The Editorial Page: Census is about who we are. It cannot ignore migration, caste 8 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2025 JOURNALISM of COURAGE LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES ₹6.00 l www.indianexpress.com DA I LY F R O M : A H M E DA B A D , C H A N D I GA R H , D E L H I , J A I P U R , KO L K ATA , L U C K N O W , M U M B A I , N AG P U R , PAT N A , P U N E , VA D O DA R A Happening today lRESERVE BANK OF INDIA Governor Sanjay Malhotra will announce the Monetary Policy Committee’s interest rate decision at 10 am. With the MPC having last cut the repo rate in June, economists expect another rate cut today amid record low inflation and growth potentially weakening in the near future. Malhotra and his Deputy Governors will also hold a press conference at 12 noon. lTHE DRAW FOR THE men's FIFA World Cup 2026 will take place at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC. US President Donald Trump, who will attend the event, is expected to be awarded the new peace prize instituted by football's governing body. The 48-team tournament — expanded from 32 teams — will be the biggest in the competition’s history. TRACK THESE AND MORE ON WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SupportBLOs, deploymore staffforSIR: SCtostates Express News Service New Delhi, December 4 THE SUPREME Court said Thursday that Booth Level Officers assigned to carry out Special Intensive Revision (SIR) cannot shirk their duty, but added that state governments are obligated to provide substitutes if BLOs are overworked. Chief Justice of India Surya Kant made the remarks while hearingapetitionfiledbyactor Vijay’s party Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam (TVK), seeking payment of compensation for BLOs who have taken their lives, “on account of unreasonable workloads, and mental/ physical/ emotional stresses faced by them to complete the distribution and processing of enumeration forms as part of the SIR exercise”. Presiding over a two-judge bench, also comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi, CJI Surya Kant said, “There is an obligation on the part of the employee. They cannot run away from that. There are officers who go from one state to another for conducting elections...Theremaybeemployees who are unwell or have other difficulties.Whyshouldtheybe recruited? The state must deal with it... The state government is obligated to provide substitutes for them.” Initsorder,thecourtsaiditis issuing directions “in case they (BLOs) are facing hardships, including they being overburdened with their routine duties as well as the additional duties assigned by the ECI”. “The state governments mayconsiderthedesirabilityof deputing additional staff at the disposal of the Election Commission of India so that the »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RUSSIAN PRESIDENT ON STATE VISIT, FIRST SINCE START OF UKRAINE WAR Modi-Putin talks today: Strategic economic 2030 roadmap likely On table: Defence ware, manpower pact, Eurasian Economic Union FTA, Arctic shipbuilding Passengers at the IndiGo counter at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru on Thursday. PTI As flight disruptions continue, how IndiGo hit perfect storm: New rules, crew shortage Shubhajit Roy New Delhi, December 4 RUSSIAN PRESIDENT Vladimir Putin, who reached New Delhi Thursday evening on a two-day state visit, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are likelytounveiladeclarationfor the Development of Strategic Areas of India-Russia Economic Cooperation until 2030, move forward on a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union, seal a labour mobility agreement and team up on Arctic shipbuilding, The Indian Express has learnt. In a special gesture indicating the close ties between the twocountriesandtheirleaders, ModireceivedPutinatDelhiairport. They also met for a private dinner at the Prime Minister’s Lok Kalyan Marg residence. PresentingacopyoftheGita in Russian to Putin, Modi, in a post on X late at night, said, “The teachings of the Gita give inspiration to millions across »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Stable ops by Feb 10, airline tells DGCA, seeks temporary relief from norms PM Narendra Modi welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin at Palam airport in New Delhi on Thursday. AP E. ExPlAINED Securing bilateral ties While it has cut import of Russian oil following US penalty tariffs, India is moving to secure its time-tested ties with Russia, exploring new avenues in areas ranging from trade to defence to civilian nuclear power. And Moscow too is responding. MORE REPORTS, PAGE 6 Putin’s nuclear power hardsell: SMRs, new-gen large reactors, Make in India Anil Sasi New Delhi, December 4 RUSSIAN NUCLEAR company Rosatom State Corporation is likely to make a strong pitch for deploying its small modular reactors (SMR) for targeted applications in India, alongside efforts to position its large new-generation atomic power reactor-basedprojectsasthecornerstoneofthebilateralcooperationbetweenthetwocountries in the field of nuclear energy. Bilateral talks during RussianPresidentVladimirPutin's visit are expected to build on the working meeting that took place in Mumbai on November 10 between Ajit Kumar Mohanty, Chairman of India’s Department of Atomic Energy, andAlexeyLikhachev,Director General of Rosatom, a Russian statecorporationbasedinMoscow that specialises in nuclear energyandnuclearnon-energy products. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Sukalp Sharma New Delhi, December 4 PASSENGERS ON IndiGo continued to face disruption in travel plans Thursday with the airline cancelling over 250 flights across major airports. Since Tuesday, the carrier has had to cancel over 500 flights, withmanymoredelayedforextended periods. As the airline continued to grapplewithdisruptionsforthe third day running, IndiGo Thursday informed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) that it will start reduc- ing flight operations from December 8 to minimise the disruption—andexpectsnormalised and stable operations to be fully restored by February 10, the regulator said. However, more cancellations could be seen over the next two-three days as part of IndiGo’s schedule stabilisation efforts. The carrier, which is India’s largest and commands a domestic market share of over 60 per cent, also requested the DGCA for exemptions from some night operations-related »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Business as Usual AFFIDAVIT IN SUPREME COURT By EP UNNY Four firms owned by Arunachal CM’s family got 146 govt contracts in Tawang SC directs state govt to give details of contracts in all districts for 2015-2025 wOrlD Jay Mazoomdaar & Sukrita Baruah pAGE 10 New Delhi, Guwahati, December 4 FOUR FIRMS, two owned by Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu’s wife Tsering Dolma, and one each by his brother Tashi Khandu and sister-in-lawNimaDrema,were awarded 146 work contracts worth Rs 383.74 crore by the state government in Tawang districtalonebetween2012and 2023, as per an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court. Ofthis,59contractsworthRs 16.83 crore were awarded directlythroughworkorderswithout a tender being floated. At least 11 of these work orders exceededtheRs50lakhlimitsetin Firms owned by CM Khandu’s wife, brother, sister-in-law 2020 for contracts issued withouttenders,whichwasmeantto promotelocalprofessionalsand entrepreneurs in the state. The contracts were for the construction or maintenance of roads, bridges, drains, irrigation channels, power lines, retainingwalls,communityhalls, cultural centres, residential »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 mARITImE foRCE SHow: CHINA mASSING SHIpS ACRoSS REGIoN NATION pAGE 7 HC GRANTS BAIL To foRmER DU pRof IN ELGAAR pARISHAD CASE l PROBLEMS WITH CENTRAL PORTAL, NON-AVAILABILITY OF DOCUMENTS MAIN ISSUES Waqf deadline today, UP has registered about 36%: ‘Impossible to finish upload’ Asad Rehman New Delhi, December 4 A DAY ahead of the deadline to register Waqf properties on a portal launched by the Centre on June 6, details of about a third to around tenth of the properties have been uploaded infourofthefivestateswiththe largest volume of Waqf land under PAGE 1 their boards across the country. Waqfboardsandmutawallis (caretakers)ofthepropertiesare facing issues such as the portal – UMEED or ‘Unified Waqf anchor Students of Aliah University protest against the amended Waqf law, enacted by the Centre, in Kolkata on Wednesday. EXPRESS Management, Empowerment, Efficiency and Development’ – crashing, the difficulty in finding documents and papers regarding centuries-old proper- ties, as well as different measurements used for land in different states, among others. The UMMED portal was launched by the Centre under provisions of the contested Waqf (Amendment) Act, with the objective of bringing all Waqfpropertiesunderacentralised digital database, with geo-tagging and documentation. The government has said this will ensure that the propertiesaremanagedandprotected better and in a transparent manner.Thereareanestimated 8.8 lakh Waqf assets spread across the country. At1.4lakh,UttarPradeshhas by far the most Waqf assets acrossitsSunniandShiaboards. After UP, West Bengal (80,480), Punjab (75,511), Tamil Nadu (66,092),andKarnataka(65,242) »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lucknow