The New Indian Express Wishes its readers HUBBALLI l Monday l march 25, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION At least 137 abducted School children freed in Nigeria abductions put pressure on president The Nigerian Army claimed the children were freed during a rescue operation on Saturday. President Bola Tinubu, under pressure to end abductions which has become common in the conflict-hit northern region of the country, had vowed to rescue them without paying ransom. Sources said the abductors were hiding in the region’s vast and ungoverned forests They were abducted over two weeks ago from their school in Nigeria’s northwestern state of Kaduna by a band of motorcycle-riding gunmen ■ INDIA bloc to hold mega rally over Kejriwal arrest Oppn parties’ joint protest on March 31 in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan of Conduct being in place. Now the Congress’s accounts have UPPING the ante against the been frozen, so they won’t be arrest of Delhi Chief Minister able to run a campaign for the Arvind Kejriwal, the Opposi- polls,” Rai added. tion INDIA bloc said on Sunday Hitting out at the BJP, Delhi that it will hold a mega rally at Congress leader Arvinder Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on Singh Lovely exhorted the pubMarch 31 to protest against the lic to join the proposed rally . BJP government’s alleged tarThe Opposition leaders also geting of political rivals using alleged Kejriwal was arrested federal agencies. after the State Bank of India Announcing the decision at a was forced to reveal the donajoint press conference in Delhi, tions the BJP received through Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader electoral bonds. One of the apand Delhi minister provers in the Delhi Gopal Rai said all INliquor policy case got DIA-bloc parties will bail after sending monhold the rally to safeey to the BJP, they Democracy and guard the country’s inalleged. terests and democracy the country are in . “There’s no levelTop leaders of several danger. All INDIA playing field for the opbloc parties will opposition parties inposition parties anytake part in this cluding the Congress, m o re. O u r l e a d e r ‘maha rally’ to TMC, CPI(M), Shiv Rahul Gandhi has safeguard the Sena (UBT), and Sama- country’s interests been trying to save the jwadi Party are expectdemocracy and we will and democracy ed to attend the rally . stand by the AAP to AAP leader Gopal Rai save the CM,” said “The Prime Minister has been acting like Lovely adding that a dictator and suppressing de- they are hopeful that the aumocracy to arrest Delhi CM thorities would allow them to Arvind Kejriwal. Whether it is hold the rally . Hemant Soren in Jharkhand or CPI(M) leader Rajiv Kunwar Tejashwi Yadav in Bihar or the said the fight is against the dicCM of West Bengal, all are be- tatorial rule of the Modi ing slapped with fraudulent government. cases to silence them ahead of Rallying behind Kejriwal, the Lok Sabha polls,” said Rai. several leaders including ConHe alleged AAP leaders are be- gress, TMC, and CPI(M) of the ing prevented from holding INDIA bloc had met the Elecprotests and Kejriwal’s family tion Commission on Friday and has been placed under house submitted a memorandum on arrest. “Our party office was the instances of central agensealed despite the Model Code cies targeting them. PR E E THA N AIR @ New Delhi Delhi CM issues 1st order from custody: AAP An u p v e r m a @ New Delhi The Aam Admi Party (AAP) on Sunday said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal issued his first order from Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody, instructing Delhi water minister Atishi Marlena to solve water and sewer problems in some areas of Delhi. “I might be in jail, but people of Delhi shouldn’t be inconvenienced,” he wrote in the order as per Atishi. However, the issuing of the order has raised legal questions. The ED has taken cognisance of Atishi’s statement. The ED will probe if the directions were in line with the special Prevention of Money Laundering Act court’s order issued to the ED. Another question raised by Kejriwal’s order is whether he can continue as CM now that he is in custody Former Addition. al Solicitor General K C Kaushik said there is no bar on him continuing as CM for now as he has not been convicted yet. K’taka’s claim of fund denial utterly baseless, says Nirmala ■ It is not clear how many students were kidnapped. Teachers have said over 280 pupils between the ages of eight and 15 were taken. The government had initially said all of them had been freed Bandit gangs routinely attack communities and carry out mass kidnappings for ransom in northwest and north-central Nigeria | P9 Students have been kidnapped from Nigerian schools since 2014 Kangana Ranaut, Naveen Jindal in BJP’s 5th list rajesh kumar thakur @ Ex-judge to contest New Delhi After a week-long discussion, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday evening released its fifth list of candidates for 111 Lok Sabha seats in 17 states including Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh and in the process springing surprises yet again. The BJP retained a majority of its sitting MPs and has given seats to newly inducted members for various high profile seats. Kerala BJP chief K Surendran will take on Congress sitting MP Rahul Gandhi and CPI’s Annie Raja in Wayanad candidate. Sandeshkhali’s Rekha Patra, who raised voice against suspended TMC mus- Kangana Ranaut will contest from the Mandi seat in Himachal Pradesh cle man Sheikh Shahjahan, is fielded as the BJP’s candidate from Basirhat. Industrialist and former Congress MP Naveen Jindal on Sunday joined the BJP and was immediately named the party’s candidate for Kurukshetra seat in Haryana. He represented the seat between 2004-14. As was reported first by this newspaper, Pilibhit sitting MP Varun Gan- L O K S a b h a p olls Kageri, Shettar among four in BJP’s second list The BJP on Sunday announced its second list of candidates for Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka. Former Assembly Speaker Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri will contest from Uttara Kannada constituency instead of sitting MP Ananth Kumar Hegde. The party will field former chief minister Jagadish Shettar from Belagavi constituency It has chosen former . minister Dr Sudhakar for Chikkaballapura constituency and Raja Amareshwar Naik for Raichur. With this, the saffron party has announced its candidates for 24 seats in the state. The party is yet to finalise its candidate for Chitradurga constituency . The names of former minister Govind Karjol and Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment A Narayana Swamy are doing the rounds for this constituency However, local BJP . workers are against them. This is the reason for the delay in finalising a candidate for Chitradurga constituency ac, cording to sources in the party . e x p r e ss r e a d Former Calcutta HC judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay who gave several strong verdicts against the TMC govt will contest from West Bengal’s Tamluk seat. He resigned a few days ago, joined BJP dhi was dropped and UP minister Jitin Prasada was fielded from the seat. Varun’s mother and Sultanpur sitting MP Maneka Gandhi will contest from the same seat again. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan was field from Sambalpur LS seat while Sambit Patra from Puri in Odisha. Sita Soren, who joined recently from JMM, was named for Dumka LS seat. In Andhra Pradesh, state BJP chief D Purandareshwari was field from Rajamundry LS seat while Varaparasad Rao, who joined on Sunday, was fielded from Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh. Former Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was fielded from Patna Sahib in Bihar while union minister RK Singh was repeated from Arrah. Ramayana serial actor Arun Govil, who played Lord Rama, was fielded from Meerut in UP . The BJP dropped union minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey and VK Singh and ex-Union minister Anant Kumar Hegde from Uttara Kannada constituency Singh said he will not con. test the forth coming Lok Sabha elections. IIT-Guwahati student aspiring to join Islamic State arrested P r a s a n ta M a z u m d a r @ Guwahati E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bengaluru K a r t h i k K K @ Mysuru Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday dismissed the state government’s claim that Karnataka is not getting its due share of funds from the Centre. Participating in an interaction programme organised here by the Thinkers’ Forum, she termed the claim “utterly baseless” and clarified that the Centre has been releasing Karnataka’s share of funds as and w h e n required. All funds p aya b l e t o Kar nataka have been released. But if the due process of an audited certificate has not been received by the Centre, then it cannot release funds. Sitharaman said if the amount claimed by the state government is not part of the final recommendations of the Finance Commission, the Centre cannot release it. She stressed the need to differentiate between genuine financial allocations and misinterpretations aimed at confusing the people. Sitharaman said that she will send a Kannada version of the Finance Commission’s recommendations to the state government to clear its doubts. She said Karnataka’s economy was doing well till a few months ago. The state government is now accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of not giving money to run its welfare schemes. CONTINUED ON: P4 1,400 over 280 students were taken: teachers One more suspect Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said there is one more radicalised student in the IIT, Guwahati. “Not one but there are two students. We got one and hopefully, we will get the other by today,” the chief minister said A student of the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and had gone missing was detained by the police on Saturday reportedly as he was on his way to join the terrorist group. The fourth-year student, hailing from Okhla in Delhi, was nabbed by the Assam Police in Hajo, about 30 km from Guwahati. “Reference @IITGuwahati student pledging allegiance to ISIS—the said student has been detained while travelling and further lawful follow up would take place,” Director General of Police GP Singh wrote on X. Before disappearing from the IIT campus, the student had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State through his social me- dia posts. In an email sent to the police, he said he has plans to join the terror group. “We immediately contacted the IIT-Guwahati authorities but they said the student was missing since noon. His mobile phone was also switched off,” additional superintendent of police Kalyan Kumar Pathak who is a part of Assam Police’s Special Task Force said. A black flag, resembling that of the Islamic State, was recovered from the student’s hostel room and sent for verification. Pathak said the police were trying to find the motive behind sending the email. The incident comes days after the Special Task Force nabbed ISIS India head Haris Farooqi and his associate soon after the duo had crossed over into Assam’s Dhubri district rom Bangladesh. Include Mekedatu in manifestos, Gowda tells Karnataka parties SSLC exam in 2,750 centres across state from today BJP-JDS alliance doing fine: Gowda Bengaluru: SSLC examination will be held in 2,750 centres across the state from Monday, with 8,69,968 students, including 4,28,058 girls, appearing for it. The examination will be held from 10.15 am to 1.30 pm till April 6. Prohibitory orders will be in force around the centres. BMTC and KSRTC will provide free rides for SSLC students. Pak to seriously consider restoring trade ties with India titan-ic victory Gujarat Titans skipper Shubman Gill (centre) kicked off his IPL captaincy chapter with a six-run victory against Mumbai Indians on Sunday | sportzpics Islamabad: Pakistan will seriously consider restoring trade ties with India that remained suspended since August 2019, Foreign Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar said. Dar highlighted the eagerness of cash-strapped Pakistan’s business community to resume trade activities with India. A nightmare in Istanbul for 50 IndiGo flyers S L a l i t h a @ Bengaluru Nearly 50 flyers headed to India during the Easter break in London via Turkey had a harrowing experience after their IndiGo flight to Mumbai got delayed by 15 hours on March 22. The initial six hours till 2.30am at the Istanbul International Airport was a nightmare for them with many squatting on the floor for want of seats where they were asked to wait. They were not even given food or information on the flight departure. Their passports were taken away and returned after bitter arguments with airport officials. They reached their destinations in India from Mumbai on Saturday . While Turkish Airlines flew most of the flyers from London to Passengers wait for IndiGo flight at Istanbul International Airport | Special arrangement Istanbul, IndiGo was to take them from there to Mumbai after a onehour layover there. However, the IndiGo flight (6E 0018), which was to take off at 8 pm on March 22, was rescheduled to 3.30am the following day and then to 8am. Finally it , took off at 11am. One of the flyers, Rohit Sharma from Mangaluru and an MBA student from University of East London, told TNIE, “With the ticket fare for direct flight from the UK to Karnataka touching Rs 1 lakh, I opted to come via Turkey and Mumbai, which cost me only Rs 44,000. But it was a nightmarish experience at the Istanbul airport. We were taken to the travel desk at one corner of the airport where there were only five chairs. When a request was made for more chairs, the response from airport staff was rude. There was no support or information from the airline. Only after new boarding passes were issued after taking our passports, we got to know that our flight would be at 8am the next day.” “I finally reached home at 12.05am on March 23 instead of the same time a day earlier,” he said. CONTINUED ON: P5 JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda interacts with reporters at the party office in Bengaluru on Sunday. MLA GT Devegowda looks on E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bengaluru Former prime minister and JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda on Sunday urged all political parties in the state to include the proposed Mekedatu balancing reservoir and drinking water project in their manifestos for Lok Sabha elections. Addressing reporters here, he condemned DMK’s opposition to the Mekedatu project in its manifesto. The project is essential for Karnataka to ease its drinking water shortage, especially in Bengaluru, he said. Gowda said the project will help both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. On TN Chief Minister MK Stalin’s statement opposing the Mekedatu project, he said it will in no way affect the people of that state. “After Lok Sabha elections, all parties in the state should fight together for the implementation of the project. “We will include Mekedatu in the JDS manifesto. Let the Congress, which is in alliance with DMK, announce the same in its manifesto,” he said. Gowda said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had announced in his budget speech that his government will implement several projects, including Mekedatu. “Let me alone not take the credit for taking up the Mekedatu issue. Let all three parties -- BJP Con, gress and JDS -- announce in their manifestos, and we all will work together for the implementation of the project,” he said. Reiterating that the project will help TN, Gowda referred to the admission of TN counsel Shekar Apade in the civil appeal to consider building a dam across the Cauvery to solve the drinking water problem in that state. The former PM said there is no need to politicise Mekedatu as it is a people-oriented project. Nine districts in the Cauvery basin are in distress. “I am appealing to all parties to support the project. The claim that 5,000 acres of land will be submerged if the project is implemented is not true. Experts should clear all doubts in this regard,” he said. “In fact, TN will benefit substantially from this project as it will get regulated release of water instead of uncontrolled seasonal flow that may ultimately go to the sea,” he said. Former PM Deve Gowda said the BJP-JDS alliance is doing fine and both parties have no issues with regard to sharing of seats for Lok Sabha elections. “Along with former CM HD Kumaraswamy and JDS state president GT Deve Gowda, the BJP has included my name also in the list of star campaigners. Kumaraswamy is back home from hospital. Even Dr CN Manjunath, the alliance candidate for Bengaluru Rural constituency, will be campaigning extensively,” he said. Kumaraswamy addressed JDS workers for a few minutes at his residence in Bengaluru on Sunday. Let me alone not take the credit for taking up the Mekedatu issue. Let all three parties announce in their manifestos, and we all will work together for its implementation — HD Deve Gowda, JDS supremo
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