CMYK 31 Precipition: 60% Humidity: 83% 31 26 Wind: 14 KM/H Rs. 3 KOLKATA THURSDAY, 5 MAY, 2022 PG-12, YEAR—8, ISSUE—340 (RNI NO.: WBENG / 2014 / 56803) Hijab row continues as Gaziabad college remained closed for the third consecutive day. P 3 BJP MP Dilip Ghosh collecting money for the families of victims of political vendetta. APRIL 18 THURSDAY Morning India PG 3 PG 5 P. Chidambaram in the cauldron of HC politics MI News Service, New Delhi: Veteran Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram in the face of the wrath of pro-Congress lawyers in the Calcutta High Court. Pro-Congress lawyers have rallied around Chidambaram for questioning the state government in a Metro Dairy case. The former finance minister was surrounded and given a go-back slogan. Provincial Congress president Adhir Chowdhury has filed a public interest litigation alleging corruption in the sale of Metro Dairy shares. In that case, Chidambaram went to the High Court to question the impatient, that is, the Coventers Agro. On his way back after the hearing of the case, he was confronted by the protests of the pro-Congress lawyers. Pro-Congress lawyers led RBI hikes repo rate by 40 bps on inflation worries, equities plunge Pro Congress lawyers agitate in front of former Union Finance minister P Chidambaram at Calcutta High Court, on Wednesday in Kolkata. MI News Service, New Delhi: Re- serve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das on Wednesday said that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the central bank, in an off-cycle meeting, hiked the repo rate by 40 basis points (bps) to 4.40 per cent with immediate effect. Repo rate is the rate at which the central bank lends short-term funds to banks. The RBI has cut the repo rate by 250 basis points since February 2019 to help revive the growth momentum. The Monetary Policy Committee has been on a prolonged accommoda- Amit Shah to visit West Bengal today MI News Service, New Delhi: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is likely to attend some public programs during his two-day visit to West Bengal beginning from Thursday, officials said. From flagging off a floating boat ambulance to laying of Maitri Museum, the Home Minister is scheduled to attend six public events during his visit to the West Bengal. Shah will flag off of floating boat ambulance K Continue PG 5 Modi participates in India-Nordic Summit in Copenhagen MI News Service, Copenhagen: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other heads of Government participated in India-Nordic Summit at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark on Wednesday. The second India-Nordic summit saw see the participation of the Prime Ministers of Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Sweden, and Norway. This meeting came shortly after PM Modi held bilateral meetings with the Nordic leaders. K CMYK Continue PG 5 tive stance to support the growth. Also, the case reserve ratio has been hiked by 50 basis points to 4.5 per cent. The move was taken in order to contain inflation. The ongoing geopolitical tensions are pushing inflation higher in major economies besides the crude oil price also being volatile and above $100 per barrel. Edible oil shortage is due to the conflict and ban by exporters, said Das. "The decision today to raise the repo rate may be seen as a reversal of rate action of May 2020. Last month, we had set out a stance of withdrawal of accom- modation. Today's action needs to be seen in line with that action," Das said. "I would like to emphasise that the monetary policy action is aimed at containing inflation spike and re-anchoring inflation expectation," Das said. "High inflation is known as detrimental to growth." Das, however, added that monetary stance remains accommodative and actions will remain calibrated. Most importantly, the unscheduled announcement by the central bank surprised the equity markets as it nose-dived right after. Sensex tanked nearly 1,100 points, whereas Nifty over 300 points. According to the economic experts, this action will certainly trigger enhancement of interest rate in home and car loan sector. ”The situation is bit dicey and dainty”, said eminent economist S Kar.” This action will to some extent surly going to affect the middle class at the same time it will enhance cash reserves for banks as well” he added. In the mean time different political parties, viz, Congress, TMC, Congress have severely criticized this action defining it as ‘anti common man’. Pakistan drops on World Press Freedom Index MI News Service, Karachi: Pakistan has dropped further on the list of countries in terms of protection of journalists in a report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), media reports said. According to the RSF report, Pakistan has fallen by 12 places to 157 out of 180 countries. Last year, Pakistan was ranked 145th on the list, Geo News reported. Expressing his concern on the worsening situation, the President of Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors (CPNE), Kazim Khan, said that one can disagree with the editorial policy, but no one can impose their decision on an institution. Fazil Jamili, President of Karachi Press Club, said that freedom of expression will be protected by putting personal interests above everything, Geo News reported. World Press Freedom Day is celebrated every year on May 3 to highlight the fundamental principles of press freedom and present the current state of journalism to the world. The day is also celebrated to show solidarity and pay tribute to the journalists who were killed, injured or affected while performing their duties. The 2022 edition of the World Press Freedom Index, which assesses the state of journalism in 180 countries and territories, highlights the disastrous ef- fects of news and information chaos -- the effects of a globalised and unregulated online information space that encourages fake news and propaganda, RSF said. Within democratic societies, divisions are growing as a result of the spread of opinion media following the "Fox News model" and the spread of disinformation circuits that are amplified by the way social media functions. K Continue PG 5 Ram Vilas Paswan's bungalow likely to be Prez’s retirement home MI News Service, Delhi : The 12th Janpath Road Bungalow allotted to former Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, where he lived till his last breath, will soon find a new occupant. If sources are to be believed, Paswan's bungalow will be President Ram Nath Kovind's retirement home. The repair work is in full swing at the Lutyens bungalow at present. As per the information and data available with the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, this property has currently been allotted to the Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship of India Rajeev Chandrasekhar. However, Rajeev was unable to move into his new house as its previous occupant Chirag Paswan did not vacate the house after his father's demise until he was recently evicted. The general pool bungalow, 12, Janpath (Type VIII) was allotted to Ram Vilas Paswan on March 14, 1990, in his capacity as the then Union Minister of Labour and Welfare. He continued to occupy the bungalow over the years in various capacities. As per the official rules, the family was eligible to re- tain the bungalow till November 7, 2020, on a rentfree furnished basis and for another one month on payment of normal rent and payment of water and electricity charges. "The dates on which eviction teams were sent to the 12, Janpath bungalow were August 5, 2021, September 1, 2021, February 7, 2022, February 22, 2022, and March 15, 2022. Finally, the team carried out the evacuation on March 30, 2022," added the sources. Type VIII bungalows are generally allocated to Union Ministers. This bungalow was to be allocated to Ministers in the Modi government, who took oath on July 7 last year, including a few of them, who still continue to live out of flats given to them as MPs, sources said. Before Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the bungalow was allotted to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav, who too moved to another official accommodation since junior Paswan did not vacate the house. As per sources, the bungalow was first offered by the government to Chirag Paswan's uncle and Union Minister Pashupati Paras, who declined the offer. by Kaustav Bagchi, the leader of the Congress lawyers' cell and spokesman for the provincial Congress, tried to surround Chidambaram. He was also shown a black flag. As a result, the situation became tense and there was pandemonium created in the High Court premises. The former finance minister was forced to get into the car and leave the court premises. Koustav Bagchi, a leader of pro-Congress lawyers, claimed that Chidambaram had hurt thousands of Congress workers in the state by fighting lawsuits on behalf of the Trinamool government. The state Congress leaders are being betrayed due to Chidambaram’s stand. Kaustav alleged Chidambaram had taken money from the ruling TMC. Kaustav Bagchi said that he also informed Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury about this. Kirti Azad replacing Mahua as in-charge of Goa unit MI News Service, Kolkata: The party on Wednesday appointed Kirti Azad as the new in-charge for its Goa unit. Kirti Azad, a cricketer-turned-politician, had switched over to the TMC from Congress last year. He was earlier a BJP MP from Bihar. Azad replaced TMC MP Mahua Moitra who was the in-charge of the Goa unit. The appointment will come into force with immediate effect,the party confirmed it in an official statement. With Goa venture not going well with the party, the party now envisages specific changes at different strategic positions at various levels. Both Azad and Moitra refrained from giving any reaction to this sudden and interesting development.