NEW DELHI 17 SEPTEMBER 2023 SUNDAY `12 PAGES 24  facebook/TheMorningStandard  twitter.com/TheMornStandard https://epaper.morningstandard.in The Brew Code What’s Your Ageotype? PLUS: 12 PAGES Wicked Ways to be a Writer MAGAZINE EXCLUSIVE VOICES Anand Neelakantan Ravi Shankar S Vaidhyasubramaniam Shinie Antony The Way to Look at Trees Dinesh Singh Shankkar Aiyar Prabhu Chawla Namrata Joshi ‘We’re Owning the Super Model Label’ An Ode to Icons AMMA SPEAKS The Search for Happiness Pak army gives cover fire for infiltrators, 3 shot dead F AYA Z W A N I @ Srinagar Congress leaders arrive at the CWC meeting venue in Hyderabad on Saturday | ANI ‘One poll’ plan attacks federal structure: CWC Raps bill on mode of appointment of ECs B K A R T H E E K @ Hyderabad P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi THE first official meeting of the high level committee on ‘one nation, one election’, chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind, will take place on September 23. It means no bill on simultaneous polls would be tabled in the special session of Parliament scheduled for September 18-22, despite rumour mills suggesting otherwise. However, it does not extinguish speculation on the Centre looking to initiate t h e p ro c e s s o f h o l d i n g simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies at the earliest. The government had on September 2 notified an eightmember committee to look into the matter with Kovind as it head. Its members include home minister Amit Shah, senior advocate Harish Salve, former Lok Sabha secretary g eneral Subhash Kashyap, chairman of the 15th Finance Commission N K Singh, former CVC Sanjay Kothari and former leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad. Though Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was named as a member, he refused to be part of the committee terming it an ‘eyewash’. Last week, Amit Shah and law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal met Kovind and discussed the panel’s meeting and its venue. The committee has already begin work and is expected to submit its report “at the earliest”. While Meghwal is a special invitee to the panel, the law secretary is the committee’s secretary . INDIA bloc’s Bhopal meet off The first joint rally of the Opposition INDIA bloc slated to be held in pollbound Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal in the first week of October is off. Party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said it was yet to be decided whether the first rally will be held in Bhopal or elsewhere EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NATIONAL Investigation Agency (NIA) teams on Saturday conducted surprise raids at 26 locations in Tamil Nadu and five in Hyderabad in connection with the probe into a car explosion in Coimbatore in 2022. Its searches were focused on places where a Tamil Nadu ISIS module is suspected to have been radicalising and recruiting members. Their focus was on Coimbatore, where 22 locations were searched, including the residence of a DMK corporation councillor, home of a DMK functionary and an Arabic college attended by Jamesha Mubin (28) who had died in the car blast. The agency’s teams also raided INDIA’S BATTING MIGHT FIRST FINAL IN 13 YEARS This will be the first Asia Cup final between the two teams since 2010. Both have met seven times in the summit clash with India winning four and Sri Lanka winning 3. MANY parts of the city on Saturday received showers amid gusty winds, which led to the temperature falling a few notches, providing much-needed relief to people. Places such as Kalkaji, Tughlakabad in Delhi as well as Noida, Dadri, Greater Noida, and Ghaziabad saw moderate-intensity rainfall along with winds blowing at speeds of 20 to 40 kilometres per hour. According to a release from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the minimum temperature recorded in the Minimum temperature recorded at 26.9 degrees Celsius and maximum temperature at 33.8 degrees Celsius MORE RAIN LIKELY TODAY CITY RECORDED 0.98 MM OF RAINFALL TILL 5.30PM ON SATURDAY city on Saturday was 26.9 degrees Celsius and the maximum temperature recorded was 33.8 degrees Celsius. CLOUDY SKIES WITH LIGHT RAIN/ THUNDERSHOWERS ON SUNDAY RELATIVE HUMIDITY RECORDED AT 85% AT 8.30AM, SATURDAY Maximum will be around 33 DEGREES Celsius and minimum temperatures 25 on Sunday Delhi recorded 0.98 mm of rain over nine hours, till around 6pm, the IMD said. The showers also improved and rocket fire on Friday . The official said troops were using drones and quadcopters to pinpoint the locations of cave-like hideouts of militants to target them through gunfire and mortar shells. Additional Director General of Police in Kashmir Vijay Kumar said the militants will be flushed out. RIFLES, PISTOL RECOVERED Two AK rifles, one pistol, seven hand grenades, one IED, cash of `46,000 in Indian currency and Rs 6,000 in Pak currency were recovered at the site “The group of persons involved in the case had entered into a conspiracy to radicalise and recruit youth, who were later found involved in terrorist as well as unlawful acts and activities. One such terror attack was the Coimbatore car bomb blast case of October 23, 2022,” the NIA release said NIA raid at Saramedu in Coimbatore on Saturday | S SENABGAPANDIYAN three sites in Chennai and one in Tenkasi. It said it had seized several digital devices and documents, along with Indian and foreign currency, from Saturday’s searches. The case pertains to covert operations allegedly conducted by a group of individuals to radicalise gullible youngsters. According to the NIA, the module was formed at the beginning of the year. A case has been registered under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 121A (conspiracy to overawe an government) of IPC and Sections of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. “The radicalisation was being carried out in the garb of conducting Arabic classes at their Regional Study Centres. Such radicalisation activities were being flashed online on social media platforms and via mobile applications like WhatsApp and Telegram,” the NIA alleged in its press statement. NIA calimed its investigations revealed the ISIS-inspired “agent provocateurs” were engaged in propagation of Khilafat ideology, which is inimical to India’s constitutionally established principles of secularism and democracy . RSS concerned GITA MEHTA DIES about situation in Manipur Noted writer-filmmaker and the sister of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik passed away in Delhi on Saturday night. She was 80. Mehta studied in India and University of Cambridge in the UK. RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi NOIDA LIFT COLLAPSE SL HAVE EDGE IN BOWLING In the bowling department, Sri Lankan pacer Matheesha Pathirana (11 wickets from 5 matches) and left-arm spinner Dunith Wellalage (10 wickets from 5 matches) are the top-2 wicket-takers in the tournament. India’s Kuldeep Yadav is fourth on the list with 9 wickets but he has played a match less than the duo | P11 Capital cool: Showers bring temperature down Z A I D N AY E E M I @ New Delhi Army officials display arms and ammunition recovered from two killed terrorists at a press conference in Hatlanga area of Uri in Baramulla on Saturday | PTI BId to radicalise youth, says probe agency @ Coimbatore / Chennai BATTLE OF EQUALS India’s top-order batters are in form with three of them (Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli and KL Rahul) scoring a century each. Similarly, Kusal Mendis (275 runs from 5 matches) and Sadeera Samarawickrama (253 runs from 5 matches) are second and third in the top run-getters’ chart only behind Gill, who has scored 275 from five matches so far. Two terrorists were eliminated. The third one was killed but the retrieval of his body was interfered ... — PMS Dhillon, Brigadier NIA raids to ferret out TN ISIS module WITH ROHIT SHARMA & CO TAKING ON CO-HOSTS SRI LANKA IN THE ASIA CUP FINAL ON SUNDAY, A LOOK AT HOW THEY STACK UP AGAINST EACH OTHER... SHUBMAN GILL First meet of simultaneous polls panel on September 23 THE Congress Working Committee (CWC) in its first meeting here on Saturday strongly opposed the ‘one nation, one election’ proposal, denouncing it as a direct assault on India’s federal structure. The CWC also extended a warm welcome to the Opposition bloc INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance). It voiced its opposition to the proposed Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment etc) Bill, which is to taken up for passing during Parliament’s special session from September 18-22. The party argued that the bill would severely compromise the Election Commission of India’s independence in ensuring free and fair elections. After extensive deliberations lasting five hours, the newly constituted CWC adopted 14 resolutions covering a range of issues, including simultaneous elections, the political landscape, economic conditions and security challenges in regions such as the border with China, Kashmir and Manipur. It “rejected the idea of a new Constitution”, asserting that the fundamental structure of the Constitution should remain unchanged. Moreover, the committee expressed “grave concern” over the escalating unemployment rates and the continual rise in the prices of essential commodities. The extended CWC meeting, scheduled for Sunday, will delve into preparations for Assembly elections in five states and the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. Later in the day the party will hold a pub, lic rally, Vijayabheri, on the city’s outskirts. Top leaders of the Congress, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and chief ministers of Congress-ruled states participated. THE Pakistan army on Saturday gave cover fire to infiltrators along the Line of Control (LoC) and shot down an Indian quadcopter that was trying to ascertain their whereabouts. Indian troops noticed terrorists trying to cross the LoC in Uri in north Kashmir in the early hours of Saturday a Srin, gar-based defence spokesman said. In the firefight that ensured, the troops killed three terrorists. “The security men fired on the militants attempting to sneak into this side of LoC. The militants retaliated and in the firefight, two militants were killed by noon and their bodies were recovered,” he said. When the troops engaged a third militant near the LoC in gunfire, he received cover fire from the Pakistan Army “The . third terrorist fell down towards the other side of LoC. While the operation was under progress, the quadcopter was flown to ascertain his whereabouts. However, the Pakistan Army shot it down, which establishes that they are abetting terrorism and assisting terrorists to infiltrate across the LoC,” he said. Elsewhere, the security forces intensified their operation to track down two-three Lashkare-Toiba militants involved in recent killing of four security personnel, including three officers — Colonel Manpreet Singh, Major Ashish Dhonchak and Deputy Superintendent of Police Humayun Bhat. They are hiding in the dense Gadole forest area of Kokernag. A security official said troops are targeting their possible hideouts in caves in the forest area through rockets, mortar shells, grenades and ammunition from drones. One of their hideouts was damaged in mortar shelling By Helping Others, We Help Ourselves the air quality in the national capital. Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) was 87 at around 5 pm on Saturday, which fell under the ‘moderate’ level. It may be recalled that the city had recorded its best air quality of this year on September 11, around the time the G20 summit was held, due to rain and cool winds which had brought the mercury down by five notches. The IMD has predicted cloudy skies with light rain/thundershowers for Sunday The maxi. mum and minimum temperature would be around 33 and 25 degrees Celsius, it said. Construction firm GM nabbed, toll rises to 8 under-construction site of Amrapali Dream Valley Society loTHE Noida lift collapse toll cated in Greater Noida West, reached eight on Saturday with also known as Noida Exten, four more construction work- sion. The project was being ers dying of their injuries dur- completed under the superviing treatment at a hospital. The sion of state-run National general manager of Buildings Constructhe construction comtion Corporation `25L aid pany has been arrested (NBCC). for negligence. The Noida police A compensation The victims have of `25 lakh each registered an FIR unbeen identified as Arder various IPC sechas been baaz Ali (19) from tions of the IPC. granted to Meerut, Kuldeep Pal families of those Devendra Singh, (20) from Kannauj, general manager of killed. Of the Maan Ali (20) from Girdhari Lal Construcamount, `20 Balrampur and Motion, the company lakh is from hammad Ali Khan (18) hired by NBCC, was NBCC and `5 from Amroha, police responsible for the lakh from the said on Saturday . construction site, pocourt’s receiver The four workers (for the project). lice said. “The lift was who died on Friday not repaired by the were Ishtaq Ali (23) construction company from Bihar’s Balrampur, Arun despite workers and contractor Tanti Mandal (40) from Banka, informing about its malfuncVipot Mandal (45) from Katihar tion,” a senior Noida police ofand Aris Khan (22) from Uttar ficial said. The official said that Pradesh’s Amroha. the GM allowed the lift to operThe accident took place ate on a rainy day in violation around 8.30am on Friday at the of safety norms. U J W A L J A L A L I @ Noida THE Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Saturday expressed concern over the situation in violence-hit Manipur. Addressing the media after its three-day coordination meet in Pune, RSS joint general secretary Manmohan Vaidya said: “The situation in Manipur is worrisome. It has to be essentially sorted out by the government,” he said, adding RSS volunteers are continuously in touch with both Meiteis and Kukis to remove the wedge between the two communities created by trust deficit. On the raging controversy over Sanatana Dharma’s criticism by DMK leader Uhhayanidhi Stalin, he said those who say them want to eradicate it should first know meaning of the term. “Santana Dharma does not mean religion. Sanatana civilisation is a spiritual democracy he said. ,” Asked for his comment on the controversy over the proposed name change of the country, he said, “It must be called Bharat. That name has civilisational value.” About the Sangh’s stand on reservation, he said “Our society has deprived the SC and STs of respect, facilities and education for ages. To take them together, there is a Constitution-backed reservation. We support it. All other demands for reservation are political.”