BHUBANESWAR l friday l july 05, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l LATE city EDITION Sunak govt stares at crushing defeat at U.K. general elections Voting was underway across the UK on Thursday in a general election widely expected to hand the opposition Labour party a landslide victory Labour set for its biggest victory: survey Tories may lose more than 200 seats Voting began at 7.00 am (local time) in over 40,000 polling booths. Labour is projected to win its first general election since 2005, with a slew of election-eve polls forecasting its biggest-ever win. The vote comes as the Tory government is facing public anger over the cost-of-living crisis and its own chaotic rule that has seen five PMs hold office in 14 years | P11 ■ ■ Of the 650 seats in the fray, the winning party needs to get at least 326 seats. The Tories had 365 seats in the outgoing Parliament. But they are projected to win a record low of less than 150 seats this time Labour’s Keir Starmer promised a “decade of national renewal” if his party wins. Sunak urged people not to vote for “tax-raising” Labour 430 The number of seats the labour party is expected to win as per multiple polls 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 Ratna Bhandar Govt forms new panel to supervise inventory E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar Rohit Sharma and Co travelled on open top bus during a victory parade and reached Wankhede Stadium where the final celebration was held on Thursday night | PTI when india came together India team meets PM before heading to Mumbai for a victory parade Rohit and Co celebrate the T20 WC victory with fans at Wankhede is always special and pure. India Champions were written on the jerseys. The 15 men who did it wore them with pride. Back in India, ‘India Champions’ were etched in the hearts of 1.4 billion people since Saturday. Mumbai, like its name, saw the maximum of sports celebration, immersed in the feeling of euphoria and excitement almost resembling hysteria (in the positive sense), fans forgot about daily strife for a while. Mobile phones were out and captured every angle possible. The Marine Drive had hardly any space to stand. It was surreal. It was magical. The journey from the West Indies had its share of drama too. India managed to reach New Delhi through a chartered flight after hurricanes disrupted their travel plans. The non-stop Air India flight that brought the team home was rechristened AIC24WC — Air India Champions 24 World Cup. The Vistara flight that flew the team from New Delhi to Mumbai was called UK1845 (jersey number of Rohit and Virat Kohli). The victory parade started late. But that did not deter thousands who thronged the Wankhede where the team congregated for one final show. Rahul Dravid delivered his final speech as coach; Virat wore his T20 jersey for India one last time and Rohit Sharma was eloquent. Along with them were the India’s, nay the world’s finest T20 players including that national treasure Jasprit Bumrah, marauding Suryakumar Yadav and all others as well as the support staff. Months after booing him, Wankhede chanted Hardik, Hardik too. Sport is after all a More on p13 great leveller. On Day 1 in CMO, Majhi says all official work will be done in Odia 3 murdered over sorcery suspicion in Balasore village e x p r e s s ne w s s e r v i c e Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday | PTI This is the first time in 15 years that I have seen Rohit (Sharma) show so much emotion (after the win) — Virat Kohli after victory parade A mass of humanity poured into the streets of Mumbai before converging at the Wankhede to give a welcome befitting kings and queens. The victorious Indian team, who had landed in the city in the evening after sharing stories of how they won the World Cup with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi in the morning, went on an open top bus parade from Nariman Point to the stadium in Indian cricket’s headquarters. After reaching the stadium, they made their way inside the playing field to rapturous applause as the venue eschewed every sinew to convey their thanks to a team that had won the T20 World Cup in Barbados on Saturday . Celebrating a sporting victory E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar Making a strong pitch for inculcating ‘Odia Asmita’ in governance system, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Thursday announced that henceforth Odia will be the language for all official purposes. Starting his work from the designated office chamber of the chief minister (CMO) in the third floor of Lok Seba Bhavan, Majhi directed that all files placed before him should be in Odia language only . “All government work will be done in Odia language. The Odisha Official Language Act will be amended if necessary to widen the use of the Odia language both at official and non-official levels. The state administration will be run by Odia language and the official language law will be strictly followed,” he said. The chief minister had been functioning from the state guest house since being sworn-in on June 12 as the CMO was not ready . Chief Minister Mohan Majhi, Dy CMs KV Singh Deo and Pravati Pariada along with ministers pose for photographs at the CMO in Lok Seba Bhavan on Thursday | DEBADATTA MALLICK He received a warm welcome by his ministerial colleagues and officials on entering the CMO for the first time. Majhi disposed of some official files through Odisha State Workflow Automation System (OSWAS), an e-governance initiative for speedy disposal of citizen services in effective and transparent manner and said that arrangements will be made for applica- tion of appropriate technology to facilitate the widespread use of the Odia language at both public and private level. Reiterating BJP’s priority to cultural preservation, re-establishment of Odia Asmita and propagation of Odia language, he said steps will be taken to reorganise Odisha Sahitya Akademi, Sangeet Natak Akademi and Lalit Kala Akademi. Continued on P5 Sukan ta Sahu @ Balasore THREE tribal villagers, two of them women, were found murdered in a forested hill on Thursday three days after they went missing, under Oupada police limits of Balasore district. Police detained as many as six residents of Barapada village for their alleged involvement in the murder which investigators do not rule out may have taken place over suspicion of sorcery practice. Bodies of the victims, Dampa Singh, his wife Gurubari and another woman Sombari Singh were recovered from the hill near Barapada village. The matter came to light when Somabari’s elder son, who works in Bhubaneswar, called his mother over phone but she did not respond. He came home on Monday and sought his mother’s whereabouts from the villagers who told him she had gone in search of work. Suspecting foul play he filed a missing persons , report with Oupada police Continued on P5 station. Hemant Soren back as Jharkhand CM after 5 months M U K E S H R A N J A N @ Ranchi Hours after getting an invite f r o m G ove r n o r C P R a d hakrishnan to take his oath of office and secrecy, Hemant Soren was sworn in as the thirteenth chief minister of Jharkhand on Thursday . Hemant replaced Champai Soren, who put in his papers as CM on Wednesday. Hemant had installed Champai as the stopgap CM on February 2 following his arrest in a land grab case by the Enforcement Directorate. Interestingly, Hemant became the third CM of the state to take the oath of office for the third time. His father Shibu Soren and BJP leader Arjun Munda had in the past held the post of CM thrice. Before heading for the ceremo- ny at Raj Bhawan, Hemant posted a video on X, calling it the defeat of the BJP’s conspiracy to keep him out of power. “People intoxicated with power tried to silence me, but now the voice of Jharkhand’s residents will be strengthened... Jharkhand jhukega nahin…. Jharkhand rukega nahin, (Jharkhand will never bow down, Jharkhand will never stop),” he asserted. After the ceremony, Hemant said Champai took the development agenda of the coalition forward amidst political upheaval following his arrest. “Developmental works will continue with fresh impetus,” he added. Initially it was said that swear, ing in will take place on July 7, but later the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha informed that Hemant will take oath on Thursday . DROPPING a surprise, the state government on Thursday evening constituted a new committee to supervise the inventory of Shree Jagannath temple’s Ratna Bhandar, dissolving the Justice Arijit Pasayat-led panel set up by the previous BJD government in March. The new panel will be headed by Justice Biswanath Rath, former Judge of Orissa High Court. The Law de par tment notified a 16-member high level committee under the chair manship of Justice Rath. The decision comes a day ahead o f Ju s t i c e Pasayat-led panel’s scheduled meeting on Friday which was to be followed by inventorisationrelated exercise over the next three weeks. The new committee has been constituted to supervise the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee in carrying out the inventorisation of valuables including jewelleries stored in the Ratna Bhandar of the Shree Jagannath Temple. Some of the members of the committee include Dr CBK Mohanty, Sudarshan Patnaik, Swami Pragyananda, Jagdish Mishra and former DGP Prakash Mishra. Continued on P5 Six arrested over Hathras mishap N A M ITA B A J PA I @ Lucknow THE Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday said they have arrested six sevadars (volunteers) of preacher Bhole Baba alias Narayan Sakar Hari alias Suraj Pal Jatav, in connection with the stampede at a prayer meet at Hathras that killed 121 people on Tuesday “Four men and two women . have been arrested in connection with the unfortunate incident. They are all members of the organising committee and worked as sevadars,” IG Aligarh range Shalabh Mathur said during a press meeting. The officer said the arrested persons were responsible for crowd management. “They used to manage the crowd control independently and would not allow the administration to tackle the situation,” he added. The arrested persons are Ram Ladaite Yadav, Upendra Yadav, Megh Singh, Manju Yadav, Manju Devi, and Mukesh Kumar. However, the main accused in the FIR, mukhya sevadar (chief volunteer) Dev Prakash Madhukar — an engineer with UP Panchayati Raj department — is still at large. Police have announced `1 lakh reward for information about him. Sources said his residence in Hathras is locked and his family members, too, are untraceable. While the FIR doesn’t name the baba, sources said police have raided his eight suspected hideouts in Mainpuri, Gwalior, Kanpur, and Hathras, but to no avail.
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