26082024-TTB-01.qxd 8/25/2024 11:46 PM Page 1 13 CHANDIGARH | GURUGRAM | JALANDHAR | BATHINDA | VOL. 144 NO. 236 | 16 PAGES | ~5.00 | REGD. NO. CHD/0006/2024-2026 ESTABLISHED IN 1881  DELHI CONG, NC BATTLE INFIGHTING OVER SHARING OF SEATS J&K WILL SUPPORT INDIA HOSTING PEACE SUMMIT, SAYS ZELENSKYY WORLD /thetribunechd BIOE3 POLICY TO BOOST INDIA, US AGREE TO STRENGTHEN NAVAL GREEN GROWTH, CREATE JOBS NATION COOPERATION BACK PAGE monday | 26 august 2024 /thetribunechd www.tribuneindia.com Crime against women unpardonable: Modi Perpetrators should not be spared, says PM Tribune News Service Smoke and fire seen after Israel carried out pre-emptive air strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon on Sunday. REUTERS Israel launches ‘pre-emptive’ air strikes on Lebanon as Hezbollah fires rockets Jerusalem/Beirut, August 25 Around 100 Israeli fighter jets carried out “pre-emptive” air strikes on Hezbollah across southern Lebanon on Sunday. The militant group soon after launched hundreds of rockets and drones in one of the biggest clashes in more than 10 months of border warfare. Three deaths were confirmed in Lebanon and none in Israel, where damage appeared to be limited. Hezbollah indicated it was not planning further strikes yet. ❝ NOT END OF STORY Another step towards changing situation in the north (northern Israel) and returning our residents safely to their homes… this is not the end of the story. Benjamin Netanyahu, ISRAELI PM Israel’s foreign minister said the country did not seek a full-scale war but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned: “This is not the end of the story.” Any major escalation in the fighting, which Kangana likens farmers’ stir to B’desh unrest, riles Haryana BJP on poll eve Ranaut’s statement might serve as a fresh trigger for Chandigarh, August 25 farmers’ outrage against the Triggering a controversy in party and adversely impact the middle of poll season in its prospects in certain Haryana, Mandi MP and BJP farmer-centric pockets. “She leader Kangana Ranaut “tar- is not even a leader from geted” the farmers, stating Haryana. There was no need their agitation could have led for her to make such controto a Bangladesh-like situa- versial remarks,” another tion in the country leader stated. had the top leaderIn the video, ship not taken Ranaut alleged durstrong measures to ing the farmers’ control it. She stated protests, “bodies this in a video she were seen hanging shared on X. and rapes were takSources in the BJP ing place”. “When said the MP’s state- Kangana Ranaut the pro-farmer Bills ment had not gone were withdrawn, the down well with the state lead- entire country was shocked,” ers. “We have apprised the she said in the video. The farmtop brass of the matter,” a ers were still continuing with BJP leader said. their protests, she added and During the recently held blamed “foreign powers” for it. Lok Sabha elections, BJP A BJP leader said at present, candidates faced a stiff oppo- there was no resentment sition from farmers while among farmers against the campaigning in the state. party, but Ranaut’s statement continued on page 8 Party insiders maintained began in parallel with the war in Gaza, risks morphing into a regional conflagration drawing in Hezbollah-backer Iran and Israel’s main ally the US. Hezbollah said it had fired 320 Katyusha rockets towards Israel and hit 11 military targets in what it called the first phase of its retaliation for Israel’s assassination of Fuad Shukr, a senior commander, last month. A Hezbollah official said it had delayed its retaliation to give a chance for ongoing Gaza ceasefire talks and other “political considerations”. The official said the group had calibrated it to avoid triggering a full-scale war. Israel’s military said it had foiled a much larger continued on page 8 New Delhi, August 25 Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday signalled zero tolerance towards crimes against women, terming them unpardonable and urging state governments to bring perpetrators to justice, irrespective of who they are. “The safety and empowerment of women is a top priority of the nation. I understand the pain and anger of my sisters and daughters, irrespective of the states where atrocities against women have been committed. I will once again tell every state government that crimes against girls and women are unforgivable. The perpetrator, no matter who he is, should not be spared,” PM Modi said in the presence of Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan as he addressed the “Lakhpati Didi Sammelan” in election-bound Maharashtra’s Jalgaon. PM Modi’s remarks came in the wake of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s letter to him asking for a stringent central law, fast-track courts and trial within 15 days in cases of sex- WEIGHED DOWN Narendra Modi, PRIME MINISTER ual assault against women. Mamata’s letter followed massive protests across Bengal and the country over the gruesome rape and murder of a young doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar hospital. Taking a tough stand against sexual assault on girls (in Maharashtra’s Badlapur school) and RG Kar government facility, the PM said state governments and politi- Tribune News Service Tribune News Service GURDASPUR: A 30-year-old man was thrashed to death in Gurdaspur district allegedly by a pastor and his accomplices in an attempt “to get his body rid of the devil”. The deceased was identified as Samuel Masih, a resident of Singhpura village in Dhariwal. Her mother had called the pastors to her residence after she claimed that “her son had developed some unusual complications and was not getting well despite the family's best efforts”. The pastors led by Jacob Masih thrashed him to death. An FIR has been registered. INSIDE ❝ The Centre is with states in ensuring protection of girls and women; governments will come and go, but dignity of women should remain everyone’s top priority. The Chichong bridge collapsed under the weight of an overloaded dumper truck on the Gramphu-Kaza highway in Spiti on Sunday. Traffic between Losar and Kaza was diverted via an alternative route. INSIDE CBI conducts lie detector test on key accused in Kolkata rape-murder case New Delhi, August 25 The CBI on Sunday conducted a lie detector test on Sanjay Roy, the prime accused in the rape and murder of a doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. The test was conducted at the Presidency Jail, where Roy is currently lodged. On August 24, the CBI had conducted a polygraph test on the college’s former principal, PARIS: The founder and CEO of popular encrypted messaging app Telegram was detained at Paris Le Bourget airport on Saturday evening after landing from Azerbaijan. As per media reports, Pavel Durov, 39, was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by France based on allegations that his platform has been used for money laundering, drug trafficking and allowing the sharing of content linked to sexual exploitation of minors. BACK PAGE Five arrested in Amritsar NRI shooting case AMRITSAR: A day after USbased NRI Sukhchain Singh was shot at by two armed assailants in Daburji area here, the Amritsar police have arrested five persons. The two suspects — Sukhwinder Singh, alias Sukha Grenade, of Kapurthala, and Gurkirat Singh of Jalandhar — are still at large. Those arrested include Tanda’s Sarvan Singh, who is the father of the victim’s first wife. She had committed suicide two years ago. INSIDE BJP lists Cong ‘false’ promise as Kharge equates UPS to ‘U-turn’ Geetanjali Gayatri Pastor, aides kill Gurdaspur man during ‘exorcism’ THEIR DIGNITY PRIORITY cal parties of the country must always remember that the guilty and their accomplices in such crimes must not be spared. “Public institutions, be it a hospital or a school or an office or the police system, should be made accountable and any sort of negligence on their part should be treated as unacceptable. Governments may change, but our biggest responsibility as a society and as a government should be to protect the life and dignity of women,” he said. PM Modi flagged the government’s efforts to make laws stricter to ensure the harshest possible punishment to those committing atrocities on women. Pointing out how FIRs in complaints of sexual assault would go unregistered earlier and justice was delayed, he said such obstacles had been removed in the newly enacted Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which had a dedicated chapter on crimes against women and children. “Victims can now register an e-FIR if they do not wish to go to the police station. Measures are in place to ensure swift continued on page 8 Telegram CEO arrested in Paris over app misuse SandipGhosh, and three others. “All together, seven accused underwent a polygraph test. The test was conducted on Ghosh and three others on August 24 and on the remaining three, including Roy, today. The test is crucial as we can determine whether the accused were truthful in their statements. We found loopholes in the statements given by Ghosh during questioning, so a polygraph test was necessary,” a CBI official said. The test cannot be used as evidence during the trial, but findings give the agency a direction for further probe. A team of polygraph experts from Delhi’s Central Forensic Science Laboratory was in Kolkata for the tests. The CBI, which took over the probe of continued on page 8 New Delhi, August 25 A day after the government unveiled a new assured pension scheme, eschewing the National Pension Scheme that had no assured pension element, the ruling BJP and opposition Congress accused each other of doing U-turn on the issue concerning 23 lakh Central Government employees. Hours after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge took to X to say that the ‘U’ in the UPS (Unified Pension Scheme) stood for Modi government’s U-turns, BJP veteran Ravi Shankar Prasad asked the opposition leader why his party’s governments in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana did a Uturn on the restoration of the old pension scheme (OPS). “The Congress had whipped up a storm around the OPS issue and made tall promises about its restoration ahead of Assembly elections in HP Kar, nataka and Telangana. We MAHA 1ST STATE TO APPROVE SCHEME ■ Maharashtra on Sunday became the first state to approve the rollout of Unified Pension Scheme retrospectively from March 2024 ■ The ruling BJP and Shiv Sena moved quickly to woo govt staffers on Assembly poll eve; other BJP-ruled states are also expected to follow suit want to ask Rahul Gandhi why the Congress governments in these states have not restored OPS?” said Prasad. Hailing PM Narendra Modi for approving the UPS following extensive consultations through a panel, the BJP asked why the Congress, “habituated to making lofty announcements without following them through”, dialled down on the OPS issue to the extent that the promise was dropped from its 2024 Lok Sabha poll manifesto. “In Himachal, the Congress promised OPS but never implemented. In Karnataka, it played smart by saying pension benefits will go only to pre-2006 retirees who are just 13,000 in number. In Telangana, there was a weak mention of it. Eventually, the Congress became so wary of the palpable falsehood of its assurance about pension that it could not muster the courage to make it part of its manifesto in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” said Prasad, noting that the UPS was a fully government-funded plan with no carry forward of financial liabilities to future governments. “The ‘U’ in the UPS stands for Modi government’s Uturns! After June 4, the power of people prevailed over the arrogance of power of the Prime Minister,” Kharge earlier said. He listed a string of retractions by the Centre, which include rollback in the Budget regarding long-term capital gain tax andindexation; sending Waqf Amendment continued on page 8 edit: New pension scheme House for CM Mann in Jalandhar set in1 acres, is older than 1857 war 1 Deepkamal Kaur Tribune News Service Jalandhar, August 25 An 11-acre property in the heart of Jalandhar is being readied for Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, so that he can fulfil his recent promise of making this ancient city his second home. House Number 1, in the Old Baradari area of the city, is older than the 1857 First War of Independence. In fact, the first British Commissioner of Jalandhar division, Sir John Lawrence, moved into this house back in 1848 — until then, Jalandhar was part of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s empire — when it was constructed with unique Nanakshahi bricks and limestone, prevalent building material of the time. The façade as well as the building’s interiors mostly remain the same. In the main hall hang two rifles dating back to the British era. The house has four drawing rooms, four bedrooms, three office rooms, an outer enclosed verandah and 10 two-room family flats for the helping staff. The outside landscape is a sight for sore eyes — a huge lake, several gardens and a back gate that is cheek by jowl with the local Jullundur Gymkhana Club. In the last 176 years, as The Jalandhar Divisional Commissioner’s residence that will now house the CM. PHOTO: SARABJIT SINGH many as 140 Commissioners have lived in this house. The last Divisional Commissioner, IAS officer Gurpreet Sapra, was politely asked to leave when the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) zeroed in on this property. In any case, Today’s issue is of 16 pages, including four-page Delhi Tribune. c m y b it is said, she held two other posts in Chandigarh and Ropar and would visit Jalandhar about once a week. The new Commissioner, Pardeep Kumar Sabharwal, is believed to have his own home in JP Nagar in the city. Chief Minister Mann will be the 141st occupant of this house, but he won’t be allowed to make any structural changes because of the “protected monument” status given to it by the Archaeological Survey of India in 2002-03. Nevertheless, the PWD has sent in trucks loaded with bricks, cement and other construction material. The work on raising the outer boundary wall has begun. Minor renovations to the roof will take place, along with a fresh coat of paint. Nothing else can be changed because of its heritage status. That is why plans for more security pickets as well as permanent waiting lounges for people attending ‘Sarkar Tuhade Dwar’ events have been shelved for now. “Like in the previous house, the plan is to have collapsible German tents for visitors for the time being,” officials said. Sources in the CMO said Mann was “really looking forward” to living in a house with so much history in it — officials of the British Raj once occupied it, as did those who served in the exclusive Indian Civil Service (ICS), the very continued on page 8