IMD PREDICTS APRIL-JUNE MAY BE HOTTER THAN USUAL TUESDAY 01 India is likely to experience hotter-than-usual temperatures from April to June, with more heatwave days in central and western plains APRIL, 2025 PHOTO: S DINESH epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard QUAKE TOLL PASSES 1.7K IN MYANMAR The massive earthquake killed several Muslims praying at mosques during Ramadan and 270 Buddhist monks crushed by a collapsing monastery. PAGE 9 ABOVE-NORMAL HEATWAVE IN THESE STATES: MET DEPT A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS  NEW DELHI  J8.00 TODAY With the new financial year starting on April 1, a series of financial changes will take effect S U D H I R S U R YA W A N S H I & R A J E S H K U M A R T H A K U R @ Mumbai/New Delhi Under the new tax regime, no tax to be paid for salaried individual earning up to `12.75 lakh a year (Nil tax till `12 lakh + `75,000 standard deduction) UNIFIED PENSION SCHEME Under this, Central government employees will get fixed pension equal to 50% of their average basic salary of last 12 months DIGILOCKER offers within 30 business days Investors will be able to store their demat account holding statements and consolidated account statements directly in DigiLocker GOODS AND SERVICES TAX Multi-factor authentication will be made mandatory for taxpayers for better security on the GST portal NDRF IN MANDALAY Personnel of the National Disaster Response Force at work at an earthquake-hit site in Myanmar. On Monday, they recovered seven bodies from quake-flattened buildings in the Mandalay region, where they were tasked with relief work | PTI Cong call for quota in pvt insts P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi EXPRESSING concern over the under-representation of the backward classes in institutes of higher learning, the Congress on Monday asked the Centre to bring a law to provide reservation for SCs, STs, and OBCs in private educational institutions. Congress general secretary in-charge of communication Jairam Ramesh said a Parliamentary panel has recommended a new legislation to implement Article 15(5). The article empowers the state to introduce reservation in admission into educational institutions, including private ones, to uplift the marginalised sections. Ramesh noted that the Congress is committed to bringing legislation to implement Article 15(5) in private, non-minority educational institutions in the country . Explaining the chronology of legislation to implement Article 15 (5), Ramesh said the Central Educational Institutions (Reservations in Admission) Act, 2006 was passed in Parliament and reservations for SC, ST and socially and educationally backward classes in central educational institutions introduced with effect from January 3, 2007. Citing the case of Ashoka Kumar Thakur vs Union of India on April 10, 2008, he said Article 15(5) is constitutionally valid for state-run and stateaided institutions and reservations in private unaided institutions left open to be decided in the appropriate course. In the IMA Vs Union of India May 12, 2011, he said, by 2-0 margin, Article 15 (5) is upheld for private unaided non-minority educational institutions. Citing another case, Ramesh said, “Pramati Educational and Cultural Trust versus Union of India Jan 29, 2014. By 5-0 margin Article 15(5) is, for the first time, upheld as it is explicitly . This means reservation in private educational institutions is valid, he said. MANDAR PARDIKAR Mastermind takes inspiration from ‘Money Heist’ Hides the gold in a well in Madurai Gang uses gas cutters to steal gold All 6 arrested after 5 months Inspired by ‘Money Heist’, gang robs bank, held EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Davangere IN a bizarre case of life imitating art, six men who watched Netflix’s Money Heist and YouTube videos have been arrested for stealing 17 kg of gold worth `13 crore from a bank in Davanagere, Karnataka. Police recovered the stolen gold from a well in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. The mastermind, Vijay Kumar, and his aides had planned the heist for six EXPRESS READ ‘Row over Aurangzeb tomb unnecessary’ Amid controversy over removal of Aurangzeb’s tomb, RSS leader Suresh ‘Bhaiyyaji’ Joshi has said the topic was raised unnecessarily. “Aurangzeb died in Maharashtra, so his tomb was built here. Those who have faith will go there.” | P8 ‘HIV-based dismissal of CAPF jawans unlawful’ The Delhi High Court has ruled that dismissing personnel from the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) solely due to their HIVpositive status constitutes discrimination and contravenes the provisions of the HIV Act. | P3 HEATWAVE DAYS RECORDED IN INDIA IN 2024, THE HIGHEST IN 14 YEARS CM rubbishes Raut’s claim, says the PM would lead India beyond ’29 NEW I-T SLABS If your mobile number is inactive or unused for a long time, update it with your bank before April NEW 1, to avoid MF RULES losing Fund houses access must deploy funds to UPI raised through payments new fund PAGES 12 536 Succession speculation on Modi trashed by Fadnavis NEW MONEY RULES FROM NEW UPI RULES  States likely to see above-normal heatwave days include Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and the northern parts of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, IMD chief Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said in an online press conference on Monday | P7 months. They targeted the Nyamathi branch of State Bank of India as it did not extend a loan to the mastermind who wanted to expand his bakery business. The theft was carried out on October 28, 2024. Six teams of police took five months before arresting Vijay Kumar, Ajay Kumar, Paramanand (all from TN), Ab- hishek, Manjunath and Chandru (all from Karnataka). The accused practiced for six months and sourced equipment like gas cutters from local stores in Shivamogga and Nyamathi. Soon after the crime, Vijay hid the gold in a trunk of a car in his house. Later, he hid it in a well in his ancestral home near Madurai. It was a professionally executed crime. They entered bank through a window, cut the safe with a gas cutter and robbed gold jewellery. They did it without leaving evidence — Dr Ravikanthe Gowda, IGP (east range) When things cooled down, he deposited the gold in banks apart from selling some of it in gold shops. While slipping out of the crime scene, the gang removed CCTVs and took away the digital video recorder and threw it in a lake. They threw chilli powder on their escape route to mislead dog squads. Police said their teams found technical evidence on involvement of persons from Tamil Nadu with aides in Nyamathi, leading to their arrests. MAHARASHTRA Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday rubbished speculation about Narendra Modi’s successor, a day after the latter visited the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) headquarters in Nagpur. He added that Modi would continue to lead the country beyond 2029, when the next Lok Sabha polls are due. Fadnavis was reacting to Uddhav Sena leader Sanjay Raut’s statement earlier in the day that Modi’s visit to the RSS HQ was to “announce his retirement” and discuss his succession plan. “In 2029, we will see Modi as the prime minister again,” Fadnavis told the media in Nagpur. “There is no need to search for his successor. He (Modi) is our leader and will continue,” he asserted. “In our culture, when the father is alive, it is inappropriate to talk about succession. That is Mughal culture. The time has not come to discuss it,” Fadnavis said. Raut had claimed that Modi’s successor would be from Maharashtra. Separately, former RSS general secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi, too, said he was not aware of any talk of the prime minister’s replacement. “It appears that Modi’s successor will be decided by the RSS which is why Modi was T’GANA VIGILANCE PROBE OVER FREE IPL TICKETS ISSUE Drugs worth `27 cr seized after African cartel busted EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE M U K E S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi SRH COMPLAINS @ Hyderabad A high-stakes controversy has engulfed the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) over allegations of blackmailing the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) IPL team management for free tickets. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has ordered a vigilance probe into the matter. The controversy erupted after the 2016 IPL champions’ general manager Srinath TB accused HCA president Jagan Mohan Rao of coercive tactics for complimentary tickets before Hyderabad’s IPL match with Lucknow at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Uppal on March 27. Allegations are that HCA office bearers harassed and blackmailed SRH for 20 free tickets forcing the SRH management to write a letter to HCA threatening that it will move out of Hyderabad. In response, the HCA announced that Jagan Mohan Rao will not participate in meetings with HCA officials during the IPL Season 2025. The controversy surrounds the allocation of complimentary tickets, with the HCA stating that they received only 3,880 tickets, not 3900. “Mr A Jagan Mohan Rao, president, HCA, did not make any per- A Revanth Reddy sonal request to block 3,900 tickets per match for his purchase,” the HCA’s response to SRH stated. “Please do not distort facts as 3,900 complimentary tickets were never handed over to HCA but only 3,880 tickets were handed over. A demand for issuing the shortly supplied balance 20 complimentary tickets cannot be stretched to state that the president, HCA, demanded 20 free tickets. Your claim that you were informed that the President, HCA has instructed for the return of 20 tickets for F-12 A Box is a baseless manipulation intended to malign him. HCA was given only 3880 complimentary tickets ... you are incorrectly projecting the request to supply the balance 20 tickets as threat, blackmail and coercion,” HCA’s mail to SRH’s Srinath read. Vigilance and enforcement Director General Ko t h a ko t a S r e e n iv a s a Reddy will conduct the investigation. Home truth: 19K inmates against capacity of 10K in 16 jails A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi THE prisons in the national capital are facing severe overcrowding with inmate numbers almost doubling their intended capacity, according to a report presented before the Assembly . Sixteen jails, which are designed to hold 10,000 inmates, currently house around 19,000. The situation persists despite the release of over a thousand undertrial inmates in 2023. The government presented the data during the ongoing session of the Assembly. The most glaring example of overcrowding is at Tihar jail, where, in March 2025, Jail No 1 housed 16 CRY FOR SPACE TIHAR JAIL No 1: 2,436 against capacity of 565 TOTAL JAILS 10k No 4: 3,244 against capacity of 740 CAPACITY 19k CURRENT INMATES Data till end of 2024 3 prison complexes, with Tihar being the largest having 9 central jails; Mandoli 6; and Rohini 1 17,118 UNDERTRIALS AT THE END OF 2024 COMPARED TO 2,235 CONVICTED 2,436 inmates against a capacity of just 565. Similarly Jail No , 4, designed for 740 inmates, is currently holding 3,244. Interestingly, some jails, espe- cially in Mandoli, have fewer inmates than their capacity Of . Mandoli’s six jails, three are under capacity. For instance, Jail No 15, designated for high-secu- called (to Nagpur) and discussions took place. Sangh’s discussions are held behind closed doors. The indications are very clear. The Sangh will decide the next leader, who could be from Maharashtra,” Raut claimed. As for choosing a successor for BJP’s national president J P Nadda, the party is reportedly in the process of shortlisting candidates. Among the frontrunners are Union ministers Manohar Lal Khattar, Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhupendra Yadav, along with three women—finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, BJP Parliamentary Board member Sudha Ya d a v, a n d D a g g u b a t i Purandeswari, party president of the Andhra Pradesh unit. The final decision is expected by mid-April, with the official announcement at the upcoming BJP National Council meeting in Bengaluru. rity prisoners, holds 108 inmates against a capacity of 248. Overall, the number of undertrial prisoners is nearly eight times that of convicted inmates, with 17,118 undertrials at the end of 2024 compared to just 2,235 convicted individuals. Since 2020, the inmate population for both categories has seen an upward trend and this is mirrored in the rising budget for prison expenses, jumping from `490 crore in 2019-20 to `595 crore in 2023-24. To enhance security prisons , have implemented measures such as call-blocking systems. Additionally 15 cellphone jam, mers operate in Tihar. Across all three prison complexes, approximately 7,549 CCTV cameras are in place, ensuring every five inmates are monitored by two cameras. Also, security at the entry points is beefed up with 15 deep search metal detectors. Rapid response teams and intelligence wings further augment s e c u r i t y, i nvo l v i n g t h e CRPF, ITBP, and the Tamil Nadu Special Police. Plans for new jails in Narela and Baprola remain pending, with DDA yet to allocate land. Work on Narela jail, which will initially cover 20 acres, may begin in six months, with completion expected in two years. THE Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), along with Delhi Police, busted a drug cartel on Monday and seized MDMA, high-quality crystal meth and Afghan heroin worth `27 crore. Home Minister Amit Shah praised the agencies, saying, “Our relentless hunt against the illicit trade continues.” According to officials, the NCB and the Delhi Police’s Special Cell traced the source of the drugs to a rented accommodation of an African national, where the MDMA was being synthesised. Five, including four African nationals belonging to an influential family of Nigeria, have been arrested, a senior MHA official said. Acting on inputs about a high-quality methamphetamine transaction in Chhatarpur area, a joint team of NCB and the Special Cell intercepted a vehicle carrying 5.103 kg of crystal methamphetamine, valued at `10.2 crore. Questioning of the accused and technical tracking led them to an ‘ frican A Kitchen’ in West Delhi’s Tilak Nagar, identified as the source of the contraband. From this location, 1.156 kgs of crystal methamphetamine, 4.142 kgs of Afghan heroin, and 5.776 kgs of MDMA (Ecstasy pills) have been recovered, officials said. Further probe led to a followup search at a rented apartment in Greater Noida from where 389 grams of Afghan heroin and 26 grams of cocaine have been recovered. According to the officials, the accused are students of private universities in NCR and Punjab. Besides drugs, they are also suspected to be involved in cryptocurrency trade. FAR-RIGHT FRENCH LEADER IN DOCK FOR GRAFT A court on Monday barred Marine Le Pen from seeking public office for five years, with immediate effect, for embezzlement — a huge blow to her presidential hopes and an earthquake for French politics. | P9