BHUBANESWAR  TUESDAY  APRIL 08, 2025  `9.00  PAGES 12  LATE CITY EDITION LPG CYLINDER TO BE COSTLIER BY `50, CNG PRICE UP `1 PER KG FROM TODAY HIKE COMES AMID CRASH IN CRUDE PRICES The price hike comes amid a drop in crude prices—from $70 to about $60 per barrel. Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said oil firms are incurring losses and prices could be cut only if international rates stay at low levels. LPG will now cost `553 per cylinder in Delhi for Ujjawala users and `853 for general users. The rates vary from state to state depending on local taxes The increase in cooking gas price, effective April 8, will be for the Ujjawala—poor beneficiaries who got LPG connection free of cost—and general users ■ Mar 2024 EXCISE DUTY HIKED ON PETROL, DIESEL ■ The government also hiked excise duty on petrol and diesel by `2 per litre each to raise about `32,000 crore additional tax revenue However, there will be no change in retail prices of either petrol or diesel as the increases will be adjusted against the price cut that was warranted because of falling international oil prices LPG PRICES WERE LAST REVISED A YEAR AGO, WHEN PRICES WERE CUT BY `100 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 Waqf Bill vote: Naveen assures action as anger reaches his door -13.22% -9.7% -7.83% -7.34% -3.24% ASIAN MARKETS CRUMBLE HANG SENG EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bhubaneswar THE fulminations within the party over “conscience” voting on Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, in the Rajya Sabha virtually reached the doorsteps of BJD president Naveen Patnaik on Monday with MP Munna (Muzibulla) Khan along with his supporters meeting the latter and demanding disciplinary action against leader of party in the Upper House Sasmit Patra for voting in favour of the contentious legislation. Khan, who opposed the Bill during the debate in Rajya Sabha and voted against it, led his supporters and members of the Muslim community in a procession from the airport to Naveen Niwas to lodge his protest against the decision to leave the voting to the conscience of the party’s RS MPs. Coming down heavily on Sasmit for openly supporting the Bill which went against the original decision of the BJD to oppose it, Khan demanded that the party chief should inquire into the matter which was very serious. Seeking strong action against all those who voted for the Bill, SC declines urgent hearing of petitions on Waqf Act S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna on Monday declined urgent hearing in a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the recent Waqf (Amendment) Act, saying it will be listed for hearing in due course. “There’s a robust system of listing in place. The matter will come up in due course,” the CJI told senior lawyers Kapil Sibal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi and others appearing for various petitioners. These senior advocates had mentioned the matter and sought early hearing. At least 10 petitions have been filed so far challenging the Act. When Sibal, appearing for Maulana Arshad Madani, the president of Jamiat Ulemai-Hind, sought early hearing, the CJI asked why he was making an oral mention when there is a robust system in place to seek urgent listing through email. Sibal said the email has already been sent. The CJI then assured Sibal that he would do the needful after examining the plea in the afternoon. In a related development, the DMK and Congress MP Imran Pratapgarhi on Monday filed petitions challenging the constitutionality of the Waqf (Amendment) Act. In his plea, Madani said the Act was destructive of wakf administration and jurisprudence in India and an effort to redefine the nature of waqfs existing in the country “Madani not . only challenged the various provisions of the Waqf (Amendment) Act but also filed an interim petition in the court to prevent the law from coming into effect,” his plea read. PROHIBITORY ORDERS AFTER ARSON ATTACK A day after a mob attacked the house of BJP’s state Minority Morcha chief Askar Ali, setting it on fire, prohibitory orders were imposed in entire Lilong Assembly constituency of Manipur for an indefinite period. TAIWAN WEIGHTED NIKKEI 225 SHANGHAI COMPOSITE ■ 75,364.69 ■ SENSEX PREVIOUS CLOSE BLOODBATH ON D-STREET BSE marketcap shrinks to `390 L cr Realty and Metal Indices fall 6-7% ■ Trent shares down 15%, highest in Nifty50 pack 73,137.90 73,325 MONDAY’S CLOSE 9:33 AM 72,794 10:52 AM TURNING CIVIL CASES INTO CRIMINAL SC rap: Complete breakdown of the rule of law in UP 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 came down heavily on the Uttar Pradesh police for converting multiple civil disputes into criminal cases, calling it a “complete breakdown of rule of law in Uttar Pradesh”. “Converting a civil matter into a criminal case is not acceptable. There is a complete breakdown of the rule of law in Uttar Pradesh. It’s strange that it’s happening day in and day out in UP Lawyers have forgot. ten there is some civil jurisdiction also,” a threejudge bench comprising Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and justices Sanjay Kumar and K V Viswanathan said. The remarks came after hearing a plea filed by accused Debu Singh, who said that his civil case — of cheque dishonour and allegedly failure to return money to the complainants — was illegally converted into a criminal one by the UP police. The appalled bench said, “This is wrong. What is happening in UP? Everyday civil suits are being converted to criminal cases.” The court directed the DGP and the station house officer of a Gautam Budh Nagar police station to file affidavits on the case details in two weeks. It warned that it could initiate contempt proceedings against the probe officer. In an earlier Sharif Ahmad vs State of UP case, the Supreme Court had held that the investigating officer must complete entries of all columns in the chargesheet so that it is clear which crime has been committed by which accused and what is the material evidence available in the case. “This is missing in this case,” the bench pointed out. The court directed the compliance of the Sharif Ahmad case order in the present one. It asked the DGP to explain what steps had been taken towards compliance of the Sharif Ahmad order, and fixed the matter for further hearing in May . 11:37 AM THE BJP government in the state is all set to go for massive restructuring of Mission Shakti, the flagship programme of Naveen Patnaik government, by dissolving the grassroot-level leadership of the SHG network and launching a special drive to link every household with the income-g enerating initiatives. Accusing the previous BJD government of using the SHG movement as a tool to gain votes, deputy chief minister Pravati Parida on Monday said the former diverted -5% -10% 2:33 PM Dow -13% -15% 72,378 12:48 PM -20% 72,124 9:20 AM S&P U.S. STOCKS ON A FREE FALL IN TRUMP ERA FEB 1 MAR 1 PANIC MONDAY -16.1% Nasdaq -21.1% APR 1 Sensex, Nifty crash 3% each; investors lose `14 lakh crore A R S H A D K H A N @ New Delhi INDIAN stock markets on Monday witnessed one of the worst trading sessions in recent times as fears of an escalating trade war and a global economic slowdown—sparked by recent US tariff hikes— rattled investors. The crash is attributed to the reciprocal tax imposed by US President Donald Trump last week. The market tremors are likely to escalate as Trump late on Monday threatened to slap an additional 50% tariff on China and halt trade negotiations if Beijing does not withdraw its 34% retaliatory tariff by Tuesday . Investors’ panic was palpable during early trading hours on Monday as the BSE Sensex plunged 4,000 points to 71,725 while the Nifty 50 tumbled 1,150 points to 21,744. At closing, the Sensex and NSE Nifty50 were down by about 3% each. Investors lost a whopping `14 lakh crore as the total market capitalisation of BSE-listed firms fell from `404 lakh crore on Friday to `390 lakh crore on Monday . The sell-off echoed across Asian markets. Taiwan’s exchange operators halted trading to pause panic selling. Abhishek Jaiswal, fund manager at Finavenue, said the crash in India is due to global concerns. “The real worry lies in how such policy moves could fuel inflation, disrupt supply chains, and trigger a slowdown or even recession over the coming years,” Jaiswal added. Trivesh, COO of Tradejini, said that the steep correction was sparked by China’s announcement of a 34% import tax on all US goods. Anand K Rathi, co-founder of MIRA Money said it is chal, lenging to predict how each country would respond to tariffs. The market is declining, assuming a global recession, but circumstances can change quickly depending on how and when the tariffs are implemented, added Rathi. Investors are now keenly waiting for the RBI’s monetary policy action. A rate cut may provide short-term support to equities, particularly in rate-sensitive sectors such as banking, NBFCs, real estate, and auto. New rules to make builders pay for debris disposal J I T E N D R A C H O U B E Y @ New Delhi IN a bid to mitigate construction dust, a byproduct of building activities and a major air pollutant, the Union environment ministry has notified the Environment (Construction and Demolition) Waste Management Rules, 2025. The new rules, which will become effective on April 1, 2026, will replace the extant regula- tions and put the onus of collecting, storing, and transporting debris on the bulk waste generators including builders. The rules provide detailed guidelines for the management, utilisation, and monitoring of processed waste, as well as procedures for the storage of processed construction and demolition waste. Notified on April 4, the new norms aim to bring environmentally sound manage- 26/11 ACCUSED RANA’S APPEAL REJECTED The US Supreme Court has rejected 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana’s appeal seeking a stay on his extradition to India, moving him closer to being handed over to Indian authorities to face justice. A notice on the SC website Monday said that ‘Application denied by the Court.’ Govt to overhaul Mission Shakti, make SHGs transparent & impactful: Dy CM E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Bhubaneswar 72,830 72,760 BJD president Naveen Patnaik speaks to party MP Muzibulla Khan and members of Muslim community as they called on him to protest split voting on Waqf Bill Naveen asserted that BJD has been and continues to be a secular party. “We had even broken our alliance with the BJP for this ideology in 2009. Biju Babu always stood with the minority community and I am also with them,” he said. However, the protesters trained their guns on Naveen’s trusted aide and former bureaucrat VK Pandian, holding him responsible for the fiasco. Even as Pandian has retired from active politics after 2024 elections, they alleged that he continued to pull the strings in the party and was behind this dubious CONTINUED ON P5 decision. 0% 3:30 PM 73,105 Khan said, “If anyone wanted to join BJP, they were free to do so. But they cannot speak the language of another political party while being in the BJD.” This would possibly be the first time that Naveen had to face such anger from his own partymen, that too, at his own residence. He assured the agitators that he will look into the matter which has erupted on the party’s last-minute change in stand on the Bill. Stating that necessary steps will be taken to resolve the issue, he said, “Whatever needs to be done will be done.” NIFTY (22,161.60) How Don spooked global investors crores of rupees to unregistered groups. “Since the SHGs were unregistered, they did not come under the purview of a financial audit. All this is going to stop from now on. SHGs will solely work for women empowerment,” Parida said. The deputy CM said the SHGs will function in a completely transparent manner. As a start, all office-bearers and leadership of such organisations will be changed. The Mission Shakti department will also bring eligible women in rural areas, who had been left out of the SHG network, into the fold. The reorganisation process will start during the second phase of the social inclusion campaign under Odisha Livelihoods Mission (OLM) from Tuesday to April 22, she said. Parida said, the Centre has been implementing the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM) since 2012-13 for poverty alleviation and creating sustainable livelihood opportunities for rural households. CONTINUED ON P5 ment of construction and demolition waste throughout the country through proper segregation, collection, recycling, treatment, and disposal practices. In a first, the notification also introduces a financial mechanism to support extended producer responsibility. This means, waste generators will now be accountable for paying recyclers to provide tradable credits as set by the Central Pollution Control Board. Under the guidelines, credits gained from in-situ (on site) disposal will carry more weight than those from ex-situ (off site) management. The existing rules were found ineffective as they promoted adhoc waste management and failed to create a robust market for recycled products among construction agencies.