09022024-TT-01.qxd 2/8/2024 11:21 PM Page 1 13 CHANDIGARH | GURUGRAM | JALANDHAR | BATHINDA | VOL. 144 NO. 39 | 14 PAGES | ~5.00 | REGD. NO. CHD/0006/2024-2026 ESTABLISHED IN 1881  HIMACHAL PRADESH DONALD TRUMP TAKES ELECTORAL FIGHT TO SUPREME COURT WORLD /thetribunechd PROTEST IN JAMMU OVER TARGETED KILLINGS J&K PUSH FOR CAPEX, SAYS ROW OVER RAHUL’S FM AS PARL PASSES REMARKS ON MODI’S BUDGET BUSINESS OBC STATUS BACK PAGE friday | 9 february 2024 /thetribunechd www.tribuneindia.com Turned around economy from ‘fragile’ to ‘top 5’ in decade, says White Paper FILE PHOTO PM Modi all praise for Manmohan’s ‘huge contribution’ New Delhi, February 8 Prime Minister Narendra Modi warmly lauded former PM Manmohan Singh’s contribution to Parliament and the country while bidding farewell to retiring members in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. BIDS FAREWELL TO RETIRING RS MEMBERS “I want to remember Dr Manmohan Singh today, his contribution has been immense...For such a long time, the way he has guided this House and country, Dr Manmohan Singh will always be remembered for it...,” he said. Recalling Dr Singh’s continued on page 9 Congress releases ‘black paper’ on 2004-14: INFLATION, DEBT ‘SKYROCKETED’ Modi govt ‘failures’ Inflation rate in double digits, infamous legacy; high percent- Sandeep Dikshit Tribune News Service New Delhi, February 8 The Modi government on Thursday launched a scathing attack on the previous UPA government’s “lost decade” of economic reforms by issuing a White Paper that listed a plethora of scams, double-digit inflation, an ailing banking sector and high policy uncertainty, all of which marred India’s business climate, dented its image and the people’s confidence about their future. The “White Paper” said the government undertook a wide range of measures resulting in the transition of India from the league of “fragile five” to the league of “top five” in just about a decade. It was tabled ■ high fiscal deficits heaped misery on ordinary households ■ Largest power outage in history, in July 2012, left 62 crore people in darkness and put national security at risk ■ Aadhaar, a symbol of digital empowerment, too suffered at the hands of UPA government ■ Banking crisis remained most age of bad debts underestimated ■ Debt rose at a fast pace; external debt climbed 21.1% as against 4.5% under BJP government ■ Large unspent funds for many social sector schemes due to poor policy planning and execution ■ Policy paralysis, weak leadership hit defence preparedness; led to shortage of equipment, ammo ‘WRONG TURNS’ MARKED 10-YEAR UPA RULE FM Nirmala Sitharaman speaks in the Rajya Sabha in New Delhi. PTI economy road to in ❝ Theturns takenwas on 10 yearsnowhererule.2014 due to wrong during of UPA White Paper New Delhi, February 8 The Congress on Thursday released a “black paper” listing the “failures” of the Modi government, highlighting issues such as unemployment, price rise and “farmers’ distress”. The document, titled “10 Saal Anyay Kaal”, was released by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge ahead of the government tabling a white paper in Parliament on the “mismanagement” of the economy during the UPA regime headed by Manmohan Singh. “Today, we are issuing a ‘black paper’ against the government. Whenever PM Modi presents his views in Parliament, he continued on page 9 management of the economy, the second, also the shortest, listed the scams during the UPA government, while the third, which is the longest, nar- RBI keeps lending rate untouched at 6.5 pc Shot at by ultras, another Punjab worker succumbs India isn’t meddling in Canada’s affairs, in fact it’s the reverse: MEA Sandeep Dikshit SRINAGAR: Sandeep Dikshit New Delhi, February 8 The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday decided to keep the repo rate unchanged at 6.5 per cent for the sixth time in a row. Setting out the rationale for not changing the prime lending rate for over a year, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said this was due to uncertainties in food prices, which could turn volatile and increase the inflation rate. Besides, there were concerns over global uncertainty. Following the RBI’s decision to maintain status quo, banks and financial institutions will largely keep lending rates stable. The RBI had last raised the repo rate in February 2023 to 6.5 per cent after six consecutive rate hikes aggregating to 250 basis points since May 2022. Das noted that the first advance estimates placed the real gross domestic product (GDP) growth at 7.3 per cent for 2023-24, marking the third successive year of growth above 7 per cent. In the next year (2024-25), he felt the agricultural activity was “holding up well” despite REUTERS Govt tables report in Parl, flags UPA scams, lists steps to set finances right in both Houses of Parliament by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Divided into three sections, the first dwelled on the mis- Tribune News Service THE DIE IS CAST Retained for 6th time amid food inflation, global uncertainty fears MPC MEET TAKEAWAYS 7% GDP GROWTH RATE PROJECTED FOR FY25 5.4% INFLATION A carpenter from Punjab, who was critically injured in a terror attack in Srinagar’s Habba Kadal area on Wednesday evening, died on Thursday morning. Amritpal Singh, another worker from Punjab, had died on Wednesday. Officials said Rohit Masih (25), who was critically injured during the attack at Shaheed Gunj in Srinagar, succumbed at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences. Unidentified militants had attacked the two men, hailing from Amritsar, when they were on way to their rented accommodation. INSIDE Tribune News Service New Delhi, February 8 India has tried to turn the tables on Canada by counteraccusing it of interference in its internal affairs. “We strongly reject all such baseless allegations of Indian interference in Canadian elections. It is not the Government of India’s policy to interfere in the democratic process of other countries,” said MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal when asked about Canada’s Foreign Interference Commission requesting the Canadian government to col- rated the measures taken by the Modi Government to set right the economy. Answering the question why now, it continued on page 9 Rejects Ottawa’s charge of interference in poll NOT OUR POLICY Government ❝ It is not theto interfere in of India’s policy the democratic process of other countries. Randhir Jaiswal, MEA SPOKESPERSON lect and produce documents relating to alleged interference by India related to the 2019 and 2021 elections. “In fact, quite the reverse, Canada has been interfering in our internal affairs. We have been raising this issue regularly with them. We call on Canada to effectively address our core concerns in this regard,” said Jaiswal. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had ordered an investigation after the report. The Foreign Interference Commission’s collection of documents was a precursor to the first round of public hearings to examine whether classified national security information and intelligence should be disclosed to the public. Top spies from the continued on page 9 Former PM Nawaz Sharif at a polling station in Lahore to cast his ballot during the general election in Pakistan on Thursday. INSIDE Panel:Treat martyred Agniveers on par with soldiers for pension Ajay Banerjee Tribune News Service New Delhi, February 8 The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defence today recommended that families of Agniveers who die in the line duty should be provided the same benefits given to the families of regular soldiers. The present rules do not have the provision of pension for the family of the Agniveer dying in the line of duty. In case a regular soldier gets martyred, his family – wife or parents —- gets pension for life. The proposal was submitted by the committee, headed by BJP MP Jual Oram, in the report, “A review of functioning of zila sainik boards in the country”. The report also stated that “there is no assured employment or skill development programme exclusively designed for Agniveers, except for some percentage of reservation of jobs in Central Armed Police Forces”. The committee said the PARL REPORT SAYS… On re-employment of Agniveers ■ There are no assured jobs or skill development programme designed for Agniveers. They should be informed personally about the vacancies On uniformity in ex gratia relief ■ Steps must be initiated to sensitise states to bring uniformity in granting ex gratia funds for families of soldiers On pending bills with ECHS ■ All pending bills of hospitals with ECHS should be cleared at the earliest. The MoD must blacklist the hospitals denying treatment to veterans Agniveers, who have to leave service after a certain number of years, should be informed personally about the vacancies. It should be ensured that they fill in forms to appear for the required physical and written tests. On schemes for ex-servicemen, the committee said there was a lack of uniformity in the states continued on page 9 FOR CURRENT FISCAL (2023-24) 4.5% INFLATION FORECAST FOR 2024-25 BOURSES TUMBLE 1%, BANK STOCKS DRAG ■ Sensex and Nifty tanked around 1% on Thursday dragged by selling in banking and auto shares ■ This was due to increased uncertainty about timing of interest rate cuts after RBI’s monetary policy lower rainfall, lower reservoir levels and delayed sowing. Rabi sowing has surpassed last year’s level as well as the continued on page 9 IN BRIEF Centre’s outreach to farmers ahead of‘Delhi Chalo’ protest Govt halts free movement regime 3 ministers rushed to Chandigarh | Many demands met | Panel to look into remaining issues with Myanmar Ruchika M Khanna Tribune News Service Chandigarh, February 8 Ahead of the February 13 “Delhi Chalo” agitation announced by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (Non-Political) and Kisan Mazdoor Morcha, the two-hour-long talks between a three-member Central team and leaders of farmer unions made “some Vijay C Roy REWARI: PM Modi will lay the foundation stone of the AIIMS project at Tribune News Service Bhalkhi Majra village on February 16, said Haryana Co-operation and Public Health Engineering Minister Banwari Lal on Thursday. TNS Chandigarh, February 8 Bank account holders will soon be able to withdraw cash from their neighbourhood shop without visiting an ATM kiosk or using the Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS), micro-ATM or POS machine. The innovative system aims at eradicating the use of hardware for cash withdrawals. All you DANTEWADA: A Naxalite, who carried a reward of ~8 lakh on his head, was killed in an encounter with security personnel in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district, a senior police official said on Thursday. PTI SC reserves order on quota sub-classification NEW DELHI: The SC on Thursday reserved its order on whether a state government is empowered to make a sub-classification in SCs and STs for grant of quota in admissions and public jobs. TNS SHUN STIR: KHAP ■ Govt to give ~10 lakh relief to those injured in Lakhimpur Kheri Dahiya khap advised farmers not to protest and instead talk to government regarding their demands. It also appealed to them to not make Sonepat the centre of the stir. INSIDE ■ Cancel cases filed against farmers during stir against farm laws ■ Give relief, jobs to families of farmers killed during agitation ■ Ensure availability of good quality seeds headway” with the BJP-led Centre agreeing to “some of their demands and forming a four-member committee to look into the remaining”. The Centre has agreed to give a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to those injured in Lakhimpur Kheri, cancel cases registered against farmers during the year-long agitation against the three farm laws in 2020-21, compensation and jobs to family members of farmers killed during the agitation, and ensure availability of good quality seeds. Though farmer leaders — Jagjit Singh Dallewal of the SKM (Non-Political) and Swaran Singh Pandher of Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee – didn’t announce continued on page 9 Soon, cardless withdrawals at your neighbourhood shop PM to lay stone of AIIMS-Rewari project on Feb 16 Naxalite carrying ~8L bounty killed in encounter ~10 LAKH FOR THOSE HURT IN KHERI QUICK AND EASY CASH STILL RULES ■ Send cash withdrawal request on ■ India world’s largest cash econ- mobile banking app & generate OTP ■ Give OTP to merchant partner, who will feed it into an app on his phone ■ After approval from bank, shopkeeper to hand over cash to customer need is a smartphone. How will it work? Once a customer sends the cash withdrawal request on its mobile banking app, an OTP omy, also most ATM-deficient ■ Has around 2.2 lakh ATMs for a population of 1.35 billion ■ ~30L cr currency in circulation; ~20K crore fed into ATMs daily will be generated by the bank. The customer can take this OTP to any nearby merchant partner who will feed the OTP into software on his c m y b phone, processes the request and hand over cash to the customer after it is approved by the bank. The platform is offered by Chandigarh-based fintech startup Paymart India Pvt Ltd. Currently, the company has entered into a tie-up with four banks — IDBI Bank, Indian Bank, Jammu & Kashmir Bank and Karur Vysya Bank — and 4,000 merchants to offer this service across the country. While the service has been successfully launched with IDBI Bank, the company is likely to start a pilot continued on page 9 New Delhi, February 8 The government has decided to immediately suspend the free movement regime (FMR) between India and Myanmar to ensure the internal security of the country and to maintain the demographic structure of India’s northeastern states bordering Myanmar, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Thursday. “Since the Ministry of External Affairs is in the process of scrapping it, the home ministry has recommended the immediate suspension of the FMR,” he said in a post on X. The FMR allowed people residing close to the IndiaMyanmar border to venture 16 km into each other’s territory without any documents. The decision was taken days after Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh met Shah. The former is learnt to have conveyed to the Home Minister that the strife being faced in the state since May last year was due to the FMR. — TNS