SATURDAY 17 17 NO OF REMAINING TIES (12 LEAGUE, FOUR PLAY-OFF FIXTURES & FINAL) MAY, 2025 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard RCB’s Virat Kohli during a practice session on Friday | VINOD KUMAR T RUSSIA, UKRAINE IPL RESUMES AFTER BREAK DUE TO BORDER TENSIONS AGREE ON PRISONER SWAP BUT NO TRUCE Russia and Ukraine said they would trade ideas on a possible ceasefire and discussed a potential meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin. PAGE 9 MATCHES IN SIX VENUES, FINAL ON JUNE 3 A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS  NEW DELHI  J8.00  PAGES 12 ■ Delhi, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Mumbai will host the remaining 12 matches, with venues for the play-offs yet to be decided ■ Due to forecast of rains in Southern India, IPL decided against hosting matches in Chennai and Hyderabad, with Bengaluru hosting two matches | P11 Teams to visit 40-50 countries, many of them Islamic, to expose Pak terror footprint Mega diplomatic push via multi-party teams RAJNATH: PAK USING IMF MONEY FOR TERROR PREETHA NAIR AND RAJESH K U M A R T H A K U R @ New Delhi RAIN-SOAKED INDIA GATE Tourists rejoice as rains bring down temparature. But GRAP-I has been imposed as AQI worsens due to dust storm | SHIBA PRASAD SAHU Azadpur Mandi halts fruit and vegetable trade with Turkey A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi ASIA’S largest fruit and vegetable market, Azadpur Mandi, has decided to halt trade of fruits, especially apples, and vegetables from Turkey . The move comes in the wake of Turkey backing Pakistan and condemning India’s precision-strikes on terror camps in the neighbouring country and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. Pakistan used Turkish drones during the military conflict with India. Meeta Ram Kriplani, president of the Chamber of Association of Fruits and Vegetable traders at Azadpur, on Thursday said that no new orders of ‘Not just trade hubs, but lifeline of Delhi’ CM Rekha Gupta expressed concern over lack of basic amenities at the Azadpur Mandi. “Mandis are not just trade centres, they are the lifelines of Delhi,” she said. fruits and vegetables would be placed to Turkey . “We (traders) at the Azadpur Mandi have decided to halt the trade of apples from Turkey We . have supported Turkey a lot in the past. As much as 1,16,000 tonnes of apples were imported in 2024, but it did not support India in the recent conflict against Pakistan,” he said. The Azadpur Mandi has always given priority to Turkey, but the stand adopted by the country towards India has caused immense disappointment, he said. “Turkey’s behaviour has hurt us a lot. That’s why we have decided that we will not import apples or any other fruits or vegetables from Turkey he added. ,” Talking to reporters during her visit to the Azadpur Mandi, CM Rekha Gupta thanked the traders for boycotting Turkish apples. “If any nation is against India, the people of the country will boycott them. I thank the traders for boycotting the import,” she said. DGHS asked to oversee medical council function Voda’s SOS to govt: Need timely help on AGR dues, else will have to shut shop E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ New Delhi R A K E S H K U M A R @ New Delhi THE government has moved a proposal to dissolve the Delhi Medical Council, citing financial and administrative irregularities, with the health department asking the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to oversee its functions until a new body is formed. Health Minister Pankaj Singh on Friday said the government has sent a proposal to L-G VK Saxena seeking dissolution of the medical council over alleged irregularities. “Until a new council is formed, the DGHS will take charge. There were several allegations, ranging from mismanagement to corruption,” Singh said. DMC is an autonomous statutory body responsible for regulating the practice of medicine. Dr Naresh Chawla, officiating president, DMC, said, “We have been asking the government to appoint a registrar for a long time. Instead, the government moved to dissolve the body It’s neither in the favour . of the medical fraternity, nor the public health.” VODAFONE Idea (Vi) has said it will be forced to shut shop if the government doesn’t help. India’s third-largest telecom operator urged the Centre to waive its adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues, warning that it may not be able to continue operations beyond FY26. According to sources, the telecom company has sought the government’s intervention to meet AGR obligations and mitigate insolvency risk. Vi also warned that the value of the gover nment’s equity stake could fall to zero, resulting in no recovery on the `1.18 lakh crore of spectrum dues. Currently, Vi’s total liabilities are pegged at `2 lakh crore, including `1.19 lakh crore in spectrum usage charges and `83,400 crore in AGR dues. The company is required to pay `18,000 crore annually in AGR dues over the next six years. According to Vi, this figure exceeds its operating cash flows, which have averaged between `8,400 crore and `9,200 crore IRREGULARITIES over the past three years. The gover nment had in March converted `36,950 crore of the firm’s dues into equity, increasing its stake to 49%. Meanwhile, the beleaguered firm has filed a fresh petition in the Supreme Court seeking waiver of `30,000 crore in AGR dues, pertaining to interest, penalty and interest on penalty , components. Vi’s fresh petition comes in the wake of the SC’s ruling in February rejecting a batch of pleas by several telcos against the Department of Telecommunications (DoT)’s formula to calculate AGR. The SC upheld the DoT’s calculation, which included telcos’ revenue from non-telecom businesses as well and not just core telecom operations. According to Vi, timely support from the Government of India is needed on AGR relief, otherwise the ongoing discussions with banks regarding funding will stall. If the situation leads to operational disruption, approximately 200 million users could be affected. D I L I P S I N G H K S H AT R I YA WITH the Centre set to send nearly a dozen multi-party delegations to various important countries to exert diplomatic pressure on Pakistan, it was learnt that the lists of Opposition and ruling coalition’s MPs were prepared by the Prime Minister’s Office and conveyed to respective political parties. While MPs from various political parties were consulted by Union minister Kiran Rijiju, sources said the selection was done based on certain parameters, such as domain knowledge, articulation skills and representation of women and Muslims. The delegations will brief the hosts on Pakistan’s role in perpetrating cross-border terror in the April 22 Pahalgam attack, Operation Sindoor and the efforts by some countries to hyphenate India and Pakistan. “There will be a briefing by the MEA before we leave. We may also present dossiers on Pakistan’s links to the terror attacks,” said an MP . The delegation may travel to 40-50 countries and are likely to start from May 22 or 23 for a period of 10 days. The focus will be more on Islamic countries, said an MP. The government is considering 7-8 eight delegations with 5-6 members each, said a source. The likely representatives from Congress will be Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari, Salman Khurshid and Amar Singh, while DMK’s Kanimozhi, CPI (M)’s John Brittas and AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi are likely to be part of the INDIA on Friday called upon the International Monetary Fund to reconsider its $1 billion assistance to Pakistan, stressing that Islamabad can use it for funding terror. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who arrived at the Bhuj Air Force station Friday morning to review the overall security situation, said India does not want funds it gives to the IMF to be used to create a terror infrastructure in Pakistan. “India would like the IMF to reconsider its assistance of $1 billion to Pakistan and refrain from g iv i n g a ny kind of assistance in future,” he said. He lauded Rajnath Singh the Air Force for spearheading the campaign against terrorism effectively . “The current ceasefire is not a peace agreement — it’s probation,” Singh declared. “If Pakistan’s behaviour improves, good. If not, the harshest punishment will follow ...” he said. Singh further said Pakistan has started rebuilding its destroyed terror infrastructure, and has collected taxes from its citizens to lend it to Masood Azhar, head of Jaish-e-Mohammed and a UN-designated terrorist. “Pakistan plans to divert public funds — roughly `14 crore — to Masood Azhar of JeM,” Singh said. Pakistan has announced financial aid to LeT and JeM in Muridke and Bahawalpur, he said. @ Ahmedabad Union home minister Amit Shah with others during the inauguration of an upgraded multi agency centre for intelligence sharing, in New Delhi on Friday | PTI delegations. While former Union minister Anurag Thakur, Aparajita Sarangi and Samik Bhattacharya and V Muralidharan are among the BJP MPs, TMC’s Sudip Bandyopadhyay , JD(U)’s Sanjay Jha, BJD’s Sasmit Patra and NCP-SP’s Supriya Sule and J&K’s Ghulam Nabi Azad are also likely to be part of the delegations. Several Opposition parties welcomed the move. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said Rijiju contacted party chief Mallikarjun Kharge on the matter, adding the latter will decide which MPs are to be sent. Such diplomatic initiatives have been taken in the past as well. In 1994, the then PM Narasimha Rao deputed a team comprising opposition leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Farooq Abdullah, Salman Khurshid, and India’s then ambassador to the UN, Hamid Ansari, to a UN session in Geneva to present India’s case on the Kashmir problem and to defeat a Pakistan resolution to censure New Delhi. After the Mumbai attack in 2008, PM Manmohan Singh sent a multi-party delegation to various countries with dossiers on Pakistan’s links to the terror attacks. P7 & 8 THE Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday transferred 66 Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre of Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) officers. This is the first major bureaucratic reshuffle in the BJPruled Delhi government which came to power after 27 years on February 20. Delhi saw the highest number of transfers, with 21 IAS and 23 IPS officers who were shifted from Delhi or transferred back to the capital from other UTs. Among those transferred is Ashish Chandra Verma, Additional Chief Secretary, Finance, who was moved out of Delhi. Additional chief secretary for environment and Forests, Anil Kumar Singh, was transferred to J&K, while Principal Secretary of Vigilance Department Sudhir Kumar was sent to Mizoram. Special Secretary of Home, K M Uppu, a 2009-batch officer, and Special Secretary of Transport, a 2008-batch officer, were transferred to Puducherry and Andaman and Nicobar, respectively . Vijay Kumar Bidhuri, a 2005-batch officer, who served as a divisional commissioner in Kashmir, was transferred to Delhi; Dilraj Kaur, a 2000-batch officer, will return to the national capital, where Each multi-party group of 5-6 MPs from both the LS and RS is expected to leave by May 22-23 on its 10-day diplomatic mission. These teams will visit the US, UK, and several Islamic nations to share India’s stance on Pak-sponsored terror OFFICIAL DETAILS EXPECTED TODAY A senior government source said that the MPs will be thoroughly briefed and equipped with evidence of Pakistan’s involvement in the Pahalgam terror attack. Official details on the mission are expected to ne announced on Saturday OWAISI MAY LEAD TEAM TO S ARABIA Asaduddin Owaisi, who sharply condemned Pakistan after the Pahalgam terror attack, is likely to lead a delegation to Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In all, over 35 MPs are expected to participate in the diplomatic outreach Muttaqi-Jaishankar call fresh Taliban attempt to normalise ties with India J AYA N T H J A C O B @ New Delhi NEERAJ HITS 90M MARK Javelin ace Neeraj Chopra produced his best-ever throw in the Doha Diamond League on Friday. He threw 90.23m in his third effort to finish second | MORE ON P11 66 IAS, IPS officers shuffled, 1st rejig after BJP takes charge A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi 10-DAY MISSION BY MULTIPLE TEAMS she earlier served in various capacities, after her transfer from Andaman and Nicobar. Among the 26 IPS officers transferred, figure 2001-batch officer BS Jaiswal, JCP (Central Range), who has been sent to Lakshadweep. Keshav Ram Chaurasia, Joint Commissioner, Delhi Police, has been shifted to Goa. Umesh Kumar was sent to Delhi from J&K, and Ashok Malik to Mizoram from Delhi. Devesh Kumar Mahla, New Delhi District DCP and 2012batch IPS officer, and Surendra Choudhary South West District , DCP of 2013-batch, have been shifted to Arunachal Pradesh. Another 2013-batch officer, Apoorva Gupta, who was DCP (Crime), has been transferred to Andaman and Nicobar. Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, a 2013-batch officer, was transferred to Delhi from J&K. Rohit Rajbir and Anant Mittal, 2015-batch officers, have been shifted from Arunachal to Delhi. THE Taliban-led government in Afghanistan is making a fresh push to normalise relations with India as part of its broader campaign for international legitimacy, sources familiar with the development said. Acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi’s phone call with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday was the highest-level contact between New Delhi and Taliban since the group seized power in August 2021. “The phone call ahead of Muttaqi’s scheduled visits to Iran and China signals Kabul’s growing interest in re-engaging India on critical bilateral issues,” said a source. These include trade facilitation, visa processes, the repatriation of Afghan prisoners, and strengthening collaboration on the strategic Chabahar port — a key project that India has backed to enhance regional connectivity and helping landlocked Afghanistan get sea access bypassing Pakistan. “There is a consistent con- Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Muttaqi versation between Indian and Taliban officials,” a source said. This includes a meeting between Muttaqi and Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri in Dubai in January apart from a re, cent visit to Kabul by an Indian diplomat overseeing Afghanistan relations, shortly after the Pahalgam terror attack. Taliban officials strongly condemned the Pahalgam attack and dismissed Pakistani military reports alleging Indian missile strikes on Afghan soil as “baseless.” These efforts are part of a broader Taliban effort to distance itself from regional instability and present a more responsible image on the world stage. Beyond India, Muttaqi is expected to visit Tehran and Beijing in the coming weeks. SALMAN25 YEARS IN PRISON RUSHDIE ASSAILANT GETS An American-Lebanese man was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Friday for trying to kill novelist Salman Rushdie with a knife at a New York cultural center in 2022 | P9