Feb 9: The Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used in Delhi Assembly polls are kept under tight security, in the 'Strong Room' located at Atal Adarsh Bengali Balika Vidyalaya in Gol Market.
Voting for Delhi Assembly elections took place on Saturday with voters turnout well short of the 2015 election mark.
Counting of the votes will be on February 11.
Earlier, Deputy Election Commissioner Sudip Jain had said the Delhi elections took place peacefully and smoothly.
New Delhi, Apr 15: CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury has sought a substantial increase in relief spending of the Central government in the fight against coronavirus, saying that there should be cash transfer of Rs 7,500 to families not paying income tax and distribution of free foodgrains to all needy.
In an article in the forthcoming issue of the party's mouthpiece -- People's Democracy -- Yechury said that India ranks among the countries that are testing the least for the coronavirus and testing should be increased rapidly.
Yechury said the financial stimulus package should be raised from the current 0.8 per cent to at least 5 per cent of GDP and States should be provided liberal funding.
"We must ensure that there are no starvation deaths that occur in our country. It is, therefore, imperative that the government must immediately implement a Rs 7,500 ex gratia cash transfer to all non-income tax-paying families and resort to universal distribution of free foodgrains to all needy people," Yechury said.
He said all MGNREGA workers should be paid wages irrespective of work and employers should be assisted financially to protect workers from job losses and wage cuts and arrangement should be made for the return of migrant workers to their homes.
"Testing is of crucial importance to identify the clusters where the pandemic is spreading in order to isolate and insulate them to contain the community spread. Inadequate testing does not provide us with such information. It is dangerous both for the inability to contain the spread and to identify the critical areas," the article said.
It said that till April 9, India's record of testing was 0.092 per thousand, while in Germany it was 15.96, Italy 14.43, Australia 12.99, Denmark 10.73 and Canada 9.99. "Unless our testing rate increases substantially, our strength to combat the pandemic will not grow," the article said.
Yechury said that the first case in India was reported on January 30 and "no substantive measures were taken despite this for seven long weeks" until the declaration of the lockdown on March 24.
"As far as the lockdown is concerned, many countries in the world moved with greater urgency - China locked down Wuhan on January 23, the whole of Italy was locked down on March 10, USA declared a national emergency on March 13, Spain on March 14, France on March 17 and UK on March 23," he said.
Yechury said the people were looking forward to the Prime Minister's address to the nation on the last day of the three-week countrywide lockdown.
"These three weeks have thrown up many experiences that need to be addressed urgently in order, both, to strengthen our fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and to protect the lives and survival of crores of our fellow citizens. On none of these issues of vital importance did the Prime Minister have anything substantial to say," he said.
New Delhi, Mar 22: The central government on Sunday decided to suspend all metro train services across the country till March 31 in view of coronavirus outbreak.
In a message to managing directors of all metro train corporations, Union Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra said this is being done in continuation of suspending metro services during 'Janta Curfew'.
"In view of the current global pandemic of this Corona Virus & for containing its further spread through inter-personal proximity, it has been decided to close down metro rail services on all operational networks across the country till 31 March 2020," Mishra tweeted.
In another tweet, he said by the act of social distancing, people can protect themselves and their dear ones, and win the fight against COVID-19.
India reported three more coronavirus deaths on Sunday, including the first casualty from Bihar, taking the toll to seven and the number of COVID-19 cases rose to 341, officials said.
New Delhi, May 22: Air India on Friday started booking for domestic flights amid the COVID-19 lockdown.
"We have started bookings for domestic flights," said Air India in a statement.
The airlines will operate a total of 8,428 flights each week for the next three months from May 25 to August 25 as the Central government has announced the resumption of domestic flights.
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday said that a minimum and maximum fare for three months has been set for the domestic flight services, which resume from May 25.
In the case of Delhi, Mumbai the minimum fare would be Rs 3,500 for a journey between 90-120 minutes. The maximum fare would be Rs 10,000.
"This is operative for three months -- till one minute to midnight on August 24," said Puri at a press conference here.
Puri said that guidelines have been issued for the passengers and airports, which are to be followed during flight operations.
He also said that self-declaration or Aarogya Setu App status on a compatible device would be obtained to ensure that a person does not have COVID-19 symptoms.
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