DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2024, KOLKATA, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES BY UNNY WEST BENGAL GROUND REPORTS SOUGHT BY JUNE 25 ROW OVER CONDUCT OF EXAMINATIONS Constitution, quota impact, Govt’s role: Questions in BJP’s UP poll post mortem Review to cover all Lok Sabha seats in state barring Varanasi and Lucknow LALMANI VERMA NEW DELHI, JUNE 18 MAMATA MEETS BJP MP ANANTA MAHARAJ HOW WELL-CONNECTED were candidates with the public? What was the impact of the Constitution and reservation issues on the campaign? Did deci- Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan felicitates Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi, Tuesday. UP Governor Anandiben Patel, CM Yogi Adityanath were also present. PTI sions of the government, the Centre and/or the state, play a role in a loss? These questions form part of a checklist prepared by the BJP to try and ascertain reasons for its debacle in Uttar Pradesh in the Lok Sabha polls. The party’s below-par performanceinthestatesawitstally of seats fall from 62 in 2019 to 33 this time while its vote share declined from 49.98% to 41.37%. The party will explore reasons why it lost so many constituencies and, except for Varanasi and Lucknow, also look CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPLAINED BUSINESS AS USUAL `6.00 (`12 IN NORTH EAST STATES & ANDAMAN) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 E Why the state ● matters UNDER ITS rule since 2017, UP with 80 seats in Lok Sabha was to take the BJP past the halfway mark. The poor showing there contributed to the party losing majority in the House. Defeats in Ayodhya (Faizabad) and Amethi have added to the BJP upset in the state. PAGE 3 THE WORLD Day after, kin of Railway staffers 10,000 cops transferred struggle to come to terms with loss as Mann cracks down on Punjab drug mafia SWEETY KUMARI RANGAPANI, JUNE 18 ISRAEL DEEPENS RAFAH STRIKES AS U.S. ENVOY VISITS LEBANON TO AVOID WIDER WAR BIDEN OFFERS PATH TO CITIZENSHIP TO SPOUSES OF U.S. CITIZENS PAGE 12 A DISTRAUGHT wife in one home and a locked door at another tell the tale of the two Railways staffers who died on Monday when the Sealdahbound Kanchanjunga Express was hit by a goods train from the rear in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district. While Anil Kumar (46), the loco pilot of the goods train, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE CHANDIGARH, JUNE 18 Relativesof avictimof theKanchanjungaExpressaccident mournathishouseinKolkata,Tuesday. PTI RELATEDREPORTS,P3 Met office downgrades June rainfall forecast to ‘below normal’ IN AN unprecedented move to crack down on the drug menace in Punjab, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann announced Tuesday that at least 10,000 police personnel, from the rank of constable onward, have been transferred. He said more transfers are on the cards. Speaking to reporters after chairing a meeting attended among others by DGP Gaurav Yadav, Commissioners and SSPs, Mann said the transfers were made after he realised that drug peddlershadanexuswithpolice. He said several complaints hadgoneunheededand,insome cases, the accused had been let off evenbeforethecomplainants could return to their villages. “There is a nexus at the munshi level. The SHOs are accused of sitting in the same police station for 10-20 years. That is why I ordered en masse transfers. If a police officer is found to have some nexus, he will be immediately dismissed from service. In thenextsevendays,hisproperty willbeconfiscatedandhewillbe investigated. If a police officer does this, it is a sin. He has to pay the price for this,” Mann said. According to the CM, he got a CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Under fire on NEET, NTA to Govt: Patna, Godhra results show no unusual spike In Bihar & Gujarat, most under scanner got below 500 — not good for govt seat DEEKSHA TERI NEW DELHI, JUNE 18 UNDER FIRE over its conduct of the NEET examinations, the National Testing Agency (NTA) is learnt to have conveyed to the Education Ministry that examineesfromPatnaandGodhra,under scrutiny for benefitting from alleged irregularities, do not appeartohavehadanyunusualadvantage as per an analysis of their marks. Of the 13 candidates from Patna, who are under the Bihar Police scanner in their investigation into allegations of a paper leak, eight have scored less than 500 marks out of 720, The Indian Express haslearnt.Almost98%of thestudentswhoappearedfrom two exam centres in Godhra, which are being probed for manipulation of OMR sheets, have also scored less than 500 marks. To get a seat in a government medical college under the allIndia quota, a score of 650-plus of 720 is considered the norm. This analysis is part of the NTA’s note on the allegations regarding the conduct of NEET-UG this year, which the agency submittedtotheMinistrythisweek. The Union government, it is learned, will factor this in while preparingitsresponsebeforethe SupremeCourtwhichwillheara batchof petitionsontheconduct of the medical entrance test on July 8. Sources said of the 13 Patna candidates,fourarefromgeneral category, eight from OBC category and one candidate’s details provided by the Bihar Police does not match with NTA’s record. Of the 12 (five women and seven men), only four have got more than 500 marks and obtained more than 90 percentile in their results. Further, the bestperforming student of this lot has scored 609 marks and is ranked just under 71,000. Four of the 13 candidates have been arrested by the Bihar Police. At the two branches of Jay CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INSIDE THANKAPPAN NAIR, ‘BAREFOOT HISTORIAN’ OF KOLKATA, DIES AT 91 PAGE 3 ANJALI MARAR BENGALURU, JUNE 18 THE INDIA Meteorological Department (IMD) Tuesday downgradeditsJunerainfallpredictionforthecountryto“below normal”. “The average June rainfall for the country as a whole is most likely to be below normal, that is less than 92 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA) which is 166.9 mm,” the IMD said in its monthly rainfall update. Normally, the Met department issues the monthly rainfall prediction at the start of every month.Seenasadeparturefrom norm, the IMD Tuesday retracted its original rainfall forecastwithin20daysof therelease of the second stage Long Range Forecast on May 27. Lastmonth,theIMDhadsaid the country would receive normalrainfallinJune,whichwould be 92-108 per cent of the LPA. “Below normal rainfall is likely over Central, Northwest and some areas of Northeast India in June,” the updated forecast stated. Being the monsoon onset month,Junecontributestoabout 15 per cent of the country's seasonalrainfall.Normally,thesouthwest monsoon covers the entire countryaroundJuly15.However, it is the rainfall during July and August, each contributing 35 per cent to the country's seasonal rainfall, which is crucial for agriculture activities and replenishment of water resources. “As this is the onset month, the rainfall deficit in June is not asmuchaconcern,” MRajeevan, former secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, told The Indian Express. The downgraded rainfall forecast could mean that the chances of the southwest monsoon advancement, and hence rainfall, especially to the eastern andcentralregions,ismostlikely to be delayed. This year, if the monsoon progress was timely, the monsoon should have covered West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh by now. Whereas, the progress has remained stalled since June 11 with the northern limit of the monsoon passing alongNavsari,Jalgaon,Amravati, Chandrapur, Bijapur, Sukma, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXTRADITION FROM PRAGUE Footage released by Czech police shows Pannun plot accused Nikhil Gupta being extradited from Prague to the US Monday. He has pleaded not guilty to charges in a New York court. PTI BRINGING TOP FACULTY MEMBERS FROM DELHI TO KOLKATA Ace UPSC CSE 2025 @ KOLKATA Get National level Test Series & Expert Evaluation MAINS GUIDANCE PROGRAMME 2024 [TESTS, ANSWER WRITING & CLASSES] l l l l l l l 4 GS full-length Tests 2 essay Tests 2 ethics Tests. Daily Answer Writing Practice. 1:1 Online Feedback Sessions on GS. Mains Enrichment Classes on GS, Essay. Doubt Redressal. 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