WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM Where The Wild Things are Goa’s biodiversity has a lot to offer tourists, from wildlife sanctuaries to wetlands, but unchecked construction is encroaching on its green spaces JAIPUR, DECEMBER 21, 2025 SCREEN Battle for Glory LATE CITY 14+4 PAGES ₹6.00 D A I L Y Homebound, in the run for the Oscars F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , Happening today lTHE RESULT Of the first two phases of Maharashtra local body polls will be out. It will offer the clearest signal yet of shifting political equations on the ground, ahead of the municipal corporation elections next month. lINDIA WOMEN’S five-match T20 International series against Sri Lanka starts in Vizag. Can the 50-over World Champions maintain their great run in the shortest format? l’CHILLAI-KALAN’, a 40-day period marked by intense cold and snowfall, begins in Kashmir Valley. Tourism players are hoping for a boost in footfall after what they described as a difficult year for the sector. TRACK THESE AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPRESS.COm INSIDE PAgE 3 PRoTEST AgAiNST NEw ARAvAlli DEfiNiTioN iN hARYANA, UDAiPUR C H A N D I G A R H , D E L H I , J A I P U R , K O L K A T A , L U C K N O W , BJP receives 82% lContributionsin2024-2025 ELECTORAL TRUST TOTAL of total Rs 3,811 Prudent Electoral Trust ₹2,668.46 crore crore in 2024-25, Progressive Electoral Trust ₹914.97 crore Cong less than 8%, New Democratic Electoral Trust ₹160 crore others about 10% Harmony Electoral Trust ₹35.65 crore Damini Nath, Harikishan Sharma, Abhinaya Harigovind & Jatin Anand New Delhi, December 20 INTHEfirstfinancialyearafter the Supreme Court scrapped the government’s anonymous political funding scheme through electoral bonds, nine electoral trusts donated a total of Rs 3,811 crore to political parties in 2024-2025. Bharatiya BJP CONGRESS ₹2,180.71 crore ₹21.63 crore ₹757.62 crore ₹77.34 crore ₹150 crore ₹5 crore ₹30.15 crore 0 Triumph Electoral Trust ₹25 crore ₹21 crore 0 Samaj Electoral Trust Association ₹6 crore ₹3 crore 0 Janpragati Electoral Trust ₹1.02 crore 0 0 Jankalyan Electoral Trust ₹19 lakh ₹9.50 lakh ₹9.50 lakh Einzigartig Electoral Trust ₹7.75 lakh ₹7.75 lakh 0 TOTAL ₹3,811.37 cr ₹3,112.50 cr ₹298.77 cr Janata Party (BJP), the party rulingattheCentre,receivedRs 3,112 crore, or more than fourfifth (82 per cent) of the total funds donated by trusts. According to the contribution reports submitted by the different trusts to the Election Commission of India, just under 8 per cent of their donationsorRs299crorewenttothe Congress. All other parties put E. ExPLAINED Trusts and transparency Funding of political parties through electoral trusts is just one channel, although a major one. Unlike electoral bonds, the contributions by companies to the electoral trusts and subsequently the donations to political parties through trusts is transparent. together receive the balance 10 per cent or Rs 400 crore. Thetotaldonationsreceived »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ECONOmY PAgE 9 8% gDP gRowTh, bUT DATA DoESN’T TEll SAME SToRY P U N E , V A D O D A R A PM Narendra Modi with Assam Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and industrialist Gautam Adani during the inauguration of a new terminal of the Guwahati airport. PTI PAGE 4 PM sounds poll bugle in West Bengal: ‘End TMC jungle raj, bring double-engine govt’ Tanusree Bose Nadia, December 20 AHEAD OF the Assembly elections in West Bengal next year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi onSaturdaycalledforanendto the Trinamool Congress government’s “jungle raj” and urged people to give the BJP a chance to form a “double-engine government” in the state. Addressing a gathering in Taherpuroverthephone,ashis helicopter was unable to land due to low visibility, Modi also accused the TMC of opposing Venkata Krishna B & Devendra Pandey Chennai, Mumbai, December 20 I am over 60 , but I still go for MGNREGS works. It has changed my life... my granddaughter got into MBBS... We had nothing 15-20 years ago.” C PEDAKKA, THE COUNTRY’S FIRST MGNREGS CARD HOLDER Bangladesh Mourns Youth Leader At the funeral of Sharif Osman Hadi, a youth leader who was shot by masked assailants last week, in Dhaka on Saturday. Hadi’s death sparked widespread protests across Bangladesh. REUTERS PAGE 10 NATION PAgES 3, 6 As the Congress leads protests against changes to the MGNREGS by the Centre, includinginitsname,Bandlapalli »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Govt ran a bulldozer over MGNREGA... all ready to counter this attack: Sonia Express News Service New Delhi, December 20 Congress leader Sonia Gandhi in a video released Saturday. PTI IN TIBBI, HANUMANGARH DISTRICT Proposed ethanol plant that became ground zero of protests may pull out Parul Kulshrestha TRAiN RUNS ovER 7 ElEPhANTS iN ASSAM, 5 CoAChES DERAilED SREENivASAN, MASTER of MAlAYAlAM SATiRE, DiES MoThERS of boYS ACCUSED of hARASSiNg giRl hElD iN bUDAUN JUST MONTHS after bringing back Shubman Gill in the T20 format — as vice-captain for the Asia Cup — and experimentingwithhimasanopener alongside Abhishek Sharma in three series, the selection committee headed by Ajit Agarkar Jaipur, December 20 AFTER PROTESTS by farmers against an ethanol plant in Tibbi,atowninRajasthan’sHanumangarh district, the firm behind the proposed project, Dune Ethanol Private Limited, isconsideringpullingoutofthe project, it is learnt. Factory officials confirmed this to The Indian Express on Saturdayafternoon.Whencontacted for an official comment, Dune Ethanol did not respond. SumitGodaraandKKVishnoi, Rajasthan’s Cabinet ministers who went to speak to the farmers after the December 10 protestthathadturnedviolent, did not respond to calls and messages from The Indian Express seeking a comment. Protests against the factory have been going on for more thanayear,withfarmersclaiming the plant would pollute groundwater and hinder farminginoneofRajasthan’smost fertileareas,evenastheadministrationinsiststheplantwould be non-polluting. On December 10, things came to a head when a clash broke out between police and protesters after the latter »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 l CHILDREN WITH THALASSEMIA TESTED HIV+ EARLIER THIS YEAR AFTER BLOOD TRANSFUSIONS ‘Living with two life-threatening diseases’: Five children at the centre of MP district’s lapses Anand Mohan J this year after receiving blood transfusions at government and private hospitals. A state-level inquiry team THE NINE-YEAR-OLD wants to become a CID officer. He constitutedbythestategovernlovescricket,especiallybatting, ment to probe how the five and says mathematics is his fa- children with thalassemia contracted HIV during vouritesubject.“Ilike blood transfusions numbers,” he tells PAGE 1 has found major The Indian Express. lapses — from not “I go to school. Many maintaining records people don’t know of donors to failure in conductwhat I am going through.” The child is one of five ing HIV tests properly. On Frichildren with thalassemia in day, the state government susMadhya Pradesh’s Satna dis- pended three health officials. For the affected children trict who tested HIV positive between March and early April andtheirfamilies,thesituation the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to protect “infiltrators”. “Bihar has unanimously rejected jungle raj. Even after 20 years, it has given the NDA more seats than before. Now, we have to get freedom from the jungle raj that is going on in West Bengal. In every household, village, lane, there is only one slogan, ‘we want to live, we want BJP’. I had said that the GangaflowsfromBihartoBengal.Biharhaspavedthewayfor victory in Bengal,” he said. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 T20 World Cup: Gill dropped, focus on powerplay boost, team balance Sreenivas Janyala »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 P A T N A , After SC junks poll bonds, trusts’ funding to political parties triples Bandlapalli (Andhra Pradesh), December 20 A COUPLE of days after Parliament passed the new rural job guaranteelaw,VB-GRAMGBill, toreplaceMGNREGA,Congress ParliamentaryParty(CPP)chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said the UPA-era law was N A G P U R , 13 TRUSTS SUBMIT CONTRIBUTION REPORTS TO ELECTION COMMISSION Site of NREGS launch, ‘transformed’ Andhra village has few fears on changes in scheme GONEAREthehutsanddilapidated houses, and the barren fields. Bandlapalli village now haspuccahousespaintedinattractive colours, with glinting water taps at their doorsteps, crowded lanes where tractors jostle with motorcycles, and fields of mangoes, orchids, pomegranates among other crops, and micro dairy farms. Thestoryofthistransformation is told by a plaque in black stone. It marks the launch, on February 2, 2006, of the NationalRuralEmployeeGuaranteeProgrammefromtheBandlapalligrampanchayat,bythen Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in the presence of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and then Congress Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh Y S Rajasekhara Reddy. M U M B A I , Satna, December 20 anchor The blood bank at the district hospital in Satna. Its in-charge and two laboratory technicians have been suspended. ANAND MOHAN J presents an unimaginable nightmare — endless hospital visits, shattered dreams and, above all, the fear of living with not one but two life-threatening diseases, one of which the patients are still unaware of. The nine-year-old’s father said his son was just two years old when he was diagnosed with thalassemia, a genetic blood disorder that requires multiple blood transfusions to make up for less haemoglobin in the bloodstream. For years, school remained possiblewithregulartreatment. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Jaipur Chief selector Ajit Agarkar, BCCI Secy Devajit Saikia, T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav in Mumbai. AP on Saturday dropped him for the T20 World Cup which begins in February. The Indian Express has learnt that two factors weighed against Gill — his strike rate in powerplay, and team combinationandbalance.Oflate,Gillhad been battling for form, going 18 innings without a 50 in the format. However, according to sources, it was the combination »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2