All arrangements made in Udupi for smooth polling; tight security in place

coastaldigest.com web desk
April 17, 2019

Udupi, Apr 17: The district administration of Udupi, which falls under Udupi-Chikkamagaluru Lok Sabha constituency, has made all arrangements to facilitate smooth polling in the four Assembly constituencies under its jurisdiction.

Deputy Commissioner Hephsiba Rani Korlapati told media persons that there were 15,13,231 voters in the Udupi-Chikkamagaluru parliamentary constituency, including 7,74,674 women and 7,38,503 and 54 others. The total number of polling booths in the constituency, which included eight Assembly segments of Kundapur, Udupi, Kaup, Karkala, Sringeri, Mudigere, Chikkamagaluru and Tarikere, was 1,837.

The administration had made arrangements for setting up 25 Sakhi booths, two booths for differently abled persons and one ethnic booth. The administration had also made arrangements to provide for wheelchairs, magnifying glass, Braille script ballot papers, ramp and other facilities for the differently abled.

The administration had identified the vulnerable and critical booths and there would be additional vigil in these places. As many as 996 presiding officers, 996 assistant presiding officers, 1,367 security personnel, 952 Group D employees, 206 micro observers and 1,972 booth officers would be pressed into service on the polling day.

The administration had distributed voter slips to 99.05 % voters. The booth-level officers would be present at the help desk at polling booths. Electronic Voting Machines along with VVPATs had been arranged for polling in the district. The first and second rounds of randomisation of EVMs had been done in the presence of political parties and candidates.

The administration had received 222 complaints on C-Vigil app. Of them, 178 cases had been investigated and disposed of, while 44 were dummy cases. Action had been taken on 166 cases within 100 minutes.

As many as 1,513 calls had been received on the voter helpline and all of them were attended to. Of the 97 complaints received on NGRS portal, 90 had been disposed of.

Security stepped up

Udupi Superintendent of Police Nisha James said that tight security arrangements had been made for the smooth conduct of parliamentary elections in the four Assembly constituencies of Udupi-Chikkamagaluru parliamentary constituency in Udupi district.

Addressing presspersons here, Ms. James said that of the 865 polling booths in the four Assembly constituencies of Udupi, Kundapur, Karkala and Kaup in the district, 685 were normal, while 36 booths were in the naxalite-affected areas.

Personnel from the Police Department, Home Guards, Forest, four units of Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP), two companies of Indo-Tibetan Border Police, were being deployed in the district.

Already the police along with the Anti-Naxalite Force (ANF) had taken up combing operations eight times in the naxalite-affected areas.

As regards firearms, of a total of 3,733 arms, 3,696 have been deposited, while 29 had been exempted, one impounded and while licenses of six arms holders were cancelled and one case was pending as the permit holder was abroad, she said.

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News Network
January 12,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 12: Karnataka’s ranking in Niti Aayog’s sustainable development goals (SDG) index rose by one place to No. 6 in 2019, compared to the year before.

Of the 17 SDGs that are used to compute the overall index, Karnataka topped in two – ‘climate action’ and ‘life on water’. The former is a measure of how well a state integrates climate action into policies and strategies and promote mechanisms for raising capacity for effective climate change planning and management. The latter focuses on preventing marine pollution, ending illegal and destructive fishing practices, and sustainably managing and protecting marine and coastal ecosystems.

It also did well in ‘decent work and economic growth’ and ‘peace, justice and strong institutions’. But it fared poorly, slipping 16 places – from No. 5 in 2018 to No. 21 in 2019 – in ‘industry, innovation and infrastructure’. Rankings in ‘quality education’ and ‘zero hunger’ have also fallen. While in education it is now ranked 7, a drop of three places, in ‘zero hunger’, it has dropped to No. 17 from 13. SDG is a United Nations initiative. Niti Aayog has customised it for India, and 36 states and union territories are ranked. The organisation admits there is an issue of data availability in India, indicating the numbers may not exactly reflect the ground situation.

In ‘industry, innovation and infrastructure, Karnataka scored just 40 out of a target of 100. The country average was 65. It failed to achieve targets in all the four parameters for the category, except in the number of mobile connections, where it has 100 connections per 100 population. The biggest dip was in manufacturing industry jobs and in providing allweather roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana to targeted habitats. Niti Ayog has given a score of 0 for the latter. Speaking on the dismal performance in the ‘industry and infrastructure’ category, state planning commission vice-chairman BJ Puttaswamy said he was yet to look into this parameter. “I have asked the departments concerned to meet me by Monday,” he said.

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News Network
April 28,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 28: A local court in Karnataka on Tuesday granted bail to a CRPF commando who was arrested by state police officials for alleged assault on them during COVID-19 lockdown duty, a charge contested strongly by the paramilitary.

The jawan has been taken to the jungle warfare training school of the paramilitary force in Belagavi district, a senior official said.

Constable Sachin Savant of the 207th CoBRA battalion was granted regular bail by a court located in Chikodi taluka of the district, he said.

A team of CRPF and CoBRA officials were present in the court during the proceeding during which the state police did not oppose the bail, the official said.

The commando was arrested by police on April 23 from Examba village (Belagavi district) when he was washing his bike outside his house without wearing a mask, as required under the coronavirus prevention protocol.

An altercation and physical fight took place between the two sides, following which the trooper was taken to the local police station and arrested.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had on Monday taken up the case with the Karnataka director general of police (DGP), calling the incident "unpleasant".

The CRPF letter said commando Savant was "manhandled, ill-treated, paraded to the police station barefooted, kept in chains and handcuffs" by police personnel and sought the intervention of state Director General of Police Praveen Sood.

The paramilitary had said that from the scrutiny of a viral video on social media of the incident "it is apparent that the conduct of the police personnel was not citizen-centric".

A police report had said the CoBRA commando "started the altercation" with the beat constable and another policeman accompanying him, and "assaulted" them.

As per the official Twitter handle of the Karnataka DGP's on Monday evening, "IGP (inspector-general of police) Belagavi has been asked to enquire into the incident involving the CRPF constable and action will be taken against guilty after receipt of the report".

The Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA) unit of the CRPF specialises in guerrilla tactics and jungle warfare.

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News Network
February 26,2020

Mangaluru, Feb 26: Mangaluru Smart City Limited (MSCL) Managing Director Mohammed Nazir on Wednesday said that 13 Schools in eight wards, here, will be upgraded under the Area Based Development (ABD) of the Smart City Mission (SCM).

Mr. Nazir, in a statement, said that the Schools selected include Government Higher Primary School Car Street, Bastigarden, Neereshwalya, Hoigebazar Lower Primary School, Government Practicing HS, Balmatta Primary School, Balmatta Secondary School, Bunder Higher Primary School (Urdu), Bunder Government High School (Urdu) and Bolara East Government Primary School.

These Smart Schools will have IT-enabled interactive teaching and learning tools, computer labs and open reading plazas.

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