The editorial Page: What do we call these student deaths? ‘accident’ reeks of both shame & sham 10 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026 JournaLIsm of Courage LUCKNow, LATE CITy, 18 pAGES ₹6.00 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 Business as Usual By EP UNNY lPM NareNdra Modi will visit Vadodara, where he will lay the foundation of and inaugurate projects worth Rs 35,000 crore. ldefeNce MiNister Rajnath Singh will begin a three-day trip to Sri Lanka to boost bilateral defence and military ties. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com Manipuri musician beaten to death for ‘objecting to noise’ outside Delhi home Jimmy Leivon & sakshi chand Imphal, New Delhi, September 7 MAniPuRi MusiCiAn Chongtham Vikram singh was beaten todeathlatesundaynight,allegedly by a group of men outside his south delhi home following an argument over the accused making a ruckus. singh, 55, is survived by his wife and a son. According to family sources, the incident occurred around 11.30 pm on sunday when singh stepped out of his home in Kilokari village and asked the men — according to the police, most are delivery executives — not to make noise. the family said the confrontation quickly turned violentandsinghsustainedserious injuries in the assault. Hisson,Yaiphaba,tookhim to Holy family Hospital in okhlafortreatment,buthesuccumbed early Monday morning. the hospital report cited haemorrhagic shock caused by blunt force trauma as the cause of death. Vineet Kumar, the southeast delhi deputy Commis- topcourtrejects aravallipanel pleaformore time,cJiinvokes retirementdate ananthakrishnan G New Delhi, September 7 Refusing to give the highpowered committee six more months to submit its report on the Aravalli Hills, Chief Justice of india (CJi) surya Kant on Monday indicated that the request for an extension seemed to suggest it was waiting for him to retire. the bench, also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, asked the committee to submit its report by november 30 this year. thecommittee’srequestfor a six-month extension meant that the report would not be submitted before februaryend next year. CJi Kant demits office on february 9, 2027. “they should straightaway have said give date after my »coNtiNUed oN PaGe 2 chongtham Vikram singh, 55, lived in kilokari village sioner of Police, said, “i, along with other senior officers, have met the family and other community members and assured prompt and lawful action. All seven accused have been arrested, and a minor has been apprehended. further investigation is underway.” singh, lead guitarist of Manipur’s legendary rock band Phoenix in the early 1980s, was regarded as a pioneer of the state's rock music scene. He started his music career as a lead guitarist of a band called ultra Vires. After his stint with Phoenix, he joined a famous local band called eastern dark. Later, he left Manipur and continued his career as a music toLL 7, iNcLUdiNG 5 stUdeNts Hostel collapse: Civic body, DU responsible too, says HC Orders MCD to inspect all buildings housing PGs and hostels, submit report Noida protest NSA: Allahabad HC says note ‘displeasure’ in DM’s service records Orders Rs 5-lakh compensation for accused from salaries of DM, other officers sohini Ghosh New Delhi, September 7 tHe deLHi High Court on Monday said responsibility for the building collapse at satya niketan in south delhi, which killed seven people, could extend beyond the Pg owner to delhiuniversityandcivicauthorities, while flagging the “absolutely inadequate” number of hostels available to students. the court was dealing with a public interest litigation (PiL) seeking an independent probe into sunday’s incident. Chief Justice d K upadhyaya remarked that the shortage of university and government hostels was forcing students into potentially unsafe Pgs and hostels, and questionedwhetherauthoritieshad done enough to regulate such accommodation. “Please impress upon the government for providing the facility of a hostel to the students. Pgs are not only very dangerous, they are causing threat to life and security to the students. this is because of the absolutely inadequate number ofhostelsavailabletostudents,” the Chief Justice said. “...fifty young students who are at the threshold of entering their lives, seven of them reportedly have died, few have been rescued, rest are lying underthedebrisperhaps.there can’tbeanythingmoresadthan this.thisisyourresponsibility, LaboUr Protests iN aPriL drishti Jain nsa was invoked against aakriti chaudhary, 25, in may desCRiBing As “worthy of derision” the decision by the district Magistrate of gautam Buddha nagar to invoke the national security Act (nsA) against Aakriti Chaudhary for her alleged role in the noida labour protests of April, the Allahabad High Court has ordered that its “displeasure” with the official and other officers involved be “noted in their service records”. theorder,issuedbyabench ofJusticesAtulsreedharanand Achal sachdev, also held the district Magistrate, iAs officer MedhaRoopam,“guiltyofviolating her oath of allegiance, makingthisafitcasefortheimposition of compensation to the petitioner”. the court granted Rs 5 lakh as compensation to the petitioner, to be “recovered from the salary of the district Magistrate...who has passed this order of detention without application of mind and from all such other officers who may have been responsible, right down to the sHo of the Police station, who had prepared the initialreportwarrantingthedetention of the petitioner under the provisions of the nsA”. the detailed order was released Monday after the High Court, on september 2, quashed the detention of Chaudhary, a law student and delhiuniversitygraduatefrom durgapur in West Bengal, describing the invocation of the stringentnsAinhercaseas“arbitrary and vague”. theHighCourtwashearing the habeas corpus plea of Chaudhary, who was initially picked up on April 11. subsequently,theuPgovernmentinvoked the nsA on May 13. she has since been in custody in Kasna jail in gautam Buddha nagar. While Chaudhary had sought compensation of Rs 50 lakh, the High Court found it “sufficient” to grant Rs 5 lakh, since she would remain in jail asanundertrialprisonertillshe secures bail in all the criminal cases registered against her New Delhi, September 7 satya niketan, where the building collapsed, is a hub of Pg facilities for students. pRAVEEN KHANNA 5 DU students, 5 children no more: Nightmare of grief for next of kin among Those killed: Pawan Yadav and Yuvraj soni, who were students of delhi University’s motilal nehru college; akshat singh, who studied at the PgdaV college tabshir shams, drishti Jain & Jayprakash s Naidu New Delhi, Raipur, September 7 wearing the same clothes that she had been wearing the night before. Her eyes were swollen from crying. Her mother sat with her, and three members of her family stood nearby. Priyanshi had spent much of sunday evening going from hospital to hospital looking for her brother Pawan Yadav — safdarjung, then Ram Manohar Lohia, then the Army’s RR Hospital — before returning to AiiMs,whereshehadspentthe rest of the night on a bench in »coNtiNUed oN PaGe 2 BRICS meet: Focus on talks with China No privatisation, but 115 seats, Rs 38,000-cr projects: over tech import, investment curbs space economy has CM Yogi hits road in SP-Cong to grow: ISRO chief’s strongholds ahead of 2027 polls E. The thaw: FDI to message to staff yogiadityanath’swhirlwinduptour border trade »coNtiNUed oN PaGe 2 »coNtiNUed oN PaGe 2 nineteen-YeAR-oLdPriyanshi sat outside the AiiMs trauma Centre on Monday, »coNtiNUed oN PaGe 2 ravi dutta Mishra & Pratyush deep New Delhi, September 7 l rae Bareli district anonna dutt projects launched: ₹879 cr assembly segments covered: Bachhrawan, Harchandpur, Rae Bareli MP: rahul Gandhi (INC) New Delhi, September 7 tHe CHAiRMAn of indian space Research organisation (isRo), V narayanan, on Mondayallayedapprehensionsofthe space agency being privatised, sayingthatitisworkingwiththe private sector to expand the country’s space economy. He said, “My colleagues have some genuine concerns and it is our responsibility to clarify. isRo is not being privatised, it is a government organisation and we are working with government investment. the space ecosystem has to grow and the spaceeconomyhastogrow.And this work is towards that.” narayanan said that isRo currently has 56 satellites in space while the requirement is MP: ravi Kishan (BJP) MP: Kamlesh Paswan (BJP) mainpuri district gorakhpur district isro chairman V narayanan (right) with in-sPace chairman Pawan goenka at the Bengaluru space expo, monday. pTI of 50 launches every year. “in fact, whenever a PsLV is lifting off or gsLV is lifting off, please don’t think everything is done in isRo, or inside. Almost 80% of the budget is invested in industry,and450industriesare workingforus,”saidnarayanan »coNtiNUed oN PaGe 2 projects launched: ₹682 cr assembly segments covered: Karhal, Mainpuri Mainpuri MP: dimple Yadav (SP) projects launched: ₹4,387 cr assembly segments covered: pipraich, Gorakhpur Urban, Khajani, Chillupar, Gorakhpur Rural and others. projects launched: ₹810 cr assembly segments covered: Rudauli, Bikapur MP: awadhesh prasad (SP) Lalmani Verma Lucknow, September 7 WitH uttAR Pradesh slated for the Assembly elections in february 2027, Chief Minister YogiAdityanathhasintensified hispublicoutreach,criss-crossing the regions across the state. since May, Adityanath has ayodhya district toured more than 44 of uP’s 75 districts in order to inaugurate orlayfoundationstonesofvarious projects meant for 115 Assemblyconstituencies,ofwhich theoppositionsamajwadiParty (sP)-Congress alliance had led in about 58% segments in the 2024Loksabhaelections.inthe parliamentary elections, the leadin115assembly segmentsin2024 inc 13 sp 54 rld 1 BJp 47 projects include: Community centres, electricity, roads, colleges, water, hospitals, etc. BJP’s tally in the state plunged from 62 of 80 seats to 33 while thesPandtheCongressbagged 37 and six seats respectively. these projects worth a total of over Rs 38,000 crore include variousdevelopmentandinfrastructure projects such as roads,schools,hospitals,power »coNtiNUed oN PaGe 2 AHeAd of the 18th BRiCs summit in new delhi on september 12-13, which Chinese PresidentXiJinpingisexpected to attend with a sizeable business delegation, the Ministry of Commerce and industry has reached out to consult with indian industry groups. indicationsarethatthehigh-leveltalks with Chinese counterparts, on the sidelines of the BRiCs summit, could see the indian side flag concerns over investment restrictionsfacedbycompanies in China and Customs roadblocks on import of high-tech items from the country, TheIndianExpresshas learnt. A government official said the China desk of the Commerce and industry Ministry hasbeenworkingonseveralrestrictions on key tech-related itemsimposedbyChineseCustoms, which was hurting indian manufacturing. the in- explained India-China trade relations have seen a significant thaw in recent times -- from easing of restrictions on foreign direct investments from land-bordering countries, to reopening of India-China border trade via Nathu La, and resumption of direct flights. dian automobile industry had already been finding workarounds due to delays in exports of rare earth magnets from China.itislikelythattheindian side will push for some measure of reciprocity in easingproceduralbottlenecksand restrictionsonsourcingnorms. A senior executive in the renewable energy sector with »coNtiNUed oN PaGe 2 l swachh VaYU sUrVekshan-2026 How Lucknow beat Indore to become ‘cleanest-air city’ in the country UP Capital adopted integrated strategy by adopting electric vehicles, mechanised sweepers and installing vertical gardens Maulshree seth Lucknow, September 7 LuCKnoW Winning the tag of the “cleanest-air city” in the country by narrowly beating indore is the result of multipronged interventions that the CapitalofuttarPradeshundertook in the last few years. Known for its overwhelming traffic, uninterrupted construction and rapidly expanding neighbourhoods, the city, with an estimated 42 lakh population, adopted an integrated clean-air strategy in the last few years by embracing electric vehicles, deploying mechanised sweepers and installing vertical gardens to reduce dust and pollution. in the swachh Vayu survekshan-2026, Lucknow scored 198 points to win the top spot among cities with a population of 10 lakh-plus, while indore (197), the country’s cleanest city for seven years, won the second prize, and Jabalpur (195) bagged the third position in the category. Chennai, Jamshedpur, Kota, Kolkata and Madurai were placed at the bottom five in this category comprising 47 cities, while delhi and Mumbai ranked 30th and 37th, respectively. the rankings were declared in new delhi, and national green tribunal (ngt) chairpersonJusticePrakashshrivas- l What changed on the ground airquality:top-rankingcities category city cash award (in rs) 1st Lucknow 1.50 crore Category 1 2nd Indore 1 crore (Million-plus population) 3rd Jabalpur 50 lakh 1st Rourkela 75 lakh Category 2 2nd Firozabad and Guntur 50 lakh (3-10 lakh population) 3rd Amravati 25 lakh 1st Kalinga Nagar 37.5 lakh Category 3 (less than 3 lakh 2nd Angul 25 lakh population 3rd Talcher 12.5 lakh tava distributed the awards. Lucknow civic officials maintained that the city’s top spot is the result of a multiprongedefforttargetingsomeof themostvisiblesourcesofurban The city has a fleet of 1,100 electrict vehicles and 140 electric buses, beside 97 mechanised sweepers. ExpRESS pollution — road dust, vehicle emissions, open waste burning and waste management. one of the most visible changeshasbeentheincreasing useofelectricvehicles–notjust inpublictransportationbutalso garbage collection. Around 1,100 electric vehicles are currently being used for door-todoor waste collection, ensuring regular lifting of garbage while reducing emissions from the municipal fleet, officials said. further, the city also expanded electric public transport, with 140 electric buses currently operating. tosupportthetransition,12 charging stations with 916 charging points have been established across Lucknow, officials said. Curbing road dust officials said road dust was another area where the city made a concerted effort. the Lucknow Municipal Corporation has deployed 97 electric mechanised sweeping machines for road cleaning. At thesametime,about559.85km of roads have been paved endto-end, reducing exposed surfaces and helping prevent dust frommixingintotheairbypassing traffic. »coNtiNUed oN PaGe 2 Lucknow