DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2025, AHMEDABAD,LATE CITY, 18 PAGES After cost overrun, Govt to send 100 teams to ‘inspect’ Jal Jeevan schemes HOUSE PANEL ON EXTERNAL AFFAIRS Misri to panel: India-Pak conflict conventional, no nuclear signalling HARIKISHAN SHARMA Ceasefire bilateral decision, no US intervention, says Foreign Secy NEW DELHI, MAY 19 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY E The Indian Express report EXPLAINED THE GOVERNMENT has decided to send 100 teams of Central Nodal Officers for “ground inspection” of the Jal Jeevan Mission schemes across the country. The move follows a meeting chaired by the Cabinet SecretaryonMay8toreviewthe mission’s schemes. The order issued by the Department of Personnel and TrainingonMondayidentified99 nodal officers to inspect as many as 183 schemes across 135 districts in 29 states and Union Territories. Of these schemes, learnt to have been selected randomly, Madhya Pradesh has the most—29,RajasthanandOdisha 21 each, Karnataka 19, Uttar Pradesh18,Kerala10,andGujarat and Tamil Nadu eight each. The decision for a review comes two months after an ExpenditureSecretary-ledpanel proposeda46percentcuttothe Water Resources Ministry’s proposal demanding Rs 2.79 lakh croreforcompletingthemission overfouryearsendingDecember Behind ● the review THE GOVERNMENT has taken note of the escalation in costs towards providing tap water connections across states ruled by different political parties. A ‘ground inspection’ of work orders in different places will give a picture not just of the costs involved in executing the job, but also the quality of work. 2028. The cut came following hardquestionsbytheMinistryof Financeovercostescalation,and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Army personnel display ammunition and weapons used by Pakistan to attack India, during a demonstration near the India-Pakistan border, in Punjab on Monday. PTI Pak targeted Golden Temple, all drones, missiles shot down: Army KAMALDEEP SINGH BRAR AMRITSAR, MAY 19 PAKISTAN TRIED to target the Golden Temple in Amritsar and several other places in Punjab with drones and missiles on the intervening night of May 7-8 shortly after India hit nine terror sites in Pakistan and Pakistanoccupied Kashmir under Operation Sindoor, the Indian SC rejects MP minister’s apology, orders SIT probe into remarks NEW DELHI, MAY 19 BJP LEADER, FRIEND ARRESTED FOR GANGRAPE PAGE 4 ArmysaidMonday.Butthewave of attacksfromacrosstheborder was thwarted by India's air defence systems, it said. Major General Kartik C Seshadri, General Officer Commanding, 15 Infantry Division, told news agency ANI: “Knowing that the Pakistani Army does not have any legitimate target, we anticipated that they would target Indian militaryinstallationsandciviliantar- REMARKS AGAINST COL SOFIYA QURESHI ANANTHAKRISHNAN G GUJARAT `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 REJECTINGHISapologyandcalling it “only a pretence to wriggle out of the consequences”, the Supreme Court on Monday directed that a Special Investigation Team (SIT) be set up to investigate the remarks made by Madhya Pradesh Tribal Affairs Minister Kunwar Vijay Shah that were seen to be against Colonel Sofiya Qureshi, Madhya Pradesh Minister Vijay Shah who was part of the armed forces media briefings on Operation Sindoor. “Having gone through the contentsof thestatementattributed to the petitioner, also the contents of the apology said to have been tendered by him, we are satisfied that subject FIR requires to be investigated by an SIT comprising three senior, directlyrecruitedIPSofficersof MP cadre but who do not belong the state,” a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N K Singh said. The SIT, comprising three IPS officers,includingonefemaleofficer, shall be constituted before 10amonTuesday,thecourtsaid. It shall be headed by an officer gets, including religious places. Of these, the Golden Temple appeared to be the most prominent. We mobilised additional modernairdefenceassetstogive a holistic air defence umbrella cover to Golden Temple.” Although the government had previously stated that Pakistan targeted religious places, including gurdwaras, in India, this is the first time the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NETWORK IN-HOUSE PROBE HAS NO LEGAL SANCTITY, SAYS V-P GOVT NEVER ASKED PARTIES FOR PICKS: RIJIJU PAGES 10, 13 Latvia, Congo: India outreach to members of UNSC, now and future SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, MAY 19 Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri with the panel members. PTI ASAD REHMAN NEW DELHI, MAY 19 THERECENTmilitaryconflictbetween India and Pakistan was in the conventional domain and there was no nuclear signalling by Islamabad, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri is learnt to have told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs on Monday. Briefing the committee nine days after a ceasefire was announcedbetweenthetwocountries on May 10, Misri is learnt to have conveyed that the decision to stop military actions was CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INDIA’S MULTI-PARTY outreach to rally global support for its war against terror emanating from Pakistan is not just aimed at major countries and the West Asian region, but also at countries that will be members of the UN Security Council (UNSC) next year. Latvia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Bahrain, Liberia and Colombia will be part of the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 As Rahul and Congress raise heat on Jaishankar, not all in party on board MANOJ C G & ASAD REHMAN NEW DELHI, MAY 19 ON A day Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri briefed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs headed by the Congress’s Shashi Tharoor on foreign policy devel- Minister acted like informant: Khera opments regarding India and Pakistan, the Congress doubled down on External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. In a fresh attack, Rahul Gandhi asked him to again clarify whether India had informed Pakistan about targeting the terrorist infrastructure on its soil, and what it had meant in terms of aircraft “lost” by India. Congress media department head Pawan Khera used an AICC CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Now, Gujarat minister’s Vlogger arrested for younger son arrested ‘spying’ was on radar; in MGNREGA ‘scam’ 2 more held in Punjab EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE VADODARA, MAY 19 KIRANKHABAD,theyoungerson of Gujarat Minister of State for Panchayat and Agriculture Bachubhai Khabad was arrested, twodaysaftertheminister’selder sonBalvantsinhKhabad’swasarrested, in connection with an alleged Rs 71 crore Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scam in Devgadh Baria and Dhanpur talukas of Dahod. ApartfromKiran,threeothers have been arrested, including Dahod Deputy District DevelopmentOfficer(DDO)Rasik Parmar and former Assistant Programme Officer Dilip Kiran Khabad Chauhan.Monday’sarrestsbythe Dahoddistrictpolicetookthetally to 10 in the case so far. Kiran Khabad,whohadbeenontherun afterwithdrawinghisanticipatory bail petition, filed along with his brother Balvantsinh last week, was allegedly nabbed from Vadodara-HalolhighwayMonday morning. Dahod Deputy Superintendent of Police Jagdishsinh Bhandari told The Indian Express that Kiran and the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SUKHBIR SIWACH & MAN AMAN SINGH CHHINA CHANDIGARH, MAY 19 JYOTI RANI Malhotra, the 33year-old travel vlogger from Haryana who was arrested on Friday for allegedly spying for Pakistani intelligence agencies, was on the radar of Indian intelligence agencies for a while, investigators have said. Hisar Superintendent of Police Shashank Kumar Sawan said that her travels were being monitored,andshewasarrested following inputs from central agencies. She is currently on a five-day police remand. Malhotra,whohasaYouTube Jyoti Rani Malhotra was arrested on May 16 channelcalledTravelwithJowith over3,77,000subscribersandan Instagram account with over 1,32,000 followers, was taken into custody after she was allegedly found sharing “sensitive information” with an official of the Pakistan High Commission CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 3 students killed in Pak shelling, Poonch school opens with tears — and a prayer PAGE 1 ANCHOR AISWARYA RAJ POONCH, MAY 19 “ITISnotagoodmorning;notfor our school, not for Poonch,” beginsFr.ShijoKanjirathingal,principal of Christ School, Poonch, as headdressesthethinlyattended morning assembly — the first since the school reopened on Monday following last week’s shelling by Pakistan that left at least 13 civilians dead and 60 injured in Poonch. Three students of the school are among the dead: Urwa At Christ School on the LoC, only 400 of the 1,800 students turned up on Monday. Aiswarya Raj Fatima and her twin Zain Ali of Class 5, and Vihaan Bhargav of Class 8. “This ground belongs to themandtheyweresupposedto be standing here,” the principal continues. Heads bowed, tears streamingdownsomefaces,theassem- blydispersesafterasilentprayer. Set up in 1990, the school has 1,200 students from pre-school CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad