DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES GOYAL,PURI,VAISHNAW,PRADHAN retain their portfolios ● `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 AVIATIONTOMSMETOINDUSTRY for allies TDP, JDU, JDS, HAM, LJP FIRSTCABINETMEETAPPROVES proposals for rural housing, farms Continew THE CABINET, NDA III PRIME MINISTER NarendraModi Personnel,Public GrievancesandPensions; AtomicEnergy;Space;all importantpolicyissues; andallotherportfoliosnot allocatedtoanyminister PM says security and peace key as Nawaz sends hope message CABINET MINISTERS RajnathSingh, Defence AmitShah, HomeAffairs;Cooperation NitinGadkari, RoadTransportandHighways JPNadda, Health&Family Welfare;Chemicals&Fertilizers ShivrajSinghChouhan, AgricultureandFarmersWelfare; RuralDevelopment NEW DELHI, JUNE 10 Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairs his first Cabinet meeting at the start of his third term in New Delhi, Monday. ANI Finance;CorporateAffairs Big 4 of Cabinet Committee on Security among 15 in Council who retain portfolios SJaishankar, ExternalAffairs ManoharLal, Housing&UrbanAffairs;Power HDKumaraswamy, HeavyIndustries;Steel PiyushGoyal, CommerceandIndustry LIZ MATHEW & MANOJ CG DharmendraPradhan, NEW DELHI, JUNE 10 Education JitanRamManjhi, Micro,Small andMediumEnterprises RajivRanjanSingh, PanchayatiRaj;Fisheries,Animal Husbandry&Dairying SarbanandaSonowal, Ports, Shipping&Waterways VirendraKumar, SocialJustice andEmpowerment KRammohanNaidu, CivilAviation PralhadJoshi, ConsumerAffairs, FoodandPublicDistribution;New andRenewableEnergy JualOram, TribalAffairs GirirajSingh,Textiles AshwiniVaishnaw, Railways; InformationandBroadcasting; ElectronicsandInformation Technology JyotiradityaScindia, Communications;Development ofNorthEasternRegion BhupenderYadav, Environment,Forestand ClimateChange GajendraSinghShekhawat, Culture;Tourism AnnpurnaDevi WomenandChildDevelopment KirenRijiju, ParliamentaryAffairs; MinorityAffairs HardeepSinghPuri PetroleumandNaturalGas MansukhMandaviya, Labour andEmployment;YouthAffairsand Sports GKishanReddy, Coal;Mines ChiragPaswan, FoodProcessing Industries CRPaatil, JalShakti CONTINUING THE work done in the second term with a refresh rather than a reboot — this is the key signal from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Council of Ministersastheirportfolioswere announced Monday evening, a day after the NDA government took oath for the third term. Given the political imperatives of a coalition in which the BJP, short of a majority, needs allies, the Council may have been expanded to 72 but the portfolio allocationreflectedcontinuityin critical areas where progress is cumulative — with no change in the Cabinet Committee on Security. RajnathSinghwasretainedas Defence Minister, so was Amit Shah as Home Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman as Finance Minister and S Jaishankar as External Affairs Minister. Shah also retained the Ministry of Cooperation while Sitharaman will continue to have Corporate Affairsportfoliowithherbesides Finance. This also put to rest speculation on whether coalition compulsionswouldhavearoletoplay in the composition of the CCS. Keeping the CCS unchanged, Modi leveraged the experience and domain expertise of former Chief Ministers he inducted into his Cabinet. Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, credited for the transformation in the state’s agriculture sector, got charge at CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PAGE 1 ANCHOR 127 SREENIVAS JANYALA THE HUM of bulldozers and the 193 chatter of construction workers MAHARASHTRA CHIEF MINISTER SHINDE INAUGURATES NORTH-BOUND ARM OF MUMBAI COASTAL ROAD P5 DEEPTIMAN TIWARY NEW DELHI, JUNE 10 IN FIRST public remarks on the outcomeoftheelectionsinwhich the BJP fell short of a majority in Lok Sabha, RSS chief Mohan BhagwatsaidMondaythatatrue sevak(onewhoservesthepeople) does not have “ahankar” (arrogance) and works without causinganyhurttoothers.Referringto the bitter poll campaign, he said “decorum was not maintained”. Addressing a gathering of RSS chief says need to address Manipur on priority RSS leaders and workers following the culmination of Karyakarta Vikas Varg – a periodictrainingprogrammeforRSS workers – at Nagpur on the day thenewBJP-ledcoalitionheldits first Cabinet meeting, Bhagwat also underlined the importance Among allies, TDP gets Aviation, Chirag Food Processing, JDU Fisheries DEEPTIMAN TIWARY & VIKAS PATHAK NEW DELHI, JUNE 10 THE BJP-LED NDA government on Monday allocated the ministries of Steel, Civil Aviation, Food Processing Industries, MSME, and Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, to its allies from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. The BJP’s biggest ally in the NDA, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP),wasallocatedtheMinistry of Civil Aviation. K Ram Mohan Naidu, son of veteran TDP leader Yerran Naidu, and the youngest Cabinet minister in the government, will handle this portfolio. Notably, in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first term, when TDP was in alliance with the BJP at the Centre, the ministry was with the party’s leader Ashok Gajapathi Raju. The Nitish Kumar-led JD(U), which has won 12 seats in Bihar to emerge as the second biggest ally of the BJP in the NDA, has been allocated the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and the Ministry CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 of building consensus. HealsoreiteratedtheSangh’s concernovercontinuingviolence in Manipur and asked who was going to pay attention to the problemontheground.Hesaidit had to be dealt with on priority. “Jo vastavik sevak hai, jisko vastavik sevak kaha ja sakta hai, woh maryada se chalta hai… Uss maryadakapaalankarkejochalta hai woh karm karta hai lekin karmon mein lipt nahi hota. Usme ahankarnahinaata kimaine kiya. Aur wahi sevak kehlane ka CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY EXPRESS NETWORK BYPOLLS FOR 13 ASSEMBLY SEATS ACROSS SEVEN STATES ON JULY 10 PAGE 10 As CM, he changed the face of MP fields HARISH DAMODARAN NEW DELHI, JUNE 10 IN SHIVRAJ Singh Chouhan, agriculture has finally a heavyweightministerinthenewModi government. The 65-year-old is widely credited with having turned Madhya Pradeshinto an agriculture powerhouse through his largely unbroken tenure — ● there was a 15month break from December 2018 to March 2020 — as Chief Minister of the state from November 2005 to December 2023. Under his watch, MP became India’ssecondlargestproducerof wheat (after Uttar Pradesh) and alsosuppliertogovernmentprocurementagencies(afterPunjab). The state is also the country’s leading producer of soyabean, chana (chickpea), tomato, garlic, ginger, dhaniya (coriander) and methi (fenugreek), besides No. 2 in onion (after Maharashtra), mustard (after Rajasthan) and maize (after Karnataka). During the last 10 years from 2014-15to2023-24,MP’sannual E CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 A DAY after the NDA government’scouncilof ministerswere sworn in, Pakistan’s top leader and former Prime Minister NawazSharif,whoheadstheruling PML(N), reached out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said that the BJP’s “success in recent elections reflects the confidence of the people in your leadership”. “Let us replace hate with hope and seize the opportunity to shape the destiny of the two billion people of South Asia,” he posted on X. Modi replied in about two hours, saying that “the people of Indiahavealwaysstoodforpeace, security and progressive ideas”, andthat“advancingthewell-be- CABINET BERTH Sena MP strikes discordant note, party says its support to NDA ‘unconditional’ EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE MUMBAI, DELHI, JUNE 10 A DAY after the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Ajit Pawar refused to accept the BJP’s offer of Minister of State (Independent)intheNDAgovernment, Shiv Sena MP from Maval, Shrirang Barne, on Monday expressed his displeasure over the party not getting a cabinet berth intheNarendraModi-ledgovernment. The party, however, said that its support to the NDA government was “unconditional”. “Wewereexpectingacabinet berth for Shiv Sena. A party which has one MP has been givenacabinetberth,”Barnesaid. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Modi replied to wishes from Pak PM Shehbaz Sharif and PML(N) chief Nawaz Sharif ing and security of our people shallalwaysremainourpriority”. His emphasis on “security” is a message to Nawaz that countering terrorism is a top priority. Earlier,NawazSharif’syounger brother Shehbaz Sharif, who is Pakistan’s PM, had posted on his CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Mumbai Cricket Association president dies of cardiac arrest in New York Amol Kale was in the US to attend the T20 World Cup EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE MUMBAI, JUNE 10 MUMBAI CRICKET Association (MCA) president Amol Kale, 47, died of cardiac arrest on Monday in New York where he had gone to watch the IndiaPakistan T20 World Cup match, along with MCA secretary Ajinkya Naik and apex council member Suraj Samat. Kale was elected MCA presidentin2022.Hedefeatedformer CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 In Andhra, a regime change brings a ghost city back to life 155 AMARAVATI, JUNE 10 75 True sevak never arrogant, decorum not kept in polls, flags RSS chief Bhagwat In Shivraj, agriculture gets wealth of his MP work experience EXPLAINED NirmalaSitharaman, 11/06/2024 SHUBHAJIT ROY are sure-shot signs of a ghost city coming back to life. Even before Telugu Desam Party chief N ChandrababuNaidutakesoathas the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, wheels are in motion to revive his dream project of the Amaravaticapitalcity,withworkers and engineers on the ground saying they have received directions to that end. “We are clearing the weeds and the vegetation around build- ings; we should complete the pendingworksoon,”MMadhu,a contractor,toldTheIndianExpress, standing near highrise apartments meant for the All India Services (AIS) officers. Similarly, at Tulluru, bulldozers are busy clearing dense vegetation around highrise apartmentsmeanttoserveasquarters forthestate’sMLAs.ExecutiveengineerBasweswarRaosaidhehas received directions to resume work, and finishing touches are being given. “The approach road to the buildings, and the trunk road which connects Tulluru to otherareas,willalsobelaidsoon,” he said. Work has resumed in Amravati, with finishing touches being given to abandoned buildings. Sreenivas Janyala Officialorders, hesaid, willbe issued soon. Engineers could also be seen inspecting the foundation for buildingsthatarecurrencyabandoned, and inspecting pipelines the size of mini-buses, which have been lying beside the sixlane Seed Capital Road for the past five years. Amaravati city, spread over 217 square kilometres, had taken shapein2015,barelyoneyearafter Naidu took charge as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister following the state’s bifurcation. But its developmentcametoahaltin2019 after Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy led theYSRCongressPartytoavictory intheAssemblypolls.Theproject has remained close to Naidu’s heart, particularly since Andhra Pradesh lost Hyderabad to Telangana, the state which was carved out of it in 2014. DuringNaidu’spreviousterm, flats for MLAs and MLCs, AIS officersandsecretariatstaffhadbeen built, but finishing touches remained.Ahighcourtbuilding,inauguratedduringhisregime,isup andrunning,asarethesecretariat and legislative complexes. L&T,whichgotthecontractto developsomecomponentsofthe proposedcapital,hasaboutRs150 crore worth of equipment lying here, and while it had decided to shift these earlier, an official said they won’t anymore. The official said the company will soon start construction of roads, drains, utility ducts, etc. After Naidu is sworn in, the government is likely to release payments to L&T and other companiestoresumework,officialssaid. Real estate dealers and developers have also started going around villages to survey the situation.Whenthecapitalcitywas first announced, there were a number of offices of real estate dealersinVelagapudiandTulluru, which shut or shifted elsewhere after Reddy came to power. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2