National News
KCR eyes a national role, pursues goal of ‘BJP-mukt Bharat’

While the BJP is trying to corner him on his home turf, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is looking at a national role in what is seen as a counter-attack.
Though under pressure at home due to a likely strong anti-incumbency after two terms in power and aggressive tactics being adopted by the BJP, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief is going ballistic against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
KCR, as Rao is popularly known, is mincing no words in attacking Modi and the BJP over what he called their divisive politics, wrong policies and deliberate attempts to destroy the spirit of federalism.
In what is seen as a repeat of Modi’s old slogan of ‘Congress-mukt Bharat’, KCR has now come out with the slogan ‘BJP-mukt Bharat’.
While KCR has been planning a national foray since 2018, it is only during the recent months that he has stepped up his efforts.
In a letter to Prime Minister Modi last month, KCR alleged that because of lack of planning and lack of cooperative federalism, the county is passing through a most difficult phase with unprecedented problems of falling rupee values, high inflation, skyrocketing prices and increasing unemployment coupled with low economic growth.
The TRS leader has also slammed the Centre for not treating states as equal partners in collective effort to make India a strong and developed country. By raising the issues like cooperative federalism, he is trying to unite the states.
KCR also lashed out at the Centre for treating borrowings of state PSUs for their capital needs as state government borrowings. He said this has put brakes on the progress of Telangana and many other states.
A bitter critic of both BJP and Congress for failing to fulfil the aspirations of the people even after 75 years of Independence, KCR has been talking of an alternative to bring a qualitative change in the national polity and transform India into a prosperous nation to its full potential.
KCR, who has good oratory skills not just in Telugu and English but also in Hindi, is trying to project himself as a pan-India leader who can take on Modi.
On many occasions, he ridiculed the threat of some BJP leaders to use agencies like the Enforcement Directorate (ED) against him. He dared them to use the Central agencies against him saying he is not the one to be cowed down.
Though KCR has been travelling to different parts of the country and holding consultations with leaders of various parties, it is still not clear whether he plans to forge an alliance of various parties or float a national political party.
“He is making an effort (for a national foray) but it’s too early to comment,” said political observer professor K. Nageshwar, adding, “There is no colour or shape yet.”
KCR is trying to test waters with his visits to different parts of the country. He visited Punjab, Bihar and Jharkhand to distribute assistance to families of soldiers martyred in clashes with Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley and also to the next of kin of farmers killed during the protest against the three farm laws of the Centre.
Agriculture and the problems faced by farmers is key on KCR’s national agenda and he is projecting the success achieved by Telangana in transformation of agriculture by executing the irrigation project Kaleshwaram, billed as the world’s largest lift irrigation project, 24-hour free electricity to farmers and investment support to farmers at the rate of Rs 10,000 per acre per year.
In what is seen as an aggressive push of this agenda, KCR has promised that if a non-BJP government comes to power at the Centre, free electricity can be supplied to farmers across the country.
He also recently hosted a meeting of farmer leaders of 26 states. The two-day meet proposed a joint forum of farmers at the national level to replicate Telangana’s success in agriculture.
The deliberations indicate that KCR has finally taken the initiative to unite farmers’ organisations from across the country to work on the alternate national agenda.
With leaders of farmers’ unions unanimously adopting a resolution urging KCR to lead a nationwide campaign to unite farmers for the struggle, the TRS leader appears set to don a national role.
The farm leaders, who were impressed with the initiatives taken by KCR’s government, requested him to lead a nationwide campaign to unite farmers right from the village level.
He called for a debate at the national level on how Telangana, a state created only eight years ago, succeeded in ensuring 24-hour round the clock electricity supply to all sectors, free and uninterrupted supply to farmers and drinking water to every household.
KCR has been trying to build a narrative around his national aspirations. He is highlighting the failures of the Modi government during last eight years and the achievements of the TRS government during the same period.
Projecting the ‘successful’ Telangana model, he is talking of replicating it.
“Why can’t the country achieve what the youngest state has achieved in a short span of time,” he asks.
KCR claimed that Telangana’s achievements came despite the discrimination it faced at the hands of the Centre.
He cites the restrictions being imposed on the state’s borrowing limit and the Centre not sanctioning even a single new project for Telangana in eight years.
KCR’s son K.T. Rama Rao, who is a key Cabinet minister and also the working president of TRS, often points at Telangana’s significant contribution to the national economy and what the state is getting in return.
“For every rupee that Telangana contributes to the nation, we only get back 46 paisa,” said Rama Rao. He pointed out that Telangana gave Rs 3.65 lakh crore in form of taxes to the Centre since 2014 but the Centre gave back only Rs 1.68 lakh crore.
KTR, as the young leader is popularly known, claims that the KCR government has outperformed the Modi government by many miles. He cited a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) report of October 2021, which says that Telangana, which accounts for 2.5 per cent of Indian population, is contributing 5 per cent of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The TRS leader went on to say that if only the BJP states had performed on par with Telangana, India would have been a $4.6 trillion economy.
Political analyst Palvai Raghvanedra Reddy is of the view that KCR is playing a much broader national card with the hope that his Telangana model of governance will stop Modi and his model of governance.
“However, voters across Telangana, would look at what is being delivered to them from this government, and might not compare it with Modi,” he said.
Crime
Manipur govt launches verification of papers of arms license holders

Imphal, April 19: The Manipur government has launched a drive to verify the licensed arms and asked all the district administrations to examine the papers of the arms license holders and arms dealers, officials said on Saturday.
A senior official said that the Commissioner (Home) has, in an urgent circular, asked the Deputy Commissioners of all 16 districts to take steps to verify the papers of arms license holders and arms dealers in their respective districts.
Accordingly, all the Deputy Commissioners directed the arms license holders and arms dealers to submit their papers in their nearest or respective police stations on or before April 25.
“Non-compliance with the orders may lead to penalisation and cancellation of arms license,” the official said, referring to the circular of the Commissioner (Home). Till March 6, around 1,000 looted and illegally held weapons, including many sophisticated arms, and a huge cache of ammunition, have been returned to the security forces since Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla appealed for the first time on February 20.
The initiative to recover the looted and illegally held arms began on May 31, 2023, when former Chief Minister N. Biren Singh made an appeal to all concerned to surrender the firearms looted from security forces and police armouries.
Officials said that before Singh’s resignation as Chief Minister on February 9, a total of 3,422 firearms had been voluntarily surrendered to the authorities and police stations in different districts.
Various official reports, political parties claimed that during the ethnic riots, which broke out in Manipur on May 3, 2023, over 6,020 varied types of sophisticated arms and lakhs of different types of ammunition were looted from the police stations and police outposts by the mobs, attackers and militants.
Education
JEE Main 2025 session 2 results declared, 24 candidates score 100 percentile

New Delhi, April 19: The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Saturday officially declared the results of JEE Main 2025 Session 2 Paper 1 on its official website, jeemain.nta.nic.in.
Notably, 24 candidates have achieved a perfect 100 percentile score in the exam, with the highest number of toppers hailing from Rajasthan, followed by Maharashtra, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Telangana, among other states.
The NTA announced that the results of 110 candidates found using unfair means, including forged documents, in JEE (Main) have been withheld. More than 9.92 lakh candidates had appeared for the second edition of the crucial exam.
The JEE Main 2025 scorecard includes a detailed breakdown of each candidate’s performance, featuring raw marks, subject-wise percentiles, the overall NTA score, All India Rank (AIR), and JEE Advanced eligibility status.
Alongside individual scores, NTA has also released the category-wise cut-offs for JEE Advanced 2025 eligibility. These cut-offs will help students evaluate their chances of progressing to the next phase or securing seats through the Joint Seat Allocation Authority (JoSAA) counselling process, expected to commence in June 2025.
This announcement marks a crucial academic milestone for lakhs of aspirants across the country, JEE Main serves as a gateway to top engineering institutions, including NITs, IIITs, and other Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs).
It is also the qualifying exam for the prestigious JEE Advanced, which paves the way to admission into the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
In a move to maintain transparency and accuracy in the evaluation process, NTA released the final answer key for the JEE Main 2025 April session on Thursday.
As per the updated key, two questions have been officially dropped, one from the April 3 first shift (domestic set) and another from the April 2 first shift (international set).
These decisions were made after reviewing valid objections submitted during the challenge window. However, the answer key was briefly removed from the official website late Thursday night.
Candidates who have qualified for JEE Advanced 2025 can now begin the registration process and ramp up their preparation. Those who did not qualify will participate in JoSAA counselling to explore other premier engineering opportunities.
disaster
4 dead, 12 feared trapped in Delhi’s Mustafabad building collapse: NDRF (LD)

New Delhi, April 19: At least four people have died and around 12 are feared trapped after a four-storey building collapsed in the Mustafabad area of Delhi in the early hours of Saturday, officials said.
The incident occurred around 3 a.m., following intense overnight rainfall and thunderstorms that hit several parts of the city.
Sandeep Lamba, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (North East District), said, “Four among the 14 rescued succumbed to their injuries… The building was four floor high. Rescue operations are ongoing, and eight to ten people are still feared trapped.”
Providing an update from the ground, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) official Mohan Shaheedi said, “Around 12 people are feared trapped under the debris, including 9 adults and 3 children. According to information from local sources, 6 people have been rescued so far and shifted to the hospital. Two NDRF teams are present at the site, supported by Delhi Fire Services, Delhi Police, and volunteers.”
He added, “Authorities are identifying cavities and possible locations under the debris where survivors may be trapped. Technical searches are underway using rescue dogs to detect any signs of life. If any indication is found, special focus is given to that area. The operation is highly challenging and is being carried out with the utmost care.”
Teams from the NDRF, Delhi Police, Fire Services, and local volunteers continue to work tirelessly at the site.
The area has been sealed off as the rescue operation enters a critical phase. The exact cause of the collapse will be investigated once the rescue efforts conclude. Rescue operations are underway.
The house collapse incident occurred just hours after a sudden shift in Delhi’s weather on Friday night when heavy rainfall and thunderstorms lashed several parts of the city.
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