BHUBANESWAR  TUESDAY  APRIL 01, 2025  `9.00  PAGES 14  JEYPORE EDITION IMD PREDICTS APRIL-JUNE MAY BE HOTTER THAN USUAL India is likely to experience hotter-than-usual temperatures from April to June, with more heatwave days in central and western plains PHOTO: S DINESH ABOVE-NORMAL HEATWAVE IN THESE STATES NORMAL MONSOON FORECAST FOR INDIA States likely to see above-normal heatwave days include Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and the northern parts of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, IMD chief Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said in an online press conference on Monday ■ ■ IMD observed that the neutral trend of El Nino during the monsoon increases the chance of a normal monsoon this year for India April may witness up to 11 days of heatwaves, compared to the maximum normal of 7 days. Elevated temperatures during heatwave days risk lives of vulnerable populations like the elderly, children | P9 536 HEATWAVE DAYS RECORDED IN INDIA IN 2024, THE HIGHEST IN 14 YEARS 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 Speculation on Modi’s TODAY succession trashed by Maha CM Fadnavis NEW MONEY RULES FROM MANDAR PARDIKAR Mastermind takes inspiration from ‘Money Heist’ With the new financial year starting on April 1, a series of financial changes will take effect NEW I-T SLABS Under the new tax regime, no tax to be paid for salaried individual earning up to `12.75 lakh a year (Nil tax till `12 lakh + `75,000 standard deduction) UNIFIED PENSION SCHEME Under this, Central government employees will get fixed pension equal to 50% of their average basic salary of last 12 months NEW UPI RULES If your mobile number is inactive or unused for a long time, update it with your bank before April NEW 1, to avoid MF RULES losing Fund houses access must deploy funds to UPI raised through payments new fund offers within 30 business days Investors DIGILOCKER will be able to store their demat account holding statements and consolidated account statements directly in DigiLocker GOODS AND SERVICES TAX Multi-factor authentication will be made mandatory for taxpayers for better security on the GST portal Rubbishes Sanjay Raut’s claim, says the PM would lead the country beyond 2029 S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I & R A J E S H K U M A R T H A K U R @ Mumbai/New Delhi MAHARASHTRA Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday rubbished speculation about Narendra Modi’s successor, a day after the latter visited the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters in Nagpur. He added that Modi would continue to lead the country beyond 2029, when the next Lok Sabha polls are due. Fadnavis was reacting to Uddhav Sena leader Sanjay Raut’s statement earlier in the day that Modi’s visit to the RSS HQ was to “announce his retirement” and discuss his succession plan. “In 2029, we will see Modi as the prime minister again,” Fadnavis told the media in Nagpur. “There is no need to search for his successor. He (Modi) is our leader and will continue,” he asserted. “In our culture, when the father is alive, it is inappropriate to talk about succession. That is Mughal culture. The time has not come to discuss it,” Fadnavis said. Raut had claimed that Modi’s successor would be from Maharashtra. Separately, former RSS general secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi, too, said he was not aware of any talk of the prime minister’s replacement. Gang uses gas cutters to steal gold All 6 arrested after 5 months Inspired by ‘Money Heist’, gang robs bank, held EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Davangere “It appears that Modi’s successor will be decided by the RSS which is why Modi was called (to Nagpur) and discussions took place. Sangh’s discussions are held behind closed doors. The indications are very clear. The Sangh will decide the next leader, who could be from Maharashtra,” Raut claimed. As for choosing a successor for BJP’s national president J P Nadda, the party is reportedly in the process of shortlisting candidates. Among the frontrunners are Union ministers Manohar Lal Khattar, Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhupendra Yadav, along with three women - finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, BJP Parliamentary Board member Sudha Ya d a v, a n d D a g g u b a t i Purandeswari, party president of the Andhra Pradesh unit. The final decision is expected by mid-April, with the official announcement at the upcoming BJP National Council meeting in Bengaluru. Hides the gold in a well in Madurai IN a bizarre case of life imitating art, six men who watched Netflix’s Money Heist and YouTube videos have been arrested for stealing 17 kg of gold worth `13 crore from a bank in Davanagere, Karnataka. Police recovered the stolen gold from a well in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. The mastermind, Vijay Kumar, and his aides had planned the heist for six months. The accused targeted the Nyamathi branch of the State Bank of India because it did not extend a loan to the heist mastermind who wanted to expand his bakery business. The theft was carried out on October 28, 2024. Six teams of police took five months before arresting Vijay Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Para- manand (all from TN), Abhishek, Manjunath and Chandru (all from Karnataka). The accused practiced for six months and sourced equipment like gas cutters from local stores in Shivamogga and Nyamathi. Soon after the crime, Vijay hid the gold in a trunk of a car in his house. Later, he hid it in a well in his ancestral home near Madurai. When things cooled down, he deposited the gold in banks apart from selling some of it in gold shops. While slipping out of the crime scene, the gang removed CCTVs and took away the digital video recorder and threw it in a lake. They threw chilli powder on their escape route to mislead dog squads. The government has awarded the chief minister’s medal to 10 police personnel who successfully cracked the case. THIRD Cong call for quota in pvt insts MURDER IN THREE DAYS: GANJAM MAN KILLED IN PUBLIC Three murders in Ganjam in a span of 72 hours have raised serious questions on the law and order situation in the district. The latest killing was reported from Bada Bazaar area of Berhampur in the wee hours of Monday when a 34-year-old man Jagadish Panigrahi of Belagaon village was stabbed to death in full public view during Danda Nacha yatra at Jena street | P4 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi EXPRESSING concern over the under-representation of the backward classes in institutes of higher learning, the Congress on Monday asked the Centre to bring a law to provide reservation for SCs, STs, and OBCs in private educational institutions. Congress general secretary in-charge of communication Jairam Ramesh said a Parliamentary panel has recommended a new legislation to implement Article 15(5). The article empowers the state to introduce reservation in admission into educational institutions, including private ones, to uplift the marginalised sections. Ramesh noted that the Congress is committed to bringing legislation to implement Article 15(5) in private, non-minority educational institutions in the country Explaining the chronol. ogy of legislation to implement Article 15 (5), Ramesh said the Central Educational Institutions (Reservations in Admission) Act, 2006 was passed in Parliament and reservations for SC, ST and socially and educationally backward classes in central educational institutions introduced with effect from January 3, 2007. Citing the case of Ashoka Kumar Thakur vs Union of India on April 10, 2008, he said Article 15(5) is constitutionally valid for state-run and state-aided institutions and reservations in private unaided institutions left open to be decided in the appropriate course. In another case, he said, “Pramati Educational and Cultural Trust versus Union of India Jan 29, 2014. By 5-0 margin Article 15(5) is, for the first time, upheld as it is explicitly. This means reservation in private educational institutions is valid, he said.