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Curfew imposed in Jamshedpur after clashes

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Jamshedpur-riots

Ranchi: A curfew has been imposed in Jharkhand’s Jamshedpur city, the home town of Chief Minister Raghubar Das, after two communities clashed over the alleged harassment of a girl, police said on Wednesday.

The curfew was imposed on Tuesday night. Trouble started on Monday evening when a girl of one community was allegedly harassed by boys of another community. The incident took place near Gandhi maidan area of city.

A mob burnt tyres following which members of the two communities clashed. Police said both the communities resorted to violence at many places and burnt vehicles.

On Monday, prohibitory orders were imposed. But as the situation continued to be tense, authorities imposed a curfew in many parts of the district.

More than 100 people have been arrested so far.

Das has set up a two-member committee to probe the incident and appealed to the people to maintain calm.

(IANS)

Raghubar Das to be first non-tribal chief minister of Jharkhand

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raghubar-das

Ranchi: Jharkhand is all set to get its first non-tribal chief minister with Raghubar Das being elected as the BJP state legislature party leader Friday.

Das, a five-time legislator from East Jamshedpur, will be the 10th chief minister of Jharkhand.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-All Jharkhand Students Union alliance won a clear majority in the assembly elections. The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 37 seats, while the AJSU bagged five in the 81-seat assembly.

(IANS)

Jammu & Kashmir heading for hung assembly; BJP to form Govt in Jharkhand

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BJP

Srinagar/Ranchi: Jammu and Kashmir today appeared headed for a hung assembly with BJP making gains in Jammu region while the party is all set to form government in Jharkhand, the trends coming from both the states in assembly elections show.

The PDP, headed by Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, and the BJP were leading in 25 seats each. The ruling National Conference was ahead in 16 seats and the Congress in 14 of the 87 seats for which the trends were available.

JKPC led by Sajjad Lone was ahead in two seats while JKPDF and CPI-M were leading in one seat each while Independents were leading in three seats.

The BJP’s spectacular performance, the best in the state so far, was however limited to the Jammu region where 37 seats are up for grabs. The party has not bee able to make any dent in the Valley which has 46 seats in all.

Going by the trends, unless any two of the four major parties–BJP, PDP, NC and Congress–come together government formation would not be possible.

In the last elections, National Conference had won 28, PDP 21, Congress 17 and BJP 11 seats.

In Jharkhand, the BJP was well on the road to forming a government of its own by leading in 38 seats including four of ally AJSU in the 81-member assembly. Ruling JMM is leading in 20 constituencies, Congress 4, JVM (P) 8, RJD 5 and others 5, the trends show.

(PTI)

Fourth phase: 49% cast vote in J&K, 61% in Jharkhand

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Jharkhand polls

Ranchi: Ignoring the boycott call given by separatists and braving cold weather, over 49 per cent of 14.73 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the penultimate phase of Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir.

Barring minor clashes between supporters of rival parties at a dozen places, polling in all the 18 constituencies spread over three districts of Kashmir, including summer capital Srinagar, and one district in Jammu region was by and large peaceful.

Despite severe cold, long queues of voters were seen outside the polling stations to exercise their franchise at many polling stations.

The trends in voter turnout in eight constituencies of Srinagar city, which have witnessed low voter turnout in the past elections due to separatist boycott calls, pointed towards a higher poll percentage this time.

While four constituencies of Khanyar, Habbakadal, Amirakadal and Zadibal had already surpassed the turnout recorded in 2008 assembly elections, the polling was going on briskly in other segments.

Sonawar constituency, where Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is contesting, witnessed the highest 33.85 per cent turnout in Srinagar followed by Hazratbal constituency at 22.77 per cent.

Edigah, Zadibal, Khanyar, Amirakadal and Batmaloo constituencies witnessed over 21.51 per cent, 20.14, 21.02 and 18.73 per cent turnout, respectively, till 2 PM in the fourth of the five-phased Assembly polls.

Anantnag constituency in south Kashmir, where PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed is a candidate, saw 30.58 per cent of the electorate cast their votes in the first six hours.

Pahalgam constituency in Anantnag district was leading in the turnout in Kashmir with 54.63 per cent of electorate exercising their franchise till 2 PM.

Shangus constituency recorded 53.46 per cent turnout, followed by Dooru (52.63), Kokernag (51.95), Bijbehara (44.07), Shopian (39.78) and Wachi (36.30).

Stringent security arrangements have been put in place to ensure incident-free polling across the state, the officials said.

Women outnumber men in Jharkhand

Women voters Sunday outnumbered men in the fourth phase of the assembly elections in Jharkhand. Around 61 percent balloting was reported from across the 15 constituencies that went to the polls, officials said.

“The highest polling was reported from Chankayari with 71.28 percent, followed by 70.2 percent in Madhupur. Polling was by and large peaceful. The turnout in Maoist-affected areas was more than 60 percent,” a poll official said. Women voters scored over the male voters.

“In the fourth phase, women’s turnout was around two percent more than male voters,” an Election Commission official said.

Balloting for 15 of the 81 assembly constituencies began at 7 a.m. While voting for 13 seats ended at 3 p.m., it continued in Bokaro and Dhanbad till 5 p.m. Voting took place at 5,482 booths, including 36 auxiliary ones.

As many as 716 booths were declared ‘very sensitive’ and 2,007 declared ‘sensitive’.

The Election Commission declared 183 polling stations as model polling stations. Webcasting facility was available in 335 polling stations and 27,410 polling personnel were deployed in the fourth phase.

A total of 43,48,709 voters, including 20,03,516 females, were eligible to elect their representatives.

The fate of 217 candidates, including 16 females, was sealed in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) by the end of balloting for the day. Former chief minister Babulal Marandi contested from Giridih constituency.

Ministers Mannan Mallik of the Congress, Haji Hussain Ansari of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and Suresh Paswan of the Rashtriya Janata Dal were among the other prominent candidates in this phase.

In the 2005 assembly polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party and its then alliance partner Janata Dal-United won seven of these 15 seats together. The JMM won four seats.

(Agencies)

Polling for 2nd phase Jharkhand Assembly election begins

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jharkhand-POLLS

Ranchi: Polling began today at 7 am in 20 Maoist-affected constituencies amid tight security in the 2nd phase of Assembly election to the Jharkhand Assembly, with polling personnel airdropped in the remote parts of the state.

An electorate of 44,31,900, including 21,72,982 women, is eligible to vote in 5,048 polling stations across seven districts to elect 223 candidates, said Jharkhand Chief Electoral Officer P K Jajoria.

There are 35 women among the candidates with Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, BJP and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Prajatantrik) nominating four women each.

Polling began at 7 am in all 20 constituencies. While it will end at 5 am at Jamshedpur (West) and Jamshedpur (East) seats, the exercise will end at 3 pm in the rest of the seats, Jajoria said.

Inspector-General of Police M L Meena said there were 1,424 supersensitive and 2,048 sensitive polling stations and added that polling personnel were airlifted to remote areas to be brought back by air after the polling.

The November 25 first phase election covering 13 Maoist-affected constituencies had ended peacefully, recording 62 per cent votes.

The CPI (Maoist) and the People’s Liberation Front of India are the banned extremist outfits operating in several rural areas across the seven districts – Seraikella-Kharsawan, West Singhbhum, East Singhbhum, Khunti, Simdega, Ranchi and Gumla where the 20 Assembly segments are situated.

The BJP is contesting in 18 seats in this phase, leaving two – Tamar and Jugsalai – for its pre-poll alliance partner, the AJSU Party.

The Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM-Prajatantrik) and Trinamool Congress are contesting in a pre-poll alliance, with the JVM-P fielding candidates in 18 seats, conceding two seats to the TMC.

Ruling allies JMM and Congress, who parted ways just before the Assembly election, are contesting against each other in all 20 constituencies.

In this phase, RJD and JD(U) are not in the fray. A Prominent among the candidates are incumbent Agriculture minister Banna Gupta (Jamshedpur -West), HRD minister Geetashree Oraon (Sisai) and Industry minister Champai Soren (Seraikella).

Former chief ministers Arjun Munda and Madhu Koda are the other figures trying their luck.

Former IAS officer J B Tubid, who took voluntary retirement to join the BJP, is contesting from Chaibasa, while former MLA Surya Singh Besra is fighting from the Potka seat.

(PTI)

70 percent polling in Kashmir, 62 percent in Jharkhand

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Polling ended peacefully, barring stray incidents of violence in at least six assembly constituencies where voting was held. Photo: Javed Dar, Authintmail

Polling ended peacefully, barring stray incidents of violence in at least six assembly constituencies where voting was held. Photo: Javed Dar, Authintmail

New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir Tuesday recorded a “high” poll percentage of 70 percent in the first phase of the state assembly elections, while the percentage in Jharkhand was 61.92, officials said here.

They said the percentage was likely to go up further.

Deputy Election Commissioner Vinod Zutshi told the media here that balloting in Jammu and Kashmir was incident free.

He said 70 percent voters cast their ballot and there could be an increase of about two percent after all votes cast were taken into account.

He said the constituencies had seen 64.97 percent turnout in the 2008 elections and 52.63 percent in the Lok Sabha polls earlier this year.

“It is a good increase. The voting percentage seems to be on the higher side,” he said.

Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha, who briefed the media about the Jharkhand elections, said the polling percentage in 13 seats that went to the polls was 61.92 percent.

He said the constituencies saw 58 percent polling in the 2009 assembly polls as well as in the Lok Sabha elections.

(IANS)

No party may get majority in J&K, BJP to emerge on top in Jharkhand: surveys

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BJP

New Delhi: No party may get a clear majority in the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir assembly elections, an opinion poll by a news channel has claimed while two other surveys on Jharkhand polls show that BJP is likely to emerge on top in the state.

As per the opinion poll conducted by Hindi channel – News Nation India – in Jammu and Kashmir, none of the political parties is likely to get a clear majority.

The survey by the channel projected that PDP is likely to get 31-36 seats and emerge on top in J & K, followed by BJP with 23-28 seats in the 87-strong assembly.

It gives ruling National Conference 7-11 seats and Congress 8-12 seats.

In Jharkhand, the same channel’s opinion poll predicts that BJP may get majority in the 81-member assembly with 42-46 seats followed by JMM 14 to 18 seats.

Another opinion poll, by ABP News-Nielsen projected that BJP and its allies LJP-AJSU are likely to get around 37 seats in Jharkhand, short of the majority-mark.

BJP on its own is likely to get around 30 seats in the state while Congress, RJD and JD(U) are together likely to get 23 seats, the opinion poll projected.

As per the ABP News-Nielsen opinion poll, more than 80 percent of respondents have rated the performance of PM Narendra Modi as very good or good.

(PTI)

Collective statement of the Third National Coal and Thermal Power Gathering

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Following is the text of the Collective Statement of the Third National Coal and Thermal Power Gathering held at Dumka, Jharkhand on 16-17 October 2014.

Protest_Third-National-Coal-and-Thermal-Power-Gathering

Third National mm&P Gathering on Coal Mines and Thermal power was held on 16-17 October at the Social Development Centre, Dumka, Jharkhand. More than 300 affected peoples from coal mining area and mm&P representatives participated from Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Telangana, West Bengal, Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

The two day gathering reviewed the situation of coal mining and thermal power in the country, particularly in the light of the recent Supreme Court’s historic judgement to cancel the allocation of all coal blocks granted to private companies. People from different areas presented the conditions prevailing in their regions and the machinations of the government and the private companies in the process. After deliberating on the situation and recognising the need to continuously expose the human and environmental costs of such illegal decisions, the gathering unanimously resolved to step-up action and

    1. Demand withdrawal of all the cases against protestors in all the coal and other projects, particularly in those coal blocks which have been cancelled by Supreme Court in it’s judgment dated 25 August, 2014. Cases should be immediately withdrawn and all the injured and those killed by the police repression and firing should be appropriately compensated;
    2. Demand cancellation of all statutory clearances granted to the coal and thermal projects granted earlier to this judgement of the Supreme Court and new such projects shall seek afresh clearances under environment, forest and tribal laws.
    3. Demand CBI enquiry into the police firing on protestors opposing coal, dam and thermal plant in Kathikund, Jharkand in 2008; illegal land deals of Heavy Engineering Corporation and the illegal appointment of over 9000 ineligible people in Damoder Valley Corporation;
    4. Demand resolution of the legacy issues and pending resettlement and rehabilitation;
    5. We totally oppose the dilution of the protective laws such as Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act, Chhota Nagpur Tenancy Act.
    6. We condemn the efforts and intention of central Government to dilute the provision of environment and forest laws in favour of corporate. The reality, notwithstanding the rhetoric of protecting rivers and environment, is the systematic dilution, amendment and/or abolition of the jurisprudential, constitutional, fundamental rights based on internationally recognized instruments of environmental and community protection built into the country’s laws, rules, regulations and legal system.Some of the most glaring instances of these have been:
      • The High Level Committee, setup to ‘reform’ Environmental Laws has been given a mandate to overhaul all green laws and make them investor friendly, within a framework of 2 months.
      • 240 projects cleared by the Ministry within 3 months a time period that simply cannot be adequate to undertake proper environmental impact studies, public hearings at local sites, and other mandated procedures
      • Delinking forest clearance from the green signal that is given by the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), to projects around tiger reserves, national parks and sanctuaries. Previously forest clearance could only be given after the NBWL approval.
      • Reducing the need for NBWL approvals for projects within 10 km around protected areas to only 5 km.
      • Relaxing procedures under the Forest Conservation Act, which requires central approval of diversion of forestlands, for linear projects through forest areas, projects in forests and eco-sensitive areas along international borders and in “Naxal-affected” areas.
      • Doing away with the need for public hearings for coal mines of less than 16 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) capacity (from the earlier 8), and allowing onetime expansion of mines up to 6 mtpa if they are already of 20 mtpa size.
      • Exempting irrigation projects affecting less than 2,000 hectares from needing environmental clearance, and allowing state governments to clear those a effecting 10,000 hectares.
      • Proposed amendments to the Green Tribunal and Land Acquisition Acts.
      • Systematic removal of independent voices from critical institutions of environmental and social governance
      • Reducing the budgetary allocation for the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) by 50%.
    7. We resolve to take up actions at local level immediately by movement groups on the 42 blocks which are to be transferred to Coal India Ltd (public sector undertaking), w.e.f. 31 March 2015.
    8. We demand the adoption of alternative development paradigm based on decentralised economic activities, decentralised renewable energy generation and equity.

This programme organised during the week of Reclaim Power – Week of Global Action, express solidarity with all the people across the globe who are struggling to keep dirty development away and are seeking ecological justice.

Issued by R.Sreedhar, Chairperson, mm&P (mines minerals and PEOPLE), dated 17th October 2014.

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