The Editorial Page: Sleepwalking into catastrophe — silence is as alarming as the war 8 THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2026 JOURNALISM of COURAgE AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES ₹5.00 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 Happening today lCApACITY BUILDINg Com- mission, the custodian of the Mission Karmayogi framework to drive civil service reforms, will launch ‘Sadhana Saptah’, a collaborative capacity-building exercise. lCHINESE VICE FOREIgN Min- ister Sun Weidong will visit Bangladesh, the first high-level trip by a Chinese official since the BNP government assumed office in February. lNEpAL’S NEW HOUSE OF rep- resentatives will hold its first meeting after the recent elections, in which Balendra Shah became Prime Minister. TRACK THESE AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPrEss.cOm Business as Usual By EP UNNY wOrlD ARTEMIS II SETS OUT ON HISTORIC LUNAR MISSION TODAY SCALES Up THREAT TO pULL OUT OF NATO; WILL ADDRESS AMERICA TODAY Trump’s latest: May exit Iran war soon, return for spot hits PM Narendra Modi chairs a CCS meeting, Wednesday. @NARENDRAMODI Says Tehran has sought ceasefire, won’t consider until Hormuz open; Iran denies Sources of LPG, LNG diversified: At CCS, PM flags efforts to ‘safeguard’ citizens Steve Holland, Alexander Cornwell & Yomna Ehab Washington, Tel Aviv, Cairo, April 1 THEUNITEDStateswillendits war on Iran fairly soon and could return for “spot hits” if needed, President Donald Trump told Reuters on Wednesday, hours before he was scheduledtomakeaprimetime address to the nation. Trump also said he would state in the speech, which is due at 9 pm EDT, that he was considering withdrawing the US from the NATO alliance. Trumpsaidseparatelyonsocial media that Iran had asked foraceasefirebutthathewould notconsiderituntiltheStraitof Hormuz was open. “Iran’s New Regime President, much less radicalizedandfarmoreintelligent than his predecessors, has just asked the United States of Americaforaceasefire,”Trump said, but did not specify who he hadspokento.HesaidWashingtonwouldconsidertheceasefire request“whenHormuzStraitis open, free, and clear. Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion”. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson said Trump’s statement about a ceasefire request was false and baseless. Asked when the US would consider the Iran war over, Trump told Reuters: “I can't tell you exactly... we’re going to be out pretty quickly.” Earlier, he told reporters “we'll be leaving (the Iran conflict) very soon... within two weeks, maybe two weeks, »CONTINUED ON pAgE 2 Harikishan Sharma New Delhi, April 1 A LONg WAIT FOR COOKINg gAS: A large queue near a gas agency in Delhi’s Masoodpur locality, Wednesday. People, including daily wage workers, elderly individuals and women with children, have been thronging the gas agency from early morning for the last several days, many of them saying the cylinders they booked had been delayed and they had come to enquire when they would be delivered. TASHI TOBGYAL Why crude oil price may remain elevated for months after war in West Asia ends Anil Sasi New Delhi, April 1 USPRESIDENTDonaldTrump told reporters at the White House that the US “will be leaving (Iran) very soon” and US military action could end as soon as “two or three weeks”. If that were to prove true, it is still likely that the price of crude will remain elevated, possibly around $100 per barrel, for months after this war indeed draws to a close. There are multiple reasons for this: Supply disruptions will take many months to unwind, even if the Strait of Hormuz, Gujarat local body elections on April 26, results on April 28: EC tionsassoonasthepassagewere to open up, new shipments on that route could likely take longer to get going. That is because shipping contracts, marine insurance and other supporting factors would have to be redrawn now, adjusting for the newrealitiesand the lingering threats that could progressively ebb over time. Then there’s the issue of damage suffered to oil infrastructure in the entire region, which could take months to E. Jag Vasant, a tanker carrying LPG which transited the Strait of Hormuz, docked in Mumbai on Wednesday. AMIT CHAKRAVARTY throughwhichroughlyafifthof the world’s oil trade traverses, were to open up fully. While tankersstrandedatseaoneither sideoftheStraitcurrentlycould maketheirwaytotheirdestina- RS 7 CRORE pENALTY, ONLY RS 1 LAKH RECOVERED Modelcodeofconductcomesintoeffect;allexceptJunagadh andGandhinagarmunicipalcorporationstogotopolls Ritu Sharma Ritu Sharma Ahmedabad, April 1 THE GUJARAT State Election Commission (SEC) on Wednesday announced the schedule for the general elections to the urban local bodies, district and taluka panchayats to be held on April 26. The counting and results will be declared on April 28. The elections will see a few firsts this time where nine new municipal corporations, seven new municipalities, and 17 new taluka panchayats announced by the state gov- elections including 52 Control Units (CUs) and nearly 60,000 Ballot Units (BU). With the declaration of the schedule for general elections in 15 of the total 17 municipal corporations, along with 84 municipalities, 34 zilla panchayats and 260 taluka panchayats in Gujarat, the model code of conduct came into effect on Wednesday. Only two municipalcorporations—JunagadhandGandhinagar—willnotgotothepolls. Asper the final electoral roll following the Special Intensive »CONTINUED ON pAgE 2 TAKING STOCK of government efforts to source LPG and LNG supplies from different countries and ensuring availability of power and fertilisers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday directed alldepartments concerned to “take all possible measures to amelioratetheproblemsofcitizensand sectors affected by the ongoing global situation” in the wake of the war in West Asia. At a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, chaired by the Prime Minister, CabinetSecretaryTVSomanathan briefed members on the action being taken to ensure supply of petroleum products, lIran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei vowed his nation will continue to support anti-Israeli forces in West Asia lDrones attacked an Iraq lPM Keir Starmer said UK will host an international diplomatic conference this week on ways to reopen Strait of Hormuz lIn UAE, a Bangladeshi »CONTINUED ON pAgE 2 Aquatic Gallery in Ahmedabad was opened in 2021. EXPRESS fuel warehouse linked to British oil and gas giant BP; a tanker was hit off Qatar’s coast national was killed while an Indian was injured due to shrapnel from intercepted Iranian projectiles MORE REpORTS ON WORLD, pAgE 15 MEA returns I&B plan to post IIS officers at foreign missions I&Bnowproposes10postsinsteadof40 New Delhi, April 1 AHMEDABAD’S AQUATIC Gallery, touted as the largest public aquarium in the country, functioned with 11 of its 68 tanks understocked for more than a year and a half after it opened in 2021, and the Gujarat Council of Science City (GCSC) that runs it recovered barely 0.15 per cent of the penalty from the contractor, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has flagged in a report tabled in the Gujarat »CONTINUED ON pAgE 2 DAY 33 Divya A Ahmedabad, April 1 particularlyLNG/LPG,andsufficient power availability. This was the second special meetingoftheCCSonthisissue. A statement from the Prime Minister’sOfficesaidthePrime Minister “assessed the availability of critical needs for the common man” and “discussed availability of fertilisers in the country and steps being taken to ensure its availability in the kharif and rabi seasons”. “He said all efforts must be made to safeguard citizens fromtheimpactofthisconflict. Prime Minister also emphasised smooth flow of authentic information to the public to prevent misinformation and rumour mongering,” the PMO said. The War »CONTINUED ON pAgE 2 CAG flags empty tanks, fish shortfall at country’s ‘largest public aquarium’ in Ahmedabad ernment last year will go to polls; The Other Backward Classes (OBC) seats will see a higher quota at 27% from the last 10% and all the elections to all the bodies will be held simultaneously. “A total of 404 local bodies that also includes by-election on 13 seats of 11 nagarpalikas will vote on April 26. This makes a total of 10005 total seats. The entire process will conclude before April 30,” State Election Commissioner S Murali Krishna said, adding that new EVMs had been purchased for the simultaneous WEST ASIA WAR FALLOUT THE PROPOSAL by the MinistryofInformation&Broadcasting (I&B) to post Indian Information Service (IIS) officers at 40 Indian missions abroad has not found favour with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), The Indian Express has learnt. The I&B ministry, in a fresh proposal, is learnt to have scaled down the number of such posts to 10. As reported by The Indian Express on March 18, the I&B ministry had sent a proposal to the MEA for creation of a new global outreach unit within the PressInformationBureau(PIB), starting with 40 cadre posts for IIS officers in foreign missions tohandlemediaandcommunications, with the aim to project India’s growth story and counter adverse narratives. TheMEAislearnttohavereturnedtheproposal,citingtechnical issues including lack of language expertise and overlap on certain key areas that diplomats are already tasked with. »CONTINUED ON pAgE 2 l SMALL MANUFACTURERS PAYING THE PRICE AS TIGHTER POST-ACCIDENT RULES BRING WORK TO STANDSTILL The hammer men of Rajasthan: New bus safety rules halt an industry parul Kulshrestha humen [They call us hammer men]. Fifty people are employed here, and 20 buses are IT’S NEARLY noon, and Sun- manufactured annually,” SundarlalSutharsitsintheofficehe darlalSuthar,58-year-oldpresishares with his son Bhavesh in- dent of Rajasthan Bus and side Sundar Coach in Nath- Truck Body Builders Associdwara in Rajasthan’s Udaipur ation,saysbetweenphonecalls. district, speaking quietly into “Butsincethenewmanufacturhis mobile phone. It’s the ing rules released by the Minismiddle of the workday, yet tryofRoadTransportandHigharound the workways (MoRTH) in PAGE 1 shop, everything is 2025, and after the still — unfinished Jaisalmer & Andhra buses and trucks Pradesh incident, stand in skeletal our work has halted.” frames, cans of red and blue What Sundarlal is referring paint lie abandoned nearby, to is the revised bus body code, and workers amble about with AIS-052, made effective from little to do. September 1, 2025. First intro“Hathodamaarkehetehain ducedin2015toregulatedesign Udaipur, April 1 anchor and safety standards, the latest iteration tightens compliance following a series of deadly bus fires in Jaisalmer and Andhra Pradesh that claimed over 50 lives — but has also brought work at small manufacturing units like his to a halt. In states like Rajasthan — a major hub producing 10 percent of the country’s sleeper bus bodies and employing thousands -- the issue affects thousands of people, from manufacturers to workers. For them, the new rules translate into additional expenses and bureaucratic delays, especially in renewing licences. The issue is particularly acute for smaller manufac- Unfinished buses at a workshop in Udaipur. PARUL KULSHRESTHA turers —many of these workshops are run by members of the Suthar community, traditionally associated with wood- working, who adapted their skills when bus bodies were oncemadeofwood.“We’llhave to reapply for licences under the new rules,” Sundarlal says. “That will involve time and cost.” The issue has also gained political traction. Last month month,CongressleadersRahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra met a delegation of Rajasthan’s small truck and bus bodymanufacturerstoaddress their concerns over the new rules. Soon after, Gadkari, who met the delegation, promised that, among other things, the government would offer provisions such as a Rs 5 crore loan to bus body builders and reduce the time required to secure licences. Gadkari also promised to either reduce or waive licence Ahmedabad fees. While the announcement brought some relief on the ground, lack of implementation means work has yet to resume. Attempts to reach Prem Chand Bairwa, the state’s deputy chief minister who holds the transport portfolio, were unsuccessful. What the new law says Under the new compliance rules, the government has mandated that bus body manufacturers strictly follow AIS:052 (Automotive Industry Standard052)aswellasAIS-153 (advanced safety requirements) on fire prevention, passenger evacuation, and structural integrity. On the ground, this means manufacturers must follow standarddesignrules,passgovernment-approvedtesting,and securecertification—meaning they can no longer modify layouts as before. In January, Gadkari announcedadditionalsafetyrules for sleeper buses. These measures — introduced after a series of accidents, including a major bus fire in Jaisalmer last October that killed over 20 people — include mandatory fire detection systems, emergency exits, and driver drowsiness alerts. Significantly, these rules also state that only established »CONTINUED ON pAgE 2