MONDAY MAN CITY CHAMPIONS, NO QUADRUPLE FOR LIVERPOOL 23 Man City showed the heart of champions to post a fighting win on Sunday, denying their rivals the top prize by one point MAY, 2022 DOMINANT RUN: FOURTH IN FIVE YEARS epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard twitter.com/TheMornStandard GUJARAT POLL FIGHT OVER JOBS GAINS TRACTION Oppn parties are debunking Gujarat’s growth to woo voters, especially the youth A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS PAGE 8  NEW DELHI  J8.00 PAGES 12  This is Manchester City’s fourth Premier League title in the last five years. Sunday’s title for Manchester City means Liverpool are out of the running for the quadruple — four major titles in a season. Liverpool had already won two and were in the running for two more (Premier League & Champions League) until Sunday’s matches | P11 Manchester City’s German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan celebrates with teammates after scoring his team’s third goal | AFP States will not face pinch Quad, talks with Biden on PM’s menu of fuel cess cut, says FM Japanese honchos to meet PM on biz affairs Adds excise reduction made in Road and Infrastructure Cess E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ New Delhi A day after the Union government slashed central excise duty on fuel, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday said its entire burden will be borne by the Centre as the reduction has been made in the Road and Infrastructure Cess, which is not shared with the states. Excise duty on petrol and diesel has four components — Basic excise duty Special Additional , excise duty (SAED), Road and Infrastructure Cess (RIC) and Agriculture and Infrastructure Development Cess (AIDC). Basic excise duty is sharable with states but SAED, RIC & AIDC are non-sharable, so states will not suffer any revenue loss, Sitharaman said in a series of tweets. “The excise duty reduction of `8/litre on petrol and `6/ litre on diesel (effective from Centre to today) has entirely been made take `2.2 L cr in Road & Infrastructure Cess hit in a year (RIC). Even in November ’21, the reduction of `5/litre in Saturday’s excise petrol and `10/litre in diesel duty cut would was entirely made in RIC,” cost the Centre `1 lakh crore per she added. Sitharaman also juxtapose annum. Revenue the development expenditure implication of incurred by the Modi govern- the duty cut in ment so far (2014-2022) as November 2021 against the UPA (2004-2014), was `1.2 lakh saying the figures were `90.9 crore. So, total lakh crore and `49.2 lakh revenue loss is crore, respectively The Modi `2.2 lakh crore, . government spent `24.85 lakh Sitharaman said crore on food, fuel and fertiliser subsidies and `26.3 lakh crore on capital creation, while only `13.9 lakh crore was spent on subsidies during the erstwhile UPA rule, the finance minister said. Meanwhile, the coalition-ruled Maharashtra on Sunday joined the list of a few states that cut Value Added Tax (VAT) on petrol (by `2.08) and diesel (`1.44). Kerala had on Saturday cut the state tax on petrol and diesel by `2.41 and `1.36, respectively The Congress-ruled Rajasthan will . reduce VAT by `2.48 on petrol and `1.16 on diesel. Stop fooling people: Rahul’s swipe at govt over oil prices E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ New Delhi FORMER Congress chief Rahul Gandhi led his party’s attack on the fuel excise duty reduction, saying that the government should end fooling the people. Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh and former union minister P Chidambaram joined Rahul in slamming the government’s Saturday decision. In the midst of the slugfest, NDA ally and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar lauded the Centre for the reduction in excise duty on petrol and diesel and hinted that his government might do its bit after due deliberations, raising hopes of further relief. In a tweet, Rahul compared petrol prices between May 1, 2020 and now, and said the “government must stop fooling citizens”. “Petrol Prices ‘ May 1, 2020: `69.5, Mar 1, 2022: `95.4, May 1, 2022: `105.4, May 22, 2022: Rs 96.7m Now, expect Petrol to see ‘Vikas’ in daily doses of ?0.8 and ?0.3 again,” he tweeted. “Govt must stop fooling citizens. People deserve genuine relief from record inflation.” At a press conference, Congress spokesperson Gourav Vallabh accused the Modi government of being “high on political gimmick” and low on relief. “The BJP government’s cluelessness about the economy and financial management has been out in the open for long now. Instead of accepting it and seeking guidance from experts, the BJP only resorts to trickery to create an optical delusion,” Vallabh alleged. “The FM announced a reduction of Rs. 8 per litre on petrol and Rs. 6 per litre in Central Excise. While it may seem a significant reduction in absolute terms, the point of contention doesn’t change,” he argued, citing figures of Rs 9.48 excise duty in 2014 and Rs. 19.9 in May 2022. “Three steps forward and two steps back doesn’t mean it leads to any improvement in the lives of the common people.” Karthik, Umran set for SA test With the T20 World Cup in Australia coming up in October 2022, the next few months are crucial in understanding how India are going to approach the global event. As the squad for the T20Is against South Africa was named, a look at the key talking points… NEWCOMER Having rattled enough batters across teams in the IPL, Jammu & Kashmir pacer Umran Malik and Punjab’s Arshdeep Singh have earned their maiden call-up to the Indian T20I side. While Umran made a name for himself with his express pace, sharp bouncers and yorkers at SRH (21 wickets till Sunday), Arshdeep, the 2018 U-19 World Cup winner, has been the standout performer (10 scalps at 7.7 RPO) for PBKS COMEBACK MEN As expected, Dinesh Karthik and Hardik Pandya made their way back to the team after some impressive performances in the ongoing IPL. While Hardik led Gujarat Titans from the front as they finished at the top of the points table in the league stage, with 287 runs at a strike rate of 191.33, Karthik has literally smashed his way into the squad Major misses Among those who were part of T20I series against Sri Lanka and were expected to retain their place, Sanju Samson has been left out. In the two innings he batted against Sri Lanka, Samson made 57 runs at a 154.05 SR. In IPL 2022, too, Rahul Tripathi (413 runs at 158.23 SR) is the only Indian to have scored more runs at a better SR than Samson (374 runs at 147.24 SR) P11 Y E S H I S E L I @ New Delhi PRIME Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden will have a bilateral meeting in Tokyo on the sidelines of the Quad Summit, both sides confirmed on Sunday . “In addition to the Quad, President Biden will have a distinct bilateral meeting with PM Modi. It won’t be part of the formal agenda of Quad, but significant security issues in the Indo-Pacific will come up and all of the Quad members also share an interest in peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” said US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on PM Modi on Monday will attend an event in Tokyo where US President Joe Biden will launch the ambitious Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity. The PM is also scheduled to hold separate meetings on Monday with a number of leading corporate honchos, including NEC Corporation chairman Nobuhiro Endo, Uniqlo president Tadashi Yanai, Suzuki Motor Corporation adviser Osamu Suzuki and Softbank Group Corporation board director Masayoshi Son. Joe Biden board Air Force One. The fourth Quad Summit begins on May 24. “I will hold a bilateral meeting with President Biden, where we will discuss further consolidation of our multi-faceted bilateral relations with US. We will also continue our dialogue on regional In India’s food bowl, KCR & Kejriwal invoke sacrifices made by farmers KCR and Arvind Kejriwal with a kin of farmer in Chandigarh on Sunday I PTI one platform, Rao met Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. This was his second meeting with Kejriwal in two days. On Saturday he along with Ke, jriwal and deputy chief minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, went to see Delhi government schools and Mohalla clinics. According to sources, the two discussed national politics, states’ role in India’s E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ New Delhi/Chandigarh WITH the presidential election in sight, Telangana Chief Minister Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has launched hectic parlays with leaders of opposition parties to take on the BJP. As part of his weeklong ‘national mission’ to bring like-minded parties on LESSON NOT LEARNT OVER YEARS From Uphaar to Mundka, the number and names of victims keep changing; what remains constant is callousness of officials and people | P5 NATIONWIDE MAY 21 MAY 22 DELHI MAY 21 MAY 22 Fresh cases 2,323 2,226 Fresh cases 479 365 Recoveries 2,346 2,202 Recoveries 569 530 25 65 01 01 Deaths Deaths Bengal: Blow for BJP as another MP joins TMC Experts visit Kashmir tunnel collapse site, NHAI to submit report in 10 days E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ Kolkata E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E IN a fresh jolt for the BJP in West Bengal, its Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh left the party and returned to Mamata Banerjee’s fold. Arjun was handed the TMC flag by Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday . “This is the return of a boy back to his own home. I was with the TMC since its emergence as a political force. Because of some misunderstanding, I left,” he said. When asked whether he would resign as MP, Arjun said, “The party (TMC) will take the final call.” Last year, the BJP’s Asansol MP Babul Supriyo resigned from the post after joining the TMC. In the subsequent by-election, the TMC defeated the BJP reducing the saffron camp’s , share in the state’s Lok Sabha seats to 17. A committee of experts visited the collapse site of an under construction tunnel at Khooni Nallah on Srinagar-Jammu national highway in Jammu and Kashmir in which 10 labourers were killed. The three-member panel will also suggest remedial measures to complete the project. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways set up the committee under the chairmanship of Professor JT Shahu of IIT-Delhi. “Further action would be taken based on the committee report. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has already initiated a process to handle such emergency situa- GHAR WAPSI Narendra Modi developments and contemporary global issues,’’ said Modi. Biden wants to send a message of deterrence to China on Taiwan. “We do not want to see unilateral changes to the status quo and we certainly don’t want to see military aggression,” Sullivan added. An Indo-Pacific Economic Framework will be launched during the the summit. It is an arrangement for further integration of the Indo-Pacific economies, setting standards and rules, particularly in new areas like the digital economy and also trying to ensure that there are secure and resilient supply chains. @ New Delhi/Srinagar tions and is also taking all possible measures to avoid such accidents in future,” said the ministry . The ministry has also directed the NHAI to issue directions to officials and has sought a report within 10 days. On Thursday night, a portion of the under construction tunnel between Digdole and Khoni Nallah on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway had caved in Ramban district caved. While two workers were rescued immediately, the rescue work was hampered by intermittent shooting stones and bad weather. Rescuers ran against time to save 10 workers were trapped inside the tunnel, but it was too late by the time they entered the collapsed structure. The ministry said that the stretch is prone to frequent landslides or shooting stones due to fragile geology “Before workers . could be moved out, suddenly a huge rock mass fell above the false steel portal erected for construction of an audit which resulted in the trapping of 12 workers… It is yet to be determined what was the cause of the collapse,” said a ministry official. growth and the Union Government’s policies. “They also talked about fielding a consensus candidate in the presidential election. Rao is meeting leaders of opposition parties with 2024 elections in focus,” said a source. Both the leaders then left for Chandigarh together, where they handed over cheques of `3 lakh to families of 600 farmers, who had died during agitation against farm laws. The event was attended by Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann. Rao also gave cheques of `10 lakh to five families of soldiers who were martyred during clashes with the PLA in Galwan. Rao said farmers should keep fighting till they get a constitutional guarantee for remunerative prices of their crops. Kejriwal said that there was a tremendous pressure on his government by the Centre to convert all the stadiums of Delhi into open jails during farmers’ struggle. Family of 3 found dead in Vasant Vihar New Delhi: Deadly gas? If the note recovered from the crime spot is to believed, a woman and her two daughters made their house a gas chamber. Police suspect that the trio had hatched the plan to end their lives. Later, the bodies of Manju and her daughters Anku and Anshika were found on the bed in the inner room. The two girls had lost their father to Covid in April last year. While preliminary investigation suggest all three died of suffocation, cops were tight-lipped about the case. P3