www.IndIanEXPrESS.CoM A French Window opens into Kapurthala Revivalists try to reclaim the splendour of a town once known as the Paris of Punjab kolkaTa, noVemBer 15, 2026 sCreeN Santosh Davakhar’s psychological thriller Gondhal documents a disappearing Maharashtra ritual latE CIty 14+4 PaGES ₹7.00 (₹12 In north EaSt StatES, ₹20 In andaMan) d a I l y f r o M : a h M E d a B a d , happening today lPM NareNdra Modiwill inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of 246 projects worth around ₹3,000 crore, aimed at strengthening education, healthcare, livelihood and community infrastructure for tribal communities across the country. lCoMMerCe aNd iNdustry Minister Piyush Goyal will begin a two-day visit to Egypt, focusing on ways to strengthen bilateral trade, investment ties and explore opportunities for cooperation in the Suez Canal Economic Zone. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com The world page 10 u.s. ground stop disrupts flights 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 , M u M B a I , n a G P u r , Secy-level officers to implement anti-pollution restrictions across cities in region explained significant step Nikhil Ghanekar New Delhi, November 14 A DAy after the air quality in Delhi deteriorated to near severe category, union environment minister Bhupender yadav held a high-level review meeting Saturday and directed a range of measures, including asking states to nominate Secretary-level officials for direct accountability of implementation of anti-pollution curbs across cities in the National capital region (Ncr). these officials will undertakefieldvisitsandreporttothe a smoggy saturday morning in new delhi. aMIt MEhra commission for Air Quality management (cAQm) in Ncr and Adjoining Areas, and the Boys in blue pull off a stunner The India Under-19 cricket team celebrates after defeating Pakistan in the asia cup final in al amerat, oman, saturday. The last-ball win was powered by mohit Ulva and manal chauhan’s 57-run 9th-wicket partnership, followed by 11 runs from chigurupati Venkata. X/@BCCI Page 14 ‘Can’t be both’: Bihar Raj Bhavan flags dual jobs of minister Ashok Addl CS to Governor, since transferred, says minister became prof after election BihAr FOOD and consumer protection minister Ashok choudhary may have to make a choice between retaining his legislative council seat or his v a d o d a r a Centre asks states to fix officers to track pollution curbs, seals 191 units relaTed rePorTs, Page 4 ministry requested cAQm to “issue notices to non-performing officers”, according to a pressreleaseissuedbytheministry of environment, Forest and climate change. Industrial emissions are a significant pollution source in the winter season. On October 30, the CPCB had directed pollution control boards of Haryana, UP, Rajasthan and Delhi to act against industrial units that had not installed Air Pollution Control Devices nor placed orders for them. It was based on CAQM’s earlier direction prescribing a particulate matter emission limit of 50 micrograms per cubic metre for 17 highly polluting categories of industries. “State Governments were directed to nominate Secretary »CoNtiNued oN PaGe 2 inside tmc’s abhishek banerjee appears before police in x post case, alleges ‘harassment by false cases’ page 3 Patna, November 14 P u n E , eNViroNMeNt MiNister BHuPeNder yadaV CaLLs For raNGe oF Measures Delhi SCO forum: Pak confirms participation santosh singh P a t n a , postofassistantprofessor,after a raj Bhavan note flagged his probationary leave as illegal and warned that holding the teaching post attracts disqualification under office-ofprofit rules. choudhary, who joined A N »CoNtiNued oN PaGe 2 Family members of one of the accident victims at a mortuary in golaghat, assam, saturday. rEutErS Kaziranga accident toll 26, search on for parents of 2-year-old boy who survived shinjini Ghosh New Delhi, November 14 AS the kaziranga accident death toll reached 26 on Saturday, authorities were scrambling to trace the parents of a two-year-old who survived the crash. Administration and medical officers said the toddler would be handed over to child welfareauthoritiesifthesearch for his parents remained unsuccessful. A day after the head-on collision between a minibus and a container truck left several others injured, Bokakhat district administration officials said nobody had come forward yet for the boy. the head-on collision occurred in the rangajan area of Golaghat district around 2:30 pm on Friday, police said. Ac- The toddler will be handed over to child welfare services if his parents are not traced cording to the preliminary investigation,theminibuswasallegedly speeding. earlier, Swapnaneel Deka, Senior Superintendent of police, had said that three students were among those who died. On the investigation, Deka told The Indian Express on Saturday: “All commercial »CoNtiNued oN PaGe 2 Pakistan climate change and environmental coordination minister musadik masood malik shubhajit roy New Delhi, November 14 pAkiStAN iS sending its climate change and environmental coordination minister musadik masood malik to New Delhi for the Shanghai cooperation Organisation’s civilisational Dialogue Forum in the city on November 20-22. the announcement Saturday by islamabad came a day after union culture minister GajendraSinghShekhawatsaid he remained “hopeful” that pakistan would confirm its participation. Announcing the decision to attend the summit, »CoNtiNued oN PaGe 2 ashok choudhary joined a n college as an assistant prof on February 17 this year and went on leave the very next day inside page 5 bulk of issues sorted, says jaishankar on india-u.s. trade deal l drUgs From haryana, hImachal make way InTo Bengal; some 'smUggled' To Bangladesh ‘Not a single prescription’: How pharma firms move codeine syrup to Bengal border districts A phArmAceuticAl company based in panipat, haryana, supplied medicines worth rs 64 crore to West Bengal between April 1 and September 18 this year. Of this, rs 44 crore came allegedly from the sale of codeine-based cough syrups, with investiga- after seizing and destroying nearly two lakh bottles in Balurghat, torssayingtheyhavenotfound police are probing alleged diversion of codeine-based syrups worth a single prescription to support crores, and have made 65 arrests in dakshin dinajpur since June. fIlE the volume of these sales. the findings have brought in Balurghat have been dethe police suspect that the three pharmaceutical com- stroyed, 65 people arrested and medicines, instead of reaching panies under the scanner of 44 cases registered in Dakshin patients, through legitimate Bengal police following the Dinajpur since June. South Di- medical channels, were being unearthing of an alnajpur Superintend- diverted for recreational use leged narcotics trafent of police Abhis- and cross-border smuggling. page 1 ficking network in hek Gupta said the the investigation is examining Dakshin Dinajpur scale of sales raised the role of manufacturers, district. police susserious questions carrying and forwarding (c&F) pect that codeine-based cough about the intended use of the agents, licensed wholesalers syrups manufactured in hima- medicines. and other intermediaries. chal pradesh are being diverted “Out of the total rs 64 crore through licensed distributors generated by the pharmaceuti- From licensed channels and stockists before reaching cal company, rs 44 crore, ap- to illegal markets border districts and, allegedly, proximately 65 per cent of the According to police, the alBangladesh. company’s revenue, came ex- leged diversion takes advanNearlytwolakhbottlesofco- clusively from codeine-based tage of the way codeine-based deine-basedcoughsyrupseized syrup sales,” he said. cough syrups move through anchor the pharmaceutical distribution network. A company supplies the product to a nodal c&F agent, who receives a commission of around 4 per cent, the official said. the agent then transfers the stock to licensed drug dealersacrossdifferentdistricts. the official said that while theinitialtransactionstakeplace through authorised channels, some licensed dealers allegedly store the stock in unauthorised premises or sell it to people who do not hold drug licences. under the Drugs and cosmeticsAct,thedealersinvolved in the distribution chain hold licences,includingthoseunder provisions 20B and 21B, the official said. however, investigators suspect that the stock is subsequently diverted outside the regulated supply chain. “Forcodeine-basedsyrup,if youhaveonelicence,thereisno cap on whether you purchase one lakh bottles or 10,000 bottles. Once the stock reaches licensed godowns, it is sold to other drug licence holders in ICA-D1734(23)/2026 sweety Kumari Kolkata, November 13 »CoNtiNued oN PaGe 2 Kolkata