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Campaigning for marathon Lok Sabha elections finally ends

May 10, 2014
New Delhi, May 10: Campaigning in the bitterly fought marathon elections for the 16th Lok Sabha spread over five weeks drew to a close today as top leaders sought to muster a final show of strength in the ninth and concluding phase for 41 seats in three states that included Varanasi where Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal are in the fray.

campaignThe campaign marked by attacks and counter-attacks by leaders across the political spectrum and use of derogatory language sometimes through the 9 phases ended at 6 PM for 18 seats in Uttar Pradesh, 17 in West Bengal and six in Bihar. Voting will take place on Monday.

Counting of votes in the world's largest exercise in democracy in which voters have turned up in large numbers will be taken up on May 16 with opinion polls projecting BJP of which Narendra Modi is the Prime Ministerial candidate to be the single largest party.

The ninth phase will witness the mother of all contests in Varanasi involving Modi, the Gujarat Chief Minister, and Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief. Five-time MLA from UP Ajay Rai is the Congress candidate. Modi is also fighting from Vadodara in his home state of Gujarat.

Polling was by and large peaceful in the previous eight phases barring incidents of Maoist violence in Chattisgarh and Jharkand.

The country registered a record turnout of voters, surpassing the previous record in 1984, as 66.27 per cent voting was reported in 502 Lok Sabha seats where polling has been conducted in eight phases that began on April 7. The 2009 elections recorded a 57.94 per cent turnout.

Modi spearheaded the BJP challenge and criss-crossed the country addressing scores of rallies besides holding innovative 'chai par charcha' meetings and also 3D video campaign.

The Nehru-Gandhi family made a vigorous push for votes with Rahul, his mother and Congress President Sonia Gandhi, and his sister Priyanka Gandhi leading the party challenge.

Sonia and Rahul are contesting from the family pocketborough in Rae Bareli and Amethi in UP where the Congress Vice President is pitted against BJP's actor-turned-politician Smriti Irani and AAP's youth leader Kumar Vishwas.

A total of 606 candidates are in the fray for the ninth phase--328 in UP, 188 in West Bengal and 90 in Bihar.

All the 18 parliamentary constituencies in UP that goes to polls on Monday are in the eastern part of the politically crucial state where 80 seats are at stake. OBCs, Muslims and Dalits form a significant part of electorate there.

This includes Azamgarh from where SP President Mulayam Singh Yadav is among the candidates. The former UP Chief Minister is contesting from eastern UP for the first time besides being in the fray from his traditional Mainpuri seat.

Union Minister and Congress leader RPN Singh and Congress turncoat Jagdambika Pal, who joined BJP recently, mafia-don turned politician Mokhtar Ansari, senior BJP leader Kalraj Mishra, Yogi-turned politician Yogi Adityanath, Bhojpuri movie star Ravi Kishan and former Prime Minister Chandrashekhar's son Neeraj Shekhar are among other candidates in the fray in UP.

In West Bengal, prominent TMC candidates in the race are Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Dinesh Trivedi and Sougata Roy besides celebrities like actors Dipak Adhikari (Dev) and Tapas Paul.

Trinamool Yuva President Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, is also in the fray.

On the rival side, CPI-M's Subhasini Ali is among the key candidates.

BJP nominee magician P C Sorcar (Junior) and WBPCC President Adhir Chowdhury, besides former West Bengal Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta of the CPI-M and former Union minister Tapan Sikdar of the BJP, pitted against each other in Dum Dum, are the key contestants in the last phase.

In Bihar, filmmaker Prakash Jha and former union minister Raghubansh Prasad Singh are among the 90 contestants.

During the course of the no-holds barred campaign, the Election Commission also came under attack from BJP and Samajwadi Party.

The EC was targeted by BJP over denial of permission for Modi's rally at the venue it wanted in Varanasi while it incurred the wrath of UP's ruling party in connection with the ban on Azam Khan from campaigning following his alleged hate speeches.

Modi's close aide Amit Shah, who is UP's BJP incharge, was also banned by EC from campaigning over an alleged hate speech. The ban was later lifted.

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Agencies
May 24,2020

Lucknow, May 24: The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has banned Corona patients from keeping mobile phones inside isolation wards of COVID-19 hospitals in the state.

Patients admitted in dedicated L-2 and L-3 COVID hospitals will no longer will allowed to take mobile phones along with them in the isolation wards in order to check the spread of the infection.

According to an order issued by the state government late on Saturday night, two mobile phones will now be available with the ward in-charge of the COVID care centres so that patients and talk to their family members and administration if required.

Further, the orders specify that the mobile numbers should be communicated to the family members of the patients also.

Director General Medical Education, K.K. Gupta, who issued the order, has informed all concerned officials and directors of dedicated COVID hospitals.

"To facilitate the communication between COVID-19 patients admitted in clinics, with their family members, or anyone else, ensure that two dedicated mobile phones while adhering to infection prevention norms, are kept with ward in-charge of COVID care centre," the order said.

According to the latest data available on the website of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Uttar Pradesh now has 5,735 cases of Corona positive patients and the numbers have been growing steadily since the past ten days.

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Agencies
August 6,2020

Mumbai, Aug 6: Former Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan said on Thursday that overly focusing on what sovereign rating agencies think can take one's eyes off what needs to be done for the economy.

"It is also important to convince both domestic and international investors that after the crisis associated with the pandemic is over, we will return to fiscal responsibility over the medium term, and the government should do more to convince them of that," Rajan told the Global Markets Forum.

India was placed under one of the strictest lockdowns in the world in late March for more than two months to stem the spread of the coronavirus, but cases have continued to rise steadily since the government eased restrictions in June, stymieing hopes of an economic recovery.

The government has announced several initiatives to help the poor and small- and medium-size businesses, but actual cash outgo from the government's measures has been estimated at just about 1% of GDP.

Several attribute the fiscal prudence to fear of a downgrade after Moody's cut India's rating and outlook in early June followed closely by a change in outlook from Fitch.

The central bank on its part too has reduced the key lending rate by 115 basis points on top of the 135 bps last year and is widely expected to cut rates by another 25 bps later on Thursday.

"The RBI and government have certainly been cooperating, but it seems like it is elsewhere, the ball is in the government's court to do more," Rajan said.

He said the RBI needs to focus on whether credit is reaching the stressed areas of the economy and also if the viable firms were able to access credit and not the unviable ones.

"And I think that's where it has to focus its attentions, because resources, as you well know, are limited in India today."

Recently analysts, however, have cited the growing possibility the RBI may prefer to pause and cut rates only at its October meeting.

Government officials too have suggested the possibility of any more fiscal stimulus being announced, would only come in the second half of the fiscal year, once a recovery has taken root and coronavirus cases have peaked.

"What India should focus on at this point is protecting its economic capabilities, so that when it has dealt with the virus it can go resume activity in a reasonable way. That should be the focus," Rajan said.

"And if it does that, there is no reason why the rating agencies will not see that as an appropriate policy".

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News Network
February 26,2020

Feb 26: In a midnight hearing, the Delhi High Court directed police to ensure safe passage to government hospitals and emergency treatment for those injured in the communal violence erupted in northeast Delhi over the amended citizenship law.

The court held a special hearing, which started at 12:30 am, at the residence of Justice S Muralidhar after receiving a call from an advocate explaining the dire circumstances under which the victims were unable to be removed from a small hospital to the GTB Hospital.

A bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Anup J Bhambhani directed the Delhi Police to ensure safe passage of the injured victims by deploying all resources at its command and on the strength of this order as well as to make sure they receive immediate emergency treatment if not at the Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital then at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital (LNJP) or Maulana Azad or any other hospital.

The bench also called for a status report of compliance, including information about the injured victims and the treatment offered to them, and the matter will be heard during the day at 2:15 pm.

It said the order be communicated to the medical superintendents of the GTB and the LNJP Hospitals.

The urgent hearing was conducted after advocate Suroor Mander called the judge and sought urgent orders for safe passage of ambulances for the injured.

The Delhi Police and the government were represented through additional standing counsel Sanjoy Ghose.

During the hearing, the bench spoke over phone to doctor Anwar of the Al-hind Hospital in New Mustafabad who told the court that there were two bodies and 22 injured persons there and he had been trying to seek police assistance since 4 pm on Tuesday without success.

The court then directed the senior officials to reach to the hospital forthwith, following which they started the process of evacuating the injured to the nearest hospitals.

It also said this order be brought to the knowledge of the Delhi Police Commissioner.

Communal violence over the amended citizenship law in northeast Delhi claimed at least 18 lives till Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the violence escalated in northeast Delhi as police struggled to check the rioters who ran amok on streets, burning and looting shops, pelting stones and thrashing people.

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