WEDNESDAY 10 JUNE, 2026 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard PAY LESS FOR DOMESTIC AIR INDIA FLIGHTS IF YOU OPTING OUT OF FOOD X.com/TheMornStandard C A L L S I T ‘ TA X ’ Air India said Tuesday it is mulling a proposal to offer cheaper flight tickets for flyers who opt out of food or snacks while booking a domestic flight | MORE ON P7 COURT AXES DON’S $1L H-1B FEE US lawmakers, state attorneys general and Indian diaspora organisations said the move would ease staffing shortages in healthcare and education. PAGE 9 A FULLY OPTIONAL SERVICE, SAYS CARRIER A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS  NEW DELHI  J8.00  Unlike other airlines, Air India has always included complimentary meals in all its domestic flights. An Air India source said, “This will be a fully optional service. The move will reduce the fares by `500 to `600 for Economy class. It will not be introduced for Premium Economy or Business class.” The free beverage (coffee/water) served to all flyers will continue PAGES 12 27% OF INDIA’S DOMESTIC AVIATION MARKET IS COMMANDED BY AIR INDIA CID raids Mamata’s office amid meeting with Sonia DELIMITATION BILL Buzz over Didi seeking INDIA bloc help to contest Basirhat bye-election P R E ET H A N A I R & SU B H E N DU M A I T I with as many as 20 MPs deciding to form a separate group and align with the ruling NDA, TRINAMOOL Congress chief has added to Mamata’s trouMamata Banerjee held closed- bles. A majority of Trinamool’s door talks with Congress lead- 80 MLAs have already formed a er Sonia Gandhi at her 10, Jan- separate group led by Ritabrata path residence on Tuesday even Banerjee as the leader of oppoas CID teams in Kolkata raided sition in the Assembly . TMC offices at her Kalighat resThe timing of the raids on idence and Camac Street. TMC offices as Mamata sat The meeting followed Sonia with Sonia, led to an uproar. and Mamata’s warm hug at the TMC’s Derek O’Brien called it Opposition INDIA bloc’s meet- “political vendetta, shamelessing the previous day . ly timed.” Two CID Just a day earlier, teams swept into TMC leaders of 23 Opposioffices in Kolkata to tion parties vowed probe allegations of unity and better coorforged signatures of dination among the alparty MLAs in connecliance partners. Action with the election cording to sources, of Sobhandeb ChattoSecond Rahul Gandhi told the padhyay as LoP in the summons Opposition meeting Bengal Assembly . that if TMC and ConA CID team was preAbhishek gress had tied up in vented from entering Banerjee, the Bengal election, Mamata’s house-cumMamata the results would have office by Subhashis Banerjee’s been different. Chakraborty, former nephew, Sources said MamaRajya Sabha MP After . missed second ta and Sonia discussed waiting outside for 40 deadline to the strategy between minutes, they managed appear before the two parties going to enter the office. the CID in the forward. This was Abhishek, Mamata’s signature their first closed-door nephew and the party’s forgery case. meeting after Trinanational general secremool’s defeat in the tary, was also in Delhi polls, and alleged attacks on and missed a 5pm deadline to party workers and MP Ab- appear before the CID in conhishek Banerjee after the elec- nection with the signature fortions. The meeting also comes gery case at Bhabani Bhaban. amid speculation that Mamata Meanwhile, one more former is seeking the help of Congress minister—Ujjwal Biswas—in and the INDIA bloc to contest a the previous Mamata governby-election from Basirhat Lok ment was arrested on charges Sabha constituency. The seat of illegally storing tarpaulins fell vacant after the death of and relief material at his resiTMC MP Haji Nurul Islam. dence at Krishnanagar in NaA rebellion within the TMC, dia district of the state. @ New Delhi/Kolkata BJP national president Nitin Nabin at an exhibition to mark completion of 12 years of the NDA government at the party headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday | PTI Spl session possible if govt has numbers RAJESH KUMAR THAKUR @ New Delhi HOUSE STRENGTH THE NDA government is reportedly exploring the possibility of securing a required majority in the Lok Sabha to expedite the passage of the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, also known as the Delimitation Bill, 2026, according to sources on Tuesday . The government may convene a special session of Parliament to pass the bill even before the Monsoon session begins, which is likely to commence in the second week of July . Speaking on the sidelines of a media interaction to mark 12 years of the Narendra Modi government, a senior BJP functionary said, “If we get the required majority in the House, we would convene a special session of Parliament to pass the delimitation bill.” He also said that the government may agree to include the 50% clauses if the opposition asks in the bill. No changes were being proposed to the Delimitation Commission Act and the existing The Lok Sabha currently has the strength 540 members, and the required number to get a bill passed is 360. The ruling NDA has a strength of 293 members. A hospital vigil ends in the loss of entire family A D I T I R AY C H O W D H U R Y @ New Delhi THE tragedy that drew a family to Delhi in the hope of saving one life has ended by claiming them all. Seventy-eight-year-old Radhe Shyam Aggarwal, the only surviving member of the Gurugram family devastated by the June 3 fire at a B&B in Hauz Rani, died on Tuesday morning while undergoing treatment at Max Hospital in Saket. His death comes a week after eight members of his family and relatives, who had gathered in Delhi to care for him during a critical illness, were killed in the blaze. Aggarwal had been admitted to the hospital’s ICU in May for a lung ailment. He remained on ventilator support during his treatment and passed away at around 11.15 am on Tuesday . Eight family members had checked into Flourish Stays, the B&B located a few minutes from the hospital, so they could remain close while he underwent treatment. What followed was a tragedy that neighbours say has left an entire community struggling to comprehend the scale of the loss. On the morning of June 3, a fire broke out at the B&B premises, killing eight members of the family and their relatives. Among those who died were Aggarwal’s son, Vivek Aggarwal; Vivek’s wife, Tarjani; their two daughters, Jeevisha and Variya; and Aggarwal’s wife, Premlata. The blaze also claimed the lives of Vivek’s maternal uncle, Ashok Goyal as well as Premlata’s sister Kamla and her husband Javri Lal, taking the death toll from the family to eight. legal framework would remain intact, the functionary said. “Whosoever is creating confusion is unaware of the intent of this bill,” he added. Underscoring that the belimitation bill is based on a proportional expansion approach, another source said, “A uniform 50% increase in seats would maintain the proportion for all states/UTs. Applying this principle to the current 543 seats would lead to approximately 815 seats. Therefore, the upper limit on seats was increased from the current cap of 550 seats in the Lok Sabha to 850.” Another source dismissed concerns that the proposed delimitation exercise could adversely affect smaller states or the southern states. RESOURCE CRUNCH A CID team raiding Abhishek Banerjee’s Camac Street office in Kolkata | PTI SIGNATURE PROBE CID officers in Kolkata said the raids were held to dredge out the original copy of TMC’s resolution book and attendance sheet containing signatures of 70 MLAs present at the May 6 meeting held at the party office NO MORALITY: TMC Trinamool Congress leaders Kalyan Banerjee and Kirti Azad accused dissident MPs of lacking political morality and deserting the party. Alleging a broader attempt to weaken opposition parties, Banerjee said, “They are destroying democracy” LAST SUPPERS, LAST DANCES & MORE PA R A M I TA G H O S H @ New Delhi CAN sandwiches and conspiracy theories be sliced with the same knife? Former army men, retired bureaucrats, and the second and third generations of civil-servant families, seated around plates of roast mutton sandwiches, peanuts, and lemon sodas at the Delhi Gymkhana Club (DGC), are giving it a try. The Gymkhana birds twittering on the zone. PM Narendra Club jamun trees give cover to Modi is supposed to the whispers; at the hudshift to his new home at dles around the table, rescue Raisina Hills from 7, Lok operations are being planned. Kalyan Marg. His walls now adOn May 22, the Land and De- join the club’s. velopment Office (LDO) under “Yes, the club has a colonial the Ministry of Urban Affairs history, but it also has a Partiissued an order to the club to tion history, an Independence vacate its 27-acre premises by history and a Maharaja history . June 5, citing its use for defence Seven Maharajas put up the infrastructure and other public money for it. Squash champion purposes in a high-security Bhuvnesh Kumari, an Arjuna awardee who belongs to the former royal family of Alwar, practised at the DGC,” points out an old-timer unwilling to give his name. The club takes its sports seriously Next to the . Maharana Pratap mural at the entrance are several tournament trophies. Asian Games gold and silver medallists are among its members. The old-timer also has an answer for the Lutyens’ jab doing the rounds: “And don’t the 700-odd MPs and ministers live in Lutyens bungalows too? Why get after a recreational place for pensioners?” Some old-timers accost others in corridors to “save the club” with the intensity of saving rainforests. Activating old-boy networks in the LDO’s office is also a possibility. That the late Arun Jaitley inaugurated the new swimming pool is a point of hope for the reversal of the order, as are the Shiva temple on the premises and a mazaar, which staff of both communities reveres, just outside it. “I’m a pensioner. I don’t go to star hotels for tea. I come here,” says a former army man. His wife in a Kota sari and pearls is dressed for her DGC evening. For many in the Services, this is “their second home”. CONTINUED ON P3 Big push to asset, land monetisation and disinvestment D I PA K M O N D A L & P U S H P I TA D E Y @ New Delhi WITH the Centre facing a significant resource crunch following a series of emergency measures to shield the economy from the West Asia crisis, the government has activated plans to mobilise additional revenue, official sources said on Tuesday The measures include aggressively pursu. ing asset and land monetisation while also stepping up efforts to raise funds through disinvestment. Sources said senior government officials are holding weekly meetings with the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) and the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) to explore more avenues for resource mobilisation. The government hopes DIPAM would exceed the Budget target of `80,000 crore from disinvestment in FY27. One official said the proposed strategic sale of IDBI Bank, which had been put on hold due to valuation concerns and lack of investor interest, may be revived. The government has set a target of `10 lakh crore in asset monetisation during the five-year period from FY26 to FY30 under the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) 2.0. Under NMP 1.0, it achieved nearly 90% of its `6 lakh crore target. At the same time, the Centre is accelerating the monetisation of idle and non-core public assets through the National Land Monetisation Corporation (NLMC). According to the DPE, approvals were received during FY26 for monetisation of assets valued around `10,048 crore. The government’s fiscal burden has risen following support measures announced in recent weeks. It has created a `1 lakh crore Economic Stabilisation Fund to build fiscal buffers and respond to emergencies. Of this, `10,000 crore has been allocated for oil marketing firms to stabilise aviation turbine fuel prices. The government has also launched a fresh Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme with an outlay of `18,000 crore to support MSMEs and the aviation sector. CONGRESS CANDIDATE’S RAJYA SABHA NOMINATION REJECTED EXPRESS READ CANDID INTERACTION Gukesh and the burden of being world champion S W A R O O P S W A M I N AT H A N D GUKESH, the youngest undisputed world chess champion in history, has admitted that managing expectations has been one of the hardest things as world champion. “As much as you try to switch off, you are still aware that there is this kind of elephant in the room,” he told a few Indian journalists after Norway Chess. “Like you are expected and also you expect something. I’m in general also an ambitious player and I keep going for wins. Considering all these things, it has been World champ to feature at Chennai GM The 20-year-old has decided to feature in his home tournament, the Chennai Grand Masters, India’s strongest Classical event. This wasn’t initially on his calendar but it’s an event that has fond memories. The fourth editions begins from July 16. pretty hard. But, okay I either , break from it or grow through it.” In one of the most candid conversations by an Indian sportsperson, the 20-year-old said he had struggled for motivation during ‘parts of 2025’. “You can still do everything that you’ve been doing,” the 20year-old said. “But the reason Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination was rejected by the Returning Officer in MP for ‘hiding information about a case’, which Congress denied | P8 why you’re doing it is different. You’re not waking up striving for the World Championship. But it doesn’t mean you have to lose motivation. There was obviously some, probably in parts of 2025, there was some motivation issues. But if you really love the sport, if you’re able to connect back to it, that’s why people keep saying, ‘find the reason why you started playing the sport’. I feel like external resources can never, they’re not reliable sources of motivation for a very long time. So, something that drives you from within, that’s something that I’ve been trying to connect with.” He vowed to keep fighting because ‘I don’t know what else I would want to spend the day with’. “Chess is something, even though I’m playing badly , it’s still something that I want to spend time with. To do something badly for a long time... if you don’t have any kind of love for the game, there’s no reason to continue. But just the fact that I’m trying so hard, means that there is something behind all of this. Just connecting with it, I think is the reason that I want to keep going.” 2 held in Saidulajab building collapse Delhi Police has arrested two builders from Vasant Kunj in connection with the building collapse in Saidulajab area that claimed six lives and injured eight others. They have been identified by cops as Avnish Gupta and Manish Khatri. P4 7 dead in massive fire in cracker factory at Jaipur Seven people were killed and several others were injured in a massive fire at a firecracker factory in Jaipur on Tuesday. A series of explosions occurred due to gunpowder and firecrackers stored inside the factory.