sambalpur l wednesday l april 24, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l city EDITION University campuses Across the US on boil over Gaza war Thousands of students in US university campuses are protesting Biden administration’s handling of the war in Gaza Classes cancelled, cops called in 35,809 White House issues condemnation Echoing the rhetoric of terrorist organisations, especially in the wake of the worst massacre committed against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, is despicable. We condemn these statements in the strongest terms, the White House statement said | P11 As student protesters pitched tents on campuses and stepped up demonstrations, Columbia University cancelled in-person classes, police arrested dozens in Yale, New York University and other colleges. One of the videos of protests at Columbia University showed a purported Indian student raising Azadi slogan. Death toll in the war so far CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Cong plans to cut Dalit quota, give it to Muslims: PM R a j e s h A s n a n i @ Jaipur Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday added another layer to his attack on the Congress over its proposed redistribution of wealth, alleging it intends to cut the quota for Dalits and backward classes so as to allocate them to the Muslims. He claimed that in 2004, shortly after it came to power, the Congress tried to provide reservation to Muslims in Andhra Pradesh by reducing the proportion of the SC-ST quota. Although it was a pilot project, the party was intent on rolling it out nationwide, he added. “Between 2004 and 2010, the Congress made four attempts to implement the Muslim quota in Andhra Pradesh. But because of legal roadblocks and an alert Supreme Court, they were unsuccessful in their designs,” Modi said. He made the allegations while addressing an election rally at Uniara in Tonk, Rajasthan. “Will the Congress at least now assure the nation that they will not redistribute the SC/ST and OBC quotas to benefit the Muslims?” In an apparent attempt to consolidate the Hindu votes, Modi recalled that a shopkeeper in Karnataka was beaten up merely for listening to Hanuman Chalisa in his shop. “Under the Congress government, even listening to Hanuman Chalisa has become a crime,” he alleged. The Congress, he added, is hatching a deep conspiracy to snatch people’s property and distribute it among its favoured groups. “My previous revelations created panic within the Congress and the INDI alliance,” he said. EC examining Complaints against PM Complaints against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech in Banswara are under the ECI’s consideration, sources said. On April 21, Modi had said, “The Congress manifesto says they will calculate the gold with mothers and sisters, and distribute that property... Manmohan Singh’s govt has said that Muslims have the first right to the country’s assets.... It will be distributed to the infiltrators. Should your hard-earned money go to the infiltrators?” Naveen to launch campaign from Hinjili today, urges people to vote for Joda Sankha E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will formally kick off the poll campaign from his home constituency Hinjili in Ganjam district on Wednesday. Naveen has been elected from the constituency for five consecutive times since 2000. A day before embarking on his campaign trail, the chief minister urged the people to vote for ‘Joda Sankha’ (double conch) in the ensuing elections in the state. The term ‘doube conch’ has been coined to counter ‘double-engine government’ slogan of the BJP . The chief minister’s campaign has assumed significance this time as the party will be trying to neutralise the anti-incumbency Odisha stares at decade’s longest heatwave run Sudarsan Maharana @ Bhubaneswar The blistering hot condition in Odisha, if it continue its staggering run for a few more days, could turn out to be one of the longest spells of heatwave in the last one and half decade. On Tuesday, the heatwave conditions entered its ninth day and the prediction that the spell will drag further makes a strong case for the longest running heatwave in the state. Weather officials said April has already witnessed in excess of the average heatwave days recorded for the month caused by two spells, including the one prevailing at present. Between April 5 and 23, the state has recorded a total 11 heatwave days though the normal run lasts in the range of 4 to 8 days. There was a drop in temperature in some places of the state on the day but heatwave conditions prevailed in coastal parts for 9th day in a row. “There is prediction of heatwave conditions in parts of the state for another four days till April 27. If that continues, it would be one of the longest spells of heatwave in the state H eat D ata Heatwave enters 9th day April heatwave average exceeded in Odisha March-June averages more than two heatwave over northern India, coastal Andhra Pradesh and Odisha Spatial distribution shows heatwaves last for 4 to 8 days on an average in last 10 to 15 years,” Umashankar Das, scientist with the India Meteorological department (IMD), Odisha informed. Though there was a mild drop in the soaring temperature levels in parts of the state on Tuesday, severe heatwave prevailed in Jagatsinghpur districts, while heatwave was felt in Nayagarh, Gajapati and Ganjam disticts. Data for the period 1961-2020 reveals that on an average, more than two heatwave events occur over northern India and coastal Andhra Pradesh and Odisha during March-June. In some pockets, the frequency exceeds four in a season. Most of IMD stations have shown an increasing trend of heatwave events during the 60-year period, an IMD document revealed. Analysis of spatial distribution shows heatwaves last for 4 to 8 days on an average. However, in some areas of central and north-western India and parts of Odisha and coastal Andhra Pradesh, the duration is more than 8 days. The IMD earlier had warned of longer and harsher heatwave spells during summer this year, primarily due to prevailing El Niño conditions. Meanwhile, Paralakhemundi recorded the highest temperature of 42.8 degree Celsius, while Paradip at 38.8 degree C broke its 35 yearold record. The previous second highest of the station was 38.2 degree Celsius recorded Continued on P5 in 1989. SC suspends Moquim’s sentence, but he can’t contest upcoming polls e x p r e s s r ead Raseswari resigns from BJD, joins BJP Sambalpur: The ruling BJD received a major jolt after its senior leader and former Sambalpur MLA Dr Raseswari Panigrahi resigned the party on Tuesday. Addressing mediapersons after tendering her resignation to Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Pattnaik, Raseswari said, “I have quit the party for the dignity and identity of Sambalpur” | P6 E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar India ranks low in early disaster warning New Delhi: India is among the top vulnerable countries as Asia remained the world’s most disaster-hit region because of weather, climate and water-related hazards in 2023, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Tuesday while highlighting that extreme heat, severe floods, a glacial lake outburst flood devastated parts of India last year | P9 factor against the BJD candidates due to the party being in power for such a long period. Besides, the party is trying to check a possible chance of split voting because of a general surge of BJP driven by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity among the electorate. In a video released by the BJD, the chief minister was seen holding two conches, the party symbol in both the hands, appealing people to vote for ‘double conch’ in the elections. “This time, vote for double conch - one for MLA and one for MP,” he said. Continued on P5 LOST DREAMS A boy walks with his stock of toys for sale along the roadside at Janpath in Bhubaneswar, on Tuesday | DEBADATTA MALLICK The Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended the sentence of imprisonment of senior Congress leader and CuttackBarabati MLA Mohammed Moquim in the Odisha Rural Housing and Development Corporation Limited (OHRDC) loan irregularities case. However, Moquim cannot contest the upcoming elections as the apex court did not grant a stay on his conviction in the case. The Orissa High Court on April 10 had dismissed the appeal of Moquim challenging the order of a vigilance court which sentenced him to three years imprisonment and fine of `50,000 in the case. Special j u d g e, Vi g i l a n c e, B h u baneswar, on September 29, 2022, had convicted him in the corruption case. Moquim had filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the Supreme Cour t. A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Dipankar Datta issued notice to the Odisha government on the SLP filed by the Cuttack-Barabati MLA challenging the Orissa High Court’s decision. “Issue notice. Post the matter for hearing. Having heard the senior counsel for the par- ties and taking into consideration all the attending circumstances, the sentence of the petitioner is ordered to be suspended subject to his bail bonds,” the bench added. Meanwhile, the Vigilance department issued a statement saying Moquim, as the managing director of Metro Builders Pvt Ltd in collusion with an IAS officer and others obtained a pecuniary advantage in favour of the real estate firm in the guise of loans meant for rural poor from the state-run Odisha Rural Housing and Development Corporation Ltd (ORHDC). Pitambar Acharya, the counsel for Moquim, said that their line of argument was that none of the documents were forged. Continued on P5 Renovation of Amethi Thrissur key to BJP’s bid to break Kerala jinx house adds to Rahul buzz RAJ E SH RAVI @ Kochi N a m i ta B a j pa i @ Amethi UK Parliament approves Rwanda deportation bill British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ‘s latest effort to send some migrants to Rwanda finally won approval from Parliament early Tuesday, hours after he pledged deportation flights would begin in July | P11 Amid a strong buzz around former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi’s candidature from Amethi in the Lok Sabha elections, a viral video showing the cleaning and renovation of his dwelling in Gauriganj here has invigorated the party cadre. However, senior Congress leader Deepak Singh calls the renovation a routine exercise. While the Cong ress cadre are working silently on the g round, BJP workers along with the party candidate Smriti Irani are a l re a dy e n - gaged in an aggressive villageto-village campaign. Congress leaders claim that they want to keep it issue-based rather than falling for the BJP trap of making it a Smriti vs Rahul battle. Party insiders are confident that Rahul and his sister Priyanka would be fielded from A m e t h i a n d R a e B a re l i respectively . A formal announcement on the two seats is expected after the second phase of polls on April 26 when Wayanad in Kerala, from where Rahul is a contestant, would vote. Both Amethi and Rae Bareli will vote in the fifth phase on May 20. The opening move for the battle for the Thrissur Lok Sabha constituency was made on January 3, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended a gathering of 2 lakh women and conducted a 1 km-long roadshow in the heart of the city . Two weeks later, on January 17, he visited the Guruvayur temple for the wedding of actor-turned-politician Suresh G o p i ’s d a u g h t e r B h a g ya Suresh. In a rare and symbolic gesture, the PM presented wedding garland to the couple. During the same trip, Modi made an impromptu visit to the Sree Rama temple in Triprayar within the constituency . Months later, Gopi was chosen as the NDA candidate for Thrissur. The PM made an additional visit to the area in Illustration: Mandar Pardikar April, dropping enough hints on how much importance the BJP gives to the region. The BJP’s primary goal is to break the Kerala jinx and secure a seat that could establish a foundation for the party’s future in the state. Once a prominent figure in Mollywood, Gopi captivated audiences with his roles as a good Samaritan battling sinister forces. Despite losses in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the 2021 state assembly polls, Gopi has remained active in the constituency, addressing neglected issues and helping the need, which gained him immense popularity . The CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) has fielded V S Sunil Kumar from the CPI in Thrissur. Kumar, who hails from the district, transitioned from student leader to MLA and minister, earning the local community’s trust over the years. Meanwhile, the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) replaced sitting MP T N Prathapan with K Muraleedharan, the son of late K Karunakaran. Muraleedharan’s strong familial and political connections bolster his candidacy . The election fervour in the constituency is palpable. The streets are lined with towering hoardings, colourful posters, and banners. Despite the heat, party workers from all three fronts remain enthusiastic. Continued on: P5
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