their concerns but she refused to remove health secretary Narayan Nigam without evidence against him. The doctors said they were not fully satisfied with the state government’s assurances but decided to relent out of respect for the parents of the RG Kar hospital victim. The parents had urged the medics to call off their fast in view of their deteriorating health. As of Monday six doctors had , been hospitalised due to health complications from the fast. “In the meeting, the body language of the state government was not positive,” said a doctor. PRODUCT OF PATIENT DIPLOMACY: JAISHANKAR “There are areas which for various reasons after 2020, they blocked us, we blocked them. We have now reached an understanding which will allow patrolling as we did till 2020... It is a positive development and I would say it is a product of very patient, very persevering diplomacy,” Jaishankar said At a different event later in the day, foreign minister S Jaishankar indicated that both sides had effectively gone back to the pre-2020 situation. “With that we can say the disengagement with China has been completed. Details will come out in due course,” he said. It was in 2020 that 20 Indian jawans died after a brawl with PLA soldiers in the Galwan valley along the LAC. Bilateral ties became frigid ever since. “Over the last several weeks, Indian and Chinese diplomatic and military negotiators have been in close contact with each other in a variety of forums. As a result of these discussions, an agreement has been made for patrolling arrangements along the LAC leading to disengagement and a resolution of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020. We will be taking the next steps on this,’’ Misri said. Sources indicated that there is a strong likelihood of the ModiXi bilateral. The prime minister will also have bilateral meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Dr Masoud Pezeshkian. The announcement came days after the US law enforcement department unsealed the second indictment in the alleged murder-for-hire attempt against Khalistani radical Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil, in which a former RAW officer was named and shamed. The two sticking points on the LAC that had defied resolution for this long are at Depsang and Demchok. Multiple military sources said that things will take time to get clear as “not much has changed on ground”. Troops continue to be stationed in the vicinity of the 832 km LAC on P9 Eastern Ladakh. YOGESHWARA QUITS AS BJP MLC, SAYS WILL FIGHT AS INDEPENDENT Medics call off fast after 2-hr talks with Didi E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Kolkata Chances brighten for Modi-Xi talks tion to the Legislative Assembly from Channapatna constituency I have resigned as MLC. Being a , member of the upper house, I cannot contest as an independent candidate. Hence, I decided to resign as the deadline to file nomination papers is fast approaching.” He, however, still has hopes of being a candidate of BJP-JDS alliance. Because of this, he has not quit the saffron party . “I have not quit BJP. O n c e a g a i n I w i l l ap peal to the party’s central leadership and also to Union Minister and JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy to consider my candidature,” he said and claimed that state BJP leaders are in favour of E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Hubballi CP Yogeshwara signs his resignation letter in Hubbali on Monday Suspense continues, he may still join Cong BJP leader CP Yogeshwara is likely to join the Congress on Wednesday and contest as the party’s official candidate in the Channapatna Assembly bypoll. Yogeshwara, who had kept Congress in the loop of which Kumaraswamy too was aware of, held several rounds of talks with KPCC chief DK Shivakumar’s men who struck the deal, sources said. P4 IN a sudden turn of events, BJP leader CP Yogeshwara resigned as MLC on Monday He met Legislative Coun. cil Chairman Basavaraj Horatti at the latter’s residence here and submitted his resignation letter. After the meeting, Horatti forwarded the resignation letter to the Council Secretariat for further action. Yogeshwara, however, has not quit BJP . Horatti later told reporters that he had accepted Yogeshwara’s letter as he resigned voluntarily Yo. geshwar said, “To contest as an independent candidate in the byelec- fielding him from Channapatna. Asked if he would join Congress, he said, “ of now, I have reAs signed as MLC to contest as an independent candidate. But who knows what happens tomorrow? In the past too, I contested as an independent candidate and also from various parties. Soon, I will hold a meeting with my supporters and well-wishers and take a decision in this regard.” Dismissing the possibility of contesting as a JDS candidate, he said that his supporters are against it. Even JDS workers are against it. He could only fight as a BJP candidate and it will help strengthen the saffron party’s base in the Old Mysore region, he added. Hoax callers to be put on no-fly list, says Union min E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ New Delhi TO deal with the menace of hoax bomb threats to airlines, the Centre plans to amend rules to place the culprits in the no-fly list and initiate criminal charges against them, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu said on Monday. He said such threats will be made a cognisable offence, which will attract punishment and fines. Naidu said the government is considering amendments to the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Civil Aviation Act, 1982, to strengthe n m e a s u r e s . “ E ve n though most of them are hoax threats, we cannot take them lightly The lives . of passengers are important, the security situation is impor- tant, and protocol is important,” he added. These hoax bomb calls also caused financial loss to airlines that had to divert flights for safety reasons. An airline official said the financial loss due to frequent diversions ranges from a few lakh rupees to a couple of crores per flight, depending on the size of the plane. The minister also announced the extension of affordable regional air connectivity scheme, UDAN, for 10 more years. Around 1.5 crore passengers have benefited so far. Meanwhile, CISF and BCAS brass met Home Secretary Govind Mohan on Monday. Sources said the threats originated overseas but their exact location could not be traced so far. HAVING A FIELD DAY Children make the most of the holiday declared for schools following heavy rain in Bengaluru on Monday. The city received a whopping 61.9 mm rain from Sunday evening to early Monday morning, triggering water logging and tree fall in several areas | SHASHIDHAR BYRAPPA SC: Secularism part of statute’s basic structure S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Monday said secularism had always been held to be part and parcel of the basic structure of the Constitution. A two-judge bench of the court comprising justices Sanjiv Khanna and Sanjay Kumar made the observation while hearing a batch of petitions filed by former Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy, advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain and others, challenging the insertion of the words “socialist” and “secular” in the Preamble of the Constitution. The addition came through the 42nd constitutional amendment moved by the then Indira Gandhi government in 1976. “This court has in a number of judgments held that secularism was always part of the basic structure of the Constitution. If one looks at the right to equality and the word ‘fraternity’ used in the Constitution, there is a clear indication that secularism has been held as the core feature of the Constitution,” the bench said. “When secularism was debat- Retrospective ed, there was only the French effect challenge model. The Supreme Court has Advocate Ashwini struck down statutes that go Upadhyay said he was against secularism. You may not against the words look at Article 25. For socialism, “socialist”, “secular” or we have not followed the West- “integrity” but was ern concept and we are happy against their insertion about it,” Justice Khanna told into the Preamble in the petitioners. 1976 with retrospective He said there were different effect from Nov 26, 1949 meanings of socialism and one “should not take the meaning adopted in Western countries”. “Socialism can also mean there has to be a fair opportunity for all — the concept of equality Let us not take it as a Western concept. It can . have some different meanings as well. Same goes with the word secularism,” he said. Swamy submitted that the Preamble was a declaration made on November 26, 1949 and therefore, adding further words to it through a subsequent amendment was arbitrary He said it was wrong to say that according to the . present Preamble, the Indian people agreed on November 26, 1949 to make the country a socialist and secular republic. The Preamble cannot be altered, varied or repealed, he argued. The bench said it would examine the matter and posted it for further hearing on November 18. Shortage of translators A school of farmers, by farmers, for farmers cripples K’taka’s DoT FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND K S H I V A K U M A R @ Mandya A group of teachers has come forward to open a first-of-itskind ‘Farmers’ School’, which is ‘of the farmers and for the farmers’, at Alakere village in Mandya taluk. The idea is to empower those engaged in agriculture and also those keen on taking it up as a profession or hobby . Led by Sathyamurthy, a lecturer from Mandya, the sevenmember group, all teachers from families of farmers, decided to open the school after seeing the plight of farmers during last year’s drought and Covid-19 pandemic, and also considering various problems, including the increasing n u m b e r o f s u i c i d e s by farmers. The aim of the group is to make agriculture lucrative and farmers self-reliant in all aspects. This will help prevent migration of youngsters from villages to cities in search of jobs and also farmers from selling their land. The group has visited more than 200 villages to understand the problems of farmers. To encourage them, it has roped in experts in agriculture and progressive farmers. The Farmer School (Raitha Shaale) at Alakere village in Mandya district | UDAYASHANKAR S Apart from educating farmers, the group is keen on holding training camps, field visits and sessions by experts at the ‘Farmers’ School’. After forming ‘Kempegowda Vokkaligara Welfare Group’, the teachers laid the foundation stone for the school recently . The school will showcase success stories of farmers from various countries, including Israel. A seminar hall and a few classrooms will be ready in two months at Alakere. The group has plans to open many such schools across the state. Sathyamurthy said farmers are free to walk into the school for guidance on farming. “We will also guide youngsters, including techies, keen on farmP7 ing,” he added. B O S K Y K H A N N A @ Bengaluru THE Directorate of Translations (DoT) is facing a severe shortage of translators, especially English to Kannada, and vice versa. The post of Hindi translator has been vacant for the past 15 years. According to officials, the directorate has only 19 of the 40 sanctioned staff strength. The state government has promised to recruit nine translators through the KPSC. But they are not sure when the recruitment will happen, they said. Because of the shortage of translators, regular govern- ment work has been affected, especially communication between the Union and state governments, and also between the state government and courts. “There is a need for English and Hindi translators. But we do not have one. We are outsourcing the translation work and there are chances of errors or leak of information,” said a senior DoT official. “These are all government jobs. We have made many requests. But the government is yet to appoint translators. We need experts,” M Venkatesh, DoT Director, told The New Indian Express. P4 EXPRESS READ SC stops K’taka from declaring board results New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Karnataka government for conducting board examinations for different classes, and restrained it from declaring the results of board exams for Classes 8, 9 and 10, till further orders. 5 Naxals gunned down by security forces in Maha Mumbai: Five Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security forces in Gadchiroli district, Maharashtra, on Monday. The gunfight took place in a forest in Bhamragadh taluk. The area borders Narayanpur, a Naxalhit district in Bastar, Chhattisgarh.