30082024-TT-01.qxd 8/29/2024 11:08 PM Page 1 13 CHANDIGARH | GURUGRAM | JALANDHAR | BATHINDA | VOL. 144 NO. 240 | 12 PAGES | ~5.00 | REGD. NO. CHD/0006/2024-2026 ESTABLISHED IN 1881  HIMACHAL PRADESH BOOKED FOR RAPE, JJP MLA QUITS TO JOIN BJP HARYANA ISRAEL KILLS ISLAMIC JIHAD COMMANDER IN WEST BANK WORLD /thetribunechd RELIANCE CONSIDERS GAUTAM ADANI REPLACES ISSUING 1:1 BONUS AMBANI AS RICHEST INDIAN BACK PAGE SHARES BUSINESS friday | 30 august 2024 /thetribunechd www.tribuneindia.com Pak invites PM Modi for SCO meet in Islamabad,preceded by ministerialto take call India yet summit Two-day event in October to be New Delhi/Islamabad, Aug 29 Pakistan on Thursday invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s Council of Heads of Government meeting to be held in Islamabad in October. Pakistan holds the rotating chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of Government (CHG) and in that capacity, will be hosting the two-day in-person SCO Heads of Governments Meeting. Sources on the Indian side confirmed having received the invite. Sending an invite to all SCO members was part of the protocol for the host nation, the sources said, adding a decision on the participation was yet to be taken. “Invitations have been sent to the heads of countries to participate in the meeting, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders attend SCO meet. FILE which will take place on October 15-16. An invitation has also been sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Pakistan foreign office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at the weekly press briefing. Some countries had already confirmed participation, which would be informed in due course, she said. About ties with India, the spokesperson said, “Pakistan does not have direct bilateral trade with India.” The Islamabad summit will be preceded by a ministerial meeting and several rounds of senior officials’ meetings focused on financial, economic, socio-cultural and humanitarian cooperation among SCO member states. The SCO, comprising India, China, Russia, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, is an influential economic and security bloc that has emerged as one of the largest trans-regional international organisations. India hosted the SCO summit last year, organised in a virtual mode, and attended by Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif through a video link. However, Pakistan’s then foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari visited Goa in May 2023 to attend the inperson two-day meeting of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers. He was the first Pakistani foreign minister to visit India in almost 12 years. Islamabad and New Delhi have a long history of strained relations, primarily due to the Kashmir issue as well as the cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan. India has been insisting that the onus is on Pakistan to create an environment that is free of terror for talks. — TNS/PTI India-China meet seeks renewed bid to defuse LAC crisis New Delhi, August 29 India and China today conducted the 31st meeting of the Working Mechanism for Consultation and Coordination on India-China Border Affairs (WMCC) in Beijing. The meetings — the last was held on July 31 — are aimed at resolving the military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. “It was reiterated that restoring peace and tranquillity, and respecting the LAC are the essentials for normalising relations,” the MEA said. It said the two sides had a “frank, constructive and forward-looking” exchange of views. “Officials agreed on intensifying contact through diplomatic and military channels,” the MEA said. — TNS Assam first state to clear Muslim Cattle fencing to figure in marriage, divorce registration Bill talks with B’desh in Oct Animesh Singh Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 29 BJP-ruled Assam on Thursday became the first state in the country to mandate registration of Muslim marriages and divorces, in what it described as a move to “completely prohibit child marriages in the state.” The Assam Compulsory Registration of Muslim Marriages and Divorces Bill 2024, passed by the state Assembly today, provides for appointment of marriage and divorce registrars for registration of marriages and divorces with the existing system of registrations by Qazis passe. Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma clarified that earlier registrations of Muslim marriages by Qazis would remain valid. Bill prohibits polygamy and child marriage Himanta Biswa Sarma The statement of intent of the Bill lists seven purposes — prevention of child marriages and ensuring minimum age of marriage for males at 21 years and females at 18 years; prevention of marriages without the consent of both parties; checking polygamy; enabling married women to claim their rights to live in matrimonial house and seek maintenance; enabling widows to claim inheritance rights and other benefits and privileges that they are entitled to after the death of their husband; deterring men from deserting women after marriage; and strengthening the institution of marriage. “We are not interfering with marriages solemnised under the Muslim Personal Law. We are only making registrations compulsory to improve the lives of Muslim girls and women,” Sarma said. The Assembly will next bring a Bill to prohibit polygamy. Introduced by Revenue and Disaster Management Minister Jogen Mohan, the Bill replaces the Assam Moslem Marriages and Divorces Registration Act 1935. Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 29 Amid extremely fluid situation prevailing along the India-Bangladesh border, the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) personnel last week prevented BSF personnel from erecting a cattle fence in the Cooch Behar region, while the five Indian nationals who had accidentally crossed into the neighbouring nation earlier this month, are yet to be handed over to the Indian authorities. These issues are expected to be taken up during the Director General-level talks, expected to be held in October, the first such negotiation after the political crisis boiled over in Dhaka. The DG-level talks are held every six months and the PM CHAIRS BJP POLL PANEL MEET TO PICK HARYANA NOMINEES 5 Indians who crossed border to be let off soon next round of talks are scheduled to take place in New Delhi in October. Daljit Singh Chaudhary, who was appointed DG of BSF on Wednesday, will hold the talks with his BGB counterpart. According to highly placed sources, efforts by the BSF to put up fences in the Cooch Behar section were thwarted last week by BGB personnel, even as the Indian security forces were erecting fences to avoid cattle from crossing over to the other side. Sources said local Bangladeshi villagers protested the efforts by BSF personnel to put up the fence due to which the work had to be halted. BSF officials, on continued on page 8 PM Narendra Modi presides over the BJP election committee meeting in New Delhi on Thursday. PTI Farmer remark out of line, Nadda ticks off Kangana Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 29 Days after she made objectionable remarks against protesting farmers, actor Kangana Ranaut, the Lok Sabha MP from Mandi, on Thursday met BJP president JP Nadda, who asked her to honour the party discipline and refrain from speaking out of line on sensitive policy matters. The BJP reined in the actor a little more today after earlier reprimanding her through a rare letter in which the party dissociated itself from the MP’s remarks and instructed her to avoid commenting on policy matters such as farmers’ issues. Shimla, August29 In view of the grave financial crisis being faced by Himachal, CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu today announced that he, along with all ministers, chief parliamentary secretaries and chairmen and vice-chairmen of boards and corporations, will not take any salary and allowances for two months. Speaking in the Assembly, Sukhu said this had been done considering the fund crunch being faced by the state. “I urge all members of the Assembly to voluntarily follow suit,” he said. He said though the amount saved through this move would not be big (around Rs 2 crore), it was a symbolic gesture and others should follow suit. The CM said efforts were being made to enhance revenue and reduce unproductive expenditure, but it would take some time for the results to be visible. Expressing concern over the state’s dismal financial Jupinderjit Singh FISCAL CRISIS: CM calls it symbolic gesture, asks others to follow suit BID TO BOOST REVENUE ■ CM Sukhu says efforts on to enhance revenue and cut unproductive expenditure, but it will take some time for the results to become visible ■ Says Himachal awaiting the ~9,042-cr grant from the Centre for 2023 rain devastation position, Sukhu said the revenue deficit grant (RDG) for 2023-24 was Rs 8,058 crore, which had been cut by Rs 1,800 crore to Rs 6,258 crore during the current financial year. “In 2025-26, the RDG will be further cut by nearly Rs 3,000 crore to a mere Rs 3,257 crore, which will make it even tougher for us to meet our needs,” he said. Sukhu said despite repeated pleas, the Centre had not returned the Rs 9,200 crore lying with it as part of the new pension scheme (NPS) deduction. “We have also stopped continued on page 8 Tribune News Service Chandigarh, August 29 SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal has appointed long-time Badal family loyalist and former Rajya Sabha member Balwinder Singh Bhunder as the working president of the party with immediate effect. Party rebels and some Sikh Balwinder Singh Bhunder organisations have been asking Sukhbir to step down from the post of president. Sukhbir, who has been facing a strong rebellion within the party (Gidderbaha bypoll “candidate” Dimpy Dhillon quit the party the other day), has not completely stepped aside from the post of president as he has not resigned. In a climbdown from his position as the party supremo, he has delegated all powers of the president to Bhunder. SAD (Amritsar) president and former MP Simranjit Singh Mann on Thursday made derogatory remarks in Karnal mentioning “rape” against BJP MP Kangana Ranaut, triggering outrage among women organisations. The actor-politician slammed Mann for “trivialising” crime against women. Haryana women panel chief Renu Bhatia also condemned Mann’s comments. PTI “The BJP’s approach is sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas and that is our guiding principle. Anything stated to the contrary is not our view,” said a BJP source on Kangana’s statements against farmers — a development having the potential to harm the party’s prospects in poll-bound Haryana. Nadda met Kangana minutes before the Haryana core committee of the BJP assembled at his residence to draft panels of candidates for the state elections. Later during the day, these panels were presented for final approval to the BJP central election committee, which met under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The CEC meeting, which started at 8 pm, was underway till late continued on page 9 Purulia case: Danish court bins request to extradite accused Copenhagen, August 29 A Danish court on Thursday rejected the extradition request from India of a Danish national accused of being involved in an arms smuggling case 29 years ago, going against Denmark’s top prosecuting authority which had given the green light to sending Niels Holck abroad. Holck admitted taking part in dropping assault rifles, rocket launchers and missiles from a cargo plane at Purulia in West Bengal in 1995. — TNS Sukhu, ministers to forgo Badal loyalist Bhunder SAD working prez salary for two months Akal Takht to discuss Sukhbir’s apology on ‘mistakes’ by party today Tribune News Service OUTRAGE OVER SIMRANJIT SINGH’S COMMENT SAD spokesperson Daljeet Singh Cheema announced Bhunder’s appointment on social media. He told The Tribune, “Sukhbir wants to face the decision of Akal Takht as a common and humble man due to which he has delegated all powers to Bhunder.” However, no formal letter has been issued regarding continued on page 8 Rajnath Singh inspects a guard of honour in Visakhapatnam. ANI INS Arighaat, India’s 2nd N-sub, joins naval fleet Ajay Banerjee Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 29 India’s second nuclear-powered submarine INS Arighaat was commissioned into the Navy in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at Visakhapatnam today. The submarine is capable of carrying nucleartipped missiles. INS Arighaat is an upgraded and deadlier version of its sister, INS Arihant, the first such submarine inducted in 2015. It is part of India’s nuclear triad — the ability to fire nuclear weapons from land, air and sea. India already has land-based ‘Agni’ series of nuclear-tipped missiles, while another can be fired from air using fighter jets. “India’s nuclear triad will enhance deterrence, help in establishing strategic balance and peace in the region, and play a decisive role in the security of the country,” said Rajnath. INS Arighaat will be under the command and control of the strategic forces continued on page 8 Testing times: More students dying by suicide than farmers Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 29 Student suicides in India have surpassed suicides by farmers. A report by IC3 Institute titled ‘Student Suicides: An Epidemic Sweeping India’ used National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data to highlight that the year 2021 saw 13,089 students dying by suicide as against 10,881 suicides by farmers in the country. Over the last decade (201221), 97,571 cases of student suicides were recorded — an alarming 57% compared to the prior decade, 2002-11, the report said. While the overall suicide rate in India has increased by 2% annually, the rate of student suicides has surged by 4%. The report has suggested that the figures may be underreported. Among the states, at 1,834, Maharashtra reported the highest number of student suicides followed by Madhya Pradesh (1,308), Tamil Nadu (1,246), Karnataka (855), and Maharashtra, MP, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka & Odisha account for 46% of total cases THE FACTORS: ACADEMIC PRESSURE, RAGGING The IC3 Institute report states that youngsters are reluctant to seek mental health support. Academic distress, forced career choice, ragging and bullying, caste discrimination and financial stress are a few reasons behind the suicides Odisha (834). ‘These five states together account for 46% of the total student suicide cases in the country. On the other hand, Uttar c m y b Pradesh, despite being the most populous state in the country, recorded a comparatively lower percentage of student suicide cases, consti- tuting only 5.3% of the nationwide total. This is particularly significant considering that Uttar Pradesh’s population constitutes 17.3% of the country,” the report said. The southern states and UTs, namely Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep reported 29% of all student suicides across the nation. The report suggested that addressing students’ mental health issues at a nascent stage was critical. It urged that the schools must implement early intervention programmes to identify vulnerable students and provide timely support. “A key factor in preventing student suicides is helping young individuals discover purpose and meaning in their academic pursuits and personal lives. The role of school educators extends beyond academic instruction; they serve as mentors and emotional pillars,” the report stated.