Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday urged his party workers to be vigilant against “EVM tampering” as voting came to an end in Telangana and Rajasthan, cautioning them that “in Modis India, EVMs have mysterious powers”.

“Congress party workers, be vigilant after polls close today. In MP, EVM’s behaved strangely after polling: Some stole a bus and vanished for two days! Others slipped away and were found drinking in a hotel,” tweeted Gandhi.

The Congress chief was referring to the incident in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar where electronic voting machines (EVMs) were transported in a vehicle without any registration number and reached the collection centre 48 hours after the voting ended.

In another incident, two polling officers were “found drunk” along with EVMs inside a hotel owned by a Bharatiya Janata Party functionary.

Reporting the incidents to the Election Commission, the Congress on Tuesday had demanded a probe alleging that the BJP was “in collusion with the local administration” in attempting to tamper with EVMs during the November 28 Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls.

IANS

 Heavy polling was recorded in the Telangana Assembly election on Friday, with officials reporting over 56 per cent voter turnout by 3 p.m.

According to information reaching Hyderabad, 56.17 per cent of over 2.8 crore voters had cast their votes by 3 p.m.

Polling came to an end in 13 Left Wing Extremism affected constituencies at 4 p.m, while in the remaining 106 segments the process will continue till 5 p.m.

The polling, which began on a dull note at 7 a.m, picked up after 9 a.m. Long queues of voters including women were seen especially in rural areas.

Chief Electoral Officer Rajath Kumar said barring sporadic incidents the polling was peaceful and smooth in all 32,815 polling stations spread across 31 districts.

In some polling centres, the process started late due to technical glitches in Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs).

Of the total electorate, nearly half are women. There are 1,821 candidates, including Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao and his 14 cabinet colleagues.

Congress candidate Vamshichand Reddy was injured in stone pelting by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers in Nagarkurnool district. He was admitted to a hospital.

Tension prevailed in Kodangal constituency where the midnight arrest of Congress Working President Revanth Reddy on December 4 had triggered a huge row, leading to transfer of Vikarabad District Superintendent of Police by the Election Commission.

Voters at several places complained that their names were missing from the voter list. Some voters staged protest over officials not allowing them to cast their votes in the absence of voter slips.

The prominent whose names were missing from voter list include the family members of Finance Minister E. Rajender. Shuttler Jwala Gutta tweeted that her name was also missing from the list.

Many celebrities including superstar Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Junior NTR, tennis star Sania Mirza and ace shuttler P.V. Sindhu cast their votes but this failed to enthuse the voters as overall turnout remained less than 40 per cent by 3 p.m.

Chief Minister and Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) President cast his vote in his village in Siddipet district and exuded confidence that his party will retain power with a huge majority.

Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan and his wife exercised the franchise near Raj Bhavan.

Congress Telangana unit chief Uttam Kumar Reddy voted in Kodad constituency. BJP’s state unit chief K. Laxman and AIMIM President Asaduddin Owaisi did so in Hyderabad.

Over 50,000 security personnel, including 18,860 from neighbouring states and central forces, were deployed as part of the security arrangements.

Over 1.50 lakh polling personnel were on duty to conduct the polling process. As many as 55,329 EVMs and 39,763 control units were in use.

For the first time, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) were installed across the state. The authorities have arranged 42,751 VVPATs, which are attached to the EVMs and will display for seven seconds the choice made by the voter.

The elections were expected to be a close contest between the ruling TRS, which is contesting all seats on its own, and the Congress-led People’s Front that includes Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Communist Party of India and Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS).

The BJP is the third key force in some constituencies. The Bahujan Left Front led by the Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are also contesting majority of the seats.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) is contesting eight seats in Hyderabad.

The TRS opted for dissolution of the Assembly in September, eight months before its term was to end.

IANS

Superstar K. Chiranjeevi and Akkineni Nagarjuna were among top celebrities from the Telugu film industry who cast their votes in the Telangana Assembly elections on Friday.

Well-known director Rajamouli and actors Venkatesh, Allu Arjun and Nithin were also among the Tollywood personalities who exercised their franchise at various polling stations in Jubliee Hills here.

They appealed to all citizens to come out and to exercise their democratic right.

Actor-politician Chiranjeevi along with his wife K. Surekha stood in queue along with commoners and exercised their franchise.

Chiranjeevi later told reporters that it is the duty of each and everyone to cast his vote. The former central minister and Congress party leader, however, parried questions about politics.

“I came to here to cast my vote as a common citizen,” he said when asked about the prospects of Congress-led People’s Front.

Chiranjeevi, who had been focusing on films last four years, stayed away from campaigning in Telangana.

Popular actor Nagarjuna and with his wife Amla Akkineni also cast their votes. “It’s your day. Come out and cast your vote instead of just complaining,” he said.

Polling to elect a new state Assembly was underway in Telangana in all of the 119 constituencies in the first full-fledged elections in the country’s youngest state.

IANS

 A youth was arrested for taking selfie while casting his vote in Telangana Assembly elections on Friday.

The voter, identified as Shiv Shankar, was arrested by the police on a complaint by polling official at a polling centre in Rajendranagar constituency in Greater Hyderabad.

Officials said the youth was arrested under Representation of People’s Act for violating secrecy of voting.

The use of mobile phones inside the polling booths is prohibited. The election authorities have asked voters not to carry mobile phones inside the polling centres.

The Election Commission has cautioned the voters, especially the first time voters against taking selfies inside the polling booths. Officials said the voters were free to take selfies with their inked finger after coming out of the booths.

Hyderabad, Dec 7 (IANS) A youth was arrested for taking selfie while casting his vote in Telangana Assembly elections on Friday.

The voter, identified as Shiv Shankar, was arrested by the police on a complaint by polling official at a polling centre in Rajendranagar constituency in Greater Hyderabad.

Officials said the youth was arrested under Representation of People’s Act for violating secrecy of voting.

The use of mobile phones inside the polling booths is prohibited. The election authorities have asked voters not to carry mobile phones inside the polling centres.

The Election Commission has cautioned the voters, especially the first time voters against taking selfies inside the polling booths. Officials said the voters were free to take selfies with their inked finger after coming out of the booths.

 Bollywood superstar Salman Khan is the richest Indian celebrity, according to the 2018 Forbes India Celebrity 100 list, which he has topped for the third consecutive year. Shah Rukh Khan has fallen out of the top 10 list.

The 2018 Forbes India Celebrity 100 List rankings are based on estimates of entertainment-related earnings of celebrities. The period under consideration is October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018.

The actor’s earnings are pegged at Rs 253.25 crore. Salman, 52, cemented his place in the top spot thanks to the commercial success of his movies “Tiger Zinda Hai” and “Race 3”. His earnings were backed by endorsements of several consumer-facing brands, and constitute 8.06 percent of the total earnings — Rs 3,140.25 crore — of the top 100 celebrities for the year, read a statement from Forbes.

Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli jumped one spot to the second rank, with total earnings of Rs 228.09 crore, a sharp increase of 116.53 percent from the previous year. Actor Akshay Kumar completed the top three, with Rs 185 crore in earnings in the period under consideration for the list.

With no movie releases in 2017, Shah Rukh Khan, who was at the second spot on the 2017 Forbes India Celebrity list, fell out of the top 10. His earnings were down 33 percent this year, at Rs 56 crore from endorsements, placing him at rank 13 on the list.

Newly-wed actress Deepika Padukone broke into the top five on the Forbes India Celebrity 100 list — the first woman celebrity to find place in the top five — with earnings of Rs 112.8 crore, placing her firmly at rank 4, thanks to the commercial success of “Padmaavat”, and her brand endorsements.

Cricket star Mahendra Singh Dhoni rounded up the top five with Rs 101.77 crore, followed by Aamir Khan (Rs 97.50 crore), Amitabh Bachchan (Rs 96.17 crore), Ranveer Singh (Rs 84.7 crore), Sachin Tendulkar (Rs 80.00 crore) and Ajay Devgn (Rs 74.50 crore) making it to the top 10.

There is mixed representation from the prolific South Indian film industry. There are 17 celebrities from the South this year against 13 on the 2017 list. The number of Bollywood actors is down from 33 to 31, despite their cumulative earnings increasing by 12.89 percent from the previous year.

Brian Carvalho, Editor, Forbes India, said: “The Celebrity 100 is a definitive barometer of earnings of celebrities. Besides the earnings charts and cover stories on high-fliers like Sachin Tendulkar, Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone, we have also covered in the Celebrity 100 Special issue a whole new generation of celebrities — the unlikeliest of YouTube stars from the hinterland, a rapper from the Mumbai ghettos and an activist actor from Kerala taking on misogyny head-on in the testosterone driven Malayalam film industry.”

Indian cricket team all-rounder Hardik Pandya, with earnings to the tune of Rs 28.46 crore, was the highest gainer (in percentage terms), with his annual earnings rising nearly nine times.

Actress Nayanthara, whose earnings stand at Rs 15.17 crore, is the only woman from the South Indian film industry to make it to the list, following the success of her dark comedy, “Kolamavu Kokila” and the thriller “Aramm”.

A major study published on Thursday warned of a malnutrition crisis in almost every country in the world with India holding about one-third of the world’s burden for stunting.

Forty-six million children in India are stunted because of malnutrition and 25.5 million more are defined as “wasted” – meaning they do not weigh enough for their height, according to the Global Nutrition Report 2018.

Worldwide, 150.8 million children are stunted and 50.5 million are “wasted”, the report said.

“The uncomfortable question is not so much ‘why are things so bad?’ but ‘why are things not better when we know so much more than before?'” said Corinna Hawkes, co-chair of the report and director of the Centre for Food Policy.

Asia is one of the hardest-hit areas when it comes to malnutrition although the region experienced the largest reduction in stunting from 2000 to 2017 – from 38 percent to 23 percent.

In India, high rates of malnutrition lead to anaemia, low birth rates, and delayed development – perpetuated from generation to generation.

Dr Basanta Kumar Kar – who is part of a health committee at NITI Aayog, India’s government think-tank – said stunting in children is poor growth that can cause profound damage to both body and mind.

“Malnutrition is linked to mortality, morbidity, brain/cognitive development, and overall physical growth of a child. A malnourished child is vulnerable to infections and many life-threating diseases,” Kar told media.

“The odds against these children making it to secondary school, let alone managing an intellectually or physically challenging job, is slim. Malnourishment is hence also linked to productivity,” he added.

Of the three countries that are home to almost half (47.2 percent) of all stunted children, two are in Asia: India (46.6 million) and Pakistan (10.7 million).

Researchers behind the Global Nutrition Report, which looked at 140 countries, said the problems called for a critical change in the response to this global health threat.

The Global Nutrition Report is an independently produced annual analysis of the state of the world’s nutrition.

Malnutrition is linked to mortality, morbidity, brain/cognitive development and overall physical growth of a child

DR BASANTA KUMAR KAR

‘Stunted and wasted’

The Global Nutrition Report 2018 found while malnutrition rates are falling globally, their rate of decrease is not fast enough to meet the internationally agreed Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to end all forms of malnutrition by 2030.

Apart from children’s diets, the report flagged up gender inequality, early child-bearing, open defecation, education, and economic staus as influential factors in India’s malnutrition crisis.

Despite available data, progress on tacking malnutrition is “simply not good enough”, according to the report.

Globally none of the countries with sufficient data are on course to meet all nine targets on malnutrition. India is not set to meet any of them, the report said.

Efforts have been made to ensure children are breastfed and get nutritious food in the crucial first two years of life and to improve the water they drink and sanitation in their homes.

“We are conscious of the fact that a large proportion of our children are stunted and wasted. To attack this problem, we have launched a nutrition mission this year where we will be using new technology to attack this problem,” Rakesh Srivastava, from India’s Ministry of Women and Child Development, told media.

India is the world’s fastest-growing major economy and during the last two decades has recorded economic expansion that helped lift hundreds of millions out of poverty. But it still remains a deeply stratified society with extreme inequality between its rich and poor.

Nikhil Day, at Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, a peasant and workers’ organisation in the western state of Rajasthan, expressed alarm at Thursday’s report.

“We are constantly shocked and disgraced by reports like these. In a country like India – where there is so much emphasis on economic growth rates – our apathy for malnutrition and food security is telling.”

“It robs children of their future and countries of their humanity. This should be a national priority,” he said.

Aljazeera

 Polling ended peacefully on Tuesday for the fourth phase of Panchayat polls in Jammu and Kashmir.

No untoward incident was reported during the voting that started at 8 a.m. and ended at 2 p.m.

In the Kashmir Valley, an overall 32.2 per cent electorate voted, with 63.2 per cent polling reported in Baramulla district. Pulwama district recorded the lowest voter turnout (0.6 per cent).

In Jammu division, 82.5 per cent votes were polled.

The overall voter turnout in Tuesday’s poll for the entire state was 71.3 per cent, officials said.

Voting took place in 2,618 polling stations across the state — 639 in Kashmir division and 1,979 in Jammu division.

There were 5,470 candidates for 339 Sarpanch and 1,749 for Panch seats. A total of 99 Sarpanchs and 969 Panchs have been elected unopposed in this phase.

A total of 472,160 people were eligible to vote for Sarpanchs and 332,502 for Panchs.

The voter turnout in the first phase on November 17 was 74.1 per cent, 71.1 per cent in the second phase on November 20 and 75.2 per cent in the third phase on November 24.

The nine-phase Panchayat polls will be completed on December 17. The last Panchayat polls were held in 2011 in the state.

IANS

If you just turned 18, its time to get your voter ID card from the nearest polling station in Bengaluru as part of the three-day ‘Special Voter Register campaign’ organised by the Election Commission, along with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike

Beginning today, the special campaign is aimed at increasing voter enrollment and will be held until November 25 across all polling stations in the city.

Citizens can obtain their voter ID cards through this campaign by submitting photocopies of proof of residence, age proof and also a passport size photograph. In order to get a new voter ID, the citizens have to fill up Form 6, which has to be submitted along with documentary proof.

The existing voters who want to change their address can also complete the process through this special campaign.

Young or first-time voters who are in the age group of 18 to 20 years, especially those who will be completing 18 years on January 1, 2019, can enrol themselves to avail voter ID cards through this campaign

Booth level officers at the polling station will help citizens to enrol themselves as voters. The citizens can also apply for voter ID cards through

A total of 4,288 nomination papers have been filed by 3,295 candidates for the Rajasthan Assembly elections, Chief Electoral Officer Anand Kumar said on Tuesday.

The filing of nomination papers started on November 12 and continued till November 19 for all 200 seats. The candidates can withdraw their nominations by November 22, Kumar added.

The maximum nominations have been filed for Jaipur’s 19 seats — 632 by 502 candidates.

Rajasthan will elect a new Assembly on December 7 and the vote count will take place four days later.

IANS