NEW DELHI 30 MARCH 2025 SUNDAY `12 PAGES 24  facebook/TheMorningStandard  X.com/TheMornStandard https://epaper.morningstandard.in PLUS: 12 PAGES MAGAZINE Kidlin You Not Bringing Textured Tales to Life EXCLUSIVE VOICES THE GREAT VISA IMBROGLIO Anand Neelakantan Ravi Shankar Ganesh Saili Shiv Visvanathan The Birdman of Nagpur Balaji Vittal Prabhu Chawla Shankkar Aiyar Namrata Joshi Paradise Regained in All Colour From a Daughter’s Diary AMMA SPEAKS ‘Suriya is Always Very Encouraging’ Be Strong, Be Focused, Believe India rushes to Myanmar’s aid as earthquake toll tops 1,600 All eyes on NDA’s allies as Waqf Bill set for reintroduction mar in this difficult hour.” Two Indian naval ships, INS Satpura and INS Savitri, carryPRIME Minister Narendra ing 40 tonnes of humanitarian Modi on Saturday spoke to Min aid, have been dispatched to the Aung Hlaing, the leader of My- port of Yangon and two more anmar’s military-led govern- ships are set to sail shortly “If . ment, reaffirming India’s un- additional relief materials are wavering commitment to required, there are extra ships Myanmar in the wake of the stationed at Visakhapatnam, devastating 7.7-magnitude Sri Vijaya Puram, and Andaearthquake that has claimed man Islands ready to be deover 1,600 lives and left more ployed,” said Captain R Raghu than 3,400 injured. Nair of the Indian Navy , As a first responder, New A field hospital with 118 perDelhi ramped up sonnel, including relief and rescue doctors and medefforts under ‘Opics, is set to be aireration Brahma’, lifted from Agra launched in the late Saturday. Toearly hours of Sattal aid sent to Yanurday, with the gon by air sorties first aircraft carryand Naval ships Narendra Modi, Min Hlaing ing 15 tonnes of reequals 137 tonnes, lief material taking off from sources said. NDRF personnel Hindon Air Force Base at 3 am have also been deployed. Comfor Yangon. mandant P K Tiwary of the 8th Shortly thereafter, two air- NDRF battalion in Ghaziabad, craft carrying search and res- near Delhi, is leading the Urcue personnel, equipment, and ban Search and Resue team, an canines departed for Myanmar, official said. followed by additional shipNDRF Deputy Inspector Genments of relief material and eral (Operations) Mohsen personnel to support the exten- Shahedi said the next 24-48 sive operation. hours are crucial for the team After speaking to the Myan- to play an active role on the mar leader, Modi said on X: ground. The team is also bring“Spoke with Senior General ing rescue dogs for the colMin Aung Hlaing of Myan- lapsed structure search and mar... As a close friend and rescue operation, following Inneighbour, India stands in soli- ternational Search and Rescue darity with the people of Myan- Advisory Group guidelines. P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi Modi speaks to junta govt head Min Aung Hlaing, rushes over 137 tonnes of relief material EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ New Delhi EMPURAAN TO FACE 17 CUTS AFTER CRITICISM The Mohanlal-starrer L2:Empuraan’s producers opted to make some changes after RSS mouthpiece Organiser criticised it. They will remove a few scenes and mute certain dialogues. Sources said there will be 17 cuts, including scenes showing violence against women and riots | P4 Ye Aung (top) accompanies his wife to a hospital after she was rescued from the rubble of an apartment building in Mandalay | AFP Why frequent quakes in SE Asia? Myanmar’s geographical position between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates makes it a high-risk zone for seismic activity. Friday’s earthquake occurred due to the horizontal movement of these plates, a phenomenon known as “strike-slip faulting,” according to the US Geological Survey. The boundary between the two plates — the Saigang Fault— runs through Mandalay and Yangon, placing millions at risk 17 Maoists neutralised in Sukma encounter FROM 2019 TO 2024 ONLY 2 GOT JOBS VIA AAP GOVT’S ONLINE PORTALS E J A Z K A I S E R @ Raipur SEVENTEEN Maoists were killed in a fierce gun-battle with security forces along the inter-district border area of Sukma-Dantewada near Gogunda-Upampalli hilly terrain, about 480 km south of Raipur in Chhattisgarh on Saturday . Four security personnel, three from Sukma’s District Reserve Guards (DRG) and a CRPF jawan, were injured. The Indian Air Force evacuated them, and all are stable. “Seventeen Maoist bodies, including those of 11 women cadres have been recovered. The encounter began at 8 am under the Kerlapal police station limits,” said state Home Minister Vijay Sharma. This marks the fifth Maoist encounter in Bastar this March. So far, 133 Maoists have been killed this year in Chhattisgarh, including 117 in Bastar. Based on intelligence, a joint team of Sukma DRG and CRPF’s 159th battalion launched the operation on Friday. Among the dead is Kuhdami Jagdish, a CPI (Maoist) State Zonal Committee Member, who carried a `25 lakh bounty. Security forces recovered arms, including an AK-47, INSAS rifle, and explosives. The Bastar police are identifying other bodies. Union home minister Amit Shah, set to visit Dantewada on April 3, has set a March 2026 deadline to eliminate Maoists. WITH the government set to reintroduce the contentious Waqf Bill (amendment) in Parliament next week for passage, the focus has shifted to four NDA allies who have a strong support base among Muslims in their respective states. Amid protests by Muslim bodies, Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday asserted that the Waqf Bill will be introduced in the ongoing Budget session of Parliament, which concludes on April 4. The firm stance by several Muslim organisations against the Waqf Bill has put the NDA allies — Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Janata Dal (United), Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) — between a rock and a hard place. Muslim groups have told them to either ‘withdraw support to the bill or risk losing their support’. Significantly, Muslim organisations boycotted an Iftar party hosted by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar over his support to the bill. However, the JD (U) maintained that the party held wide consultations with Muslim bodies, adding the changes suggested by it have been accepted by the JPC scrutinising the bill. Congress sources said that the Opposition is on a ‘wait and A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi STANDING OVATION TT ace A Sharath Kamal soaks in the moment after the final match of his storied career, in Chennai on Saturday | MARTIN LOUIS Former HC judge Nirmal Yadav gets clean chit in ‘cash-at-judge-door’ case H A R P R E E T B A J W A @ Chandigarh A special CBI court on Friday acquitted former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge, Justice Nirmal Yadav, in the 17-year-old ‘cash-at-judge’s -door’ corruption case, citing prosecution’s failure to prove charges against the accused. The verdict comes amid a raging controversy over the discovery of burnt cash at the residence of Delhi High Court judge Yashwant Varma on March 14. Three accused—Ravinder Singh Bhasin, Rajiv Gupta, and Nirmal Singh—were acquitted, while Sanjiv Bansal, a former Haryana AAG, passed away dur- ing the trial. The much-awaited journalists after the verdict, verdict in the 17-year-old case Justice Yadav said that she has centres on a `15 lakh cash pack- full faith in the judiciary and et misdelivered to Justice Nir- the verdict is the victory of the maljit Kaur, another judge of truth. The prosecution examined 69 out of 84 witthe same court, due to a nesses, with the high mix-up on August 13, 2008, court later allowing 12 allegedly meant to bribe more witnesses. Justice Yadav for a propJustice Yadav went on erty deal. leave in 2009 after being The verdict was pronamed in the scandal nounced by Additional and was later transSessions Judge Alka MaNirmal Yadav ferred to the Uttaralik. Advocate Vishal Garg khand High Court. Narwana, representing The CBI’s 2009 closure request Justice Yadav, said, “A false narrative was set that money was was rejected, leading to further sent as a bribe, but there was no investigation. In 2014, Justice such evidence, and the court ac- Yadav was charged under the quitted everyone.” Speaking to Prevention of Corruption Act. EXPRESS READ IAS officer Sujata Karthikeyan, VK Pandian’s wife, too takes VRS Capital records temp below seasonal average, AQI improves Himachal inks MoUs with T’gana for power projects in Lahaul-Spiti Senior IAS officer Sujata R Karthikeyan, wife of former CM Naveen Patnaik’s aide and bureaucrat-turned-politician VK Pandian, has taken VRS. The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions on Friday approved her application for premature retirement. | P4 The capital recorded maximum temperature of 29.6°C on Saturday, three notches below the seasonal average, according to IMD. The minimum temperature was 15.5°C, 2.6°C below average. The IMD has forecast strong surface winds for the next two days. | P3 The Himachal Pradesh government on Saturday inked two MoUs with the Telangana government to set up 400 MW Seli and 120 MW Miar Hydro Electric Power Projects in Lahaul-Spiti at a cost of `6,200 crore. The projects will be set up along Chenab River. | P8 THE Delhi government’s Directorate of Employment has revealed that only two people secured jobs through two AAP governmentrun employment portals between 2019 and 2024. Both placements happened in 2024. Delhi had one employment portal until July 2020 before the then AAP government launched a second platform, ‘Rozgar Bazaar’, in the same year. The portal was shut in 2023. Yet, two employees are still assigned to maintain the defunct platform. During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the portals failed to facilitate any jobs. For five years from 2019 to 2023, not a single job was provided through these platforms. The older portal, (onlineemploymentportal. delhi.gov.in), operational since 2009, has five employees for its maintenance, along with six contractual technical staff. According to the directorate’s response to the Assembly, the portal has failed to provide jobs but has incurred an expenditure of `34 lakh since 2021 for salary payment and `2 lakh for maintaining the portal. Between 2015 and 2024, around 4.4 lakh unemployed individuals registered with the Delhi government’s employment offices. To provide employment opportunities, the government organised 10 job fairs in the last 10 years at a cost of `1.05 crore. However, only 36,000 candidates were shortlisted. Also, no new employment exchanges have been established during the AAP government. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party had campaigned in several states, including Punjab, with slogans like “we’ve given 10 lakh jobs in Delhi”. In March 2022, the AAP government called Budget as ‘Rozgar Budget’ and promised to create 20 lakh jobs over the next five years. Almost all the projects announced in the ‘Rozgar Budget’ remain non-starters, including a job portal ‘Rozgar Bazaar 2.0’, which was to give 25% of the promised 20 lakh jobs. WHAT STAT SAYS 176 102 66 68 0 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023 2 2024 PORTAL WAS NON-FUNCTIONAL FROM OCT 2018 TO NOV 2021 DUE TO TECH SNAGS Source: The Directorate of Employment NAIDU PROMISES TO OFFER PROTECTION Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has promised to protect the Waqf properties in the state. “My govt is committed to do justice to Muslims,” he said at an Iftar party hosted in Vijayawada. watch mode’ on the stand of the NDA allies. “JD (U) and TDP will be exposed if they support the Bill in Parliament,” said a leader. In a sign of ‘all is not well’ is the NDA camp in poll-bound Bihar, Union minister and LJP chief C h i r a g Pa sw a n e x pressed dismay over ally BJP’s communal rhetoric. “I have always maintained that religion is a personal choice and we shouldn’t interfere in it. We are in alliance with the BJP , but I am against playing HinduMuslim politics,” he said. On Saturday, Paswan came down heavily on the UP police’s diktat of taking legal action and cancelling passports of those who offer Eid namaz on roads. His comments came a day after another Union minister and RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary described the UP government’s move as “policing towards Orwellian 1984”. Drug alert: Fake anti-rabies vax in circulation across cities A S H I S H S R I V A S TA V A @ New Delhi THE Delhi Drugs Control Department has issued a warning about the circulation of a counterfeit version of the human anti-rabies vaccine, Abhayrab, in major cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Lucknow. The department has cautioned that the fake vaccine poses a significant risk to public health. The counterfeit vaccine in question is falsely labeled as a product of Indian Immunologicals Limited, a government subsidiary, the drug control body stated. Authorities have specifically flagged vials from Batch No. KA24014, currently being distributed in the market. The drug control body has raised concerns that the counterfeit version differs significantly from the authentic vaccine. “This office is in receipt of a letter from Drugs Controller General (1). CDSCO (Enforcement Divisioni, Govt. of India, regarding circulation of Counterfeit version of Rabies Vaccine, Human (Abhayrab)... product of Human Biological Institute... in the markets of Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad & Lucknow,” the notice read. “It is informed in the said letter that the counterfeit product exhibits several differences compared to original product and may pose a significant risk to public health and safety and is circulated in market without maintaining required cold chain (2-8°C’),” it added. Abhayrab is administered to individuals at high risk of rabies exposure, such as veterinarians, and to those who have been bitten by animals suspected of carrying the virus. The presence of a counterfeit version in the market puts unsuspecting patients at risk of inadequate protection.