www.InDIanExPrEss.com Leading Ladies The road to India’s historic win at the Women’s World Cup was paved with disappointments and heartbreaks but skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and vice captain Smriti Mandhana stayed the course. Here’s their story lucKNow, NoVeMBer 9, 2025 laTE cITy 16+4 PagEs `6.00 D a I l y BooKs With the Booker prize due tomorrow, a look at some of the shortlisted novels f r o m : a H m E D a b a D , happening today lPrime minister narendra modi is scheduled to visit Dehradun and participate in a programme marking the silver jubilee of the formation of Uttarakhand. He will also launch a commemorative postal stamp on the occasion. the world PaGe 14 c H a n D I g a r H , PaGe 8 Winter session of Parliament from Dec 1 to 19 K o l K a T a , l U c K n o w , m U m b a I , n a g P U r , P a T n a , P U n E , v a D o D a r a In June, Pune official sought land eviction at Pawar son firm behest FIR says firm’s application seeking land possession, Tehsildar’s order to Botanical Survey to vacate it ‘illegal’ Pune, Mumbai, November 8 nation j a I P U r , 44-aCre maHar Land ControversY soham shah & alok deshpande israel returns 15 boDies after takinG remains of a hostaGe D E l H I , JUst FiVe months ago, the PuneCity tehsildaraskedCentral government undertaking Botanical survey of india (Bsi) to vacate 17.51 hectares or 44 acres of land in mundhwa leased to it by the state after a firm 99% owned by Deputy Chief minister Ajit Pawar’s son informed his office that it had purchased the land. “We received a letter a few months back asking us to vacate the land. After receiving the letter, we approached the Pune Collector. He told us verbally that we need not worry and that he would look into the matter and do the needful,” Dr A. Benniamin, a scientist and Head of Bsi Pune, told The Indian Express. When contacted, Pune CollectorJitendraDudiconfirmed receipt of the Bsi complaint, and said while his office was aware of the eviction notice served on Bsi, it was not aware that a sale deed had already been entered into. thesaledeedwassignedon may 19, 2025, between sheetal tejvani, who held the power of attorney on behalf of 272 originalownersofthe17.51hectares watan land belonging to the mahar (now scheduled Caste) community and a limited liability partnership firm owned by Ajit Pawar’ssonParth Pawar andDigvijayPatil.Priortoindependence, villages in the state the land in Pune’s Mundhwa which is at the centre of a probe ordered by Maharashtra cM devendra Fadnavis; it was sold to a firm co-owned by deputy cM ajit Pawar’s son Parth Pawar (below). Pavan KHEngrE followed the watan system under which specific castes or families received land or revenue rights instead of cash for certain services. in fact, in a First informationreportfiledbyPune’sKhadak Police station, City tehsil- dar suryakant yevale wrote on June 9, 2025, to an ‘assistant director in the deputy director’s office’ saying the 17.51 hectares land should be vacated. the Fir does not mention to which department yevale wrote, but Ease of living and business possible only when there’s ease of justice: PM »ContinUed on PaGe 2 FULL REPORT ON WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM varanasi ‘Blending devotion & development’: PM flags off four new Vande Bharat trains Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets veteran BJP leader lal Krishna advani on his 98th birthday, in New delhi, Saturday. x/@narEnDramoDI ananthakrishnan G New Delhi, November 8 Bhupendra Pandey Lucknow, November 8 Prime minister narendra modi on saturday flagged off fournewVandeBharattrainsin hisparliamentaryconstituency Varanasi and underlined that pilgrimage sites like Prayagraj, Ayodhya,Haridwar,Chitrakoot and Kurukshetra are now linked by the indian railways' flagship train network, blendingdevotionanddevelopment. While the Pm flagged off the Varanasi-Khajuraho Vande Bharat express train from the Banaras railway station, he launched the Delhi-Firozpur, Lucknow-saharanpur, and ernakulam-Bengaluru trains virtually. maintainingthatindia’spilgrimages are not just religious journeys, but traditions that unite the nation's soul, he said pilgrimage and tourism in Uttar Pradesh have given a strong boost toeconomic activity in the past 11 years. “Last year,110million devotees came for the darshan of Baba Vishwanath, while more than 60 million people have visited Ayodhya since the construction of the ram temple. this has brought thousands of crores in revenue to the state's economy and employed lakhs Triservices Synergy the army’s Southern command participates in a series of drills aimed at enhancing synergy, inter-operability and combat preparedness of the three services, as part of the ongoing exercise trishul along the western border on Saturday. anI PM Narendra Modi in the driver’s cabin of a newly flagged off Vande Bharat in Varanasi on Saturday. PTI of people,” he said. Kashi, he added, has now become the health capital of eastern Uttar Pradesh. earlier, patients had to travel to mumbai for treatment, but now modern hospitals, cancer centres, Ayushman Bharat services, and Jan Aushadhi Kendras are providing relief here, he said. He continued, “After Dev Deepawali, today again we celebrate Kashi’s festival of development.expandingtherailway network, roads, and new facilities is scripting a new chapter »ContinUed on PaGe 2 Prime minister narendra modi said saturday that ease of living and ease of business are possible only when ease of justice is ensured. speaking at the national Conference on strengthening Legal Aid Delivery mechanisms,organisedbythenational Legal services Authority (nALsA) to mark the Legal services Day, modi said, “ease of DoingBusinessandeaseofLivingaretrulypossibleonlywhen ease of Justice is also ensured. in recent years, several steps have been taken to enhance ease of Justice and going forward, we will accelerate efforts in this direction.” Underlining the significance of legal aid, he said the “language of justice should be that which can be understood by those receiving it”. this, he said, must be considered at the time of drafting laws. Pointing to the need for judgments and legal documents to be made available in local languages, he said that when people comprehend the law in their own language, it will lead to better compliance and reduce litigation. “When justice is accessible »ContinUed on PaGe 2 Kejriwal row has an address familiar Redeployment to surveillance: Army to Punjab: Bungalow 50, Chandigarh prepares for sixth winter in Ladakh amrita nayak dutta Kanchan vasdev Chandigarh, November 8 New Delhi, November 8 ACCorDing to the BJP, Bungalow no. 50 of the Punjab government, in Chandigarh’s sector2,isAamAadmiParty(AAP) national convenor Arvind Kejriwal’s new ‘sheesh mahal’. With that, another lore has been added to a residence spread over two acres, located a stone’s throw away from the Punjab Chief minister’s residence, that has long been morethanjustanaddressinthe state, and often at the tHe Army’s plans for the harsh winterineastern Ladakh include redeployment of troops along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) — it may involve temporary reduction of soldiers in the higher reaches isolatedby snow — with adequate reserves in depth areas, completion of the geo-tagging of key features along the LAC and strengthening of the surveillance infrastructure. Despite disengaging from outside Bungalow No. 50 in Sector 2, chandigarh. ExPrEss heart of its political ups and downs. the opposition says that Kejriwal, who has been coming to Punjab frequently since he »ContinUed on PaGe 2 E. explained the trust deficit Disengagement of Indian and Chinese troops in Depsang and Demchok was completed in November 2024, days after leaders of the two countries held talks in Russia’s Kazan. There was also agreement on resumption of patrols. But the trust deficit remains, as do troops on either side of LAC. the friction points along the LAC following an understandingwiththeChineseinoctober 2024, troops are yet to de-escalate from the Ladakh region. the Army continues to be heavily deployed in eastern Ladakh, making this the sixth consecutive winter deployment in the region since 2020. Chinesetroopsalsocontinueto be deployed in similar strength across the LAC. According to sources, the LAC has been calm and incident-free this year following a »ContinUed on PaGe 2 l Uttara Mahila Patrika haS held a Mirror to the regioN’S Social aNd Political churN Uttarakhand turns 25, magazine marks milestone in its women’s many journeys aiswarya raj Dehradun, November 8 WHen UttArAKHAnD was carved out of Uttar Pradesh on november 9, 2000, after a decades-long movement, an editorialinUttaraMahilaPatrika, a quarterly magazine, wondered what women — one of the most crucial segments of the agitation — would do now. “now that the dream of a separate Uttarakhand state has been realised, what are the women going to do? should they quietly sit at home…or should they… form a clear vision and present it as their manifesto?” it said. Asthestateobservesitssilver jubilee, Kamla Pant, one of Uttara’s editors and Uttarakhand mahila manch leaders, tells The IndianExpressfrom her Dehradun home, “We had put up a vision statement near the court complex. not one of those aims have been fulfilled. in fact, we have added more to it.” Uttara, a Hindi magazine, was launched in the octoberDecember quarter of 1990. Printed in Dehradun — but produced 280 km away, in nainital — it has since then held a mirror to the region’s social and political churn. From the hills’ anti-drugs protests,theglobalreclaimthe night movement of the 1970s and early critiques of women’s commodificationin1994tothe inclusion of transwomen in publicservicecommissions,the state’s surveillance of women’s bodies through the Uniform Civil Code and raising the october1994rampurtirahacase, Uttara has cultivated informed readers since its inception. the rampur tiraha case refers to the incident when hundredsofstatehoodactivists on their way to Delhi to protest were shot at by the police at rampur tiraha in UP’s muzaf- Supporters of the ‘uttarakhand Separation Movement’ hold a protest in delhi demanding a separate state. arcHIvE; (right) the cover page of the magazine’s october-december 2020 issue. farnagar district. While at least six died, several others were injured. the police were also accused of sexually assaulting women protesters. in recent years, Uttara turned its gaze on the rise of communalism,somethingthat Pantsaysitsfoundersneverimagined would one day demand its attention. the resolve to start a magazine for the working-class woman started with the 1984 “nasha nahi, rozgar Do” campaign,whenwomentooktothe streets in protest against alcoholism.Pant,thenalawyer,said whenthestatehoodmovement ended, they “wanted to play a meaningful role in society”. Around that time, Pant and her friends, Uma Bhatt, sheela rajwar and Basanti Pathak, got wind of the Delhi-based women’s magazine, manushi. in Uttara’s october-December2020issue,Pathak,one of its founding editors, recalled what inspired their decision to start the magazine. “Because women’s concerns received little space in other publications, and the problems of hill women found no mention anywhere. generally, the content in women’s »ContinUed on PaGe 2 Lucknow