vijayawada l friday l june 21, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l late city EDITION eight applications received for EVM verification, says Poll panel The Election Commission said eight aggrieved candidates have sought verification of tampering or modification of micro-controller chips in EVMs Verification sought for 92 polling stations Candidates must pay `47,200 per set of evm The BJP’s Ahmednagar candidate Sujay Vikhe-Patil, who lost to Nilesh Lanke of the NCP (Sharad Pawar), sought verification of EVMs from 40 polling stations. A YSR Congress Party and a Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) candidate in Tamil Nadu are also among those who have sought verification. In all, verification is sought for 92 polling stations across six states ■ The Supreme Court had on April 26 allowed unsuccessful candidates securing second and third places to seek verification of micro-controller chips embedded in 5% of EVMs per assembly constituency ■ Candidates must pay `47,200 per set of EVM. The amount will be refunded only if a discrepancy is found by EVM makers during verification 30 days is the time from announcement of results within which such pleas must be filed CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI panel to scrutinise NTA UGC-net paper leaked on the dark net Pradhan urges Oppn to have faith in the system says Isolated incidents should not affect lakhs of NEET aspirants Institutional failure of NTA: Govt Express News Service Regarding the cancellation of the UGC-NET exam for junior research fellows, assistant proUnder fire over alleged irregu- fessors, and PhD scholars, Pradlarities in the NEET-UG and the han revealed that the exam paUGC-NET, Union Education per had been leaked on the Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Telegram site. He, however, addon Thursday admitted that con- ed that the government was secutive paper leak cases affect- committed to maintaining the ing the lives of at least 35 lakh integrity of the examination students represent an institu- process and sought people’s tional failure of the National trust in the system. Testing Agency (NTA). Pradhan said although an anHe announced the formation ti-cheating bill had been apof a high-level panel to scruti- proved by both Houses of Parlianise the functioning of the NTA, ment earlier this year, the law which conducted ministry is currently those exams. The refining the associatpanel will comprise ed regulations. “At eminent individuals, present, we lack efsociologists and edufective measures to cation experts who confront such chalwill examine the lenges (paper leaks),” NTA’s structure, he said. functioning, exam “Modern software processes, transparsuch as Telegram is ency and data manoften utilised to leak By taking agement, he said. exam questions. P r a d h a n ’s a n - responsibility, we have When administering to rectify the system. nouncement came a exams for PhD scholWe are committed to day after the NTA exams with zero errors. ars, ensuring high cancelled the UGCstandards is crucial. I request everyone to NET after it got conDespite the difficulnot spread rumours formation that the ties, we are commitDharmendra Pradhan question paper was ted to addressing leaked on the dark them. New examinanet. The matter is now under in- tion dates for the UGC-NET will vestigation by the CBI. be announced shortly he said. ,” Addressing concerns about The results of the NEET-UG the NEET-UG as well, Pradhan conducted on May 5 across 4,750 said isolated instances of mal- centres with approximately 24 practice should not unfairly im- lakh candidates was announced pact lakhs of students who le- on June 4. An unprecedented 67 gitimately passed the exam. He students got the perfect score of urged the Opposition not to po- 720 on 720, raising concerns liticise the matter and assured about possible irregularities in strict actions against any the the test. guilty including NTA officials. , NEET-UG is gateway for ad“Let us have faith in our sys- missions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH tems; no irregularities or mal- and related courses in both govpractices will be tolerated by the ernment and private institugovernment,” he said. tions nationwide. @ New Delhi CM Naidu offering prayers to the soil where the stone for the capital city was laid in Uddandarayunipalem in 2015, on Thursday | Prasant Madugula White paper on status of Amaravati soon, asserts Naidu S V i s w a n at h @ Amaravati Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu announced that a white paper will be released soon on the status of the Amaravati capital city to get a clear estimate of the the damage caused. Naidu on Thursday visited the capital city region for the first time after taking charge. Municipal Administration and Urban Development (MAUD) Minister Ponguru Narayana and other officials accompanied Naidu and inspected various parts of the region for more than three hours. Stating that A and P in Andhra Pradesh stand for Amaravati and Polavaram, Naidu charged the previous YSRC government with destroying both the projects. “I do not understand what to do, where to start and how to start the works after seeing the devastation caused to the infrastructure projects in the last five years under the YSRC regime,” Naidu said after inspecting the damage caused to the roads and buildings constructed during the TDP tenure between 2014 and 2019. Further, he ordered officials to invite tenders for clearing the wild bushes spread across the capital city . The Chief Minister began his tour from Praja Vedika, which was demolished soon after the YSRC formed government in the State in 2019. He enquired a CRDA (Capital Region Development Authority) official about the instructions given to raze down the structure. Asserting that the TDP had followed due procedures while constructing it, Naidu sought to know whether norms were adhered to during the demolition. The official informed the CM that the building was demolished following oral orders. Later, the 74-year-old headed to Uddandarayunipalem, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi had laid the foundation stone for the capital city in 2015. He kneeled down and offered prayers to the soil that was brought there from several holy places across the nation and from all P2 the villages in the State. I do not understand what to do, where to start and how to start the works after seeing the devastation caused to the infra projects in Amaravati in the last five years by the YSRC regime N Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister Butchaiah is Pro-tem Speaker Governor S Abdul Nazeer on Thursday administered oath to TDP senior MLA Gorantla Butchaiah Chowdary as Protem Speaker at a programme held in Durbar Hall in Raj Bhavan Students protesting over alleged malpractices in the NEET-UG and the UGC-NET exam, in New Delhi on Thursday | PTI CBI files case in UGC-NET paper leak The CBI on Thursday registered a case against unknown persons under various sections of the IPC on the basis of a complaint from the Secretary, Department of Education. “The complaint said UGC recieved inputs that the integrity of UGC-NET may have been compromised,” a senior CBI official said PM will struggle to run govt: Rahul Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched a sharp attack on the prime minister saying he is silent on NEET because he is “crippled” and is only worried about the Lok Sabha Speaker’s election. Rahul claimed the PM has psychologically collapsed and will struggle to run a government like this | P7 SC stays proceedings on NEET-UG in hCs, issues notices to NTA, govt S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed all proceedings before various high courts on the the conduct of the NEET-UG exam and issued notices to the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Centre on a fresh bunch of pleas against irregularities in the exam. A two-judge vaca- tion bench of justices Vikram Nath and S V N Bhatti was hearing the NTA request to transfer ’s all cases filed in various high courts on the matter to itself. The bench tagged it along with other pending pleas for hearing on July 8. The court reiterated its refusal to stay the counselling. More than 35 petitions have been filed in the top court, including a fresh petition by a group of 20 students, HC strikes down Nitish govt’s quota bump-up RA M ASHAN K AR @ Patna IN a major setback to the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government, the Patna High Court on Thursday set aside the state government’s move to raise quotas for deprived classes from 50% 65%. A Division Bench headed by Chief Justice K Vinod Chandran passed the order on a bunch of petitions that opposed the Bihar Reservation (for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes) (Amendment) Act, 2023 and the Bihar (in admission in educational institutions) Reservation (Amendment) Act, 2023. The bench, also comprising Justice Harish Kumar, set aside the amendments brought by the state government in November 2023 as ultra vires and being violative of equally under the Indian Constitution. The amendments had resulted in the reservation cap for government jobs and educational institutions touching 75% after adding 10% quota for the Economically Weaker Sections. The amendments were based on the findings of a caste survey . Following the survey the state , government increased the quota for Scheduled Castes to 20%, Scheduled Tribes to 2%, Extremely Backward Classes to 25% and for Other Backward Classes to 18%. The petitioners argued the hike in reservation by the state government was beyond its legislative powers. “The amendments are violative of the Su- preme Court verdict passed in the case of Indira Sawney versus Union of India whereby a maximum ceiling of 50% was laid down. The quota hike was also discriminatory in nature and violative of the fundamental rights to equality and guaranteed to the citizens by Article 14, 15 and 16,” they told the HC. Reacting to the HC verdict, the BJP’s Bihar unit chief and deputy chief minister Samrat Choudhary said the government would move the Supreme Court against the order. Heatwave hits over 40,000, kills at No rains, no labourers, A’pur ryot least 110 since March, say officials forced to put young sons to work stark reality K A V ITA BA J ELI - DATT @ New Delhi C P V e n u g o pa l @ Anantapur The image of two young boys helping their father till a piece of land under the scorching sun in Anantapur district starkly reflects the sorry state of farmers in the region. After the death of his only ox, Boya Sarddanappa, a native of Nuthimadug village in Kamabadoor mandal, was forced to put his sons to work in his field for cultivating tomatoes. He could not hire help due to nonavailability of labourers. Even if he could, paying them would have been burdensome considering that the drought last year significantly hampered the farmer’s yield and profits. Over the past few years, the failure of crops, particularly groundnut, due to irregular rains has brought losses to farmers. Even when the har- Karthik & Rana Pratap, studying inter second year and Class 9 respectively, helping their father | Express vest was good, the profit margin was insignificant. Rising labour costs and non-availability of farm hands have added to the woes of the farmers, more so small and marginal farmers. With rising input costs, farmers’ debts have also surged. Sarddanappa and his brothers own five acres of land. He sunk a borewell and with the little water he could get, he cul- tivated different crops only to suffer losses. With no other option, he was forced to take debts to support his family. A few years ago, he met with an accident, following which he could not do heavy manual work. Hence, he had to depend on his family to help him in the field. The farmer purchased two cows and an ox for dairy farming and farm work. Unfortunately the ox and one cow died. , He had to sell the other cow to clear his debts as money lenders had been pressuring him to pay back. Expressing his helplessness, the farmer rued, “I don’t have any other go, but to depend on my sons. Farming is the only way I can support my family A . few years ago, my leg was fractured in an accident, leaving me incapable of doing heavy P2 work.” The brutal heat wave sweeping large swathes of the country killed at least 110 people in the past three months and left around 40,000 people grappling with the effects of suspected heat stroke, Union health ministry sources said on Thursday . The figures emerged from the data received from states between March 1 and June 18. Of this, six deaths were recorded on June 18 alone, officials said. They added that the numbers could go up as they were still assessing data on heat-related incidents submitted by states. They added that Uttar Pradesh is the worst affected, followed by Bihar, Rajasthan, and Odisha. In a review meeting held on Wednesday Union health minis, ter J P Nadda had directed states and Union territories to submit data from all health facilities daily and flag suspected heat- Two students cover their heads to protect from scorching heat in Lucknow | ANI related deaths. The direction came in the absence of official data on cases and deaths due to heat stroke in the country . Nadda said he has issued directions to all hospitals to treat heat stroke-related cases on a priority basis. “I have also told officials to visit central hospitals and centrally-managed hospitals to see if separate arrangements have been made for heat wave-affected cases. I also urge the public to give special focus on liquid diet, and have more and more water to avoid dehydration,” he said. Following Nadda’s directions, the Union health ministry issued an advisory to all states on ‘Heat Wave Season 2024’. It asked states to investigate all heat-related cases and called for having cooling appliances in hospitals for the management of severe heat-related illnesses. seeking the scrapping of the NEET-UG 2024 and an SC-monitored probe by the CBI or any other independent agency into the alleged irregularities. “ this has been argued from All day one and they (some petitioners) have been wanting stay of counselling. We have denied that. Ultimately if all of you suc, ceed, everything will go,” the bench told the petitioners, one of whom sought deferment of the counselling till July 8. Delhi court grants bail to Kejriwal S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @ New Delhi in a big relief to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, a Delhi court on Thursday granted him bail in the money laundering case that stems from the alleged excise scam. Kejriwal is the prime accused in the now scrapped Delhi liquor case. The court granted bail after directing Kejriwal to furnish a personal bail bond of `1 lakh. Vacation Judge of the Rouse Avenue Court, Niyay Bindu, declined the Enforcement Directorate’s request to keep the bail order in abeyance for 48 hours to give the agency time it to appeal. Kejriwal is expected to come out of Tihar Jail by Friday evening after furnishing the bail bond and other completing other formalities. The judge also directed Kejriwal to appear before the court whenever required and to cooperate with the investigation. It is to be noted that as the summer vacations are currently going on in courts, it’s the duty judges who hear important cases involving human liberty and bail matters. Earlier, on June 5, special judge Kaveri Baweja of the same court had rejected Kejriwal’s bail plea on the ground that his involvement in the crime could not be ruled out. The ED had told the court that Kejriwal is the mastermind of the liquor scam.
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