DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 2024, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES GOYAL,PURI,VAISHNAW,PRADHAN retain their portfolios THE CABINET, NDA III `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 AVIATIONTOMSMETOINDUSTRY for allies TDP, JDU, JDS, HAM, LJP FIRSTCABINETMEETAPPROVES proposals for rural housing, farms Continew 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, NirmalaSitharaman, Finance;CorporateAffairs SJaishankar, ExternalAffairs ManoharLal, Housing&UrbanAffairs;Power HDKumaraswamy, HeavyIndustries;Steel PiyushGoyal, CommerceandIndustry DharmendraPradhan, 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 PAGE 1 ANCHOR 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 Big 4 of Cabinet Committee on Security among 15 in Council who retain portfolios LIZ MATHEW & MANOJ CG NEW DELHI, JUNE 10 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 True sevak never arrogant, decorum not kept in polls, flags RSS chief Bhagwat 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 6 Modi replied to wishes from Pak PM Shehbaz Sharif and PML(N) chief Nawaz Sharif SHUBHAJIT ROY In Shivraj, agriculture gets wealth of his MP work experience 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 EXPLAINED AgricultureandFarmersWelfare; RuralDevelopment 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- 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 Survivors recount J&K attack: Pretended to be dead until militants left ARUN SHARMA REASI, JUNE 10 FROM PARENTS mourning the loss of their children to people wholaystillandpretendedtobe deadtoescapethegunmen’sfire, the survivors of Sunday’s terror attackonabuscarryingpilgrims in Jammu and Kashmir’s Reasi district were struggling to recover from the shock. They were from different states, including Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi, and after visiting the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine near Katra town, they took a bus Sunday morning to Shiv Khouri — a revered shrine of Lord Shiva near Ransoo in Pouni tehsil. It was on their way back from Shiv Khouri to Katra that their bus was targeted by Army personnel conduct a search operation in Reasi district of J&K Monday PTI militants.Ninepeople,including seven pilgrims, were killed and 38peoplewereinjuredintheattack on the bus near Ransoo. Santosh Kumar Verma from CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RELATED REPORT PAGE 3 In Andhra Pradesh, a regime change brings a ghost city back to life SREENIVAS JANYALA AMARAVATI, JUNE 10 THE HUM of bulldozers and the chatter of construction workers 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. Official orders,hesaid,will be issued soon. Engineers could also be seen inspecting the foundation for buildingsthatarecurrencyabandoned, and inspecting pipelines thesizeofmini-buses,whichhave been lying beside the six-lane SeedCapitalRoadforthepastfive 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 Work has resumed in Amravati, with finishing touches being given to abandoned buildings. Sreenivas Janyala 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. “I shifted to Mangalari as there was noactivityhereduringthelastfive years.Now,thereisalotofinterest again, and I have come to check what is going on,” said Chinta Kanta Rao, a real estate agent. Amaravati farmers, who had staged a protest for 1,635 days, havewindeduptheirstirandthe ‘dharna point’ at Velagapudi is nowempty.“Therewerecelebrations here as the results became clearonJune4.WithNaidubackat the helm, we are confident Amaravati is on track and we will see a lot of development,” said J Manoj Kumar, head of the Amaravati Farmers Joint Action Committee. These farmers had donatedtheirlandfortheproject. Lucknow