NEW DELHI 17 OCTOBER 2021 SUNDAY `12 PAGES 24  facebook/TheMorningStandard  twitter.com/TheMornStandard https://epaper.morningstandard.in Finding Farm Fitness The Fastest Outsider PLUS: 12 PAGES MAGAZINE EXCLUSIVE VOICES Past Masters Prabhu Chawla TJS George Shankkar Aiyar Ravi Shankar Back in the Spotlight In a stern message to dissenting leaders, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi said that she was a “full time and hands on president” and expected her leaders would talk directly to her. “I have always appreciated frankness. There is no need to speak to me through the media. So let us all have a free and honest discussion,” she asserted. Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Bhagel met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and discussed issues related to his state. The meeting comes when there has been ongoing power tussle in state with state minister TS Singh Deo seeking change of leadership. Amidst a pending Cabinet reshuffle, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot is also scheduled to meet the party chief. R I C H A S H A R M A @ New Delhi THE Congress will get a new party chief by mid-2022 as the party on Saturday rolled out a schedule for organisational elections from the block level to the president with Rahul Gandhi indicating he would be ready to lead again. After a five-hour long Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, it was announced that the election of the new Congress president will be held between August 21 and September 20 and the AICC plenary will be held by October next year. Sonia Gandhi took over as the interim chief in 2019 after Rahul resigned taking responsibility for the party’s debacle in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The last election to t h e C o n g r e s s Wo rk i n g Committee (CWC) was held in 1997. During the CWC meeting, several senior leaders, in- AFTER several unsuccessful attempts, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has finally convinced Rahul Dravid to take over as head coach of the Indian men’s team. It is understood that despite saying no earlier, Dravid agreed to a twoyear deal after meeting board president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah in Dubai on Friday afternoon. The BCCI will now formally advertise for the post and Dravid has to go through the process of applying and appearing before the Cricket Advisory Committee, which appoints the head coach. This is expected in the coming weeks, so that Dravid Journey Between Time and Space Interim Congress president Sonia Gandhi with party leader Rahul Gandhi during the Congress Working Committee meeting in New Delhi on Saturday | PTI Cong plans rejig as Rahul signals he’ll take charge cluding chief ministers of the three Congress-ruled states, urged Rahul to become the president. Senior party leader Meira Kumar said none other than Rahul would be acceptable to party workers and it was not a “diamond crown but of thorns.” Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot also said Rahul had stopped political discussions with him and he should take over and all would agree to his decisions. Rahul said he would consider but he needed to be convinced about the ideology of party leaders and what they think the Congress stood for. Rahul referred to the appointment of Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and how the latter started crying when he called him. Rahul said the party was ready to give voice to women, Scheduled Castes, minorities and the poor and he was ready to work for them. He lauded sister Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra’s action in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident but said the party needed to be swift in action and not take too long. With several party leaders leaving the party Pri, yanka said those who want to leave could go and but those who wanted to continue needed to follow the party’s ideolo g y, which is not negotiable. On the Trinamool Congress’s targeting of the Congress leadership, many said the party must reconsider its plan to reach out to Mamata Banerjee. On political strategist Prashant Kishor’s induction in the party the CWC members felt the , need to adopt modern tools and election strategy but there was no need for Kishor. MORE REPORTS ON PAGE 7 A week after three minority community members and a street vendor from Bihar were killed, another gol gappa seller from Bihar and a carpenter from Uttar Pradesh were shot dead, the first in Srinagar and the other in Pulwama. The late evening shootings came on day when two militants who were responsible for the killings of civilians in Srinagar last week, were shot dead in a gunfight in Pulwama, south Kashmir. A police official said the street vendor, Arbind Kumar Sah of Banka in Bihar, was shot dead near Eidgah in downtown Srinagar in the evening. “He was shot at point blank range. He had received bullet injuries in the head and died on the spot,” he said. Within an hour, a carpenter belonging to Uttar Pradesh was shot at a shop in the Litter area of Pulwama in south Kashmir. Identified as Sagir Ahmed, he received critical bullet injuries and was rushed to the district hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. Immediately after both the incidents, the police and paramilitary personnel rushed to the area and launched a search operation. At least nine civilians, including three minority community members, have been killed in a fortnight. Lt Governor Manoj Sinha strongly condemned the killings. “My heartfelt condolences to families who have lost their loved ones. J&K Govt stands in solidarity with the bereaved families in this hour of grief,” Sinha tweeted. He said the perpetrators of the heinous attacks would be punished. “We have intensified our efforts to crush terrorists & their ecosystem. They will have to pay a very heavy price for killing innocent civilians. I urge people to speak in one voice & join hands in the fight against terror.” Meanwhile, two The Resistance Front militants, Umer Mushtaq Khandey and Shahid Khurshid, were killed in an encounter in the Pampore area of Pulwama in south Kashmir. can take charge from the home series against New Zealand in mid-November. Ever since it became known that Ravi Shastri wouldn’t continue after the T20 World Cup, BCCI had been trying to get the former batsman nicknamed ‘Wall’ on board. He was reluctant because of family commitments and preferred to continue as head of cricket at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru. He had applied when BCCI advertised for this post in August, sending a signal that he was not keen on replacing Shastri. After Dravid refused, BCCI approached a few candidates from home and abroad. But given India’s gruelling schedule, most of them opted for franchise cricket. The BCCI made a last effort in Dubai. According to an official privy to the meeting, the board explained the situation and plans vis a vis the 2023 Wo rl d C u p wh i ch I n d i a will host. Dravid has been managing the U-19 and India A teams since 2015. He is credited for creating a strong bench. “He has put a method in place and someone else can take it over from here. Dravid can keep an eye on the NCA programme even if he becomes the head coach. We haven’t decided on his exact role. If need be, he would be made in-charge of men’s cricket. We need to hear his inputs too, because handling the senior team and others is not easy,” the board official said. It is learnt Dravid has sought time, but board officials insist that he won’t make a U-turn once the BCCI formally puts out an ad. In the men’s team, the former captain will also have Paras Mhambrey who has , been working with him in the India A and U-19 teams as bowling coach since 2015. Security personnel inspect a car near the site of encounter in Poonch’s Nar Khas forest area | PTI He was shot at by militants from point blank range. He had received bullet injuries in the head and died on the spot... The slain militants were the collaborators in recent killings in Srinagar Police official At least 9 victims in last 14 days As many as nine civilians — three members of the minority community, three non-local residents and three local Muslims — have been killed by the extremists in the Kashmir Valley in the last fortnight Bodies of two missing soldiers found in Poonch E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Srinagar A Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and a soldier who had gone missing after a gunfight with militants in the Nar Khas forest area of Poonch district in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday have been killed and , their bodies recovered, the army said on Saturday . Their bodies were found during the operation in the forest area, which continued for the sixth day on Saturday . The army had launched a massive search operation in the forest area of Poonch after two soldiers, including Subedar Ajay Singh and Naik Harendra Singh, went missing following Thursday’s gunfight in Poonch. More reinforcements, including special forces para commandos, joined the operation. The search operation was widened and more areas brought of expensive electricity and power cuts. With his confidence growing, he set up a 300 KW plant in 2020 and a 400 KW plant this year. Today, his industrial unit has a capacity of 770 KW of power, where 10,000 units are produced daily . “We paid a monthly power bill of `30 lakh. Today we save , around `5 lakh every month,” says Garg. The biggest producer of solar energy in Bhiwadi is Honda Motorcycles. It produces 1,41,600 units of electricity daily from its six solar plants. The other major producers are APM Industries, which has 11 solar plants producing 29,260 units daily, Nahar Industries (30,560 GOAL Second arrest in Singhu horror case KICK OF GLORY In Jharkhand, a coach is training girls who are now making waves on field | P5 EXPRESS READ I insisted Uddhav become CM: Pawar Pune: NCP chief Sharad Pawar said he had insisted that Uddhav Thackeray become Maharashtra CM, hours after BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis claimed Thackeray was eyeing the seat despite saying a no. “I thought why not the son of a person who contributed for Maharashtra should become the CM,” Pawar added. PM to inaugurate 7 medical colleges on Oct 25 Lucknow: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate seven new medical colleges in Uttar Pradesh from Siddharthnagar district on October 25, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said. The Uttar Pradesh CM was in Siddharthnagar to review the preparations for Modi’s arrival. Earlier only big companies would set up solar plants. Now smaller units too are coming forward. In the past three years, we have set up solar plants in 30-40 industrial units —Anoop Arora, MD of Green Root About 150 industralists have put up their own solar power systems | EXPRESS units daily) and Saint Gobain with 29,200 units. Experts say each solar power plant can produce about four units per KW and can run for 10 hours in summers and about 4-6 hours in the winter season at full capacity. Every unit of electricity uses about 400 grams of coal and in that sense, the solar plants in Bhiwadi are saving about 200 tonnes of coal and are far less polluting. The Petro Pol Sariya unit has set up a 500 KW solar plant. Its owner Atul Singhla says he doesn’t have enough space in the factory to set up a bigger unit that could help him save `35 lakh still being spent to buy electricity . The trend of setting up power plants in Bhiwadi has caught up in the last five years, says Anoop Arora of Green Root Renewable. The government offers a concession of 90% on the cost of power produced by solar plants. However, industrial- under the cordon. The army also used helicopters in the search. Defence spokesman in Jammu, Lt Col Devender Anand, said communication with the two soldiers was disrupted on October 14 evening. An army official said the troops were moving cautiously in the dense forest area and that there have been two major gunfights since October 11. In the gunfight at the Nar Khas forest area on Thursday evening, two soldiers, Vikram Singh Negi Yogambar Singh, were killed. On October 11, a JCO and four soldiers were killed in a village close to Dera Ki Gali in Surankote, Poonch. DIG, Poonch-Rajouri range, Vivek Gupta said the dense forest area was providing natural cover. “We believe that we have pinpointed their position in a particular area.” NABBED Amid shortage of power, Rajasthan industrial town lights up WHILE many areas of Rajasthan are reeling under a power crisis caused by the coal shortage, industrialists in Bhiwadi town of Alwar district have shown the way ahead. Around 150 of them on the Delhi-Jaipur Highway have put up their own solar power system. The power generation — around 5 lakh units every day — is just enough to meet their needs. The power cost too is much less than the regular supply, which means big savings. Ram Prakash Garg, MD of Ratan Engineering, had set up a 70-kilowatt solar plant in 2018 to overcome the twin-problem Can Man, Woman Ever Be Equal? F AYA Z W A N I @ Srinagar SOLAR TRICK R A J E S H A S N A N I @ Jaipur SADHGURU SPEAKS Slain civilians belonged to Bihar and UP; two militants gunned down in Pulwama encounter Writing on the wall: Dravid India coach V E N K ATA K R I S H N A B @ Chennai Flying Dahi Vada and Other Sorties VENDOR, CARPENTER SHOT DEAD IN KASHMIR, L-G ISSUES WARNING Talk to me directly, not through media: Sonia Baghel meets party chief, discusses issues Pushpesh Pant Aparajita Jain Rohtash Mal Hetal Sonpal ists rarely get the benefit, though for farmers, it’s a huge relief. Setting up solar plants is profitable as the cost incurred in setting them up is recovered by reduction in power bills. “Earlier only big companies would set up solar plants. Now smaller units too are coming forward. In the past three years, we have set up solar plants in 30-40 industrial units,” says Anoop Arora. Around 3,500 industrial units in Bhiwadi consume the highest electricity in Rajasthan compared to other industrial towns. H A R P R E E T B A J W A @ Chandigarh ANOTHER Nihang, Narain Singh, was arrested on Saturday in the killing of a Schedule Caste man at the Singhu border on Friday. He was arrested by the Punjab Police and will be handed over to the Haryana Police even as Sarabjit Singh, who was arrested yesterday, was sent to seven days police custody by a court in Sonipat. Narain was today arrested from Amarkot village of Jandiala Guru in Amritsar. Senior Superintendent of Police Amritsar (Rural) Rakesh Kaushal said “we arrested Narain from his village Amarkot as we had information that after committing the crime he came back in order flee. The police surrounded his village as he tried to escape and arrested him.” “During the questioning he admitted that he cut the left leg of the deceased as he attacked him with sharp-edged weapons. He claimed the deceased admitted to them that he desecrated the Guru Granth Sahib. He will be handed over the Haryana Police,” Kaushal said. Meanwhile, around 15 Schedule Caste organizations submitted a memorandum to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes demanding stringent action against those who killed 35-year-old Lakhbir Singh. They urged the commission to ensure a fair investigation.