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High turnout in sixth phase of LS poll

April 24, 2014

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New Delhi, Apr 24: High voter enthusiasm today marked the sixth phase of polling covering 117 constituencies spread across 12 states as the race to the Lok Sabha crossed the half-way mark with stakes high for Congress and BJP.

Barring the killing of a policeman in Assam's Kokrajhar district in BSF firing to ward off mobs trying to capture a booth and a suspected Maoist attack on a poll team in Jharkhand, the polling today was peaceful.

The turnout today in all the 11 states and 1 union territory, including Mumbai, was higher than the previous Lok Sabha elections in 2009, in sync with the trend witnessed in the five earlier phases this time.

While the highest turnout of 83 per cent was recorded in the lone seat of Puducherry followed by West Bengal (82 per cent for six seats) and 73 per cent for all the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu which saw singled-phased polling today.

Only two states--Rajasthan (59.2 per cent for five seats) and Maharashtra (55.33 per cent for 19 seats)--registered below 60% turnout.

Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag constituency, where PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti in in fray, recorded the lowest turnout of 28 percent today but it was still higher than the 26.9 per cent recorded five years ago.

About 18 crore voters were eligible in the sixth phase to exercise their franchise to decide the electoral fate of nearly 2100 candidates including political heavyweights like External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid (Congress) who is in fray from Farrukhabad constituency in Uttar Pradesh state, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav contesting from Mainpuri also in UP, leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj (BJP) in Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh, her party colleague Shahnawaz Hussain in Bhagalpur in Bihar and President Pranab Mukherjee’s son Abhijit in Jangipur in West Bengal.

After today’s polling, the voting in 347, or close to two third, of the total of 543 Lok Sabha seats are over with 216 seats left in the remaining three of the total of nine phases of the elections.

Today’s was the second biggest phase of the staggered elections after the fourth phase held on April 17 covered 121 seats.

BJP and Congress are squared off in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh states but the politically most important part of today’s polling was the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu where BJP and a cluster of smaller regional parties have firmed up a rainbow alliance projected by opinion polls as having a realistic chance of bagging six to seven seats.

In the previous parliamentary poll five years ago, DMK had won 18 seats and AIADMK nine. Some opinion polls have projected Jayalalithaa-led party to secure 24 seats this time and if that comes true, she will be a key factor in forming the next coalition government at the Centre in the event of a fractured electoral mandate.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s son Karti, DMK's A Raja, the prime accused in 2G spectrum case, and senior Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar are among some of the key candidates in Tamil Nadu this time.

The 19 Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra which went to poll today, including six in Mumbai, are crucial as the state’s ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party alliance is projected to be struggling in the state which has a total of 48 seats.

Mumbaikars shed some of their known polling-day apathy with 53 per cent voter turnout and overall, around 56 per cent of 3.18 crore voters exercised their franchise to decide the fate of 338 candidates including Union Minister Milind Deora, sitting MPs Priya Dutt and Sanjay Nirupam of Congress, social activist Medha Patkar and ministers in Prithviraj Chavan government Chhagan Bhujbal and Sunil Tatkare.

The turnout in Mumbai was a significant improvement over 2009 Lok Sabha elections when only 41.43 per cent electorate exercised their franchise.

Bollywood celebrities, including Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, and industry captains were among early voters to beat the afternoon heat. After a brisk start in the morning, queues at polling booths dwindled to a trickle in the afternoon as the mercury rose but voting picked up again towards the evening.

Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar cast his vote along with wife Anjali around noon at a polling booth near their residence in suburban Bandra. Mumbai's six seats were swept by by Congress in the last elections.

The electoral fate of three high-profile Congress candidates were settled today in Mumbai—federal minister of state Milind Deora, Priya Dutt, sister of Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt, and senior party leader Gurudas Kamat. Aam Aadmi Party’s Medha Patkar, a leading environmentalist, and leading banker Meera Sanyal, BJP’s Poonam Mahajan, daughter of slain party leader Pramod Mahajan, are some of the other key candidates in the fray in Mumbai.

Today's polling in UP, which saw high-profile contests involving Mulayam Singh Yadav, his daughter-in-law Dimple, wife of state chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, Salman Khurshid and film actor Hema Malini, saw a turnout of 602. per cent.

In the seven seats decided in Bihar today, the turnout was 60 percent and among key contestants are BJP's Shahnawaz Hussain in Bhagalpur and union minister Tariq Anwar of NCP.

With today’s polling in Assam’s six seats, Chhattisgarh’s seven and Jharkhand’s four, voting has been completed in the three states. In Assam, an estimated 77.05 per cent of voters today exercised their franchise to seal the fate of 74 candidates.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who represents Assam in Rajya Sabha since 1991, and his wife Gursharan Kaur cast their vote at Dispur Government Higher Secondary School in Guwahati.

The voting percentage was expected to increase with people still inside polling booths and voting likely to continue till after 9 PM, election office sources said.

Of the six Lok Sabha seats, Dhubri recorded the highest 80.97 per cent of voter turnout followed by Mangaldoi at 80.01 per cent, Kokrajhar at 77.74 per cent, Nowgong at 75.33 per cent, Gauhati at 75 per cent and Barpeta at 74.21 per cent.

In West Bengal, 82 per cent was recorded in six parliamentary constituencies in the state's second leg of the five-phase elections in West Bengal today.

"On an average 81.42 per cent of the voters cast their votes till 6:00 pm in the six constituencies of Raiganj, Balurghat, Malda North, Malda South, Jangipur and Murshidabad in north Bengal," Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta said.

"However, there are long queues in many polling stations and the polling will continue till they are cleared. The final turnout can reach about 84 per cent," Gupta said.

People boycotted polls in five booths, two in Malda and three in North Dinajpur districts, protesting the absence of development.

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News Network
July 26,2020

New Delhi, Jul 26: Nidan Singh Sachdeva, the Afghan Sikh who was kidnapped a month ago and released recently, arrived here earlier in the day and narrated the ordeals that he faced at the hands of abductors and also thanked the Indian government for bringing him back to his 'motherland'.

Facing threats from Pakistan-backed Taliban, eleven members of Sikh community from Afghanistan, who were granted short-term visas by Indian Embassy in Kabul, including Sachdeva, who was abducted from a gurudwara in Paktia province last month, touched down in New Delhi on Sunday afternoon.

Speaking to news agency on his return, an emotional Sachdeva, said, "I don't know what to call Hindustan -- whether it is my mother or my father -- Hindustan is Hindustan."

"I was abducted from the gurudwara and 20 hours later, I was covered with blood. I was tied to a tree as well. They used to beat me and ask me to convert into a Muslim. I repeatedly told them that why should I convert, I have my own religion," he said while describing
Nidan Singh thanked Government of India for bringing him here.

"I am more than thankful to the Indian government for bringing us here to our motherland. I have no words to describe my feelings here. I arrived here after much struggle. The atmosphere of fear prevails there.

Gurudwara is where we can be safe but a step outside the Gurdwara is fearful," he said.
"They used to beat me every day and every night," he said further and added, "It is because of sheer happiness, I am speechless. I am very grateful to them."

Ministry of External Affairs recently announced that India has decided to facilitate the return of Afghan Hindu and Sikh community members facing security threats in Afghanistan to India.
The decision comes four months after a terror attack at a gurdwara in Kabul's Shor Bazaar killed at least 25 members of the community.

India has condemned the "targeting and persecution" of minority community members by terrorists in Afghanistan at the behest of their external supporters remains a matter of grave concern.

Leaders of the Afghan Sikh community have appealed to the Indian government to accommodate the Sikhs and Hindus from Afghanistan and grant them legal entry with long term residency multiple entry visas.

Once a community of nearly 250,000 people, the Sikh and Hindu community in Afghanistan has endured years of discrimination and violence from extremists, and the community is now estimated to comprise fewer than 100 families across the country.

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News Network
June 23,2020

New Delhi, Jun 23: With an increase of 14,933 new cases and 312 deaths in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count reached 4,40,215 on Tuesday.

According to the latest update by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), 14,011 deaths have been recorded due to the infection so far in the country.

The rise in confirmed cases today is lower than the highest spike of 15 thousand plus cases registered on Sunday.

The count includes 1,78,014 active cases, and 2,48,190 cured/discharged/migrated patients.

Maharashtra with 1,35,796 confirmed cases remains the worst-affected by the infection so far in the country. The state's count includes 61,807 active, 67,706 cured, discharged patients while 6,283 deaths have been reported due to the infection so far.

Meanwhile, the national capital's confirmed coronavirus cases reached 62,655.

2,233 deaths have been reported in Delhi due to the infection so far.

Tamil Nadu has reported 62,087 cases so far with toll increased to 794.

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News Network
May 24,2020

New Delhi, May 24: The Indian economy is likely to slip into recession in the third quarter of this fiscal as loss in income and jobs and cautiousness among consumers will delay recovery in consumer demand even after the pandemic, says a report.

According to Dun & Bradstreet's latest Economic Observer, the country's economic recovery will depend on the efficacy and duration of implementation of the government's stimulus package.

"The multiplier effect of the stimulus measures on the economy will depend on three key aspects i.e. the time taken for effecting the withdrawal of the lockdown, the efficacy of implementation and duration of execution of the measures announced," Dun & Bradstreet India Chief Economist Arun Singh said.

The report noted that the government's larger-than-expected stimulus package is likely to re-start economic activities.

Besides, measures taken by the Reserve Bank of India like reducing the repo rate by a further 40 basis points to 4 per cent, extending the moratorium period by three months and facilitating working capital financing will also help stimulate the momentum.

Singh said while the measures announced by the government are "positive", most of them have been directed towards strengthening the supply side of the economy, and "it is to be noted that supply needs to be matched with demand", he said.

Besides, "in the absence of cash-in-hand benefits under the government's stimulus package, demand for goods and services is expected to remain depressed", he added.

He further said the loss in income and employment opportunities, and cautiousness among consumers, will lead to a delayed recovery in consumer demand, even after the pandemic. As debt and bad loan levels increase, the banking sector might face challenges.

The report further noted that even as the monetary stimulus is expected to inject liquidity and stimulate demand for a wider section of the economy, the channelisation of funds from the financial institutions will be subjected to several constraints.

The foremost concern being increase in risk averseness, as the balance sheets of firms, households, and banks/NBFCs have weakened considerably and low demand for funds by firms as production activities have been on a standstill during the lockdown period, Singh said.

India has been under lockdown since March 25 to contain the spread of the coronavirus, resulting in supply disruptions and demand compression.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi imposed a nationwide lockdown to control the spread of coronavirus on March 25. It has been extended thrice, with some relaxations. The fourth phase of the lockdown is set to expire on May 31. 

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