eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE THE FIRST TIMERS NEWDELHI,LATECITY AUGUST11,2024 Young MPs, who entered Parliament for the first time, share their hopes, dreams 18+4PAGES,`7.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, ` 12 SRINAGAR) DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT MADHABI PURI BUCH UNDER SCRUTINY; ‘VALUE’ OF STAKE $8.7 LAKH BANGLADESH CHIEF JUSTICE RESIGNS AFTER ULTIMATUM BY PROTESTERS VINESH MEDAL: CAS DEFERS DECISION UNTIL TUESDAY PAGES 14, 17 Somanathan, who cleaned up finances of govt, is new Cabinet Secy Sebi chief had stake in Adani offshore entities, hence didn’t act: Hindenburg Cong wants JPC to probe ‘Adani mega scam’, TMC says Sebi chair must quit GEORGE MATHEW MUMBAI, AUGUST 10 IN WHAT RAISES questions of conflict of interest related to the market regulator, the US-based Hindenburg Research on Saturdayallegedthat“itsuspects SEBI’s unwillingness to take meaningful action against suspectoffshoreshareholdersinthe AdaniGroupmaystemfromSEBI Chairperson Madhabi Buch’s complicity in using the exact samefundsusedbyVinodAdani, brother of Gautam Adani.” Madhabi Puri Buch became a Whole-time Member in the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) in 2017 and its Chairperson in March 2022. This report by Hindenburg Research comes almost 18 NEW DELHI, AUGUST 10 THEGOVERNMENTSaturdayappointed 1987-batch Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer TV Somanathan as the next CabinetSecretaryofIndia.Hewill haveatwo-yeartenurebeginning August 30. He will take over the chargefromRajivGauba,a1992batch IAS officer, who has been theCabinetSecretarysince2019. Somanathan, who is presently the Finance Secretary in charge of the Department of Expenditure, will be the Officer on Special Duty in the Cabinet Secretariat till he takes over as the Cabinet Secretary. Somanathan has worked closely with M Karunanidhi for three years from 2007 to 2019, when the latter was the Chief Ministerof TamilNadu.Hehada ringsideviewof howtheveteran CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 months after it had first kicked up a political storm in January 2023, alleging the Adani Group of “brazen stock market manip- Security forces in Anantnag district, Saturday. Shuaib Masoodi Two soldiers killed, 2 civilians injured in Kashmir encounter BASHAARAT MASOOD SRINAGAR, AUGUST 10 TWO SOLDIERS were killed and another injured in a gunfight with militants in the forests of south Kashmir’s Anantnag districtSaturday,policesourcessaid, the latest in a series of incidents ahead of Assembly polls expected by the end of September. Twocivilianswerealsoinjured in the encounter, which erupted afterajointteamoftheJ&KPolice and the Army launched a search operationinthedensemountainous forests of Ahlan Gadole area of Kokernag, which connects the Kashmir Valley to Kishtwar in Jammu division. While the Srinagar-based Chinar Corps said two soldiers and two civilians were injured in thegunfightandwere“evacuated fortreatment”,aseniorpoliceofficertoldTheIndianExpressthree soldierswerewounded,ofwhom two succumbed. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 AFTER TAKING stock of the devastation in landslide-hit Wayanad on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised complete support to Kerala government’s rehabilitation efforts and that “working together would lead to good results”. Modi spent the day taking an aerial review of the area, walking along a completely flattened village, speaking to survivors, and holding review meetings with the Kerala government. The landslides killed at least 229 people, while 130 are still missing and presumed dead. Modi landed in Kannur airport at 11 am and flew to Wayanadbyanairforcehelicopter, which then took him on an aerial tour of the landslide hit Meppadi panchayat. Accompanied by Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Union Minister of State Suresh CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ASAD REHMAN NEW DELHI, AUGUST 10 A DAY after BJP’s SC, ST MPs met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union Cabinet turned down the Supreme Court’s suggestion for exclusion of the creamy layer from the ambit of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe reservation, the Congress, in its first public remarks on the court ruling on SC/ST subclassification, called it “a big setback” for SCs and STs. Speaking to the media Saturday, Kharge, who is also Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, said: “I read that the PrimeMinisterhassaidthatthey will not touch it (reservation for Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with a child affected by the landslides, at AWS Hospital in Wayanad on Saturday. PTI void, says Law Ministry RAVI DUTTA MISHRA & ANANTHAKRISHNAN G KOLKATA, AUGUST 10 NEW DELHI, AUGUST 10 Junior doctors protest in Kolkata, Saturday. PTI RELATED,P8 AFTER CABINET NO TO JUDGES’ SUGGESTION says Opp parties united on issue MEPPADI (WAYANAD), AUGUST 10 SWEETY KUMARI, RAVIK BHATTACHARYA & ATRI MITRA CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Court’s SC/ST quota PM visits landslide-hit Wayanad, ruling a setback, Govt act: promises support to Kerala govt shouldchange Kharge Calls for no in quota policy, As police confirm rape, murder of Lakhs of patent orders by Kolkata doctor, CM on back foot ‘outsourced’ staff null and THE RAPE and murder of a doctor inside a hospital run by the West Bengal government sent shockwaves across the state, with hundreds of doctors ceasing work, and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee saying that “if India Infoline: EM Resurgent Fund and Emerging India Focus Funds, it alleged. Whencontacted,Sebididnot comment on the allegations raised by Hindenburg. While Congress said these revelations only reinforced its demand for setting up a “joint parliamentary committee to investigate the full scope of the Adani mega scam”, the TrinamoolCongresssaidtheSebi chairperson must resign. “This raises fresh questions about SHAJU PHILIP & VIKAS PATHAK Somanathan is an IAS officer of 1987 batch ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU Sebi chief Madhabi Buch ulation” and “accounting fraud”. The port-to-energy conglomerate had denied all these allegations;theSupremeCourthadrejected the demand for a CBI or court-monitored probe. Continuingwiththesagaand quoting “whistleblower documents”, Hindenburg Research has now claimed that the Sebi chairperson “had stake in obscure offshore entities used in the Adani money siphoning scandal.” To date, SEBI has taken no action against other suspect Adani shareholders operated by IN WHAT PUTS a question mark on the legality of lakhs of patent and trademark orders passed in the last two years by the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM), the Union Law Ministry and an Additional Solicitor General (ASG) of India have opined that these orders are “legally unenforceable” as they were “made by outsourced employees”inviolationof theTrade Marks Act, 1999. Whathasledto achaos in the grant of intellectual property rightsisthepatentbody’sdecision to hire hundreds of employees CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E E X P L A I NE D INSIDE What’s the way ● out TERMING ALL patent orders illegal will mean reversing decisions taken over the last two years that have already impacted hundreds of businesses. The way out, as suggested by the ASG, could be an expert committee going over the merits of each order passed, and giving a stamp of approval. Cong chief: You (Govt) can create a Bill in a few hours... SCs). Then, you should do something immediately. You could have rejected the judgment of the Supreme Court in the Parliament and should have brought itthere. Youcan createa Bill in a couple of hours. For this, you don’t have time despite 10 days having passed.” He said “the Scheduled Caste community got reservation throughBabaSahebAmbedkar’s PoonaPact”andthatlater,Pandit CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 After ‘fertilizer’ & ‘land’, latest in CM Himanta’s lexicon: ‘Flood jihad’ SUKRITA BARUAH GUWAHATI, AUGUST 10 AT A time when the Assam government is facing severe criticism for flood management in Guwahati, the state’s Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has targeted a private university locatedintheoutskirtsof thecity and claimed that the university, owned by a Bengali-origin Muslim, is waging “flood jihad”. On August 5, Guwahati had experienced flash flooding following a couple of hours of rainfall in the afternoon that had brought the city to a grinding halt. Two days later, the Gauhati Assam CM targets university owned by a Muslim High Court, while hearing a Public Interest Litigation(PIL) on the issue of waterlogging in the city, had rapped the Sarma-led government. Taking note of the “trauma facedbycitizensof theGuwahati city”, the High Court bench headed by Chief Justice Vijay Bishnoi said that it is of the view that the “time has come to deal with the problem of water CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Footpath camps, crying babies: When 1.11 lakh women apply for 1,257 police posts PAGE 1 ANCHOR SAGAR RAJPUT MUMBAI, AUGUST 10 ON A footpath outside Mumbai University Ground, a stone’s throw and a world away from Wankhede Stadium, sat a motley crowd of tired adults with bawling infants around 5 pm on August 9. For the past few hours, these grandparents and fathers have been holding, soothing and even bribing these restive children. On a synthetic turf inside the ground, their mothers are competing with 1.11 lakh other women from all over Maharashtraforamere1,257Mumbai Police constable posts that offer a monthly salary of Rs 30,000. Of 36,214 constables in Mumbai Police at present, 6,059 are women. Recruitments for women candidates, which have been on since July 19, are expected to end on August 14, an officer said. Trials start at 5 am and the last batch for the day goes in around 2 pm. Each batch comprises1,000aspirants,anofficial said. In July, leading to a “stampede-likesituation”,over25,000 job seekers had turned up for 2,216 vacancies for the post of loaders at Mumbai airport. Similar scenes were witnessed in Gujarat’s Bharuch in July, where nearly 1,800 people turned up for 10 openings at a private company. Among those competing in Mumbai University Ground is a 24-year-old who travelled over 250 km from Ahmednagar dis- WOMEN CONSTABLE RECRUITMENTS SALARY: Rs 30,000 AGE LIMIT: 28 years (open category), 33 years (reserved category) VACANCIES: 1,257 POSTS: Constables, drivers, bandsman and prison constables Candidates during the recruitment drive conducted by Mumbai Police. Ganesh Shirsekar APPLICANTS: Around 1.11 lakh from across state trict with her father Shankar, 63, and one-year-old daughter, Saisha. On the footpath outside, Shankar, a farmer, held his granddaughter who had been crying inconsolably for nearly threehours.Hesayshisdaughter is married to a farmer but wanteda“stable”incometosupport her family. “Lack of private jobs forced her to apply for this one,” says Shankar, as others attempt to soothe Saisha by playing with her and even offering her biscuits. “She had fed Saisha before going inside at 2 pm. I managed to make the baby sleep for a while, but she has been crying for her mother since she woke up,” adds the helpless grandfather. After Shankar, some passersby and even police personnel at the gate failed to calm Saisha down, the duo was finally allowed to enter the ground. As announcements were made for Saisha’s mother to report to the announcement booth, some personnel went looking for her at the running area and the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2