HYDERABAD THURSDAY MAY 23, 2024 `9.00 PAGES 16 LATE 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 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 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 IN GOD’S ABODE People throng Yadagirigutta temple on the occasion of Sri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy jayanthi on Wednesday | SRI LOGANATHAN VELMURUGAN Doctors treat patients under mobile torch light in Bhongir EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE @ Bhuvanagiri THE power supply was interrupted for several hours in the Bhuvanagiri government hospital on Wednesday night, forcing patients to wait in darkness. However, doctors were seen treating patients with the help of mobile torch light due to power cut in the hospital. The reason for power interruption was nwaitot known. A woman patient said that there was no power supply for more than an hour and they were unable to see anything. It is unclear whether a generator is av a i l a b l e o r n o t i n t h e hospital. It may be recalled that power supply was disrupted for five hours in the MGM Hospital in Warangal on Tuesday. Adding to the woes of the patients, the generators in the hospital were under repair. Highlighting the plight of patients in the Bhuvanagiri hos- EVM VANDALISM CASE AP cops on hunt for YSRC MLA E X P R E S S N E W S S E R V I C E @ Vijayawada/Sangareddy A patient being administered saline under mobile torch light on Wednesday pital along with a video on X, former health minister T Harish Rao wondered what more evidence was required to prove that there were power cuts in the state. He alleged that all categories of consumers, including farmers, were facing problems due to power cuts. “Is it Indiramma Raajyam? Is this the change the Congress wanted?” Harish Rao asked. The government should focus on governance at least now, he suggested. EXPRESS READ Hot days back in Telangana after rain respite Hyderabad: As pre-monsoon showers subsided, the state has again started reeling under rising mercury levels. With 30 districts recording above 400C maximum temperatures, the highest maximum temperatures in the state rose to 44.20C in Nirmal, 43.60C in Kamareddy and 43.50C in Peddapalli and Adilabad. Hyderabad also recorded the highest maximum temperature at 40.20C | P3 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 in Andhra Pradesh, special police teams launched a manhunt in Telangana on Wednesday The po. lice reportedly found the politician’s car and driver near a factory in Sangareddy . In a video that has gone viral on social media platforms, Ramakrishna Reddy can be seen entering polling station no. 202 at Palvai Gate, picking up an EVM and smashing it to the ground on May 13. Palnadu district election officers handed over video recordings of the incident and web recordings of all polling stations, where EVMs were damaged, to the CEO, who further reported the same to Pinnelli Ramakrishna Reddy the ECI. Subsequently, the ECI directed Chief Election Officer (CEO) Mukesh Kumar Meena to instruct Director General of Police (DGP) Harish Kumar Gupta to take stern action against those involved in vandalising the EVMs. The election officials 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 Property (PDPP) Act. CONTINUED ON P5 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 and 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 their star campaigners. But the ECI found the utterances by the star campaigners “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. Calcutta HC cancels OBC status of several classes since 2010 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 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, West Bengal 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.
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