India to elect new president Thursday

July 18, 2012

sangma_pranab

New Delhi, July 18: India will elect a new president Thursday in what is a direct contest between ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate Pranab Mukherjee and opposition-backed Purno Sangma.

The polling will take place in the national and state capitals in which an electoral college consisting of members of parliament and the legislative assemblies will vote.

"All the necessary arrangements have been made for free and fair poll and security arrangements in and around Parliament House and particularly the venue of poll have been tightened," returning officer and Rajya Sabha Secretary General V.K. Agnihotri told reporters here Wednesday.

The votes will be counted Sunday, three days before the five-year tenure of President Pratibha Patil ends.

The 13th Indian president is expected to enter Rashtrapati Bhavan by July 25.

Mukherjee, who had served in the UPA government as finance minister before entering the presidential fray, is the hot favourite to win the election.

He is expected to bag over 735,000 of the 10,97,000 votes from among 4,896 electors -- 776 MPs and 4,120 assembly members.

Besides UPA members Congress, Trinamool Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, Rashtriya Lok Dal, DMK and National Conference, Mukherjee has the support of the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Lok Janshakti Party and YSR Congress Party, among others.

The Trinamool, which was undecided on its support for Mukherjee, changed its mind two days before the poll and announced it would vote for the UPA candidate with "a heavy heart" due to lack of options.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, ahead of the voting Thursday, hosted her UPA allies to lunch, in which Trinamool was represented by two MPs.

It was also attended by other UPA partners including the DMK, Rashtriya Lok Dal and Nationalist Congress Party, apart from supporting parties such as the Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Bahujan Samaj Party.

YSR Congress Party, which had remained undecided, announced Wednesday that it had decided to support Mukherjee, apart from backing UPA candidate Hamid Ansari for the vice president's post.

The party's MP Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy announced the decision after a meeting chaired by party's honorary president Y.S. Vijayalakshmi, claiming the decision was "above politics" as they hoped Mukherjee would do justice to the constitutional post.

With the Communist Party of India-Marxist and Forward Bloc too expressing support for Mukherjee and the Janata Dal-United and Shiv Sena breaking away from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to back him, wide acceptance of his candidature is evident.

Those likely to abstain from voting are the Communist Party of India, Revolutionary Socialist Party, Telugu Desam Party and Telangana Rashtriya Samithi. These parties have around 36,000 votes.

Then there are around 32,000 votes with smaller parties who have no presence in parliament but have legislators in the states.

Sangma, a former Lok Sabha speaker, was a senior Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader before jumping into the presidential race and had to quit its membership.

He is currently a member of the Meghalaya assembly.

He is expected to bag a maximum of 313,000 votes, being supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party, Biju Janata Dal, AIADMK, Shiromani Akali Dal and Asom Gana Parishad.

The churning witnessed in the country's political space has left both the NDA and the Left Front divided. And, after anxious moments over the last three weeks over Trinamool's indecisiveness, the UPA has emerged united.

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News Network
February 1,2020

New Delhi, Feb 1: Air India's jumbo B747 plane, evacuating 324 Indian nationals from the novel coronavirus-hit Wuhan in China, landed here on Saturday morning, officials said.

The plane reached Delhi around 7.30 am, they said.

There were five doctors from Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital and one paramedical staff on board, said an Air India spokesperson.

The Indian Army has set up a quarantine facility in Manesar near Delhi to keep those evacuated from China's Hubei province.

Officials said they would be monitored for any signs of infection for a duration of two weeks by a qualified team of doctors and staff members.

"With 324 passengers, special flight has taken off for India from Wuhan. It may reach Delhi at 7.30am," said the Air India spokesperson at 1.19 am on Saturday.

The flight had departed from Delhi airport at 1.17 pm on Friday to evacuate Indian nationals from China, where more than 250 people - none of them Indian - have died due to novel coronavirus.

On Friday evening, the Air India spokesperson had stated that another special flight may take off from Delhi airport on Saturday to evacuate Indians from Wuhan.

The death toll from the novel coronavirus outbreak in China has risen to 259 with total confirmed cases surging to 11,791 amid stepped up efforts by a number of countries to evacuate their nationals from Hubei province, the epicentre of the virus, officials said on Saturday.

About Friday's flight, the spokesperson had said earlier during the day, "A team of five doctors from RML hospital, one paramedical staff from Air India, with prescribed medicines from doctors, masks, overcoats, packed food are in the aircraft. A team of engineers, security personnel are also there in this special aircraft. Whole rescue mission is being led by Captain Amitabh Singh, Director (Operations), Air India."

The spokesperson had added that there were five cockpit crew members and 15 cabin crew members on Friday's flight.

Before departure at Delhi airport, Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani had said, "No service will take place in the plane. Whatever food is there will be kept in seat pockets. As there will be no service, there will be no interaction (between cabin crew and passengers)."

"Masks have been arranged for the crew and passengers. For our crew, we have also arranged a complete protective gear," he had added.

"Total five doctors from the Health Ministry are also going... The plane will be there (at Wuhan airport) for 2-3 hours," Lohani had said.

Air India has done such evacuations earlier also from countries such as Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Kuwait and Nepal.

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Agencies
January 25,2020

Jammu, Jan 25: People in Jammu and Kashmir expressed happiness over the restoration of mobile data services and internet access through fixed-line across the Union Territory on Saturday.

Speaking to ANI Jitendra Sharma, a resident of Jammu said, "The government has taken a good decision. People had been facing hardship for a long period and I think it will improve further."

"It is a big relief to people. People can finish their pending work. I hope that 4G services will also be resumed soon," said a resident of Kashmir.

The internet speed is restricted to 2G only.

"Access shall be limited only to whitelisted sites and not to any social media applications allowing peer to peer communication and virtual private network applications. Directions shall be effective from January 25 and will remain in force till January 31," the statement by the government read.

Earlier on January 15, 2G services were reinstated in Jammu, Samba, Kathua, and Udhampur for white-listed sites.

The Central government had suspended the internet in the region following the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution on August 5 last year, which conferred special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, and its bifurcation into two Union Territories -- Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir.

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Agencies
March 29,2020
Agra, Mar 29: A 39-year-old man, who had walked almost 200 kilometers from Delhi to reach his home in Morena in Madhya Pradesh, collapsed and died in Agra on Saturday. 
 
The man, identified as Ranveer Singh, worked as home delivery boy for a private restaurant in the national capital.
 
According to police, the victim collapsed near Kailash turning of the national highway-2, after which a local hardware store owner Sanjay Gupta rushed to the victim. 
 
Sikandra station house officer (SHO) Arvind Kumar, said, 'Gupta made the victim lie on a carpet and offered tea and biscuit. The victim complained about chest pain and also called his brother-in-law Arvind Singh over phone to share his health condition. At around 6.30 P.m, the victim passed away and local police was informed. "
 
Ranveer had left for his native village on Friday morning on foot. It is likely that exhaustion of 200-km walk might have caused chest pain. 
 
The SHO said,"On the entire NH-2 stretch, UP policemen are present with food packets and water for such persons but Ranveer's death is unfortunate. "
 
After the death, policemen took the victim's body for post-mortem. The autopsy report is yet to be re eased. 
 
According to information available, Ranveer was working in Delhi's Tughlakabad for the past three- years. He is survived by three children including two daughters. He belongs to a family of farmers and was the main bread winner for his family.
 
His family has been brought to Agra to take the body back to their village for the last rites.

Comments

Angry Indian
 - 
Monday, 30 Mar 2020

very sad news....this is the condition of hindu people after they adopt hindutva idology.

 

Politician enjoying playing ludo and watching ramayan, after complete lockdown, not even bothered by government about their transport,

 

modi spend crore on statue, but no hospital

 

this is the hindu rastra you want right...enjoy marons

 

 

 

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