MANGALURU THURSDAY MAY 23, 2024 `9.00 PAGES 12 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 | P10 ■ 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 Images of booth-wise record of votes polled could be morphed, leading to mistrust and chaos, poll body tells SC S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A 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. 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 M U K E 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 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. 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 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 Tapabrata 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 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Mysuru ALL four members of a family asphyxiated to death after an LPG cylinder leaked at their home at Yaraganahalli on the outskirts of the city on Monday night. The police said Kumaraswamy (45), his wife Manjula (39) and their daughters Archana (19), an MCom student at Teresian College, and Swathi (17), a BCom student at Vani Vilas Urs College at Nazarbad, died in the incident. They were found dead at their house on Dr Rajkumar Road. The family had attended a relative’s wedding at Sakharayapatna in Kadur of Chikkamagaluru district last week and had returned to Mysuru on Sunday night. It is suspected that they might have died on Monday night after the family had dinner and slept. As the family members 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 Jobs already availed won’t be affected The court clarified that the services of citizens of the struck-down classes, who are already in service or have availed the benefit of reservation or have succeeded in any selection process of the state will not be affected by the order. 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. Reacting to the order, 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. The OBC reservation, she added, will continue, as the bill was passed within the framework of the Constitution. 128 devotees fall ill after consuming prasada All 4 of Mysuru family die after LPG leaks EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Belagavi Kumaraswamy, Manjula, Swathi and Archana were asphyxiated to death at their house in Mysuru on Monday were not responding to calls for the last two days, their relatives Vignesh and Bharath visited the house on Wednesday morning. The duo knocked on the door and when there was no response, they peeped through the window and saw the bodies lying on the floor. He immediately alerted the neighbours and police. City Police Commissioner Ramesh Banoth and DCP (Law and Order) M Muthuraj visited the spot along with a dog squad and forensic experts. The bodies were shifted to JSS Hospital. A case was registered with the Alanahalli police. CONTINUED ON: P5 PINK POWER Rajasthan Royals’ Riyan Parag plays a shot during the Indian Premier League T20 cricket match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Narendra Modi Stadium, in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. RR won by 4 wickets and will face Sunrisers Hyderabad in the next playoff match on Friday | PTI | P11 POONJA MLA APPEARS FOR QUESTIONING BEFORE BELTHANGADY POLICE Friends-turned-rivals raise poll heat in Sirsa S H A H I D F A R I D I @ Sirsa (Haryana) Calcutta HC cancels OBC status of several classes since 2010 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 There was high drama at the residence of BJP MLA Harish Poonja at Gardadi village in Belthangady taluk of Dakshina Kannada district on Wednesday when the police went to arrest him for reportedly threatening cops over the arrest of a BJP worker | P4 Bengalureans lose `197 cr to stock fraud in 4 months R A K S H I T H G O W D A @ Bengaluru AS more working professionals are in a rush to earn large amounts of money the number , of stock investment fraud cases is on the rise, especially in Bengaluru. Looking at the alarming rise, the cyber crime police have now formed a special team to probe such cases. In just four months, Bengalureans lost a whopping Rs 1 9 7 c ro re t o f r a u d u l e n t schemes. A total of 735 cases have been registered with zero recovery, while only 10% of bank accounts frozen. In February alone, on an average eight cases were registered every day . In the 237 cases registered, people lost Rs 88 crore. Additional Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Chandragupta said that even those who know the market and the system are losing money because of their greed. “Most victims are aged above 30. As mule accounts are used in almost all the cases, it is difficult to track them. Even if the account holders are tracked, they turn out to be innocent people,” he said. An officer said that in many cases, victims receive a link to apps, which are simulation (fake) apps of well-known stock trading apps. “These fake apps show that you are making profits. Victims are pushed to invest more money Rather than . withdrawing, victims keep investing their money. Only when they want to pull out their money, do they realise that they were conned. Most of the cases happen over a week or a month,” the of ficer explained. AS many as 128 devotees, who had consumed maha prasada at the Bireshwar and Karemma Goddess Jatra (Fair), were admitted to hospital after they complained of vomiting and loose motion in Hulikatti village of Saundatti taluk The number of patients increased from 46 devotees on Tuesday to 128 on Wednesday Of them, . five are said to be serious and have been shifted to the Dharwad District Hospital. Hundreds of devotees, who had participated in the jatra at Hulikatti village, had consumed rice and mango juice served as maha prasad. Soon after, many of them started feeling uncomfortable. Some started vomiting, while others had loose motion. All were admitted to the government hospital at Saundatti. A team from the Health Department, led by District Health Officer Dr Mahesh Kone, rushed to the village. He deputed a team of doctors to camp in the village as a precautionary measure. Dr Kone confirmed that there was no casualty He said . that all the patients are being treated and doctors are keeping an eagle’s eye on the health status of the patients. All measures have been taken to ensure that the people in Hulikatti are immediately attended to by doctors if they need any medical help, he added. Local MLA Vishwas Vaidya also rushed to the village and hospital to check the situation of the devotees. Devotees being treated at the government hospital at Saundatti in Belagavi district on Wednesday
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