DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE UNION MINISTER FOR PORTS, SHIPPING AND WATERWAYS PAGE 12 THE WORLD Licensing curbs were imposed in Aug and almost immediately deferred till Oct, when plan was dropped ■ Imports (in lakh) 0 In 6 years, two-thirds of probe requests by anti-graft unit pending A KEY AMENDMENT to the Prevention of Corruption Act by the Central government in July 2018 has resulted in Maharashtra’s Anti Corruption Bureau waiting for months and years to initiate inquiry against officials for alleged financial irregularitiesinalmosttwo-thirds of its cases. As per data obtained by The Indian Express from the state ACB, of the 547 requests sent as on March 2024 for approval to conductaninquiryagainstanofficial suspected to have been involved in a financial irregularity, the ACB received approval in SOUMYARENDRA BARIK & RAVI DUTTA MISHRA NEW DELHI, APRIL 7 Department 81** 45 Rural Development 40 Public Works 33 Health 17 *Anti-Corruption Bureau ** Two of the 81 requests have a pendency of below 90 days only 51 cases. While permission wasrejectedin126cases,inquiry could not be carried out in as CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 100 75 50 25 0 6%: Rise in Chinese laptop exports from FY23 to FY24 Source: Commerce & Industry Ministry THE WAIT CONTINUES Revenue 89.97% 70.22% 5%: Rise in overall laptop imports from FY23 to FY24 No.of ACB*requestsfor initiatinginquirypending foroverfourmonths Urban Development 89.80% 82.82% 64.45% Jan 6.89 15 82.70% ■ China share (in %) 3.29 20 10 MAHARASHTRA MUMBAI, APRIL 7 PAGE 10 CHINA’S RISING SHARE IN LAPTOP IMPORTS 5 MOHAMED THAVER ISRAEL TO JOIN CAIRO TALKS, REDUCES GAZA TROOPS TO READY FRESH OPS RUSSIA FOREIGN MINISTER TO VISIT CHINA TO DISCUSS UKRAINE WAR THE SUPREME Court has, from time to time, expanded the fundamental rights chapter to include various facets of a dignified existence. However, this is the first time that it has included the “right against the adverse effects of climate change”. China share in total imports rose from 70% in Aug-Oct to 87.5% in Nov-Jan Dec 5.2 SARBANANDA SONOWAL CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E Expanding ● scope Nov ‘If anybody has any objection to CAA, please go to the court of law and file a petition’ Article 21 recognises the right to life and personal liberty while Article 14 indicates that all persons shall have equality before law and the equal protection of laws. These Articles are important sources of the right to a cleanenvironmentandthe right against the adverse effects of cli- mate change,” it said. While the bench, also comprisingJusticesJBPardiwalaand Manoj Misra, gave the ruling on March 21, thedetailed order was only uploaded on Saturday evening. “Despite governmental policy and rules and regulations recognising the adverse effects of climate changeand seekingto combat it, there is no single or umbrella legislation in India which relates to climate change andtheattendantconcerns,”the court noted. “However,this does Oct 13.06 IN A significant ruling, the Supreme Court has expanded the scope of Articles 14 and 21 to includethe“rightagainsttheadverse effects of climate change”. “Article 48A of the Constitution provides that the State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wildlifeof thecountry.Clause(g) of Article 51A stipulates that it shall be the duty of every citizen CJI D Y Chandrachud wrote the ruling for the bench Sep 15.07 NEW DELHI, APRIL 7 of India to protect and improve thenaturalenvironmentincluding forests, lakes, rivers and wildlife,andtohavecompassion for living creatures. Although these are not justiciable provisions of the Constitution, they are indications that the Constitution recognises the importance of the natural world,” a three-judge bench presided by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud has said. “The importance of the environment, as indicated by these provisions, becomes a right in other parts of the Constitution. E X P L A I NE D ANANTHAKRISHNAN G Jul 10.15 States owe a duty of care to citizens... right to a healthy, clean environment part of this duty: Court Licence uncertainty saw PC imports up, China share spiked after plan scrapped Jun 8.3 Right against adverse effects of climate change part of rights to life, equality: SC SHIPMENTS FELL AFTER CURBS LIFTED May 5.85 BY UNNY INDIA URGENTLY NEEDS TO SHIFT TO SOLAR POWER, SAYS CJI-LED BENCH Apr 7.74 BUSINESS AS USUAL `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 Aug 10.43 MONDAY, APRIL 8, 2024, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 14 PAGES PERFECT LANDING A fighter aircraft lands on the Lucknow-Agra Expressway in Unnao on Sunday as part of the IAF’s Gagan Shakti-24 exercise. The 10-day drill, which began on April 1, involves emergency landing facility operations at various locations. The drills aim to test preparations for relief ops during calamities as well as enhance overall operational capabilities of the military. PTI IN BJP BASTION: MEERUT AND GHAZIABAD AFTER YEAR OF VIOLENCE LIZ MATHEW THE MEIRA Paibis of Imphal’s Chingamakha area begin their nightly vigil at a small “guardpost” at 9 pm. On Saturday, at around 9.40 pm, two women volunteers working for the Congress candidate from Inner ManipurLokSabhaconstituency joined them for 10 minutes. “We’re going to different places tonight to meet some people who have good connectionsintheirneighbourhood,especiallywomen,sothattheycan know our candidate better, and can get people in the locality talking,” said one of the volunteers. After a short, quiet conversation with the Meira Paibis — the powerful Meitei women activists of Manipur — they move to their next stop. In the uneasy air of Manipur, where continuing tensions have resultedinambivalence overthe electoral process, the election campaign is taking place in a muted way, and at a micro level. In the Inner Manipur constituency, one of the state’s two seats and the one that covers CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SUKRITA BARUAH “THE RAM Temple has been built…But what about our small neighbourhood temple for Hanumanji?” asks Indra Raj Singh, a resident of Arthala village in Ghaziabad, head of the organising committee of the localHanumanTemplewhichwas brought down for reconstruction. Work on it is stalled due to the Ghaziabad Municipal Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a roadshow in Madhya Authority's claim over the land. Pradesh’s Jabalpur on Sunday. PTI “We approached everyone, they are not just unhelpful, rude too. This is the problem when sign of the disarray in the youhaveanMP,MLAandMayor, Opposition, says Mohammad DECISION 2024 all from the same party, the BJP, Mehtab,aflower-sellerintheheart ofMeerutcity,isthatthis andwhenthe Opposition time the Samajwadi so weak. These leaders Party has twice changed have become ghamandi its candidate — it doesn’t (arrogant), confident of augurwell,hesays. staying in satta (power), Of course,there’snot because there is no DECISION much love lost for the OPPOSITION UNITY vipaksh (Opposition). 2024 Oppositionhere, novis- COLLAPSES IN J&K That’s not healthy.” ibledentinthissolidBJP AS PDP ENTERS FRAY Singh's words find an echo in Deepansh, a final-year B. bastion – Meerut has been a Tech student at a private univer- party stronghold for the last 15 SP’S MORADABAD sity in Meerut, who says it’s hard years, Ghaziabad for two CANDIDATE BOOKED to hold to account a ruling party decades,theparty’svotesharein PAGES 3 & 5 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 that’s taken victory for granted. A IN JANUARY, nearly 90 per cent of thelaptopsandpersonalcomputers (PCs) imported by India came from China. In the month before that, Beijing’s share was well over 89 per cent and, in November, the figurewas83 per cent. In all, until January in the 2023-24 financial year (FY), nearlyeightoutof 10laptopssold inIndiacamefromChina,shows an analysis by The Indian Express of the Commerce Ministry’s import-export data bank. This rising trend came despite New Delhi’s attempts to discourage laptop and PC imports from China. These efforts included a short-lived notification by the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in August 2023, which placed the import of these goods under the restricted category, and the government sweetening its IT hardware manufacturing incentive policy to kickstart domestic production. And yet, India’s total laptop importswentup5percentyearon-year in FY24 (until January), while such imports from China increased 6 per cent. In quantitative terms, China exported 64.93 lakh units to India in FY24 compared to 61.24 lakh units in FY23.Januaryisthelatestmonth for which the data for this category (HSN: 84713010) is available with the ministry. ‘UNDO COLONIAL LEGACY’ Little love for Opp, but voters ‘In-camera’ meetings, no rallies: Land portions from 10 say ‘missing vipaksh not good’ Manipur sees muted campaign cantonment boards to be run by local bodies MEERUT, GHAZIABAD, APRIL 7 IMPHAL, APRIL 7 HARIKISHAN SHARMA AREATOBESHRUNK IN THE first such largescale exercise, the Centre is learnt to have decided to shrink the land under the jurisdiction of 10 key cantonment boards across five states, and put them under the state local bodies instead. It is learnt that the move is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s overall plan to “undo the colonial legacy” and also usher in a “range of governance reforms”, said a source on condition of anonymity. Theaffectedareas,addingup to about 20,000 acres — almost half ofthe10cantonmentboards' combinedareaof 45,000acres— includes mostly private properties and land housing municipal amenities like water and sewerage pipelines, said the source. While these areas will be placed underthejurisdictionof thestate local bodies, the ownership of landownedbytheArmedForces and central government will remainunchanged.Thelandgiven Cantonment NEW DELHI, APRIL 7 Sukrita Baruah A Meira Paibi group listens to campaign volunteers. most of the Meitei-majority valley region, there are six candidates in the fray. Prominent faces among the candidates are state Cabinet minister and former IPS officer Thounaojam Basanta Singh of the BJP; academic and associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Bimol Akoijam, who is making his political debut as the Congress candidate; and Maheshwar Thounaojam of the RepublicanPartyof India(A)and R K Somendra (Kaiku) from the Manipur People’s Party –bothof whom were popular actors be- fore becoming politicians. However, there are no rallies, no public addresses, and almost no posters. Following nearly a year of violent conflict in the state, public disapproval against open campaigning in the valley has been palpable,andwasgivenconcrete form through a diktat issued by armed radical group Arambai Tenggol, discouraging election campaigns, feasts, meetings using loudspeakers, and flag hoisting. These, they declared in a statement, “can aggravate the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Area* Ramgarh Cantt 7,500 Deolali Cantt 7,000 Dehradun Cantt 2,250 Mathura Cantt 1,000 Clement Town 1,000 Nasirabad Cantt 550 Babina Cantt 350 Shahjahanpur Cantt 75 Fatehgarh Cantt 50 Ajmer Cantt 40 *in acres on lease to private institutions and organisations will remain with the central government, said the source. In separate gazette notifications on the 10 cantonment boards issued on March 5, the MinistryofDefencesaid:“Inexercise of the powers conferred by sub-section(1)of section4of the Cantonments Act, 2006 (41 of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 IIT-Delhi lends hand to students: Support panel, campus stay with kin for some PAGE 1 ANCHOR YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW E VIDHEESHA KUNTAMALLA AN XPRESS RTI APPLICATION TO EASE pressure on students strugglingwithstudies,whichin extreme cases has resulted in suicides, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi has formed a panel of teachers and students to help its undergraduate students with a “poor academic record”, and in “exceptional cases” has also permitted a few students to stay with a family member on campus, The Indian Express has learned. “In a few exceptional cases, thedepartmentshaveidentified at least three such students who they believe require additional support and must stay with a familymember.Insuchcases,the student is allowed to live with a family member on campus and advised not to live alone in the NEW DELHI, APRIL 7 hostel.Studentsinsuchcasescan use the premises of a hostel we have on campus which also has thefacilitytocookfood,”amember of the panel — Academic Progress Group (APG) — told The Indian Express. According to documents accessed by The Indian Express throughtheRighttoInformation Act, the APG has so far identified 192 undergraduate students at the institute as “academically adrift”, emphasising that these students need academic help. The APG was formed in September last year, soon after the death of a student, Anil Kumar, who died by suicide in IIT-Delhi’s Academic Progress Group has identified 192 undergraduate students as ‘academically adrift’. File his hostel room. Kumar hailed from Uttar Pradesh’s Banda district and was pursuing B Tech in Mathematics. Thisyear,therehavebeenfive studentsuicidesattheIITsacross India—twoatIIT-Kanpurandone each in Delhi, Roorkee and BHU. An official notification on the formation of the panel said: “It (APG) will be empowered to interface with academic units and hostels and intervene as required. It will also suggest policy changes that may be needed.” According to official records, the constitution of the APG was revised on March 5 with the inclusionof two studentmembers in the eight-member panel. The APG has so far analysed the academic records of undergraduate students on probation and backlog, held discussions with several students and provided recommendations for changes at the institute. The recommendations are classified into two categories: “Immediate Implementation” and for “Broader Discussion”. For immediate implementation,theAPGhasidentifiedthat“a major cause of backlog students not being able to complete their degree requirements is the nonavailabilityofhostelaccommodation beyond nine semesters”. “It is recommended that 30 hostelseatsbereservedforbacklogstudentsbeyondninesemesters.Theaccommodationwillbe provided subject to 75% attendance in lectures, tutorials and laboratory sessions. The recommendations for hostel accommodation will be made by the APG,” it has said. The APG has also recommendedincreasingtheeffectiveness of the existing tutoring system run by the Board of Student Welfare (BSW) and the Dean of Students. TheBSWprimarilyconsistsof studentrepresentativesfromeach CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lucknow