tadepalligudem l thursday l may 23, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION RBI to pay highest-ever dividend of `2.11 lakh crore to government The Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday approved the transfer of `2,10,874 crore as surplus to the Centre for FY24 A shot in the arm for the next government Record payout AMID higher risk buffer The payout is more than double the expected amount. The Centre had budgeted a receipt of `1.02 lakh crore as dividend from the RBI, public sector banks and financial institutions in the interim budget for 2024-25. Experts say the higher-than-budgeted dividend payout will provide headroom to the new government to enhance expenditure and better manage the fiscal deficit ■ The RBI’s balance sheet rose 11.4% in FY24 due to the increase in foreign currency assets, loans and advances to scheduled commercial banks and gold reserves, Gaura Sen Gupta, the chief economist at IDFC First Bank, said ■ The record payout comes even as the RBI raised its contingency risk buffer from 6% to 6.5% — which is at the higher end of the statutory requirement `87,416 cr The size of dividend transfer by the RBI to the Centre in the previous fiscal 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 Form 17C sharing open to mischief: EC Manhunt launched to nab YSRC MLA who vandalised EVM Images of booth-wise record of votes polled could be morphed, leading to mistrust and chaos, poll body tells SC S u c hi t ra Ka lya n M o ha n t y @ New Delhi The Election Commission of India on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that uploading Form 17C (record of votes polled) on its website could lead to mischief, since the images could be morphed, creating “widespread discomfort and mistrust”. It added that no legal right can be claimed towards publishing the final authenticated data of voter turnout in all polling stations. A three-judge bench of the court led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud had on May 17 asked the poll panel to file its affidavit on a plea by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) seeking directions to upload the polling station-wise voter turnout data on the ECI website within 48 hours of polling for each phase of the ongoing Lok Sabha polls. The court had wanted to know the difficulty in putting up the Form 17C images on the ECI’s website and scheduled the next hearing for Friday May 24. , “In any electoral contest, the margin of victory may be very close. In such cases, disclosure of Form 17C in public domain express read Buzz on Bangladesh MP’s murder in Kolkata New Delhi: Veteran Bangladeshi MP Anwarul Azim Anar, who went missing in India, was possibly killed in Kolkata, reports on Wednesday said. The West Bengal police said investigations into the case of the politician’s killing has been taken up by the state CID. Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan claimed that it was a planned murder | P7 First human case of bird flu in Aus tied to India Canberra: Australia has announced the first confirmed case of human bird flu in a child who is believed to have acquired it while in India some weeks ago, according to a media report on Wednesday. The child experienced a severe infection but is no longer unwell,” the Victorian Department of Health posted on X. There is no evidence of transmission in Victoria, it said in the post | P9 No scanner, no Net connection to upload There are no scanners for Form 17C at polling stations. Further, no internet facility is allowed so as to remove doubts on connectivity with EVMs. If uploading is to be done centrally by ARO or RO, it will violate the extant legal design of keeping Form 17C in the strong room, the ECI said may cause confusion in the minds of the voters with regard to the total votes polled as the latter figure would include the number of votes polled as per Form 17C as well as the votes received through postal ballots. However, such difference may not be easily understood by the voters and may be used by persons with motivated interests to cast aspersion on the whole electoral process ... cause chaos in the election machinery which is already in motion,” the affidavit said. It warned that the disclosure of Form 17C is amenable to mischief and could vitiate the entire electoral space. “ the moAt ment, the original Form 17C is only available in the Strong Room and a copy only with the polling agents whose signatures it bears. Therefore, there is a one-to-one relationship between each Form 17C and its possessor,” the ECI said. Indiscriminate disclosure of the form through public posting on the website increases the possibility of the images being morphed, creating widespread public discomfort and mistrust, it reasoned. “There is a consistent malafide campaign/design/efforts to keep on raising suspicion and doubt in every possible manner and by misleading assertions and baseless allegations regarding the conduct of elections by the Election Commission of India,” it submitted. The ECI went on to question the motive of the petitioners. “The petitioners are not approaching the courts with clean hands,” the affidavit argued. Over the last few weeks, Opposition parties, including the Congress, CPI (M) and Trinamool Congress have written to the ECI over the delay in release of final voter turnout and to publish the total number of voters in each constituency. The Congress questioned the big difference between the real time voter turnout data and the final figures released by the ECI. Election commission ticks off Nadda, Kharge E x pr e ss N e w s S e r v i c e @ Vijayawada/Sangareddy M UKE S H R A N J A N @ New Delhi The Commission expects BJP to fully align the campaign methods to the practical aspects of the composite and sensitive fabric of India ECI to Nadda Do not make statements that give false impression that the Constitution may be abolished or sold ECI to Kharge A day after the Election Commission of India (ECI) directed the State police to arrest YSRC Macherla MLA Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy for vandalising an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) on the day of polling (May 13) in Andhra Pradesh, special police teams launched a manhunt in Telangana on Wednesday The police . reportedly found the politician’s car and driver near a factory in Sangareddy . In a video that has gone viral, Ramakrishna Reddy can be seen entering polling station no. 202 at Palvai Gate, picking up an EVM and smashing it to the ground. Palnadu district election officers handed over video recordings of the incident to the CEO, who further reported the same to the ECI. Subsequently , the ECI directed Chief Election Officer (CEO) Mukesh Kumar Meena to instruct DGP) Harish Kumar Gupta to take stern action against those involved in vandalising the EVMs. The election officials With just two phases of the Lok Sabha polls left, the Election Commission of India on Wednesday issued advisories to BJP national president J P Nadda and Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge admonished their star campaigners, saying their utterances “follow patterns and create narratives, which can be damaging beyond the MCC period”. In separate letters to them, the ECI said, “Technical loopholes or extreme interpretations of other political parties’ utterances cannot discharge star campaigners from the core responsibility of their own content, which ought to be corrective to the ongoing discourse and not further plummeting the quality of campaign discourse.” The ECI was responding to the responses of Nadda and Kharge to its earlier missives to them following charges of violation of the model code of conduct by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress Rahul Gandhi respectively . Both Nadda and Kharge stoutly defended their respective party’s campaigning method and utterances of their star campaigners. But the ECI found the utterances by the star campaigners is “not tenable”. It directed Nadda to convey to the BJP’s star campaigners not to make speeches along religious or communal lines. It also directed parties to desist from making potentially divisive statements regarding the socio-economic composition of defence forces. Lookout notices issued at all airports AP police issued lookout notices at all the airports to prevent Ramakrishna Reddy from leaving the country. It may be recalled that the MLA was put under house arrest after violence erupted in the volatile Palnadu region on the day of polling handed over the video clips to the State police and sought their assistance in the investigation. A case has been registered against Ramakrishna Reddy under Sections 143, 147, 448, 427, 353, 452, 120B of IPC, Sections 131 and 135 of Representation of People (RP) Act and relevant sections of Prevention of Damage to Public PropP4 erty (PDPP) Act. Calcutta HC cancels OBC status of several classes S u l a g n a S e n g u p ta @ Kolkata The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday cancelled the Other Backward Class (OBC) status of several classes in West Bengal granted since 2010, calling these reservations to fill vacancies in services and posts in the state, illegal. A division bench comprising justices T a p a b r a t a Chakraborty and Rajasekhar Mantha struck down the OBC status of several classes given under the West Bengal Backward Classes Act, 2012. Besides, the bench quashed the state’s executive orders classifying 42 classes as OBCs from March 5, 2010 to May 11, 2012, with prospective effect, given the illegality of the reports recommending such classification. However, those who have already benefited from the quota would not be disturbed. The bench clarified that the executive orders of the state government classifying 66 classes of OBC before 2010 were not interfered with, since these were not challenged in the petitions. The court directed the Backward Classes Welfare Department, in consultation with the Backward Classes Commission, to place a report before the legislature with recommendations for inclusion or exclusion of new classes in the state. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said her government will appeal before the Supreme Court. “We are not in favour of this judgment as hundreds of people will suffer,” she said. bid to curb violence As counting of votes is set to begin across the country on June 4, Andhra Pradesh police conducted mock drills in various districts on Wednesday as violence erupted in the State on the day of polling & the following days Cordon &Search ops held in state 168 problematic areas identified in State The mock drill operations, comprising State Armed Reserve and Central Armed Police Forces, were aimed to demonstrate the preparedness of officials to handle any untoward incidents on the day of counting 803 14 vehicles seized arrested 200 litres of liquor bottles seized 130 mobiles seized Friends-turned-rivals raise poll heat in Sirsa T’gana CM visits Tirumala, prays for S H A H I D F A R I D I @ Sirsa (Haryana) Political temperatures are soaring with the mercury in Haryana’s Sirsa. Two ex-Congress state presidents—Kumari Selja and Ashok Tanwar—are locked in a fierce battle in this constituency reserved for Scheduled Castes. Not too long ago, they had fought side-byside against the dominance of Bhupinder Singh Hooda in the state Congress. Tanwar left the Congress after failing to get the central leadership’s support against Hooda. He first joined the Aam Aadmi Party before switching sides again: he is now fighting the Lok Sabha election on a BJP ticket. Both Selja and Tanwar have roots in Sirsa. Selja’s father Dalbir Singh was an MP from Sirsa for four terms while Selja represented the constituency twice. Tanwar won the Sirsa seat in 2009. This time, the BJP has replaced its sitting MP Sunita Duggal to bet on Tanwar. Sirsa’s rich alluvial soil and advanced irrigation system help the district’s bumper agricultural production. Over half of the cotton produced in Haryana is grown in Sirsa. Its massive wheat production makes the state the second largest contributor of the grain to the central pool. Home to a strong farming community Sirsa was the epicentre , of the farmers’ protest in Haryana. During his campaign, Tanwar sometimes gets a taste of farmers’ ire in the form of black flags. He, however, dismisses them as paid workers of the Congress. Tanwar’s main thrust in his speeches is BJP’s rural infrastructure push. At a meeting in Rania, he asks a sarpanch if it’s not true that she is getting double the money for her panchayat now compared to the payout under the previous regime. “Earlier, we used to Kumari Selja (left) and Ashok Tanwar fight to get `5 crore for a panchayat. Now we are spending up to `70 crore,” he says. Tanwar’s plank is development, Viksit Bharat and Modi’s vision of a developed India. He reminds the voters about the kharchi-parchi (bribe-recommendation) system of recruitment under the Hooda regime and says the BJP government has offered jobs on merit. Selja loses no time in mocking her former colleague’s image as a party hopper. “Given the speed with which he has been changing parties, don’t be surprised if he is back in the Congress soon,” she says. The Congress has caught voters’ attention with its relentless campaign about the threat to reservation in government jobs and educational institutions. And that’s the leitmotif of Selja’s speeches. Illustration: Mandar Pardikar cordial relation between Telugu States E x pr e ss N e w s S e r v i c e @ Tirumala After offering prayers at the Srivari temple in Tirumala on Wednesday, Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said he wished that the two Telugu States resolve all issues amicably and forge ahead on the path of development. He declared that once the new government in Andhra Pradesh is formed, he will work with the new Chief Minister in this direction. Expressing the Telangana government’s desire to serve the Lord, he said, “Once the new government is formed in Andhra Pradesh, I will speak with the Chief Minister and request to allow the Telangana State government to construct a Choultry and a Kalyana Mandapam in Tirumala for the pil- Revanth Reddy with his grandson at the Srivari temple in Tirumala | Express grims of the neighbouring State and for those from across the country .” Stating that he had been planning to have darshan of Lord Venkateswara soon after becoming the Chief Minister of Telangana, he explained that his visit to Tirumala was delayed due to administrative work and the Lok Sabha elections. However, he said, he was finally able to offer prayers at the Srivari temple along with his family on Wednesday. His grandson also had his Mundan ceremony (first hair tonsure) on the occasion. Revanth and his family had darshan of Lord Venkateswara during the 8:30 am break. Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) executive officer AV Dharma Reddy welcomed the Telangana Chief Minister at the temple. While speaking to reporters later, he refused to speak about politics, stating that Tirumala is not the place for it.
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23-05-2024 of The New Indian Express-Tadepalligudem