Over 15 lakh ‘virgin voters’ set to exercise franchise in Karnataka polls

coastaldigest.com news network

February 18, 2018

A total of 15.42 lakh young men and women aged between 18 and 19 across Karnataka have enrolled in the electoral rolls to exercise their franchise for the first time in the upcoming the State Legislative Assembly.

The number of virgin voters or first time voters this time is less compared to 2013 Karnataka assembly polls wherein a total of 35.58 lakh youngsters had got enrolled.
This time, of the 15,42,121 first time voters 7,72,649 were enrolled during the current special summary revision. Of these, 2,743 were born in 2000, according to the final (tentative) 2018 rolls.

Revealing these statistics, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) for Karnataka Sanjiv Kumar told presspersons in Bengaluru on Saturday that a special communication drive had been taken up to reach out to young voters and women voters.

The final electoral rolls will be published on February 28 and the number of voters stands at 4.96 crore for now. The Bangalore South Assembly constituency has the highest number of voters in the state at 5.01 lakh, whereas Sringeri in Chikkamagaluru district has the lowest with just 1.62 lakh voters.

In a first, the Election Commission will set up all-women polling stations in Assembly constituencies where population of women is high. "All personnel in these polling stations will be women," Kumar said. The voter gender ratio is now 973 women for 1,000 men and it is improving, he added.

Accessibility is the theme of the 2018 elections and the office of the chief electoral officer is working with the Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD) to launch a special drive and identify voters who are persons with disabilities. "The DWCD has details of 12 lakh persons with disabilities. Suitable polling stations are being identified for them," Kumar said.

He stressed that voters can apply to be added to the electoral rolls even after they are published on February 28. "It's a misconception that addition, deletion or modification cannot happen after final rolls are published. Electoral roll revision is a continuous process," he said.

As many as 30.41 lakh applications have been received under the special summary revision, of which 17.12 lakh were for addition and 10.41 lakh for deletion. "No summary deletion is taking place this time like it happened in 2013 when 16 lakh names were deleted. So far, we have deleted 10.13 lakh voters, of whom 3.67 lakh are dead," he said. Kumar also launched a logo for the 2018 Assembly polls whose tagline is 'Inclusive, Accessible and Ethical'.

He said complaints pertaining to inclusion of immigrants in the electoral rolls were highest in the Bengaluru municipal limits. "We are discussing this closely with all political parties," he said. The Election Commission has asked all parties to appoint booth-level agents to monitor the process of roll revision.

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They will come early, for sure.

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Covid-19: Karnataka to return rapid antibody test kits supplied by Centre as they have only 47% sensitivity

News Network

April 28,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 28: Karnataka has found that the rapid antibody test kits for COVID-19 that the Centre supplied to the state have only 47% sensitivity. The state will be returning the kits to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Karnataka had received 11,400 rapid antibody test kits from the ICMR a few days back, out of which it had sent around 200 of them to NIMHANS for validation.

After the ICMR, on Monday, sent a circular to all states to return the test kits to the suppliers, Dr CN Manjunath, Director, Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, and nodal officer for lab testing in the state's COVID-19 task force, said, "We have cancelled the orders we placed to Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech and Zhuhai Livzon Diagnostics for one lakh rapid antibody test kits. Since the ICMR supplied us with 11,400 kits out of the 6.5 lakh kits it procured, we will be returning the kits to them."

Manjunath told said that the validation at NIMHANS revealed the kits to have only 47% sensitivity. Sensitivity is the ability of a test to identify the true-positives in a population, i.e., the actual number of people who've been infected with the disease. With the rapid antibody testing kits being shelved, the state's plan to randomly test high risk groups has taken a backseat.

So far, the state has tested 43,791 samples.

Karnataka now has 22 testing facilities -- 14 government and seven private labs. Many private labs have not tested any samples so far because of the lack of test kits (the state has made it clear that it will not provide test kits to private labs). So, getting an ICMR approval for testing has become a moot point.p

Agreeing to the setback the state's plans of ramping up testing has taken, Manjunath said, "It is true that RT-PCR test kits are in shortage. Even Pune's Mylabs had a shortage in supplying test kits. But we are relying on institutes like Kidwai, Narayana Health and Biocon's Syngene that have received approval for testing. They're big institutes and we hope that they will test a large number of samples."

On reports that the Centre has RT-PCR test kits that will last for only a week, he said, "We have test kits that will last for eight to 10 days. We have ordered for more. We are hoping to receive them before the current kits run out."

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Indiscipline within BJP will not be tolerated: Nalin Kumar Kateel

coastaldigst.com news network

May 31,2020

Mangaluru, May 31: Karnataka BJP president MP Nalin Kumar Kateel has claimed that there has been no differences of opinion within the state BJP.

"The BJP-led government will complete its term under the leadership of B S Yediyurappa," Kateel told media persons in the city on Saturday.

“A few MLAs had met and discussed the developments in North Karnataka. There is nothing wrong in discussing development keeping in mind the party's interests.”

Indiscipline within the party will not be tolerated. Strict action will be initiated against those who indulge in such activities by the party High Command, he warned.

The government, led by Yediyurappa, has carried out good works in the state. All the MLAs are supporting the chief minister. All the MLAs are in contact with me, claimed Kateel.

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