The Editorial Page: What could have been done to avert a cooking gas crisis — and wasn’t 10 MONDAY, MARCH 16, 2026 JournALiSm of CourAgE NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES ₹7.00 (₹8 RAIPUR, ₹15 SRINAGAR) l www.indianexpress.com DA I LY F R O M : A H M E DA B A D , C H A N D I GA R H , D E L H I , J A I P U R , KO L K ATA , L U C K N O W , M U M B A I , N AG P U R , PAT N A , P U N E , VA D O DA R A COUNTINg OF VOTES FOR ALL FIVE ASSEMBLIES ON MAY 4 Contest kicks off: Bengal to AAP ‘education reform’ in Punjab: vote in 2 phases, others one Marked progress but only 1 party express REACHED OUT TO ALL 117 MLAs OVER LAST TWO MONTHS MLA sends own kids to govt school investigation Learning parameters have improved but system still forbidding: 30 of 31 AAP MLAs and all 5 non-AAP MLAs with Divya goyal gopal Ludhiana, March 15 school-going kids chose private schools »CONTINUED ON PAgE 7 Sukhveer Singh Maiserkhana is a first-time MLA GURMEET SINGH Divya goyal gopal System will change when MLAs trust govt schools with their children: Bains “IF WE won’t admit our own children in government schools, how can we convince the people to do that? Meet Sukhveer Singh Maiserkhana, the only MLA with school-going children in Punjab who seems to have placed faith in “Sikhya Kranti” — the “education revolution” promised by the state government run by his own party AAP. According to an investigation by TheIndianExpress (see adjacent story), Maiserkhana, an agriculturist from the rural constituency of Maur in Bathinda, is the lone legislator from 36 in the state Assembly with school-going children whose kids studied in government schools in the 2025-26 academic session. Maiserkhana and his wife Shapinder Kaur have two children:a12-year-oldboy,who is a Class 7 student at the government-run School of Divya goyal gopal l ThePunjabParadox 36 Indian private schools 27 mLAs with children in schools Private schools abroad 2 Home schooling 1 31 AAP MLAs 5 1 Non-AAP mLAs State govt All their kids in Indian school private schools (Cong 2, BSP 1, SAD 1, Independent 1) New Delhi, March 15 WITH THE Delhi High Court rejecting his prayer to transfer theCBI’sappealagainstthedischarge of the accused in the excise policy case from the single judgebenchofJusticeSwarana Kanta Sharma, Aam Aadmi Party national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday movedtheSupremeCourtwith the request. Kejriwalisalsolearnttohave filed an appeal against the observations made by the high court in its March 9 order while hearingtheCBI’sappealagainst thetrialcourtorderdischarging him and others in the case. The Chief Justice of Delhi »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 Happening today lTHIRTY-SEVEN SEATS from 10 states are up for grabs in the Rajya Sabha elections. TRACK THIS AND MORE ON WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COm ‘Doctors are not handing over final decisions to machines. AI is functioning as a filter, a triage tool’ DR M SRINIVAS DIRECTOR, AIIMS DELHI PAGE 14 EXPRESS interview GOOD INFRASTRUCTURE, high academic confidence and socialtrustarethekeyelements that can prompt all parents, including politicians, to choose government schools for their children, Punjab Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains toldTheIndianExpress.Edited excerpts from an interview: What are the key initiatives taken by the AAP government to turn around government schools in Punjab? Punjab’s school education system had suffered from dec- Excisepolicycase: KejriwalmovesSC asHCrefusesto sendCBIappeal toanotherbench Sohini ghosh & Ananthakrishnan g The lone AAP MLA: ‘50 more families followed, that’s how chain reaction starts’ A govt school in Malerkotla. AAP launched ‘Sikhya Kranti’ in Punjab to transform govt schools into institutions for ‘quality learning’. Ludhiana, March 15 HARJOT SINgH BAINS EDUCATION MINISTER, PUNJAB ades of neglect. Of nearly 19,000 government schools, more than 8,000 did not have boundary walls, more than 3,200 did not have washrooms »CONTINUED ON PAgE 7 Ludhiana, March 15 »CONTINUED ON PAgE 7 IIHMR University, Jaipur, India (#1 Healthcare Management University in India) Two-year full-time Programs 40+ Years MBA (Hospital and Health Management) MBA (Pharmaceutical Management) MBA (Healthcare Analytics) MBA (Development Management) Master of Public Health Master of Public Health Legacy in Health Management Research Offered by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA in cooperation with IIHMR University, Jaipur, India Rs. 35.6 LPA Highest Package Executive Programs Executive MPH Executive MHA Executive MBA (CSR & ESG Management) Rs. 3.80 Cr. Scholarships PhD Programs Hospital Management, Health Management, Pharmaceutical Management, Development Management, Public Health, Digital Health/Healthcare Analytics #1 Healthcare Management University in India by Education World 2025 #15 Damini Nath New Delhi, March 15 EXPRESS IN 2022, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)swepttopowerinPunjab with 92 of 117 Assembly seats, riding on a key promise based on its Delhi model: “Sikhya Kranti”, an “education revolution” that would transform government schools into institutions parents could trust for “quality, equitable and inclusive” learning. Four years on, there has been significant progress in learning levels, with Punjab performing better than the national average in almost all parameters. But an investigation by The Indian Express shows that the party’s own leadership may not be confident enough, atleastfornow,todeeplyinvest in the system — when it comes to their own children. Will ensure polls free of violence and inducement: CEC Gyanesh Kumar Rs. 24 Lakh Annual Research Fellowships Top B Schools in India Times B School Ranking Survey 2026 POLITICS SETTING THE stage for intense electoral campaigns in the coming weeks, the Election Commission Sunday announced single-phase Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry(April9)andTamil Nadu (April 23), and twophased polling in West Bengal on April 23 and April 29, down from the eight phases last time. BATTLELINES DRAWN FOR BJP, OPP PARTIES PAGE 6 Counting of votes will be held on May 4, the Election Commission said. “Elections in all these four »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 ‘Under adjudication’: Lakhs of Bengal voters in race against time Damini Nath New Delhi, March 15 WITH THE Election Commission announcing Sunday that theWestBengalAssemblyelections will be held in two phases, on April 23 and April 29, it’s a race against time for 60 lakh electorsinthestatewhoseeligibility is under adjudication. E. For now, they havebeenkeptoff the electoral rolls andcanonlyhope for a decision in their favour to make it to the rolls in time to cast their votes. While announcing the poll schedule for the West Bengal elections, Chief Election »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 34 cr LPG consumers: First group of Indians Average household use stranded in Iran lands half cylinder per month in Delhi: ‘Long journey’ Anjishnu Das New Delhi, March 15 ASTHEenergycrisisstemming from the conflict in West Asia continues to grow, data on consumptionofliquifiedpetroleum gas(LPG)showsthatstateswith themostbeneficiariesunderthe Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), a programme that largelytargetsruralhouseholds, tend to consume the most LPG overall, though each household in such states consumes less »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 Business as Usual By EP UNNY Divya A New Delhi, March 15 THE FIRST batch of Indian nationals stranded in Iran over the past fortnight amid the war in West Asia arrived in New Delhi Sunday morning on a special commercial flight via Armenia,completingajourney that a student in the group described as “long and difficult”. The flight took off from Yerevan airport on Saturday afternoon, carrying 70 students and »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 LATEST l QUASHING DEATH RUMOURS, BIBI RELEASES VIDEO HAVING COFFEE l IRAN FIRES MORE MISSILES AT ISRAEL AND U.S. BASES IN REGION l 400 MN BARRELS OF OIL FROM EMERGENCY STOCKS TO FLOW SOON: IEA MORE REPORTS, PAgES 3, 9, 12, 16