Jammu, June 6: During his welcome address to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jammu and Kashmir’s (J&K) Katra town on Friday, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah made a passionate appeal for restoration of statehood.

During his welcome speech for the Prime Minister, CM Omar Abdullah said, “Jenab-e-Wallah (exalted sir), when you inaugurated the Katra railway station towards the end of my first term as the Chief Minister, Manoj Sinha ji was the Union Minister of State for Railways.

“He has been promoted as the Lieutenant-Governor while I have been demoted from the Chief Minister of a state to that of a Union Territory. I am confident that your goodself will soon address the issue and announce statehood to J&K”.

He also praised the Prime Minister for making the dream of a rail link to the Valley a reality.

“I was in class 8 and since then I have been hearing about a rail link to the Valley. The dream has been realised in your time sir.

“The start of the train service to the Valley will save us from the loot of the airlines companies who hike airfare to Jammu from Rs 5,000 to Rs 25,000 whenever the Srinagar-Jammu highway gets blocked.

“I must also pay my gratitude to Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who declared the rail link to the Valley a national priority project and made financial allocations for it,” CM Omar said.

On the stage with PM Modi, CM Omar’s body language was very cordial as the PM engaged him in some close to ear talk.

He was also in the forefront of all the official functions on Friday, including the inauguration of the Chenab Railway Bridge, the Anji cable stayed railway bridge, the flag-off ceremony of two Vande Bharat trains, one from Katra to Srinagar and the other from Srinagar to Katra.

CM Omar was among the dignitaries who welcomed the PM on the stage before the latter’s address to the public in Katra stadium.

Mumbai, June 6: The RBI has revised its inflation outlook for 2025-26 downwards from the earlier forecast of 4 per cent to 3.7 per cent, Reserve Bank Governor Sanjay Malhotra said on Friday.

Taking all these factors into consideration, and assuming a normal monsoon, CPI inflation for the financial year 2025-26 is now projected at 3.7 per cent, with Q1 at 2.9 per cent, Q2 at 3.4 per cent, Q3 at 3.9 per cent, and Q4 at 4.4 per cent.

He pointed out that Inflation has softened significantly over the last six months from above the tolerance band in October 2024 to well below the target, with signs of a broad-based moderation. The near-term and medium-term outlook now gives us the confidence of not only a durable alignment of headline inflation with the target of 4 per cent, as exuded in the last meeting, but also the belief that during the year, it is likely to undershoot the target at the margin.

While food inflation outlook remains soft, core inflation is expected to remain benign with easing of international commodity prices in line with the anticipated global growth slowdown, Malhotra explained.

He pointed out that CPI headline inflation continued its declining trajectory in March-April, with headline CPI inflation moderating to a nearly six-year low of 3.2 per cent (y-o-y) in April 2025. This was led mainly by food inflation, which recorded the sixth consecutive monthly decline.

Fuel group witnessed a reversal of deflationary conditions and recorded positive inflation prints during March and April, partly reflecting the hike in LPG prices. Core inflation remained largely steady and contained during March-April, despite the increase in gold prices exerting upward pressure, Malhotra said.

The outlook for inflation points towards benign prices across major constituents. The record wheat production and higher production of key pulses in the Rabi crop season should ensure an adequate supply of key food items. Going forward, the likely above normal monsoon along with its early onset augurs well for Kharif crop prospects.

Reflecting this, inflation expectations are showing a moderating trend, more so for the rural households. Most projections point towards continued moderation in the prices of key commodities, including crude oil, the RBI Governor said.

However, at the same time, Malhotra had a word of caution. “Notwithstanding these favourable prognoses, we need to remain watchful of weather-related uncertainties and still evolving tariff-related concerns with their attendant impact on global commodity prices,” he added.

Thiruvananthapuram, June 6: Reacting to the controversy after the Kerala Agriculture Minister P. Prasad boycotted the state-level celebrations on the World Environment Day at the Raj Bhavan — the official residence of the state Governor, Rajendra V. Arlekar, the latter expressed his displeasure.

Speaking at the event as the state Governor, Arlekar expressed his displeasure by saying that the Agriculture Minister should also have been present here.

“The State Education Minister informed that he could not come. Then the Agriculture Minister also did not come. I do not know what better issues we have, the Agriculture Minister wanted to remove the portrait of Bharat Mata from the dais,” said Governor Arlekar.

“I told them that we will do everything else, but we cannot remove Bharat Mata’s portrait as this is what we are living for and probably that’s the reason why they did not come,” he added.

“What sort of thinking we have in our minds,” lamented Governor Arlekar.

The reason was that the State Agriculture Minister did not want the portrait of the Bharat Mata, commonly used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), to be placed on the central dais.

Minister Prasad told the media that the programme was decided after speaking to the Governor.

“Last night, a change was made, and this was not acceptable to the state government. The picture was not the regular Bharat Mata picture which we use, but at the Raj Bhavan, it was the one that is used by the RSS. It is not right to keep such pictures, and the Governor said it cannot be changed, and hence the state government decided not to take part in the event at the Raj Bhavan,” he said.

“This is an unconstitutional thing. It is only after this Governor took over that there have been such changes. We have the highest regard and respect towards the normal Bharat Mata picture, but not the one used by the RSS,” Prasad added.

Incidentally, on Tuesday evening, officials from the concerned Minister’s office were at the Raj Bhavan for an inspection of the Central Hall, where the picture of Bharat Mata was kept.

Later, the officials who visited the Raj Bhavan told the Minister about the picture. Following this, the Minister spoke to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and later, the decision was taken that Minister Prasad would not attend the meeting.

The Minister called the Raj Bhavan and told that he would not be able to attend the event if the picture of Bharat Mata used by the RSS was not removed.

However, Governor Arlekar stood his ground and said that the picture of Bharat Mata would not be removed.

Later, the state government decided to hold a function in the Durbar Hall of the State Secretariat to mark the World Environment Day celebrations.

The Kerala Chief Secretary, A. Jayathilak, was directed to organise a separate event.

Prior to this event, on Thursday, there were two different state-level functions — one chaired by Governor Arlekar at the Raj Bhavan and the other in the Durbar Hall with Minister Prasad presiding over.

Prasad, a first-time legislator, is a member of the Commmunist Party Of India (CPI).

Former Kerala Minister and State CPI Secretary, Binoy Viswam, said this was unacceptable, as the picture of Bharat Mata used by the RSS should not be displayed at a state function.

Incidentally, last month, Governor Arlekar had invited prominent RSS ideologue S. Gurumurthy for a talk after the successful Operation Sindoor, and Chief Minister Vijayan had said that it was wrong to convert the Raj Bhavan into a place for the RSS.