24102024-TTB-01.qxd 10/24/2024 ISRAELI STRIKES ON LEBANON KILL 28 WORLD /thetribunechd 12:19 AM Page 1 13 CHANDIGARH | GURUGRAM | JALANDHAR | BATHINDA | VOL. 144 NO. 295 | 20 PAGES | ~5.00 | REGD. NO. CHD/0006/2024-2026 ESTABLISHED IN 1881  DELHI thursday | 24 october 2024 /thetribunechd www.tribuneindia.com At bilateral, PM & Xi agree to work out fair, reasonable border solution BRICS Pave the way for resumption of dialogue between special representatives Ajay Banerjee Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 23 India and China on Wednesday decided to resume their stalled bilateral relationship by tasking their special representatives with overseeing steps to ensure peace and tranquillity in border areas. They have also been asked to work out a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable” solution to the pending boundary issue. The decision was announced following a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS summit at Kazan, Russia. Modi and Xi, who held their first formal meeting after five years, welcomed the agreement reached between the two countries earlier this week on patrolling arrangement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. The patrolling arrangement is coupled with a plan to disengage troops from 2 former UP DGPs to probe social boycott of Dalits in Hisar village Tribune News Service PM Modi with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Russia. PTI USE LOCAL CURRENCY TO BOOST TRADE: BRICS DECLARATION BACK PAGE the two remaining friction spots — Depsang and Demchok. In the meeting, Modi underscored the importance of properly handling differences and disputes and not allowing them to disturb peace and tranquillity. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and China’s foreign minister Wang Yi are the special representatives on the boundary issue. They have not formally met since their 22nd meeting in New Delhi in December 2019. The armies of the two sides are locked in a military standoff since April 2020. Modi and Xi tasked the special representatives to meet at an early date to oversee the management of peace and tranquillity in border areas, said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). “They will explore a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution to the boundary question,” it added. Since the two countries don’t have a demarcated boundary, special representatives were tasked to resolve the problem two decades ago. The 3,488-km LAC is the undemarcated, and often contested, b o u n d a r y. Sources say continued on page 7 SC raps Centre, Punjab, Haryana on farm fires, cites right to clean air Satya Prakash New Delhi, October 23 The Supreme Court has ordered an independent probe by two retired IPS officers into allegations of social boycott of Dalits by a “dominant community” at a village in Hisar district of Haryana. “We request Vikram Chand Goyal and Kamlendra Prasad, both former DGPs of UP to carry out an inde, pendent investigation into the prevailing situation and file a status report before this court so as to enable us to proceed further in this case,” a Bench led by Justice MM Sundresh ordered on October 16. The Bench directed the two former DGPs to file a status report within continued on page 7 Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 23 As air quality continues to deteriorate in Delhi-NCR due to stubble burning, the Supreme Court on Wednesday faulted the Centre and the governments of Punjab and Haryana for inaction and reminded them of citizens’ right to clean environment. “Time has come for us to remind the Government of India and state governments that there is a fundamental right vesting in every citizen under Article 21 of the Constitution to live in a pollutionfree environment,” a three-judge Bench led by Justice AS Oka said. The Bench, which also included Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Justice Augustine George Masih, pulled Pulls them up over toothless legislation, letting off errant farmers with small penalty up the governments of Punjab and Haryana for not prosecuting all errant farmers and letting them off with small fines. As the Centre said Section 15 of the Environmental Protection Act, 1986, which provides for penalty, has been amended, the Bench said the Act had become “toothless”. “What action has been taken by you under Section 14 against erring officials? We will take the Union of India to task as they submit that Section 15, which provides for penalty, has been amended. You don’t have the adjudi- Priyanka’s poll plunge cating officer to enforce it. The Environmental Protection Act has been made toothless,” it said. As the Bench criticised both the states for being selective in registering cases and collecting compensation from violators for causing farm fires leading to air pollution, Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh said penalising and punishing farmers wasn’t the ultimate solution to the problem. Haryana Senior Additional Advocate General Lokesh Sinhal submitted the state was giving incentives to farmers to persuade them for crop diversification and use of machinery to check stubble burning and air pollution. Asking the Centre to consider amending the law to continued on page 7 MVA partners reach pact, to fight 85 seats each in Maharashtra NEW DELHI: After days of negotiations, the Maharashtra election chess board was finally laid out on Wednesday with the opposition MVA announcing a seat-sharing deal. MVA partners — the Shiv Sena (Uddhav), the Congress and the NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) — will contest 85 seats each in the 288member H o u s e with 18 seats still undecided. The pact was announced hours after ruling Shiv Sena declared its first list of 45 candidates. Congress candidate Priyanka Gandhi Vadra files her papers for the Lok Sabha bypoll in Wayanad on Wednesday. PTI INSIDE BACK PAGE In War-ring zone Gidderbaha, a Badal spices up fight ArchitWatts & Rajmeet Singh Tribune News Service Gidderbaha/Chandigarh, October 23 The battle for Gidderbaha is turning into Punjab’s hottest contest, with former friends-turned-arch-rivals, turncoats and political enemies staring balefully at each other as the Assembly segment goes to the polls on November 13. In the forefront are BJP candidate Manpreet Badal, a former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Finance Minister and five-time MLA, Congress candidate Amrita Warring, wife of Ludhiana MP and state party chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, as well as AAP candidate Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon. But it is the open animosity between (From left) BJP candidate Manpreet Badal, Congress nominee Amrita Warring and AAP’s Dimpy Dhillon during their campaign in Gidderbaha. TRIBUNE PHOTOS the Badal and Warring camps that is drawing eyeballs across the state. In 2012, a young and upstart Raja Warring won Gidderbaha from under the VINESH, PUNIA WEAKENED STIR: SAKSHI BACK PAGE nose of Manpreet Badal, then in the People’s Party of Punjab — a firm favourite and nephew of Parkash Singh Badal, Manpreet had been Finance Minister when Badal Senior was the Chief Minister; a falling out in the family ensured his expulsion from the SAD in 2010; so he floated the PPP , fought Gidderbaha, and lost. Manpreet then shifted base to Bathinda Urban in 2017, fighting on the Congress ticket — and won. Five years later, in 2022, the former Congressman not just lost to AAP’s Jagroop Gill, he lost his security deposit as well. His return to Gidderbaha after 12 years, this time as a BJP candidate, is interesting, not only because he has hopped from one party to another in the five terms that he continued on page 7 Today’s issue is of 20 pages, including four-page Delhi Tribune. c m y b