bhubaneswar l Monday l January 19, 2026 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l jeypore EDITION Advocates can’t use RTI Act to seek details for clients’ cases: CIC Using the transparency law in this manner fails to advance its core objectives, the Central Information Commission (CIC) has observed Case relates to dispute over a supply deed ‘RTI act can’t be used for personal ends’ The case relates to the termination of a fruit and vegetable supply contract at Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Haryana. The supplier’s advocate sought to use the RTI Act to obtain information on behalf of his client. “It appears that the appellant has sought information on behalf of his client per se, which is not permissible,” the CIC said ■ ■ Quoting a Madras High Court order, the CIC underlined that “laudable objectives of RTI Act cannot be used for personal ends” The Madras High Court had cautioned against allowing advocates to use the RTI Act to obtain information on behalf of clients, stating that this “does not advance the objects of the scheme” 17.5 lakh the overall number of RTI applications filed during 2023-24 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 Modi targets Congress, Trinamool in poll-pitch against ‘infiltrators’ Don invites PM Modi to join ‘Board of Peace’ Accuses the two parties of endangering national security for the sake of vote-bank politics P RA S ANTA M A Z U M D AR & S U BH E N D U M A I T I @ Guwahati / Kolkata PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday mounted a sharp political attack on the Congress and Trinamool Congress (TMC), accusing the two parties of endangering national security by protecting infiltrators for vote-bank politics. After laying the foundation stone for the `6,957 crore Kaziranga Elevated Corridor, and virtually flagging off two Amrit Bharat trains from Kaliabor in electionbound Assam’s Nagaon district, Modi accused the Congress of allowing infiltrators in exchange for votes during its years in power in the north-eastern state. Taking potshots at the Congress for its poor show in the recent Bihar Assembly election and Maharashtra local body polls, Modi said the grand old party has lost the trust of the nation and the BJP has become the first choice of people. “In the recent Bihar elections, even after 20 years, people gave a record number of votes to the BJP , helping it win a record number of Projects worth `7,787cr launched Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses a gathering during the foundation stone laying ceremony for the Kaziranga Elevated Corridor, in Nagaon, Assam on Sunday | pti seats. Mumbai, for the first time, gave a record mandate to the BJP . In most cities of Maharashtra, people gave the BJP an opportunity to serve them,” he said. Modi also pointed to the BJP’s electoral breakthrough in Kerala, where the party secured the mayor’s post in Thiruvananthapuram for the first time. According to Modi, the results across states reflected a consistent national trend. “The voters today want Intel agencies warn of LeT recruitment drive in Pakistan M U K E S H RAN J AN @ New Delhi Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) has launched a renewed and intensified recruitment campaign with an aim to establish new training camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Indian intelligence agencies have learned. The recruitment campaign is being spearheaded by senior LeT commander Nasr Javed. Sources said Javed has visited several strategic locations in PoK over the past few months to mobilise local youth. Over the past two weeks, he was in Mirpur, Kotli and Poonch districts of PoK. During these visits, he addressed more than four open rallies organised by the PoK unit of Lashkar-e-Taiba and held over 10 closed-door meetings with local operatives and sympathisers. The primary objective of these engagements, intelligence sources said, is to recruit young men for the new LeT training camps expected to come up soon in PoK. Javed is considered a key operational figure within LeT and is known for his expertise in terrorist training. As per the sources, Javed has been tasked with raising a new unit in PoK, with a specific mandate to prepare recruits for counter-insurgency and cross-border operations. Noting that the recruitment push is not confined to PoK, the in- Three soldiers injured in J&K encounter Three soldiers were injured in a gunfight with terrorists in a remote forested area in the upper reaches of Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district on Sunday, officials said telligence sources said in November last year, Javed, along with LeT operative Abdul Rauf, held more than 50 rallies and secret meetings across Pakistan’s Sindh province. “Security agencies assess that these coordinated visits across provinces point to an effort to build a broader pool of recruits and revive LeT’s operational strength nationwide,” a source said. Meanwhile, intelligence inputs suggest that efforts to reactivate Markaz-e-Taiba, the LeT’s headquarters, are gaining pace. Buildings damaged during Operation Sindoor are being repaired with photographs and videos of construction activity circulating on social media, sources said. good governance and development. That is why, they like the BJP he said, adding that the re,” sults show the Congress is being repeatedly rejected by voters. Later in the day, addressing a rally at West Bengal’s Singur, Modi accused the TMC government of sitting idle on the Centre’s request to acquire land for fencing the Bangladesh border. “The Centre has been writing to the TMC government in Bengal PM launched development projects worth `7,787 crore in poll-bound Assam and Bengal. In Assam, he laid the foundation stone for the `6,957 cr Kaziranga Elevated Corridor and virtually flagged off two Amrit Bharat trains. In West Bengal, he launched projects worth over `830 crore and flagged off three Amrit Bharat trains connecting Kolkata with other parts of the country for the past 11 years requesting land for border fencing to prevent infiltration in the state. But it sits idle on the issue,” Modi alleged. Sharpening his attack on the TMC, he said the party is “playing with the country’s security” by giving support to infiltrators from Bangladesh. “The state government is giving safety and security to infiltrators and that’s why they vote for TMC,” the PM said. Worker killed in explosion at illegal firecracker-making unit E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Cuttack A 44-year-old differently-abled worker was killed in an explosion at an illegal firecracker manufacturing unit at Khalarada village within Cuttack Sadar police limits on Sunday . The deceased has been identified as Suresh Bhoi alias Kuntha of Badasahi village. The unlicensed firecracker manufacturing unit belongs to one Baikuntha Samal, who is currently on the run. Sources said the incident occurred at around 1 pm while Kuntha was alone at the factory and engaged in preparing the firecrackers. The intensity of the explosion was such that Kuntha’s body parts got scattered at a distance of over 500 metre. The asbestos-roofed house from where the cracker unit was being run was also razed to the ground. Some houses in the vicinity also sustained partial damage in its A fire personnel engaged in extinguishing the fire at the firecracker unit following impact. On being informed, fire servic- the explosion on Sunday | Express es personnel rushed to the spot and extinguished the blaze. The body of the deceased was handed over to police. Preliminary investigation suggested the explosion was accidental as huge stock of crackers had been stored in the unit. Cuttack Sadar IIC Tusar Kant Sethi said the trader had no requisite permission to set up the firecracker-making unit and was operating it illegally without complying with any safety protocols. “He is currently at large and efforts are on to nab him,” the IIC added. express read Kohli ton in vain as NZ India suffer historic loss INDORE: Virat Kohli smashes his 85th international ton, but New Zealand had the last laugh as they beat India by 41 runs to win their first ODI series in the country. Less than 18 months ago, Black Caps handed India a 3-0 hammering in red-ball cricket and now have followed it up with a sensational ODI series win weeks before the T20 World Cup | P11 CAG raps state govt as tech institutes in Odisha struggle E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar At a time when stress is being laid on skilling of youth and encouraging them to opt for technical education, government engineering colleges, industrial training institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics in the state are struggling with acute shortage of faculty and infrastructure including availability of modern tools in labs. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its audit has raised serious concerns on the quality of education in the skill development and technical education (SDTE) sector in the state. In J aya n t h J a c o b @ New Delhi its draft report, the CAG has pointed out that no faculty posting was made in government engineering colleges and institutions including BPUT Rourkela, Government College of Engineering (GCE) Kalahandi, GCE Keonjhar, IGIT Sarang and PMEC Berhampur from 2019 till January 2025, resulting in an overall vacancy of 47 per cent of the sanctioned strength. The shortage was most acute in the cadre of professors with 73 per cent vacancies followed by 62 per cent and 38 per cent vacancies for associate professors and assistant professors, respectively. The staff crunch pushed the teacherstudent ratio of these institutes to a range of 1:28 to 1:81 against the AICTE norms of 1:20 for undergraduate (UG) courses. The draft report also underlined that 185 out of 291 sanctioned non-teaching posts were vacant in these engineering institutions. Meanwhile, gover nment ITIs and polytechnics faced even more severe faculty crunch and shortage of instructors as only 864 i.e 49 per cent instructors were available ag ainst the sanctioned strength of 1,753 across all government ITIs. CONTINUED ON P5 IN DIRE STRAITS No faculty posting was made in govt engineering colleges including BPUT Rkl, GCE Kalahandi from 2019 till January 2025 Professor posts saw most number of vacancies at 73% For non-teaching staff posts, the report found 185/291 positions vacant Mining and civil engg depts of GCE Keonjhar had 5 and 4 labs against requirement of 9 and 10 respectively ETC branch of UGIE Rourkela faced 100% shortage of tools and equipment Low student enrollment was reported across 8 depts of the engineering colleges during the period People protesting US President Donald Trump’s policy towards Greenland in front of the US consulate in Nuuk, Greenland early | AP Strong EU pushback against Trump’s tariff war over Greenland A G E NC I E S EUROPEAN leaders on Sunday slammed US President Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs over their opposition to his designs on Greenland, warning transatlantic ties were at risk. Several European countries — including Denmark, of which Greenland is an autonomous territory — emphasised they “stand united” against Trump’s vow on Saturday to hit them with tariffs of up to 25 percent unless Greenland is ceded to the United States. “Tariff threats undermine transatlantic relations and risk a dangerous downward spiral,” Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden warned in a joint statement Sunday . The European Union, which clinched a deal with Washington in Tariff threats are July for most EU exports to face a unacceptable, 15-percent US levy has called an ex, have no place. traordinary meeting of its ambassaWe’ll ask the EU to dors in Brussels on Sunday . activate ‘antiFrance’s President Emmanuel Macoercion’ if US cron will ask the EU to activate a imposes tariffs never-before-used “anti-coercion inEmmanuel Macron, strument” against the United States France President if Trump makes good on his tariff threat, Macron’s aides said. The bloc’s weapon, dubbed its trade “bazooka”, allows curbing imports of goods and services into the EU, a market of 27 countries with a combined population of 450 million. Trump had on Saturday threatened to punish eight European countries with tariffs after they sent a few dozen troops to Greenland as part of a military drill. Italy’s far-right Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, called the threatened tariffs a “mistake”. Dutch Foreign Minister David van Weel meanwhile called Trump’s threat an “inexplicable” “blackmail”. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was planning to discuss the situation with Trump “at the earliest opportunity.” Norway, targeted by Trump’s tariffs threat but, like Britain, not an EU member, said it was not looking at retaliation. US President Donald T r u m p h a s i nv i t e d Prime Minister Narendra Modi to join a proposed “Board of Peace” for Gaza, in a significant outreach as Washington seeks to shape post-war governance and reconstruction of the besieged enclave. The invitation letter was sent on January 16. Pakistan’s Foreign Office had earlier said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had also been invited to be part of the initiative. Several global leaders have been invited too, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and leaders of France, Germany, Australia and Canada. Details about the peace board surfaced after letters sent by Trump to Argentine President Javier Milei and Paraguayan President Santiago Peña were posted by the two leaders on social media. In his letter to Milei, Trump said the board would work to “solidify peace in the Middle East.” A draft charter circulated by the Trump administration to 60 countries reportedly requires member states to contribute $1 billion in cash for memberships extending beyond three years. Trump has named former British prime minister Tony Blair as a f o u n d i n g e x e c u t ive member of the board, alongside his son-in-law Jared Kushner, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and World Bank Group President Ajay Banga.