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Maha local body election process complete farce, marked by chaos: Shiv Sena(UBT) in Saamana

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Mumbai, Dec 3: Shiv Sena(UBT) on Wednesday claimed that the Nagar Parishad and Nagar Panchayat elections in Maharashtra are mired in controversy and administrative turmoil, following a ruling delivered by the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court postponing all vote counting until December 21.

The party said the order mandates that the counting of the votes cast on December 2 be withheld for 19 days, and results be declared alongside the polls that were already postponed to December 20. The entire election process has become a “complete farce (khelkhondoba)” and a symbol of “slack governance and anarchy”, with both the ruling Mahayuti alliance and the State Election Commission (SEC) facing intense accusations of corruption and procedural irregularity.

The Thackeray camp, in a scathing editorial in the party mouthpiece, ‘Saamana’, alleged that the entire process has been characterised by “chaos, confusion, and suspicion”, with irregularities reported from voter lists to the actual voting process.

According to the editorial, the counting for 246 Nagar Parishads and 42 Nagar Panchayats, originally scheduled for December 3, was pushed ahead after a legal challenge sought to ensure that early results would not influence the voting in the 12 districts where polls were postponed. The postponement of counting means that the EVMs used today will have to be secured for nearly three weeks. Opposition parties have expressed deep concern regarding the security of the EVMs, which will be stored for 19 days. They questioned who would guarantee that the machines would remain untouched, raising fears that the ruling establishment, which is already accused of having gained power through election fraud, might attempt an ‘EVM scam’.

“Therefore, the voting machinery that was ready on Tuesday should remain ‘secure’ for a full 19 days — who will ensure there’s no tampering, and how? Everyone has seen the chaos and confusion in Assembly elections. Even in the current Nagar Parishad and Nagar Panchayat elections, all three ruling parties — especially the BJP — have openly adopted the tactics of ‘sam, dam, dand, bhed (persuasion, purchase, punishment, division)’. The incidents of cash bags and seizures of lakhs of rupees from this same constituency have also occurred. These are the constituencies vying for power at that level. The Chief Ministers released sermons on ‘ethics, regulations, and funds’ during campaign rallies. Despite the court’s fresh verdict, he expressed sharp displeasure without hesitation,” remarked the Thackeray camp in the editorial.

Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena further said, “Can trust be placed in the ruling alliance that came to power through election manipulation? With voting and counting now 19 days apart, the days of uncertainty are ahead.” The initial chaos that led to the split voting schedule was a result of the SEC’s own admission of ‘irregular’ procedure in 12 districts.

The editorial said the SEC admitted that some Election Officers violated the Maharashtra Municipality Election Rules, 1966, by allotting election symbols without providing the required three-day withdrawal period for candidates.

Critics have slammed the SEC’s eleventh-hour postponement as “highly suspicious” and “planned chaos”, alleging that the delay was intended to benefit the BJP by giving them more time for election settings.

Even Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis publicly expressed intense displeasure over the SEC’s decision, stating that the poll body was working improperly and that the process of postponing announced elections was “not proper”.

However, the opposition dismissed the CM’s reaction as a “well-staged drama”, arguing that the Chief Minister was merely ‘play-acting’ while the SEC, a ‘joker’, would not have acted without his tacit approval, commented the editorial.

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21-year-old NEET protester discharged from RML Hospital after 10-day critical care

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New Delhi, July 30: A 21-year-old woman who was injured during the police action at the July 20 Jantar Mantar protest has shown satisfactory clinical recovery and was discharged from Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital on Thursday.

The hospital said the decision to discharge her was taken after taking her stable condition and overall recovery into consideration.

The woman, who had participated in the protest, was brought to RML Hospital in an unconscious state after suffering asphyxia during a stampede-like situation that occurred amid the Parliament march.

Her condition had initially required intensive care and ventilatory support for several days. However, she gradually improved and regained full consciousness and independent mobility nearly ten days after being admitted to the hospital.

In its latest medical update issued on Thursday, RML Hospital said the patient had made a “satisfactory recovery following comprehensive critical care management” after undergoing treatment and rehabilitation.

“On admission, she was resuscitated in the Emergency Department and shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where she was managed on ventilatory support. Following sustained clinical improvement, she was successfully weaned off ventilatory support and, after one week in the ICU, was shifted to the Nursing Home ward for further recovery and rehabilitation,” the hospital said.

The hospital further stated that Thursday marked the 10th day of the woman’s hospitalisation and that she had reached a stable condition and was “fully conscious, alert, coherent, and hemodynamically stable” and had resumed a normal oral diet.

RML Hospital also said that she was ambulatory without assistance and had regained the ability to independently perform her regular daily activities, indicating significant improvement from the condition in which she was initially admitted.

“In view of her satisfactory clinical recovery and stable condition, she is being discharged today with appropriate medical advice and follow-up instructions,” the hospital added.

The woman was among the protesters who participated in the July 20 demonstration at Jantar Mantar, which was organised by the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) under the banner of ‘Sansad Chalo’.

The protest was held to demand accountability from the government over the NEET paper leaks and other examination-related irregularities, along with action to address concerns raised by students.

The demonstration later turned violent when some miscreants resorted to stone-pelting, following which security personnel used mild force to disperse the demonstrators. The clashes during the protest resulted in several protesters and police personnel sustaining serious injuries.

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Recruitment scam: ABVP activists lay siege to KPSC headquarters in Bengaluru, detained

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Bengaluru, July 30: Activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) staged a protest in Bengaluru on Thursday condemning alleged irregularities in recruitment conducted by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC), with several protesters being detained by police while attempting to lay siege to the KPSC office.

It can be noted that the KPSC is allegedly facing a major cash-for-jobs and OMR tampering scandal involving the recruitment of 400 Veterinary Officers, featuring leaked question papers, Rs 80 lakh bribes per seat, and the suspension of the KPSC Chairman.

The protest was led by ABVP Bengaluru Organizing Secretary Manikantha Kalasa. It was organized over allegations of large-scale irregularities in the recruitment of Veterinary Officers and Panchayat Development Officers (PDOs), which have sparked widespread concern among aspirants and the public.

As the demonstration intensified outside the KPSC office in Bengaluru, police deployed additional personnel to maintain law and order. Barricades were erected on roads leading to the office to prevent protesters from entering the premises.

During the protest, minor scuffles and pushing and bumping were reported between ABVP activists and police personnel as demonstrators attempted to breach the barricades and march towards the KPSC office. Police subsequently detained several protesters to prevent further escalation.

ABVP leaders alleged that repeated irregularities in KPSC recruitments have created anxiety among students and job aspirants across the state and demanded a fair, transparent, and impartial investigation into the alleged scams.

The alleged recruitment irregularities have become a major issue of public debate in Karnataka, with investigations currently underway. Protesters urged the state government to ensure accountability and restore confidence in the recruitment process.

Anticipating further attempts to gherao the KPSC office, police maintained heavy security arrangements in and around the premises. Extensive barricading was put in place from the KPSC office near Vidhana Soudha up to the road leading towards the CID office, restricting public access to the area.

Authorities allowed entry only to KPSC staff members and individuals with essential work at the office.

Meanwhile, candidates selected for the Veterinary Officer posts met Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara in Bengaluru and urged him to complete the recruitment process at the earliest. The candidates maintained that they had secured high marks in the examination and were selected on merit, adding that they were willing to face any investigation.

Several candidates broke down while speaking to reporters and appealed to the government to proceed with their appointments. They stated that if any of the selected candidates are found guilty of wrongdoing during the course of the probe, appropriate action may be taken against them.

The selected candidates further alleged that a large number of employees working on a contractual basis fear losing their jobs if meritorious candidates are appointed and are therefore creating hurdles in the recruitment process.

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Crime

Rs 28 crore, 15 kg gold seized in Bengal Police raid; relative of Tulu Mondal arrested

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Kolkata, July 30: After almost 24 hours of marathon raids and search operations coupled with interrogation, the Birbhum District Police in West Bengal on Thursday arrested Minar Mondal, a relative of Tulu Mondal, an influential stone-quarry owner in the district.

Following the marathon operations that started on Wednesday afternoon, the police recovered huge unaccounted cash and gold from Minar’s residence. The cops brought currency-counting machines from a local bank branch to count the cash seized.

The counting and recounting of the cash recovered was completed on Thursday morning; the total cash seizure had been found to be a little over Rs 28 crore, said a member of the investigating team.

Apart from that, he added, 15 kilograms of gold, whose estimated market value is over Rs 21 crore, have been seized from Minar’s residence.

“The estimated value of the seized cash and gold would be to the tune of around Rs 50 crore,” he added.

On Thursday morning, Minar was formally arrested, and the cops first took him to a local police station. At the same time, the police left his residence with a couple of trunks filled with seized cash and gold.

Minar will be presented to a district court in Suri later in the day, and the public prosecutor will seek his police custody.

Initially, Minar refused to answer repeated queries from the cops about the sources of such huge cash and gold. However, he finally admitted that the money and gold recovered were sourced from a syndicated crime racket, confirmed Birbhum’s district police Superintendent, Bidit Raj Bundesh.

According to police sources, last Tuesday, officials of Mohammad Bazar police station in Birbhum arrested seven dacoits. Based on the information from that dacoits’ group, the investigators found the location of the money and gold ‘mine’ in the house of Minar. Accordingly, the raids and search operations started at Minar’s residence on Wednesday afternoon, which continued till Thursday morning.

It is learnt that Minar was a bus driver in the state-run transport corporation. However, locals said he was involved in a major way with the stone-quarry business of Tulu Mondal, who again was a close confidant of Anubrata Mondal, the former Trinamool Congress district president in Birbhum.

The recovery of such a huge amount of cash and gold from his residence this morning has left his neighbours dumbstruck. In the past, the stone-quarry owner, Tulu Mondal, was accused of illegal stone mining.

Tulu Mondal’s name had also come up in the cattle smuggling case. He was under the watch of the ED in 2022. At that time, the Central investigators raided his house and office. The investigators are trying to find whether the huge cash and gold recovered from Minar Mondal’s residence were actually owned by Tulu Mondal.

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