mondAY 01 september, 2025 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard Sept to witness record rainfall, flash floods & landslides: IMD gaza Israel kills top Hamas spokesman The military announced on Sunday that it killed a longtime spokesperson for Hamas armed wing as the cabinet met to discuss the expanding offensive. Page 9 The India Meteorological Department said the monthly average rainfall in September will be more than 109% of the long-period average of 167.9 mm Alert for Uttarakhand, haryana, delhi, raj A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS l New Delhi l J8.00 l Addressing a virtual press conference, IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said heavy rainfall may trigger landslides and flash floods in Uttarakhand and disrupt normal life in south Haryana, Delhi, and north Rajasthan. “Many rivers originate in Uttarakhand. So, heavy rainfall means rivers will be flooded and it will impact towns downstream,” he said PAGES 12 Strategic autonomy guides ties, PM tells Xi, seeks mutual trust amid global turmoil J ayan t h J ac o b @ New Delhi Aiming for long-term stability in India-China relations amid disrupted global trade and shifting geopolitical alignments triggered by US tariffs, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday noted with President Xi Jinping that the two countries must pursue strategic autonomy and their ties should not be viewed through the lens of a third country . “Our cooperation impacts 2.8 billion people and holds global significance,” Modi said, underlining that relations must be grounded in “mutual trust, respect, and sensitivity .” “Prime Minister noted that India and China both pursue strategic autonomy, and their relations should not be seen through a third country lens. The two leaders deemed it necessary to expand common ground on bilateral, regional, and global issues and challenges, like terrorism and fair trade in multilateral platforms,” the External Affairs Ministry said. Modi pointed to a “positive direction” in ties since their October 2024 meeting, which led to a new border management agree- INSIDE Modi, Putin bilateral meet today Our cooperation is linked to the interests of 2.8 billion people of our two countries. This will also pave the way for the welfare of all humanity Narendra Modi, prime minister Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping during their meeting on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Tianjin, China, on Sunday | PTI ment. “We are committed to advancing our relationship with mutual trust, respect, and sensitivity at its core.” The meeting, held on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin, came days after the United States imposed 50% tariffs on key Indian goods, citing New Delhi’s energy trade with Russia. The bilateral talks signalled both countries’ intent to PM Modi takes up cross-border terror, trade deficit with Xi | P7 recalibrate ties on their own terms — without being influenced by Wester n economic pressure. President Xi Jinping echoed this sentiment in his opening remarks: “The dragon and the elephant must come together. The world is undergoing transformation. It is vital for China and India to be friends, good neighbours, and work together as part of the Global South.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold bilateral talks with Russian President Vladmir Putin on Monday on the sidelines of the SCO summit. The prime minister will also address the summit on Monday On trade and investment, both leaders recognised their economies’ potential to anchor global trade stability amid rising protectionism and supply chain disruptions. They agreed to expand trade and investment, reduce India’s trade deficit, and enhance transparency and predictability in cross-border commerce. Modi also reiterated that India and China are “partners, not rivals”, and that their differences Modi holds talks with Myanmar’s SEnior General Min Aung Hlaing | P7 should not become disputes. He emphasised the importance of border peace, referencing successful disengagement and the recent consensus between Special Representatives to resolve the boundary issue “fairly and reasonably”. A key outcome of the talks was an agreement to strengthen people-to-people ties, including the expansion of direct flights and visa facilitation, building on the resumption of the Kailash Manasarovar Yatra. Modi also invited Xi to attend the 2026 BRICS Summit in India, which Xi welcomed, offering Beijing’s support for India’s BRICS presidency . Later, in a separate meeting with Politburo Standing Committee member Cai Qi, Modi shared his vision for bilateral ties. Cai reaffirmed China’s commitment to expanding exchanges in line with the consensus reached by the two leaders. Cai, an important leader in the Chinese Communist Party, was to host a dinner in honour of the Prime Minister on behalf of President Xi as a special gesture, but due to the paucity of time they met for a discussion. discriminatory sanctions against BRICS noT acceptable, says Putin | P9 e x p r e ss r e a d Real estate activity near airports soon 19 NHPC employees stuck after landslide Citing examples of major cities across the globe, Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has announced that the government will ramp up real estate activities within close proximity to upcoming airports in order to ensure 15% sectoral growth. At least 19 employees of National Hydroelectric Power Corporation Limited (NHPC) were trapped inside a power house for hours on Sunday as a landslide blocked normal and emergency tunnels of Dhauliganga Power Project in Pithoragarh. | P8 freedom from Garbage drive aims at eliminating waste woes in capital Launched in August, the campaign has evoked mixed reactions, with some seeing visible changes while others saying piles of garbage still plague the city. | P4 New norms to tie green credits to tree survival Bihar voters to get J I T E N D R A C H O U B E Y @ New Delhi THE Union environment ministry has revised the rules to calculate and award ‘green credits’ for tree plantation on degraded forest land. Under the new system, green credits will be awarded only after five years of restoration work and once the land achieves 40% canopy density . Earlier, these credits were awarded after two years of plantation subject to certain conditions. “On completion of minimum five years of restoration activities in the degraded forest land Raped by teen bro, 14-yr-old gives birth EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Shivamogga A 14-year-old girl, allegedly raped by her own minor brother, gave birth to a baby boy at her house in Shivamogga, Karnataka, on Friday. The girl is the third child in a family with three daughters and a son, all of whom reportedly have mental conditions. Child Welfare Committee (CWC) sources said that a police complaint has been filed against the 17-year-old brother under the POCSO Act. Both the minor girl and the baby, who weighs 1.8 kg, have been admitted to a government hospital and are reported to be stable. CWC Chairman Tajuddin Khan told this newspaper that the girl delivered the baby after seven months of pregnancy. “The girl delivered the baby with the help of her mother in the toilet. She initially gave contradictory statements. After counselling, she revealed that her brother impregnated her,” Khan said. “All the children in the family suffer from borderline intellectual disability. The father is a daily wage painter and the mother is a homemaker,” Khan added. parcel, and after achieving a minimum canopy density of forty per cent (40% canopy density), the applicant shall be eligible to submit a claim report for award of Green Credit,” the new rules said. The credits are rew a rd e d u n d e r t h e G re e n C re d i t P ro gramme, first notified in February 2024. The latest notification states that “Green Credit will be calculated based on the vegetation status, including changes in canopy density and the number of surviving trees.” Each new tree that has sur- vived beyond five years will get one credit. However, experts caution that the Green Credit Programme may fall short of meeting its objectives as the rules do not include provisions for tree plantation on non-forest lands. “The revised notification still indicates that degraded forest land with the Government will be used for plantation. This means that forest land will be allocated for plantation instead of non-forest land as Compensatory Afforestation compliance, which rais- es the risk of double counting forest land which will lead to shrinkage of forest land while giving the impression of increase in forests,” said a retired forest officer, speaking on condition of anonymity . Also, the new rules are silent on what happens to the issued green credit if the plantation fails after five years. Experts point out that how green credits are calculated based on the difference of canopy cover and the number of trees accrued, is deliberately kept vague to allow manipulation to benefit user agencies trying to obtain forest clearances. CM: `1.6K cr in GST refunds pending since ’19 to be released before Diwali A N U P V E R M A @ New Delhi Nearly `1,600 crore in GST refunds, pending since 2019, will be released before Diwali, enabling traders to celebrate the festival with greater joy and prosperity, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said on Sunday . A special meeting of the Department of Trade and Taxes (GST) was convened in this regard, which was attended by the GST Commissioner, Finance Secretary and other senior officials of the department. During the meeting, the CM accused the previous government of failing to take any con- crete measures towards the settlement of this long-pending amount. She issued directions that the refund be disbursed to traders before Diwali. To make the refund process faster and more transparent, the Delhi GST Department, in collaboration with IIT-Hydera- bad, has developed an advanced IT module. This system, based on data analytics and expedited verification, will ensure quicker settlement of refund applications, providing timely relief to traders, she said. Gupta instructed the officials to ensure that all pending, undisputed, and genuine refund applications are processed in accordance with the relevant rules, and that the task be completed on a priority basis. She said that timely refunds would ensure liquidity for traders, reduce their litigation costs, and collectively accelerate Delhi’s economic growth. new ID cards after roll revision, says EC As many as 33,326 people have filed pleas for inclusion in THE Election Commission of the voters list as their names India (ECI) plans to issue new were missing from the draft voter identity cards to all elec- rolls and 2,07,565 applications tors in Bihar after the ongoing have been filed for exclusion Special Intensive Revision from the draft rolls. (SIR) of electoral rolls is comAmong these, the main oppoplete, officials said. However, sition in the state assembly the poll panel is yet to RJD has submitted 10 firm up the timeframe requests for inclusion for the issuance of the in the draft list, wherenew cards, they added. as CPI (M-L) Liberation When the electors has submitted 15 such were given enumerarequests for inclusion tion forms, they were and 103 for exclusion. asked to submit their The other 10 registered 2L pleas for latest photographs as parties have not subremoval well. Officials said the mitted any request eiECI has new voter ID cards will ther for inclusion or received 2 lakh exclusion. have these photos. pleas for According to Bihar’s Separately, Bihar has draft electoral roll pub- removing their become the first state names from lished on August 1, the where the number of state has 7.24 crore elec- electoral rolls voters per polling stators. The final voters and 33,000 to tions has been reduced include their list will be published from 1,500 to a maxinames in the on September 30. mum of 1,200 as part of voter list Assembly elections rationalisation exercise in the state are likely to to ensure lesser crowdbe held in October or early No- ing of booths on poll day . vember. The term of the present Due to rationalisation, the assembly ends on November 22 number of polling stations in and the elections must be com- the state has gone up from pleted before that date. 77,000 to 90,000. The rationalisaAccording to the ECI, 99% tion exercise will eventually be of those who filled up enumera- carried out pan India, officials tion forms have submitted in the poll panel said. P8 their documents. Voters aged 100 yrs & above | P3 M U K E S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi Retract stand backing women’s entry into Sabarimala: BJP to TDB E xpress N ews S ervice @ T’Puram The BJP on Sunday expressed its willingness to participate in the highly-anticipated global Ayyappa Sangamam. However, it demanded that the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) withdraw its stand taken in the Supreme Court over five years ago, which supported women’s entry into Sabarimala. BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Sunday said the TDB must publicly retract its position before convening the proposed gathering of Ayyappa devotees. Meanwhile, with the backing of the influential NSS and SNDP Yogam for the event, the state government sought to neutralise the Sangh Parivar’s opposition to the meet. They asserted that those who call for “violation of customs and practices” in Sabarimala will not be allowed entry at the conclave. The Sangamam scheduled to be organised by the TDB as part of its 75th anniversary with the , support of Kerala government, aims to make the temple a global pilgrimage centre, Devaswom Minister V N Vasavan said. “Union Ministers Aswini Vaishnav and Nitin Gadkari are invited for the event, and we do not mind making one of them the chief guest. The government has no intention to politicise the meet. No political leader, other than ministers and people’s representatives, will be invited,” Vasavan said. On Sunday, SNDP Yogam general secretary Vellappally Natesan extended support to the proposed meet, while reiterating the organisation’s opposition to the entry of young women in Sabarimala and demanding the withdrawal of cases filed against devotees during the earlier protests. NSS general secretary G Sukumaran Nair had on Saturday welcomed the meet but emphasised that it should remain free from political influence. C P Radhakrishnan B Sudershan Reddy PM to host NDA dinner on the eve of V-P elections RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to host a dinner for National Democratic Alliance (NDA) MPs on the eve of the September 9 vice-presidential elections. The ruling NDA has the numbers to get its candidate, Maharashtra Governor C P Radhakrishnan, elected. But since members of the electoral college can vote according to their choice and are not bound by any party whip, the dinner meeting on September 8 could have a subtle message for allies to follow “alliance dharma”, remarked a senior BJP MP . The meeting would also give allies an opportunity to interact with the PM while helping avoid cross-voting. In what has been billed as a South vs South fight, the Opposition has pitted former Supreme Court judge B Sudershan Reddy, who hails from Te l a n g a n a , a g a i n s t R a dhakrishnan, who is from Tamil Nadu. Both are actively campaigning to ensure all their respective votes are polled. All members of both Houses of Parliament, including nominated members are part of the electoral college. Voting is by secret ballot through the system of proportional representation by means of a single transferable vote. The winner has to secure at least one more than 50% of the valid votes cast. While the electoral college has 782 members, the winning candidate needs at least 392 votes to sail through. The NDA has 426 MPs in Parliament.