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with general election 2014 only a few months away... Battle of ballot in 5 states
Mizoram : 142 candidates in fray
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Congress releases ‘populist’ poll manifesto
Gehlot, Raje file papers
Centre orders probe into source of AAP’s funding
Webcasting of voting at critical polling stations
Copter deal
Punjab’s plea on tax sops to hill states not maintainable: SC
Uniform curriculum for schools for spl children
Sai, Asaram's son, declared absconder
Four of family die in Mumbai fire
2 dead as Dhanbad mine caves in
Mars orbiter has a brush with trouble
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with general election 2014 only a few months away... CM Raman Singh’s constituency records highest turnout of 79%, insurgency-hit Bijapur lowest at 24%
Raipur, November 11 After a slow start, polling for the 18 constituencies picked up as the day progressed and the tribal-dominated region witnessed a large turnout amid high security across the region, which will decide the fate of Chief Minister Raman Singh and his three ministers. Rajnandgaon, the home constituency of Raman Singh, recorded the highest 79 per cent voting out of 18 constituencies while one of the worst insurgency-hit Bijapur constituency witnessed the lowest 24 per cent voting. Other constituencies where polling took place today are Bhanupratappur (70%), Antagarh (58%), Kanker (76%), Keshkal (77%), Kondagaon (78%), Narayanpur (62%), Bastar (60%), Jagdalpur (67%), Chitrakot (61%), Konta (40%) and Dantewada (67%) of Bastar region and Khairagarh (71%), Dongargarh (72%), Dongargaon (76%), Khujji (78%) and Mohla-Manpur (75%) of Rajnandgaon. "As per the voting figures till 5 pm, 67 per cent polling had been registered in the 18 constituencies and the percentage was expected to go up," Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Kujur told reporters. Amid tight security, polling in thirteen Naxal-hit constituencies of Bastar and Rajnandgaon concluded at 3 pm, while those in other five constituencies of Rajnandgaon concluded at 5 pm, he said. The polling figure may exceed to the previous election of 2008 which had recorded 66.85 per cent voting in these 18 constituencies as people waited to cast their ballot in several polling stations of five constituencies even after 1700 hrs, the time of close of poll. Re-polling will be held at two polling booths, Chhote Pakhanjore and Sitram, in Kanker district as polling officials could not reach there owing to Naxal resistance, Kujur said. — PTI
CRPF jawan killed
Naxals ambushed a team of election personnel when they were returning after conclusion of polling in Katekalyan area of Dantewada district in south Chhattisgarh, killing Central Reserve Police Force jawan B Joseph of 186 battalion. Also, over 10 bombs, including a 10 kg pipe bomb, were recovered and a policeman was injured in a bomb attack by Naxals since morning.
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Mizoram : 142 candidates in fray
Aizawl, November 11 The MDA consists of Mizo National Front (MNF), Mizoram People’s Conference (MPC) and Maraland Democratic Front
(MDF). The Zoram Nationalist Party (ZNP) is contesting in 38 seats while the BJP has fielded nominees in 17
seats. Four women are in the fray with Congress, MDA and BJP fielding one woman candidate each while B. Sangkhumi, retired chairperson of the state Public Service Commission, is contesting as an
independent. Elections to the state Assembly would be held on November 25. — PTI
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Congress releases ‘populist’ poll manifesto
Bhopal, November 11 For poor families, the Congress promised to provide 35 kg ration per family per month free of cost, he
said. It will also provide free of cost single-point power connection to the people living under the BPL
category. The party has also promised to waive farmers loan up to Rs 51,000 taken by them from Cooperative and Land Development
Banks. Knowing fully that cap on LPG cylinders has not gone down well with the people, the Congress has announced to provide additional three more subsidised cylinders to them from the existing nine and also promised to reduce VAT on petrol, diesel and LPG in the state to bring down fuel prices which was a major issue in the
state. The party has also promised to fulfil long-pending demand of creating Vidhan Parishad (Legislative Council) in the state, which it had also promised in 1993 with an aim to meet the aspirations of large number of leaders in the
state. Targeting poverty on the lines of Indira Gandhi’s ‘Garibi Hatao’ slogan, the party has promised to constitute “Indira Gandhi Garibi Hatao” Commission by nominating maximum members in it from poor category only, he added.
The Congress has also announced Senior Citizens Teerth Darshan Yojna, a popular scheme launched in the state by BJP government last
year. For minorities, the party has announced to implement Sachhar Committee recommendations and providing special economic package for imparting modern education in
madarsas. The party has also promised to provide unemployment allowance, on the lines of Haryana government, to large number of unemployed youths in the
state. It has also promised a number of other measures including free treatment, medical examination and distribution of medicines in government hospitals on the lines of Rajasthan government, laptops to meritorious students, providing employment on priority basis in industrial units in the state, rationalisation of taxes imposed on industries and better treatment facilities for gas affected
persons. Top Congress leaders in the state, including Union Ministers Kamal Nath, Harish Rawat, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Pradeep Jain, were present on the occasion. — PTI
Slew of incentives
* It promised to provide free power to water pumps up to five horse power
* To waive farmer loan up to Rs 51,000 taken by them from Cooperative and Land Development
Banks * To provide free of cost single-point power connection to the people living under the BPL
category * To provide 35 kg ration per family per month free of cost *
Promise to raise subsidised LPG cylinders from 9 to 12
* Constitution of Vidhan Parishad
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Gehlot, Raje file papers
Jaipur, November 11 PCC president Chandrabhan filed his nomination from Mandawa, whereas B D Kalla, chairman of state Finance Commission, put in his papers from the Bikaner west
seat. Manvendra Singh, a BJP nominee and son of veteran BJP MP Jaswant Singh, filed his nomination papers from the Sheo seat in Barmer district. CPM MLA and leader in the House Amraram filed his papers from the Dantaramgarh
seat. Tomorrow, November 12, is the last date for filing nomination papers for the December 1 elections. — PTI
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Centre orders probe into source of AAP’s funding
New Delhi, November 11 AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal welcomed the probe and turned the tables on his detractors, asking for a similar probe into their source of funding. “Such kind of attacks cannot deter us from our path. Political parties are indulging in such kind of attacks because they are scared,” he said, asking the BJP and the Congress to submit themselves to a similar scrutiny. Kejriwal said all the funds received by the AAP from foreign countries were from people holding an Indian passport. “By receiving funds from Indians, who are holding Indian passports even if they are abroad, is not illegal under any law of the country,” he asserted
Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit had yesterday questioned the source of around Rs 19 crore collected by the AAP. BJP spokesperson Meenakshi Lekhi today gave details of the FCRA rules to join the issue. The probe will, however, take time.
As per Shinde, the outcome of the investigation may not come before the Delhi Assembly elections, scheduled for December 4. But Kejriwal wants the report of the probe to be submitted within 48 hours. Incidentally, the Delhi High Court had on October 24 asked the government to inquire into whether any of the donations received by the AAP came from foreign source in violation of the FCRA. The Centre was asked to submit its report by December 10
RPA on contributions from foreign source
* The Representation of People Act (RPA) debars political parties from receiving contributions from a foreign source defined under clause(e) of the Section 2 of the FCRA, 1976. The FCRA also states that it has been formulated “to ensure that the foreign contribution and foreign hospitality is not utilised to affect or influence electoral politics, public servants, judges and other people working in the important areas of national life like journalists, printers and publishers of newspapers among others”
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Webcasting of voting at critical polling stations
New Delhi, November
11 Officials of the Delhi Election office said a need has been recognised for constant monitoring of polling booths located at far off places, especially those sharing border with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The polling station, therefore, will be put under close circuit television cameras and a centralised control room will be set up at the Delhi Chief Electoral office.
“With such a vast network of polling stations, it will be difficult for our staff to closely monitor each and every booth. So a proposal in this regard has been prepared to set a centralised control room for constant vigil on the polling process at such stations. It might also be seen on our website,” said Vijay Dev, Delhi Chief Electoral
Officer. Dev said letters has been sent to all district electoral officers to identify such sensitive polling stations in their area and send a demand list for the installation of cameras to enable monitoring through
webcasting. The Delhi Assembly elections has set a stage for over 1.15 crore voters who will decide the future of next government at 11,763 polling stations located at 2,603 different places.
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Delhi poll New Delhi, November 11 Three-time Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit leads the pack and will contest again from the New Delhi Assembly segment. All ministers in her cabinet-AK Walia (Health), Raj Kumar Chauhan (Public Works) Haroon Yusuf (Food and Civil Supplies), Kiral Walia (Education), Ramakant Goswami (Transport) and Arvinder Singh Lovely (Urban Development) have been named as Congress candidates. Delhi Assembly Speaker Yoganand Shastri has also managed the ticket despite being iffy hitherto. Dikshit personally reasoned with the high command for re-nomination of all sitting MLAs. The only Congress legislator to not have been named yet is Dayanand Chandila from the Rajouri Garden segment. He faces serious criminal charges. In another major development, the Congress has fielded sitting RJD legislator Asif Mohd Khan (who recently joined the Congress) from Okhla despite stiff resistance from its Rajya Sabha member Parvez Hashmi who wanted the ticket. The party will declare the names of the remaining 14 candidates for the 70-member Delhi Assembly soon.
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MoD gives more time to Agusta
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, November 11 It was decided to get the proposal examined by an independent group within the MoD. The purchase of Israeli Barak missiles had been pending for some time because of allegations of corruption by the company in 2006. The issue was referred to the Attorney General who advised the the MoD to take its own call. The Navy needs the missiles as its numbers have dwindled. Separately, the MoD has decided to hear copter- maker AgustaWestland’s version on alleged corruption in Rs 3,500-crore VVIP copter deal. A show-cause notice had been issued to the company on October 21.
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Punjab’s plea on tax sops to hill states not maintainable: SC
New Delhi, November 11 Since Punjab’s grievance was mainly against the Centre, the state had no reason for approaching the SC in 2009 with an original suit which was meant for resolving inter-state disputes over facts or law, a Bench comprising Justices Gyan Sudha Misra and PC Ghose said. Punjab should have challenged the Centre’s notifications on the tax concessions instead of filing the suit naming the Central Government and the three states as defendants, the Bench said. Further, challenging the notifications would have yielded quick results whereas adjudication of original suits normally took years on end, the Bench reasoned. “Can you challenge a notification through a suit when you have no quarrel with other states? This is the first time we have come across such a peculiar case,” the apex court told senior counsel AK Ganguly who appeared for Punjab. Turning to Additional Solicitor General Mohan Jain, the Bench asked about the Centre’s view on the maintainability of the suit. “This suit is not maintainable,” the ASG said. The Bench then asked senior counsel JS Attri about HP’s stand. Attri said his client deserved the incentives from the Centre because of its peculiar and tough geographical conditions and industrial backwardness. Punjab had no legal right to challenge the sops through a suit. Ganguly, however, insisted that the Centre had no right to offer duty concessions to the industrial units moving from Punjab to HP or the other two states just to avail of the tax sops to the detriment of his client. Such sops were meant for new units and not for re-located units, he argued. “Also, Punjab has a legal right to retain the existing industries.”
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Uniform curriculum for schools for spl children
Chandigarh, November 11 In the long-run, the schools will also be recognised by specialised boards to provide degrees to special children. At present, the schools have been making efforts but an effective output will be known when their learning is evaluated and they find a good career, he said. Awasthi also informed that to ensure employment for children with mild disabilities, specific posts have been earmarked. “Each post has been analysed and we have specified which disability of a person will allow him to apply for a particular post. That notification is out. Now we are asking ministries to implement these at the earliest,” said
Awasthi. Awasthi accompanied Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Kumari Selja during an annual meet of Parivaar, Kiran Bedi-patronised national association of parents of persons with intellectual disabilities held here today.
“We are planning to create a group that will keep giving us inputs for improvising our services for the disabled so that we could make the lives of these special children a little more convenient,” Selja said.
The National Trust, working towards the rights of persons with disabilities, has been supporting Parivaar, which is an association of 210 different associations of the parents of persons with disabilities running in different parts of the country. The trust works towards inclusion of the disabled persons into the mainstream.
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Sai, Asaram's son, declared absconder
Ahmedabad, November 11 His two aides, Jamuna and Hanuman, were also declared as absconders by the court. Sai had been evading arrest ever since two sisters filed a complaint against him and Asaram of rape and sexual harassment on October 6. The police lately said he was also sending decoy witnesses to mislead the police in the investigation.
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Four of family die in Mumbai fire
Mumbai, November 11 The fire brigade officials said the blaze in the seven-storey Kailash Apartments, located at Siddharth Nagar in the suburb of Vikhroli East, was reported around 3.15 am when most residents were
asleep. The family was trapped inside the house and could not leave the building in time, the police
said. The victims have been identified as Gautam Shalivan (55), his wife Poornima (50), their son Vishal (32) and grandson Ayush
(10). The injured have been admitted to the civic-run Rajawadi hospital, the police said. Officials said the fire might have been caused by short-circuit in the meter room and spread through the cables passing via vents in every floor.
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2 dead as Dhanbad mine caves in
Dhanbad (Jharkhand), Nov 11 "One body has been brought out while efforts are on to extricate one more body which is also visible now. Two others, still trapped inside, are also feared dead," Bharat Coking Coal (BCCL) Chairman and Managing Director Tapas Kumar Lahiry told
PTI. Lahiry said the roof of the Basantimata mine in the Chanch/Victoria area caved in about 11 am during an inspection by colliery officials. Two workers who had gone to give information to the assistant manager and supervisor of the mine were also at the spot, he said. "The second shift was to commence from 4 pm," he said. "All mining operations have been suspended at the site." More than 100 people have been pressed into service to undertake rescue operations, he added. — PTI
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Mars orbiter has a brush with trouble
Bangalore, November 11 As a result, the spacecraft was unable to attain the intended apogee (farthest point from the Earth). ISRO is now planning to carry out a supplementary operation tomorrow morning to raise the orbiter's apogee to the required 1 lakh km. During the operations held today, the redundancies built-in for the propulsion system were sought to be checked out by energising the primary and redundant coils of the solenoid flow-control valve of the spacecraft's 440-Newton liquid engine. When both primary and redundant coils were energised together, the flow to the liquid engine stopped. ISRO said "the parallel mode of operating the two coils" would "not be possible for subsequent operations". However, the two coils could be operated independently in sequence. ISRO, however, claimed the "spacecraft is in normal health". Even as the main engine had that trouble, the thrust level augmentation logic worked as programmed and the operation continued using the 22 Newton thrusters. The sequence, however, resulted in reduction of the incremental velocity.
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Rawat is Cong’s poll coordinator
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franchise in the first phase of Chhattisagarh assembly elections, where violence by Naxals who have called for a poll boycott, left a CRPF jawan
dead.
Jaipur, November 11
Delhi poll
Targeting farmers and poor, party’s manifesto committee chairman Suresh Pachouri, after releasing it, told reporters that the Congress government will provide free power to water pumps up to five horse power and will take back false cases of power theft against
them.
Congress nominee Gehlot filed his papers from the Sardarpura Assembly seat in Jodhpur district, while BJP's Raje submitted her nomination from the Jhalrapatan Assembly segment in Jhalawar district, the CEO sources said
here.
The AAP has collected around Rs 19 crore till November 8 as donation from 63,000 persons, including a host of NRIs. According to the AAP, the smashing reviews and response it was receiving from people of Delhi had sent old timers, the Congress and the BJP, using “dubious means” to hamper its progress. “It seems both parties are jointly making a strategy on how to attack the AAP,” it alleged. Raising doubt over “swiftness” shown by the government, Kejriwal also wondered whether the Congress had ever demanded to know the source of the BJP’s funding.
Nitish: Modi expert in ‘jhooth ki kheti’