Assembly elections in UP, Punjab, U'khand, Goa, Manipur from Feb 10
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The polling will begin in phases starting on February 10 and the counting of
votes will be on March 10. Uttar Pradesh will go to the polls in seven phases on
February 10, February 14, February 20, February 23, February 27, March 3 and
March 7. Punjab, Goa and Uttarakhand will vote on February 14. Manipur votes
in two phases on February 27 and March 3.
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NEW DELHI, Jan 8: The Election Commission of India on Saturday announced the
schedule for the Assembly elections in the five States of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab,
Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, beginning February 10. The elections are being
held in the midst of a third wave of the covid pandemic sweeping the country.
There were 1.41 lakh infection cases in the last 24 hours in the country, a
steep climb from 1,17,100 on Thursday.
The five States will vote in phases starting February 10. Counting of votes
is scheduled for March 10, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said.
Uttar Pradesh will go to the polls on February 10, February 14, February 20,
February 23, February 27, March 3 and March 7, in seven phases. Punjab, Goa,
and Uttarakhand will vote on February 14. Manipur will vote in two phases on
February 27 March 3.
The candidates will have to conduct campaigns through virtual mode.
There are a total of 690 Assembly constituencies going to the polls: UP (403
seats), Punjab (117), Uttarakhand (70), Manipur (60) and Goa (40). There are
18.34 crore voters in all the five States going to the polls, of whom 8.55 crore
are women.
UP has 1,74,351 polling booths. It has been raised from 1,64,472 polling booths
earlier because of covid. So also the number of voters allowed to vote in a
single polling both has been reduced to 1,200 from 1,500 due to covid, in all
States. Polling time has been increased by an hour in all the States in order
to keep social distancing. The commission asked the States to speed up the vaccination
programme.
The EVMs will have VVPATs. All polling booths will be sanitised. The polling
staff will have taken the booster dose of covid vaccine, apart from full vaccination.
On Friday, the Commission and the Health Ministry had extensive discussions
on the covid situation in the country and how to conduct the campaigns and the
polling safely and by following the covid protocol.
The Commission decided not to allow any rallies, road shows, padayatras till
January 15. The political parties will provide masks and sanitisers to party
workers. Only 5 people will be allowed In door to door campaigns. There will
not be any victory procession after the counting.
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SELECTIONS FROM OUR ARCHIVES |
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Top Govt officer thrashed, kicked inside Bhubaneswar office: Incident sparks a debate
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The incident has triggered a debate on social media whether the officer refused to take orders from a party leader or he was accused of any corruption, some netizens justifying the handling in either case, that Ratnakar was blocking public welfare work! It is true the Govt machinery has been the enemy Number One of the people of this country, existing for itself and for these politicians, for well over seven decades. India will never make an inch of progress - real progress, not make-believe-progress - unless and until this machinery is eliminated.
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UK's House of Commons votes to legalise assisted dying: What it means | |
ANALYSIS: There have been cases of Britons going to Switzerland to get rid of a miserable life. Now once the House of Lords also passes the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, terminally ill Britons can call it quits with the help of a medical practitioner here itself. But the measure when comes into practice, will have very serious social consequences, it is feared. There won't be comparisons, even as tropes in Latin American folklores. The worst case scenario is of those who are not terminally ill also trying to misuse the provision to leave this world early when life with dignity is not available. But that is, in fact, a political question and not a moral imbroglio!
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Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla line brings Kashmir Valley on India's rail map |
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- The Chenab bridge on the line, an engineering marvel, is the world's highest
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Work done, Elon Musk steps down from DOGE, leaves White House | |
Musk wrote: "My scheduled time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end... The @DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government." Now on it will be on auto-pilot.
PROGNOSIS: DOGE was prematurely born to protect the country by aborting an impending socio-economic disaster which very few people could see coming.
Although its immediate job was to save American taxpayers billions by slashing waste, eliminating fraud, cutting Government bloat and ensuring utmost efficiency in administration for the good of the people.
(Today's headlines )
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Ailing Asiatic lion Pataudi too dies of bird flu at Kanpur zoo
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Originally from Junagadh, Gujarat, Pataudi was relocated to Etawah Lion Safari in September 2019 before being transferred to Gorakhpur Zoo in 2021. Recently it was receiving treatment for pancreatic and liver infections. After tigress Shakti died in the zoo on May 7 due to bird flu, Pataudi was shifted to Kanpur. Some birds are also reported to have died mysteriously around Gorakhpur. All zoos in UP are closed for fear of a bird flu outbreak.
Three other animals too had died - a tiger, a leopardess and a female wolf. Wolf Bhairavi died last Saturday, leopardess Mona died the Thursday before that and tiger Kesari died on March 30. Some of them had Shakti's symptoms but the cause of death has not been confirmed yet.
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48 tourist destinations closed in Kashmir following Pahalgam terror attack
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Trump slaps ‘kind’, ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on trading partners; a 'lenient' 26% on India!
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What motivated Trump's newfound policy, apart from being a stunt to justify his existence in the White House, is a false realisation that increased tariff will make foreign goods prohibitive, thereby boosting local production, and create more jobs, and more prosperity will ring in! If that is true, India would have been shining by now: Producing own Rolls-Royce La Rose Noire Droptail and Scotch Whiskies! And what about coconut and palm oil by America!
(Today's headlines )
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Trump signs order to shut Education Dept - And the contrast with India
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In India the scene is just the opposite. Centralisation is the core agenda and identity of the ruling dispensation without which it has no existence, or in other words, it exists for that set of schemes only. A realisation of this never dawned upon any Opposition party in 2014 or any time thereafter, what to talk of being able to see it coming 70 years ago! The consequence of all this violation of basic natural law of the universe we cannot predict.
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Sunita, Wilmore's Dragon splashes down in Gulf: What delayed their return? |
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All 80k health workers in US offered $25,000 voluntary buyout: Administering wrong prescriptions!
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The terminations are part of a large-scale exercise going on all across Fed departments and organisations to reduce wasteful Government expenditure as decided by a Trump in a mess gone berserk, and improve administrative efficiency following the whims of billionaire and his associate Elon MusK and his DOGE. It has not been shared how terminations are going to raise the efficiency bar! It looks like Trump has stolen some of the prescriptions meant for India. But the American problems are quite different.
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Visit Indian Travel Sites
Goa,
Kerala,
Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh,
Delhi,
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Uttar Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh,
Assam,
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Karnataka,
Madhya Pradesh,
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Gujarat
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