DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 2024, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 GROUND REPORTS SOUGHT BY JUNE 25 Met office downgrades June rainfall forecast to ‘below normal’ 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. Last month, the IMD had said the country would receive normal rainfall in June, which would be 92-108 per cent of the LPA. “Below normal rainfall is likely over Central, Northwest and someareasofNortheastIndia 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 CONTINUEDONPAGE2 EXPLAINED CLIMATE GOODSTART,THEN A DRYSPELL PAGE 14 Review to cover all Lok Sabha seats in state barring Varanasi and Lucknow LALMANI VERMA NEW DELHI, JUNE 18 HOW WELL-CONNECTED were candidates with the public? What was the impact of the Constitution and reservation issues on the campaign? Did decisions 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 performance in the state saw its tally 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 into seats that it, and its allies, retained but where their victory margins dropped. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi retained Varanasi for the third straight time, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh bagged Lucknow. However, their victory margins fell. The BJP has assigned senior state leaders for the review process, instructing them to visit every Assembly segment of the Parliamentary constituency assigned to them. They have to submit their re- 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. ports to the state leadership by June 25. The state leadership will then send a report to the central leadership. The BJP checklist will look at the following questions: ■ How active were party workers on the ground? ■ Did decisions of the government, the Centre and/or the state, play a role in a loss? ■ What were the strategy failures? ■ How well-connected were candidates with the public? ■ What was the movement of party leaders among people of their castes and communities? ■ Why did voters from a community drift away from the party? ■ Why did Hindus voters get divided along caste lines? 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 E E X P L A I NE D ANJALI MARAR Constitution, quota impact, Govt’s role: Questions in BJP’s UP poll post mortem ROW OVER CONDUCT OF EXAMINATIONS DEEKSHA TERI NEW DELHI, JUNE 18 Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan felicitates Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi, Tuesday. UP Governor Anandiben Patel, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Deputy CMs Brajesh Pathak and Keshav Prasad Maurya were also present. PTI RELEASES PM-KISAN INSTALMENT PM thanks Varanasi: Privilege to be pradhan sevak for third time MANISH SAHU VARANASI, JUNE 18 PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi Tuesday released the 17th instalment of the `20,000-crore PM-KISAN scheme for more than 9.26 crore farmers during an event at Mehandiganj village in Varanasi, the Lok Sabha he represents.Thiswasthefirstvisit of Modi to his parliamentary constituency after assuming office for a third consecutive term. “Today, the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi has become the biggest DBT scheme in the world. Till now, `3.25 lakh crore has been deposited in the bank accounts of crores of farmers of the country, and `700 crore has been transferred to families of farmers in Varanasi alone. I am happy that technology was used to better deliver the benefits of the PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi to beneficiaries,” Modi said. Speaking before a gathering of farmers in Bhojpuri in the ini- tial part of his speech, Modi said, “Baba Vishwanath aur Ma Ganga ke aashirwad se; Kashiwasiyon key aseem sneh se mujhe teesri baardeshkapradhansevakbanne kasaubhagyamilahai...abtohMa Ganga ne bhi jaise mujhe godh le liya hai, main yahin ka ho gaya hun (With the blessings of Baba Vishwanath and Mother Ganga, andloveof theresidentsof Kashi, I have the privilege to become the pradhan sevak for the third time... Mother Ganga has CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 UNDER FIRE over its conduct of the NEET examinations, the National TestingAgency(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.Almost 98%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 regardingtheconductof NEET-UG this year, which the agency submittedtotheMinistrythisweek. The Union government, it is learned, will factor this in while preparingitsresponsebeforethe Supreme Court which will hear a batch of petitions on the conductof themedicalentrancetest on July 8. Sources said of the 13 Patna candidates,fourarefromgeneral category, eight from OBC category and one candidate’s details providedbytheBiharPolicedoes 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 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NETWORK SIKKIM LANDSLIDES: 200 EVACUATED, 1,000 STRANDED BALASORE UNDER CURFEW AFTER CLASH PAGES 8, 12 11 HOUSES DEMOLISHED IN MANDLA DISTRICT VILLAGE IN MADHYA PRADESH Bulldozers came the day after police: ‘We demolished homes where beef was found’ ANAND MOHAN J MANDLA (MP), JUNE 18 ELEVEN DEMOLISHED homes, and 16 that are yet untouched, paint a picture of contrast at a neighbourhood in Bhainswahi village, in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandla district. Thehomeswererazedbyauthorities on June 15 after police, in an operation targeting cattle smuggling, said they had found beef inside fridges, animal hides in sacks, and bones in pickup trucks there. While authorities maintain the 11 structures were built on government land, 16 homes in the same neighbour- BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY ‘No one wants to help because they fear their homes may be next’: Sultana Qureshi (above) with her family. Anand Mohan J hood — which authorities acknowledge are also illegal but where beef was not recovered — are still standing. “We demolished the homes where beef was found and left the others alone for now. Which homes to demolish is not part of our protocol. It is decided by the revenue department. We were taking action against cattle smugglers. Leather companies inJabalpurwhichboughtanimal hidesandlocaltribalpeoplewho boughtcow meatfromthisgang willbeinvestigated.TheNSAwill be invoked against five accused who are repeat offenders,” said Inder Baldev, SHO of Nainpur CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Wary after LS defeat, BJP-Sena govt stalls Nagpur-Goa highway project ALOK DESHPANDE MUMBAI, JUNE 18 DAYSAFTERtheLokSabhadefeat inseatsalongtheproposedroute and amid protests from farmers, the Maharashtra government is said to have put on hold work on the 802-km greenfield highway project connecting Nagpur to GoauntiltheAssemblyelections laterthisyear.Theprojectisestimated to cost the state exchequer Rs 80,000 crore. “We have received reports that farmers and individuals affected by theproject are protesting in every district... It has been conveyed to the administration tonotacquirelandforatleastthe next 3-4 months. After the Assembly elections(in October), thenew governmentwilldecide on the fate of this project,”a senior government functionary related to the project told The Indian Express. The project was first announced in September 2022. The bids for appointing a consultant for the feasibility study CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Fringes to Olympics via French Open door: How journeyman Balaji got his lucky break PAGE 1 ANCHOR NAMIT KUMAR NEW DELHI, JUNE 18 EARLIER THIS month, Sriram Balaji, the World No. 62 and the third-highest-rankedIndiandoublestennisplayer,arrivedinParis uncertain if he was playing the FrenchOpenatall.Typicallyfickle Parisian weather meant there wereenoughwithdrawalsbysingles players in the doubles cate- Sriram Balaji will partner Rohan Bopanna in Paris. Express goryforBalaji,alongsideMexican partner Miguel Reyes-Varela, to make it into the main draw. He would leave the French capital with three solid Grand Slammatchesunderhisbelt—his best-ever finish at a Major — and more importantly, ensuring his returntickettoParisnextmonth. Balaji has been picked by World No. 4 Rohan Bopanna to partner him in the men’s doubles category for the upcoming Paris Olympics, ousting the higher-ranked Yuki Bhambri to make it to his first Games. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lucknow