BHUBANESWAR  FRIDAY  DECEMBER 27, 2024  `9.00  PAGES 12  JEYPORE EDITION CHINA TO BUILD WORLD’S LARGEST DAM CLOSE TO INDIAN BORDER China on Thursday approved the construction of the world’s largest dam on the Brahmaputra River in Tibet, close to its border with India $137 BILLION PROJECT AT HIMALAYAN GORGE WORRY OVER CHINA FLOODING NORTHEAST Costing $137 billion, it is set to be the world’s biggest infra project till date. The dam is to be built at a huge gorge in the Himalayan reaches where the Brahmaputra makes a huge U-turn to flow into Arunachal Pradesh. Construction poses huge challenges as the project site is located along a tectonic plate boundary where earthquakes regularly occur ■ ■ An official statement on Wednesday sought to allay concerns about earthquakes, saying “a solid foundation has been laid for the sciencebased, secure, and high-quality development” of the project There are worries in India, given the massive size of the dam, that China could weaponise it and flood areas in the northeast during war 300 bn kWh OF POWER TO BE GENERATED EACH YEAR, ENOUGH FOR ANNUAL NEEDS 30 CR HOUSES 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 Manmohan Singh, India’s PM from 2004 to 2014, passes away at 92 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi FORMER prime minister and renowned economist Dr Manmohan Singh passed away on Thursday night. He was 92. Singh was rushed to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi around 8 pm in a critical condition after “sudden loss of consciousness”. A hospital statement said he died due to age-related medical conditions. “Resuscitative measures were started immediately at home. He was brought to medical emergency at AIIMS Delhi at 8.06 pm. Despite all efforts, he could not be revived and was declared dead at 9.51 pm,” said the bulletin. He is survived by wife Gurcharan Singh and three daughters. The government declared national mourning of seven days and cancelled all programmes scheduled Friday . Singh, who was finance minister under the then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao, was the architect and the brainchild of economic re- MANMOHAN SINGH 26 SEPT 1932 - 26 DEC 2024 CWC plans nationwide campaign against attack on the Constitution NAUSHAD BIJAPUR & SUBHASH C H A N D R A N S @ Belagavi THE extended Congress Working Committee (CWC) at Belagavi on Thursday sealed its commitment to revamp the party organisation in the coming months and fight “anti-Constitutional” sentiments taking sway across India. The CWC resolved to commit to protecting the Indian Constitution and the ideals of the Indian Independence Movement. Accordingly, the CWC resolved to launch the “Jai Bapu, Jai Bhim, Jai Samvidhan Abhiyan”, beginning with a rally in Belagavi on Friday (December 27) and culminating in a rally at Mhow on January 26, 2025, commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Constitution coming into force and the founding of our Republic. During this month, rallies and marches will be organised in every block, district, and state as well. The CWC met on Thursday to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s historic taking over of the Presidency of Indian National Congress at its 39th Session in 1924. It expressed concerns over alleged state-sponsored increase in communal and ethnic hatred, particularly targeted against minority communities. Manipur, which has been on the boil since May 2023, continues to be met with indifference by the prime minister and his government, it said. Communal tension, it alleged, has deliberately been stoked in Sambhal and other places for the RSS-BJP’s narrow political gain. The Places of Worship Act, 1991 to which the Congress is firmly committed in letter and spirit has also come under needless and reckless debate, the CWC opined. The CWC also condemned in the strongest terms, the manner in which peaceful protests by Congress were dealt with by the governments in BJP-ruled states like Assam and UP. A number of Congress workers lost their lives. This is totally unacceptable, and it only reflects the antidemocratic mindset of the BJP. The meeting demanded a socioeconomic caste census be conducted at the earliest. The 50% ceiling on quota for SC/STs and OBCs must be increased so as to further enhance the benefits to these groups. Reservations must be on the basis of social, economic, or educational backwardness determined through appropriate means, the CWC said. forms in 1991 that pulled India from the brink of bankruptcy and ushered in an era of economic liberalisation. The reforms changed the course of India’s economic trajectory . Singh served as PM from 2004 to 2014 and was credited for shaping the nation’s growth path. He retired from the Rajya Sabha in April after a 33-year-long stint. In his final speech in Parliament, he had strongly criticised demonetisation, describing it as “organised loot and legalised plunder.” Party pushback against barb on distorted map EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Belagavi CONGRESS leaders on Thursday downplayed the controversy over party posters with “distorted” India map put up here for the centenary celebrations of the 1924 Congress session and said BJP was needlessly spreading false information. Reacting to BJP’s allegations that some posters had the distorted map, Congress leader Priyank Kharge said they were put up by some private companies. Those posters have already been removed. BJP and JDS stated that the map did not have the Gilgit region of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir as well as the Aksai Chin region,which are integral parts of Jammu and Kashmir. RAIN HAVOC 1 farmer dies by suicide, another of shock over severe crop damage EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE room outside of his house. His sister, Apasara recounted that Banamali had been deepWIDESPREAD damage to ly worried about repaying his standing crops by the unsea- loans. sonal rains has claimed lives Ganjam Collector, Dibya of two farmers across the Jyoti Parida confirmed the state which is in the midst farmer’s death but stated of kharif paddy prothat authorities are curement. A shareprobing the exact reacropper ended his son behind the suilife in Ganjam while cide. Chatrapur poanother farmer died lice reached the spot, of shock in Kendrasent the body for para after watching postmortem and inhis paddy harvest itiated an investigadestroyed by the tion. Ganjam has showers. Both the been reeling under Banamali had incidents were recontinued rains, visited his p o r t e d o n leading to extensive farmland to find Wednesday . crop damage. the paddy fields In Ganjam’s ChatMeanwhile, in submerged in r a p u r b l o c k , a water. Distraught, K e n d r a p a r a , 64-year-old farmer he returned home 52-year-old Gouraof Barang village hari Mallick died of and took his life by hanging under Badamadcardiac arrest. A himself hapur panchayat alresident of Sanlegedly died by suithapur village unSources cide over the crop der Derabishi block, loss. The farmer, Banamali he was rushed to the district Penthei had raised paddy headquarters hospital where over five acres of land on a doctors declared him dead. sharecropping basis but saw Ramakant Mallick, a local, his hard work washed away said Gourahari had raised by the relentless rains. paddy crops on over three A father of three daughters acre land after obtaining and a son, Banamali had bor- `60,000 loan from Santhapura rowed around 2 lakh from primary agricultural coopprivate lenders for the culti- erative society and `50,000 vation. On the morning of more from a bank to purchase the incident, he visited his paddy seeds and fertilisers. farmland to find the paddy “But the unseasonal rains fields submerged in water. shattered his hopes of a good Distraught, he retur ned harvest,” he added. Gourahome and took his life by hari is survived by a family CONTINUED ON P5 hanging himself in the bath- of five. @ Kendrapara/Berhampur BOY WONDER Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar awardee Anish Sarkar, a chess prodigy, at Bharat Mandapam, in New Delhi on Thursday. At 3, he is the youngest FIDE-ranked player in the world | PTI EXPRESS READ Govt to start Krushak ID registration from Jan 1 Bhubaneswar: In a move to digitise the agriculture sector, the government is all set to start farmers registration across the state from January 1. The farmers will be provided a unique digital identity similar to Aadhaar. To be known as Krushak Parichaya Patra (Farmer ID), it will be an Aadhaar-linked unique digital identity that is connected dynamically to the land records of the state, livestock ownership, crops sown, and benefits availed under different schemes. The registration will be done jointly by the Agriculture and Cooperation department. It has been decided to hold camps to assist the farmers, said an officer of the Agriculture department | P3 Naveen asks ECI to probe discrepancies in EVMs, supports paper ballot elections EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bhubaneswar DAYS after the BJD reached out to the Election Commission of India (ECI) seeking clarification over the ‘glaring and unusual discrepancies’ in the voting and counting numbers in the 2024 Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, party supremo and former chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday said he was in favour of going back to paper ballot. Speaking to mediapersons during the 28th foundation day celebrations of BJD here, Naveen said the complaint filed by the BJD on huge variations in the polling percentage as well as vote numbers should be examined carefully and the ECI should come up with an explanation. Coming down heavily on the BJP for reacting to the complaint, he said “I do not know why the BJP is getting so riled by it. Nobody has accused them of anything yet. It seems to be an example of one person claiming to be innocent even as he is not accused of committing any wrong,” he said. Alluding to irregularities in EVM-based elections, the BJD BJD president Naveen Pattnaik at the 28th foundation day celebration of the party, at Sankha Bhawan in Bhubaneswar on Thursday | EXPRESS I do not know why the BJP is getting so riled by it. Nobody has accused them of anything yet. It seems to be an example of one person claiming to be innocent even as he is not accused of committing any wrong Naveen Patnaik, BJD president supremo for the first time joined voice with several Opposition parties and said his party was also in favour of holding polls through paper ballot. He also supported the Opposition protest against the remarks of Union Home minister Amit Shah on BR Ambedkar and termed it very unfortunate. “I think the Union Home minister’s remark on such an illustri- EC unveils ‘world’s largest datasets’ on LS, Assembly polls M U K E S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi THE Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday released the world’s largest electoral dataset unveiling 42 statistical reports on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and 14 reports each on four state assembly elections— Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh. Officials said these reports—98 in all —have been put out in the public domain for the sake of transparency as well as to promote research. According to the statistical datasets, as many as 64.64 crore voters exercised their franchise in the Lok Sabha polls held earlier this year with women voters outnumbering men. The female voter tur nout stood at 65.78% compared to 65.55% for male electors, data showed. Female contesting candidates were 800, as against 726 in 2019. The number of nominations filed stood at 12,459 in 2024, compared to 11,692 in 2019, as 8,360 candidates contested elections as against 8,054 in 2019. According to officials, such granular data is not shared by any of the election management bodies in democracies WOMEN CANDIDATES Maharashtra had the highest number of women contesting candidates with 111 in the fray, followed by 80 in Uttar Pradesh and 77 in Tamil Nadu. Out of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies, there were 152 seats where there were no women candidates across the world. A senior ECI official said these statistical reports would be a ‘treasure trove’ for academicians, researchers, and election watchers worldwide for indepth analysis and policy insights. He said the ECI’s move to proactively share the massive dataset would silence critics alleging non-disclosure of electoral data by the national election watchdog. The official added: “This exhaustive data set empowers stakeholders to slice and dice data for a granular level analysis with comparison from data sets of previous elections already available on ECI website. These reports will facilitate time-series analysis to track long-term outlook and shifts in electoral and political landscape.” Kohli shoulder bumps Konstas, penalised G O M E S H S @ Melbourne WHAT is India versus Australia match without a dash of controversy and pinch of heated exchanges. What makes this even more riveting are the two protagonists involved. One a teenager on debut and the other a veteran of 121 Tests and at 36, is almost double the former’s age. Sam Konstas and Virat Kohli. The two cricketing figures of contrasting fame clashed on the field. In short, there were two headlines on Day One here — Konstas’s fiery knock (60 off 65 balls) and his shoulder episode with Kohli after 10th over. Konstas was on fire, hitting the almost-invincible Jasprit Bumrah, including a sux, in the most unconventional style in Tests, especially by an opener. The two were seen engageming in verbal altercation after Kohli seemed to have nudged the youngster on his shoulder while walking to the other end. Later, the match referee fined Kohli 2 0p e r cent of match fee after hearing. “Kohli was found to have breached Article 2.12 of the ICC Code of Conduct... which relates to ‘inappropriate physical contact with a Player...’,” the ICC stated. Though former players criticsed Kohli, Konstas later said, “I was just doing my gloves and I think he accidentally b u m p e d m e. I think that’s just cricket and can happen with tension. I think the emotions got to both of us.” P11 ous figure as Dr BR Ambedkar is very unfortunate,” the former chief minister said. He, however, said the BJD is yet to take stand on ‘one nation one election’ as it is still examining the issue. Replying to a question on his successor, Naveen said, he has not given a thought to it. “Well, I am here for a long time. I have not thought about this,” he said. He also refuted questions on the future of the BJD and said the regional outfit was still very strong and had a bright future. The popularity of the party has not diminished as is evident from the fact that the BJD got more votes than the BJP in the 2024 elections, he CONTINUED ON P5 said. Anna univ rape: FIR with girl’s details leaked EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Chennai AMID outrage over the sexual assault of the student on Anna University campus and protests by students and opposition parties, in a shocking lapse on Thursday, the FIR filed on Tuesday by the Kotturpuram All Women Police Station (AWPS) in the case landed in public domain. The FIR had graphic details about the ordeal suffered by the student and her name, address and phone number, sources said. While the AIADMK and BJP hit the streets on Thursday, and the saffron party alleged that the accused was a DMK officebearer, Law Minister S Regupathi rejected the allegations as untrue. The accused, Gnanasekaran (37), a local biryani vendor, was booked under sections 63, 64 and 75 of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), 2023. Though it’s unclear if the FIR was downloaded from the Tamil Nadu police’s Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) portal, a message on the police website later on Thursday said the FIR was blocked by a competent authority . Speaking to reporters on Thursday evening, Greater Chennai Police Commissioner A Arun said a possible software glitch may have allowed the FIR to be downloaded. A separate FIR has been registered to probe the leak, he added. Meanwhile, chairperson of National Commission of Women (NCW) Vijaya Rahatkar wrote to DGP stating that the leak of the FIR was a violation under Section 72 of the BNS, 2023, and guidelines issued by the Supreme Court. NEW BJP CHIEF LIKELY BY FEB, CASTE MAY HOLD KEY The BJP is preparing to initiate the process for electing a new party president after January 14, marking the end of the Hindu calendar’s inauspicious period, Kharmas | P7