Sunday 20 november 2016chandigarh www.dailyworld.in

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HigH voter turnout in bengal bypollS KolKata A high voter turnout of 81 per cent was recorded in the by-elections held in two Lok Sabha and one assembly constituency in West Bengal on Saturday, while the Congress announced withdraw-ing their candidate from the Monteswar assembly seat accusing the ruling Trin-amool Congress of “turning the elections into a farce”. The TMC, however denied the Congress allegations and said the elec-tions have been peaceful. An average of 81 per cent polling was recorded till 5 pm, with 77 and 81 percent in Cooch Behar and Tamluk Lok Sabha constituencies and 86 per cent in Monteswar Assembly seat, the Election Commission said. / PTI /

over 80 pc turnout in 2 aSSembly SeatS in tn Chennai Polls for Aravakkurichi an-dThanjavur and bypolls for Thiruppa-rankundram in Tamil Nadu and Nellithope seat in neighbouring Puducherry saw an impressive turnout in a peaceful atmo-sphere amid tight security, with voting percentage crossing 80 per cent in two of the Assembly segments. While Aravak-kurichi in Karur District registered the highest of 81.92 per cent in Tamil Nadu, Nellithope in Puducherry witnessed 85.76 percentage polling. Thanjavur, the hub of the Cauvery basin in Tamil Nadu which saw a series of protests over the river water issue with Karnataka since October, witnessed 69.02 per cent voting. Thiruppa-rankundram in Madurai District, where a bypoll was necessitated due to the passing away of AIADMK MLA (2016 May polls) S M Seenivel polled 70.19 per cent votes ac-cording to the Election Commission. / PTI /

30 pc electorate exerciSe francHiSe in aSSam till noon Guwahati An estimated 30 per cent electorate exercised their franchise till noon on Saturday for by-elections to Lakh-impur parliamentary constituency and 25 per cent for Baithalangso (ST) in Assam. Polling began this morning amidst tight security. The voting was initially slow with few voters trickling in the early hours, but picked up after 10 AM in Lakhimpur, though it continues to be slow in Baitha-langsu Assembly constituency, official sources said. There was no report of any untoward incident so far though a strict vigil is being maintained in different seg-ments of both the constituencies. The by-elections to Lakhimpur constituency was necessitated as Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal vacated the seat following his election in May to the state Assembly from Majuli (ST) constituency which falls under this Lok Sabha seat. / PTI /

Briefly

MuMbai Shiv Sena on Saturday came out in support of Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who is under attack from BJP for drawing a comparison between the Uri terror attack casualties and the deaths after demon-etisation, saying an apology by him for the comments will not change the truth.

BJP has sought an apology from Azad, the Leader of Op-position in the Rajya Sabha, for his remarks but he has rejected the demand.

“Will the truth change if Azad apologises?” asked an editorial in Sena mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.

“In the Uri attack, 20 jawans were martyred. Due to the de-

monetisation, 40 brave patri-ots have lost their lives (while standing in queues at banks to exchange demonetised notes).

“The difference is in the at-

tackers. Pakistan attacked us in Uri, where in the case of de-monetisation (deaths) it was our own rulers,” Sena, a partner of the BJP-led alliance at the Centre, said.

“Even if the number of deaths caused by inflation, recession and unemployment rises from 40 to 40 lakh, this government will say they are victims of pa-triotism.

“We only hope that going by this rate, a time will come wherein we have to declare the entire country as a martyr,” Sena said.

Parliament was stalled for the last two days due to ruckus caused by charges and counter

charges by the ruling NDA and Opposition over demonetisa-tion.

Sena has been unrelenting in its attack on the Centre over demonetisation and had even joined hands with some opposi-tion parties in demonstrations in Delhi over the issue.

Two days back, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh spoke to Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thac-keray and is believed to have conveyed BJP’s unhappiness over NDA ally participating in a march against demonestisation even as the Sena stuck to its criticism, saying it could have been implemented in a better way. / PTI /

Shiv Sena defends Azad’s remarks on demonetisation deaths‘The difference is in the attackers. Pakistan attacked us in Uri, where in the case of demonetisation (deaths) it was our own rulers,’

KolKata Chief Minister Ma-mata Banerjee on Saturday ac-cused the NDA government at Centre of pursuing “discrimi-natory” politics against West Bengal by not releasing new 500 rupees notes in the state.

“They have sent 500 rupees notes to Rajasthan. But they are not sending the 500 rupees notes to Bengal. The Central government has totally failed to act. Rural India is dying,

they don’t use card. What will they do? The whole of rural India is crying, farmers are crying. If food is not available what will the common people eat? Plastic??” Banerjee said.

Accusing the Centre of pursuing “discriminatory” politics.

The West Bengal Chief Min-

ister lauded the Supreme Court for expressing reservation on Centre’s plea for direction that no court except apex court hears pleas on demonetisation notification

Banerjee on Saturday visited the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regional office in Kolkata and spoke to the RBI regional direc-tor Rekha Warriar and urged her to ensure that cash is avail-able at all ATMs and Banks.

“I told her to ensure that cash is available at all the banks and ATMs. Common people should not face harassment.

They should not be ha-rassed. Don’t say that you are trying.

Because the word ‘trying’ is a vague word. It is a word used to shield negligence and incompetence. I am not blam-ing you.

Where from will you give notes, if the Centre has not provided?” Banerjee told Warriar.

The TMC supremo along with party leaders on Saturday visited the ATMs outside the RBI office in Kolkata and spoke to commoners.

She also visited Burrabazar area in Kolkata and spoke to businessman and shopkeep-ers. / PTI /

Mamata accuses the NDA govt of “discrimination” against Bengal

‘They have sent 500 rupees notes to Rajasthan. But they are not sending the 500 rupees notes to Bengal’

Patna The BJP-led NDA on Sat-urday released a’report card’ on the completion of one year of the Nitish Kumar government in Bihar and said the dispensation has proved to be a big “failure” on all fronts, especially so on law and order. Releasing the ‘report card’ titled ‘Ek Saal, Bura Haal’, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi launched a scathing attack on the maha-gathbandhan govern-ment saying it has been in news for “all wrong reasons” in the past one year.

“The situation in Bihar has be-come worse in just one year... We (NDA leaders) have come out with a report card one day in ad-vance, so that the Chief Minister can answer our questions,” Modi told reporters here. The Nitish-led government, in which Lalu Prasad’s RJD and the Congress are allies, completes a year in of-fice tomorrow and it would also present its report card showcasing its achievements. The practice of presenting report cards every year was started by Nitish Kumar in 2006 after he became Chief Min-ister in November 2005. The Chief Minister should present a report

card of one year and not of 11 years as BJP was also the part of the government for around seven-and-half-year when the government earned laurels globally, while now this state government has earned name for all wrong reasons in the past one year, Sushil said.

Union minister and LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, Union Minister of State and RLSP chief Upendra Kushwaha, Hindustani Awam Morcha(S) president and former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi and other senior BJP leaders in-cluding state BJP chief Mangal Pandey were also present on the occasion. Sushil Modi said had the Opposition not objected and raised the issues of bail granted to Shahabuddin, Raj Ballabh Yadav and Rocky Yadav, the state gov-ernment would not have gone to the Supreme Court against them.

“Why is agriculture, health, education and industries miss-ing from the CM’s ‘Nischay’?” he asked, while seeking answers to what happened to the Rs 1.52 lakh crore ‘agriculture roadmap’, ‘Mission Manav Vikas’, ‘Mahadalit Vikas Mission’ and ‘Vision Docu-ment 2025’. / PTI /

NDA issues ‘report card’ on ‘failures’ of Nitish govt

ra ja s t h a n / g u ja rat / m a h a ra s t ra / m P / g oa / b i h a r / w e s t b e n g a l / o r i s sa / j h a r k h a n d / n o rt h e a s t / t e l a n g a n a / s e e m a n d h ra / ka r n ata ka / ta m i l n a d u / k e ra l a

east, west & south

Paldev (MP) Noting that people are bound to face some initial problems after demonetisation, Union min-ister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday said corruption had taken a “cancerous” form and the government was trying to cure “a 50-year-old malaise in 50 days”.

He equated the demoneti-sation to the surgical strike against terror launch pads in

Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, saying black money was be-ing used increasingly to fund terrorist and Maoists activities in the country.

The Human Resources De-velopment Minister also hit out at the Opposition, saying they were “stalling” Parlia-ment as they had “no issues” to discuss at all.

“A few years after Indepen-dence, the country was run-

ning fine, but then the malaise of corruption started. And, in the last several decades, it has spread like a cancer. And, where were the corrupt people hiding their black money, in notes of (denomination) Rs 500 and Rs 1000.

“The government carried out a surgical strike across the border (on terror launch pads), and another strike on this side of the border,” Javadekar said.

He was addressing a gather-ing of students, faculty and others during a function held at the Mahatma Gandhi Chitra-koot Grameen Vishvavidyalay. The minister adopted Paldev under the Centre’s Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana in 2014.

“We are hearing from media that people are facing inconve-nience by standing in queues. There will be initial issues, as the country is going through transition. And, we are trying to cure a 50-year-old disease in 50 days.

“Also, these fake currency notes were used for funding terrorist activities and black money is a common source for Maoist and extremist activities. So, a strike was necessary.

And, hence the government took this step,” he told report-ers. The minister underscored that the government is trying

to encourage people towards cash-less transactions.

At the university, started by RSS ideologue Nan-aji Deshmukh a few decades ago, Javadekar also inaugu-rated the annexe section of the new administration building.

The Rajya Sabha member, who adopted this village in-spired by the legacy of Nanaji, also paid a visit to Sita Ram Kutir, and paid respect to the late RSS ideologue.

Paldev is a village inside the eponymous gram panchayat that falls under the Chitrakoot region of Satna district. The vil-lage borders Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

The minister, who arrived in Chitrakoot this morning, first visited the patients at the Matri Sadan, housed in the Deen-dayal Research Institute, one of the many institutes started by Nanaji here.

He also met a group of doc-tors from UK, who visit the place every year and render voluntary service by offering free check-up and surgery to patients. He later visited the Paldev village and held a janta darbar (public interface) there, followed by a review meet with officials. Satna MP Ganesh Singh also accompanied him.

/ PTI /

Corruption like cancer, surgical strike necessary: Javadekar

Chennai AIADMK Supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, who has been un-dergoing treatment at ICCU in Apollo hospitals since September 22 was shifted to a private room this evening.

This was confirmed to UNI by sources in the Apollo hospital.

Apollo Hospitals Chairman Pratap C Reddy had yesterday said that the Chief Minister’s mental functions are absolutely normal and that she can leave for home as and when she wants to, but continues to recuperate in the ICU to avoid any infection.

The 68-year-old AIADMK su-premo was also ‘living beautifully’

without ventilator, but respira-tory support was being given to her periodically to ensure that her lungs don’t collapse, Reddy said. Asked by reporters when Jayalalithaa could resume her official responsibilities, Reddy said ‘responsibilities at that level is to guide and direct. I suppose that she can do well even now.’ The Chief Minister is sleeping normally, eating normal food and increased high-protein diet that her body needs,’ he said.

Meanwhile, AIADMK spokes-person Nanchil Sampath said that Jayalalithaa will return home in a few days.

‘The doctors told me she is all

right,’ he said.Jayalalithaa was admitted to

the hospital on September 22 after she complained of fever and dehydration. Later, the hospital had said she was being treated for infection, with respiratory support, among others.

Specialists from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi and from London, have treated her dur-ing the period.

Since her hospitalisation, State Ministers and AIADMK cadres have been organising special poojas at various temples across the state, praying for her speedy recovery. / UNI /

Jayalalithaa shifted to special room from ICU in Apollo

Since her hospitalisation, State Ministers and AIADMK cadres have been organising special poojas at various temples across the state, praying for her speedy recovery

RaiPuR Five naxals were gunned down by security forces in the jungles of Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district in Maoist hotbed Bastar, police said on Saturday. “The skirmish took place last night between a joint team of District Reserve Group (DRG) and ultras in the jungles of Tuspal and Becha Kilam villages under Chhotedongar police sta-tion limits,” Inspector General of Police (Bastar Range), S R P Kalluri said. This is the second biggest encounter in Bastar this month after bodies of six naxals, including three women, were recov-ered post a gun battle in Dantewada on November 16. “At least half a dozen cadres of Military Company VI of Maoists were killed in the gun battle at Narayan-pur,” Kalluri said tagging the operation as “surgical strike”. DRG teams from Kondagaon and Narayanpur districts had jointly launched the operation into the core areas of Abhujmad - considered as Maoist den, based on specific inputs, the IG said. When they reached the jungles of Tuspal and Becha Kilam, the gun battle broke out between both the sides, he said. / PTI /

5 naxals gunned down in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur

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cHange of name

I, Menka D/o Vinod Parkash Sharma , H.no 2, Vikas Nagar, Yamunanagar have changed my name to Menka Sharma.

Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at an inauguration function of new Vidhan Sabha building annexe in Patna on Saturday. / PTI