Voting picks up in Chhattisgarh amid blast, clash

November 11, 2013

chathisgarhRaipur, Nov 11: Balloting picked up as the day progressed in the first phase of the Chhattisgarh assembly elections Monday while a trooper was injured in a huge blast in Kanker and a candidate was left bloodied in a clash between Congress and BJP workers. Maoists disrupted voting in forest areas at nine polling booths in Bijapur, Sukma, Konta and Antagarh assembly constituencies.

A Border Security Force (BSF) trooper was injured in a bomb blast in Kanker district while a bomb weighing about 10 kg was recovered in Bijapur, police said.

Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers clashed in Jagdalpur and Konta assembly constituencies. Congress candidate from Jagdalpur Samu Kashyap was injured in the clash and was taken to hospital.

Polling for 18 assembly seats in Chhattisgarh's Maoist strongholds, which began early Monday on a dull note as several polling booths in the forested interiors were deserted, began to pick up pace as the day progressed.

There was tight security for the first phase polling for 12 seats in Bastar division and six seats in Rajnandgaon district in which a little over 29 lakh voters will exercise their franchise.

The `None of The Above' (NOTA) option, widely called `Right to Reject', is also making its debut in India in the Chhattisgarh polls.

Voting began for 13 seats at 7 a.m. sharp while it started at 8 a.m. for the remaining 5 seats. The majority of polling booths in the forested areas of Bastar wore a deserted look in the early hours.

Voting in constituencies where polling began at 7 a.m. will end at 3 p.m. so that polling officials can return safely from Maoist areas by sunset.

In urban areas such as Jagdalpur town, Kanker and in Rajnandgaon city, polling began at a brisk pace and long queues were seen at several booths.

In Rajnandgaon, where BJP candidate and Chief Minister Raman Singh is contesting, women and youth could be seen queuing up at polling booths.

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News Network
July 20,2020

New Delhi, Jul 20: Alleging that 2,426 companies have "looted" people's savings to the tune of Rs 1.47 lakh crore from banks, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has asked if the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government will conduct a probe into it to punish those guilty.

"2,426 companies looted 1.47 lakh crore rupees of people's savings from banks. Will this government investigate this loot and punish the culprits?" Gandhi said on Twitter, without elaborating.

"Or will it allow them to flee like Nirav and Lalit Modi?" he asked.

Gandhi's attack came after media reports claimed that the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) had released a list of 2,426 borrower accounts that have been categorised as “wilful defaulters” with dues amounting to Rs 1,47,350 crore to the banking system.

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News Network
January 30,2020

Mumbai, Jan 30: The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) has arrested Dr Kafeel Khan from Mumbai airport for allegedly making inflammatory statements at AMU during protests against the Citizenship Amendments Act (CAA) last month, officials said.

Khan was arrested on Wednesday night with assistance from Mumbai Police at the airport when he arrived in the city to attend anti-CAA protests, an official said.

"Officials of the UP STF arrested Dr Kafeel Khan in a case which was registered at Civil Lines Police Station under section 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups) of IPC. Our police team helped our UP counterparts on their request," said an official from Mumbai Police.

He claimed that Khan had made inflammatory statements on December 12 last year during the protest near Bab e Syed Gate outside the Aligarh Muslim University in front of more than 600 students.

The official also alleged that the Gorakhpur doctor had made objectionable comments against Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The FIR against Khan mentions that Swaraj India's president Yogendra Yadav was also present during the speech at AMU.

Following the arrest in the case, Khan was taken to the Sahar Police Station and after completing formalities he will be taken to UP on transit remand, the official said.

Khan, a paediatrician, had come to the limelight in 2017 when a controversy broke out after the death of over 60 children in less than a week at the BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur, UP.

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Agencies
April 23,2020

More and more Indians have become better prepared in the last one month, as far as stocking of their ration, medicine or money is concerned, according to the IANS-CVoter COVID-19 Tracker.

With the second leg of the lockdown half way through and Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying it's a long haul, 57.2% respondents said they have less than three weeks of stock while 43.3% said they have a stock that will last beyond that

However, if one breaks into weeks, most respondents said they are prepared for a week's time. 24.5% respondents said they have ration, medicine or money to last a week. This is closely followed by 21.9 % respondents saying they are ready for a month.

Meanwhile, 20.4 % said they are ready for a couple of weeks. There are 15.8 % who said they are ready for more than a month with food, ration and medicine. A tiny 5.6 % said they are ready with three weeks of stock.

However, there is 12.3% who still seem to live on the edge with less than a week's preparation.

But, the biggest takeaway from the IANS-CVoter COVID-19 Tracker is that in the last one month, a massive segment of society realised that the fight is long and the preparation should also be to last that long.

o put things into context, on March 16 when the tracker started, a whopping 77.1% said they have stock to last for less than a week. More than a month later on April 21, that number jumped to just 12.3%, which essentially means, people have become better prepared for a long-hauled lockdown period.

Similarly, on April 21, a sizable 21.9% respondents claimed they are ready with ration and medicine that will last them a month. On March 16, not even one respondent could claim they have a month's stock. In fact till March 22, just ahead of the announcement of the first lockdown, no respondent the IANS-CVoter tracker said that they have a month's preparation.

Similarly, when the tracker started, 9.9% said they simply ‘don't know'. As on April 21, that number is a big zero.

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