30062025-TT-01.qxd 6/29/2025 11:21 PM Page 1 13 CHANDIGARH | GURUGRAM | JALANDHAR | BATHINDA | VOL. 145 NO. 179 | 12 PAGES | ~6.00 | REGD. NO. CHD/0006/2024-2026 ESTABLISHED IN 1881  HIMACHAL PRADESH IRAN COULD RESTART ENRICHING URANIUM, SAYS IAEA WORLD /thetribunechd BLACKBUCK COUNT AT ABOHAR SANCTUARY DIPS SHARPLY PUNJAB UNEMPLOYMENT IN UT SHAH ASKS NAXALS TO AT 17 PER CENT, TOPS LAY DOWN ARMS, SAYS NATIONAL AVERAGE J&K NO TO TALKS NATION monday | 30 june 2025 /thetribunechd www.tribuneindia.com 3 killed, 50 injured in Puri Rath Yatra stampede; Dist Collector, SP shifted Condition of six persons critical | Odisha Govt announces ~25L each for kin of deceased Puri, June 29 At least three persons, including two women, were killed and around 50 injured in a stampede near Shree Gundicha Temple in Odisha’s Puri on Sunday morning. The incident occurred during a ceremony related to the ongoing Rath Yatra festivities around 4.20 am, officials said. The injured have been admitted to a nearby hospital. The condition of six persons is stated to be critical. The Gundicha Temple, located around 3 km away from the 12th century shrine, is the aunt’s house of Lord Jagannath and his siblings Subhadra and Balabhadra. During the Rath Yatra, the deities visit their aunt’s home, stay there for seven days, and then return to their main abode — the Jagannath Temple. According to the police, chaos ensued after two trucks carrying materials for rituals reportedly entered the crowded spot near the chariots of Lord Jagannath and his sibling deities. The deities were seated on the chariots when the stampede took place. “Thousands of devotees had assembled outside the temple since the early hours to catch a glimpse of the deities when the ‘Pahuda’ (cloth) covering the front portion of the chariots was to be removed, as part of the rituals,” the officials Soil caves in during excavation work in Rajasthan, 4 dead JAIPUR: Four labourers died and three got injured after soil caved in during pipeline excavation work in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur on Sunday morning, the police said. According to the police, some labourers were filling a 10-foot deep trench dug to lay a pipeline near Jangi ka Nagla village when the soil caved in and the labourers got trapped underneath. There were 12 labourers working at the site. — PTI Tokyo-Delhi AI flight diverted to Kolkata over‘cabinheat’issue NEW DELHI: A Delhi-bound Air India flight from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport was diverted to Kolkata on Sunday due to “persistent warm temperature” in the cabin. The aircraft, however, landed safely, Air India said in a statement. Alternative arrangements were being made to fly passengers to Delhi at the earliest, the airline statement said. — PTI A sea of devotees at the annual Jagannath Rath Yatra in Puri, Odisha, on Sunday; and (below) family members of one of the victims mourn at a hospital in Puri. PTI CM TENDERS APOLOGY Due to eagerness among devotees to have a glimpse of Mahaprabhu... an unfortunate incident occurred... I and my government seek forgiveness from all Jagannath devotees. We express our condolences to the families of devotees who lost their lives... Mohan Majhi, ODISHA CM } said. The deceased were identified as Basanti Sahu (36) from Bolagarh, and Premakant Mohanty (80) and Pravati Das (42) from Balipatna. Their bodies have been handed over to family members, and the cremation will take place at “Swargadwar” in Puri. In a punitive measure fol- lowing the stampede, Chief Minister Mohan Majhi ordered the transfer of District Collector Siddharth Shankar Swain and SP Vineet Agrawal. Majhi also announced the suspension of two police officers, DCP Bishnu Pati and Commandant Ajay Padhi. The CM ordered an administrative inquiry into the matter to be carried out under the supervision of the development commissioner. In another order, senior bureaucrat Saswata Mishra was appointed Principal Secretary to the CM in addition to his current responsibilities. The 1996-batch IAS officer is presently posted as Principal Secretary in the Finance Department with additional charge of the Chairman, IDCO. The Odisha Government will provide Rs 25-lakh financial assistance each to the next of kin of the deceased. Another notification issued by the General Administration Department said senior bureaucrat Aravind Agarwal had been appointed incharge of the overall supervision of the Rath Yatra. Earlier in a post on X, Majhi sought forgiveness from devotees of Lord Jagannath for the stampede, and tendered an apology on behalf of his government for the incident. “Due to intense eagerness among devotees to have a glimpse of Mahaprabhu... an unfortunate incident occurred because of jostling and chaos. I and my government seek continued on page 8 SDRF personnel during a rescue operation after the cloudburst in Baligarh, Uttarkashi. ANI Two labourers killed, 7 missing after cloudburst in Uttarakhand Uttarkashi, June 29 Two construction workers were killed while seven went missing on Sunday after a landslide triggered by a cloudburst demolished their shelters along the Yamunotri National Highway in Uttarkashi district, officials said. Bodies of two missing labourers were recovered from the banks of the Yamuna near Tiladi Shaheed Smarak, about 18 km from the place where the landslide occurred, SubInspector Vikram Singh said. The bodies had been sent to the Naugaon community health centre while the search for seven others was continuing, he said, adding the bodies had not been identified yet. The labourers, who are said to be of Nepal origin, were engaged in the construction of a hotel. District Magistrate Prashant Arya said the landslide occurred at Silai bend, about four kilometres ahead of Paligad, Uttarkashi. The labourers were engaged in the construction of a hotel, he said, adding a new landslide zone had developed close to the place. There were 29 labourers at the campsite below the hotel when the landslide occurred, washing away around 10 m of the highway. Twenty of them were evacuated to safety while nine AAP suspends MLA Move to oust HC judge stuck over MPs’ signatures Kunwar Pratap for 5 yrs Satya Prakash Tribune News Service Questioned Vigilance action against Majithia fish involved with drug cartels”. Kunwar Vijay Pratap Chandigarh, June 29 Singh did not take calls or The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) respond to messages. He lattoday suspended former cop- er put up a verse from Gurturned-MLA Kunwar Vijay bani on his social media hanPratap Singh from the party dles, “Kabir jisu marne te for five years for allegedly jagg dare, mere mann indulging in “antianand”, hinting that party activities”. He is the action taken the party MLA from against him didn’t Amritsar (North) and perturb him. has been a vocal critic “He crossed the of his own party’s line this time. In AAP , government. we allow dissent with The MLA had quesparty decisions, but tioned action by the no one can support a Vigilance Bureau person involved in Kunwar Vijay against Akali leader drug trade. He had Pratap Singh Bikram Singh been openly critical Majithia. The decision to sus- of the party for quite some pend Kunwar Vijay Pratap time and no one said a thing to was taken by the AAP political him… till he showed his supaffairs committee, which met port for Majithia and quesin Delhi last evening. tioned the government publiParty leaders were report- cally,” said a senior party edly unhappy over the MLA leader. “If he had any grievtargeting the party’s success ances, he could have aired in arresting Majithia during those on the party platform or its “Yudh Nashian Virudh” with the CM,” added AAP drive. The ruling party has spokesperson Neel Garg. continued on page 8 labelled Majithia as a “big Ruchika M Khanna Tribune News Service New Delhi, June 29 More than six months after 55 MPs submitted a notice of motion to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat for the removal of Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav of the Allahabad High Court for his alleged misconduct, the issue is hanging fire as only 45 MPs have verified their signatures so far. The Rajya Sabha Secretariat is unable to move forward in the matter, awaiting verification of signatures by the remaining MPs, including Independent MP Kapil Sibal, Rajya Sabha sources said. The last ones to verify their signatures were P Chidambaram and Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, they said, adding the Secretariat was waiting for MPs Jose K Mani, Sanjiv Aro- VERIFICATION INCOMPLETE n 55 MPs have submitted a notice of motion to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat for the removal of Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav of the Allahabad HC over alleged misconduct n Only 45 MPs have verified their signatures so far ra, Faiyaz Ahmad, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, GC Chandrashekhar, Raghav Chadha, MONSOON COVERS ENTIRE COUNTRY Pradeep Sharma Tribune News Service A vehicle crushed under an uprooted tree after heavy rain in Shimla on Sunday. PTI n Monsoon covered the entire country almost a n The Shimla meteorological centre has issued a red week earlier than usual, bringing rain to the national capital and other northern states. alert for a rain in 10 districts of HP where the toll , from rain-related incidents climbed to 20. INSIDE Maha cancels 3-language policy orders backing Hindi NEW DELHI: Tribune News Service Aditi Tandon New Delhi, June 29 The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in Maharashtra on Sunday retracted two controversial orders backing the teaching of the Hindi language in Classes I to V across English and Marathi medium schools. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced the government decision to withdraw two government resolu- tions — the first dated April 16, which mandated learning of Hindi as the third language in Classes I to V and another , dated June 17, which made Hindi an optional subject. The announcements meant an effective withdrawal of the three-language policy, making Maharashtra the first BJPled state to face trouble in implementing the language formula recommended by the National Education Policy. “The state Cabinet has NR Elango and Sushmita Dev to verify their signatures before taking the next step. Sibal could not be reached for his comments. At a VHP event, Justice Yadav had allegedly endorsed the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) and made certain controversial remarks against Muslims, attracting criticism from legal and political circles. On December 13, 2024, an Uddhav declares victory, to hold celebratory rally on July 5 decided to withdraw the Government Resolutions (GR) issued in April and June regarding the implementation of the three-language policy from Class I. A committee headed by Dr Narendra Jadhav will be formed to recommend implementation (of the three-language formula),” Fadnavis said today. The panel will submit its report in three months. Fadnavis also attacked Shiv Sena UBT chief Uddhav Thackeray for earlier accepting the recommendations of the Raghunath Mashelkar committee to introduce a three-language policy from Class I to XII. “As CM, Uddhav had accepted the three-language policy and set up a commit- c m y b undated notice of motion under the Judges Inquiry Act, 1968, bearing 55 purported signatures of the members of the Upper House was submitted to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat, seeking his removal from the office. JMM MP Sarfaraz Ahmed’s signature appears twice on the notice. However, Ahmed has confirmed to Rajya Sabha Chairman continued on page 8 Up against UPS, Hry staff plan stir on July 9 Railways to let passengers select preferred seats The Indian Railways is all set to overhaul its reservation system — allowing passengers to select their preferred seats — similar to the practice followed by airlines. According to a senior Railway Ministry official, the upcoming reservation system, which would be functional by the end of this year, would not only offer seat selection but also display a fare calendar. INSIDE Victims were engaged in hotel construction work when incident occurred went missing, the district emergency operation centre said. The NDRF SDRF and , police personnel were carrying out search and rescue operations at the site, the District Magistrate said. Pilgrims returning from Yamunotri had been asked to stay at safe locations due to the blocked highway, he said. Reopening it may take time, the DM said, adding a PWD team was busy clearing the route. Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami prayed for the safety of the missing labourers. In another development, the Chardham Yatra has been suspended for a day in view of a red alert for heavy rains in various districts of Uttarakhand. — PTI tee to implement it,” the CM said. The state government’s retraction follows a staunch opposition to Hindi language circulars by Uddhav. Earlier this week, he had accused the NDA government of attempting to impose a language emergency in the state and also burnt copies of the controversial government orders. Soon after Fadnavis made the announcement today, the Shiv Sena (UBT) and continued on page 8 Chandigarh, June 29 Employees are up in arms against the decision of the Nayab Singh Saini-led government in Haryana to implement the Unified Pension Scheme (UPS) from August 1. They are planning a strike on July 9 against the decision. Coming down heavily against the decision, Subhash Lamba, president of the AllIndia State Government Employees Federation, alleged that the state government had decided to implement the UPS unilaterally without talking to the stakeholders (employees) due to which there was a lot of resentment among the employees. “The decision will be opposed tooth and nail by various democratic means, including a strike on July 9,” Lamba said. He claimed that the government had decided to give the employees the option to choose between the New Pension Scheme (NPS) and the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), which were to be implemented from January 2006. However, OPS VERSUS UPS n In the OPS, there is no deduction from the salary of the employee for pension, only the GPF is deducted n This amount can be spent by the government for development purposes n In the UPS, 10 per cent will be deducted from the salary of the employee and 18.5 per cent will be given by the government n The government cannot spend this amount. It will have to be invested in the private sector n The amount of gratuity, which is up to ~20 lakh in the OPS, is much lower in the UPS the government seemed to have backtracked on its promise. If the government was really employee-friendly, it should give the employees the option to choose between the OPS, the NPS and the UPS, he said. He said central trade unions and federations of central and state government employees’ associations had declared a strike on July 9. The restoration of the old pension by repealing the PFRDA continued on page 8