THE HEADLINES
- Elaborate arrangements in place for counting of votes for Delhi Assembly polls tomorrow.
- Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi seeks time from Governor to prove majority in the Assembly; Nitish urges Governor for floor test in 24 hours to prevent horse trading.
- Eight people arrested in Haryana in the brutal gang rape case of a mentally challenged woman.
- Indian economy to grow by 7.4 per cent in the current fiscal, forecasts the government.
- Falling for 7th straight session sensex plunges 490 points.
- Services win a Gold each in individual and team Triathlon events; Pooja Chauroshi of Gujarat wins Gold in Women's Triathlon.
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Over 66 percent polling was recorded at polling booth number 132 in the Rohtas Nagar Assembly constituency of Delhi. Polling station number 31 in Delhi Cantonment Assembly seat registered 69.68 percent turnout by the end of polling. The Election Commission had ordered re-polling in view of problems in Electronic Voting Machines at the two booths on the 7th of this month.
Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements for the counting of votes of Delhi Assembly polls. Counting will take place at 14 centres in nine districts of the national capital tomorrow. Delhi saw a record voter turnout of 67.13 per cent during polling in the 70 assembly constituencies. The entire process of counting will be videographed. The Electronic Voting machines are being heavily guarded at counting centres. Our correspondent reports there is a three-tier security for the 70 strong rooms which hold the fate of the 673 candidates.
Ahead of the d-day, Aam Aadmi Party workers are highly enthused about the outcome of polls saying popular support is with them. BJP's chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi invoked 'karma' and said she is not nervous about the results as it is not in her hands. On predictions about Aam Aadmi Party winning with a comfortable majority, Ms Bedi said that whether BJP wins or loses, she will take responsibility . Congress on the other hand said that party will analyse the results and try to chart out a future course. Exit polls notwithstanding, what really is in store will be known only tomorrow when the Electronic Voting Machines are unsealed for counting of votes. With Sant Bahadur, Suparna Saikia, AIR News, Delhi.
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The Election Commission of India will display the trends and results during the counting of votes on the website www.eciresults.nic.in.
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Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi met the state Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi at Raj Bhawan this afternoon. He requested the Governor to give him time to prove his majority on the floor of the State assembly. The budget session of the assembly is scheduled to commence from 20th of this month. Talking to reporters in Patna, Mr. Manjhi said the election of Nitish Kumar as leader of Legislature party was illegal saying, he himself being the leader of the House, enjoys the right to convene a meeting to elect the leader of the House. Mr. Manjhi said that he was not running away from proving his majority in the House. A report from our Patna correspondent.
Raj Bhavan was the main centre of activities today. During meeting with Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi requested the Governor to give him time to prove the majority on the floor of the House. Mr. Manjhi has requested the Governor to conduct the floor test through secret ballot. Earlier, Sharad Yadav, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav called on Governor and handed over him a list of 130 MLAs. The leaders urged the Governor to invite Nitish Kumar to take oath as the Chief Minister of the State. They also requested Governor to ask Nitish to go for floor test within next 24 hours and not to give any more time to any other person to prevent horse trading. K.K. Lal, AIR News, Patna.
Earlier today, under Article 3 of the JD(U) constitution Party president Sharad Yadav expelled Manjhi from primary membership of the party for indiscipline before Nitish Kumar's meeting with Governor to stake claim to form government. Calling Manjhi a "betrayer", Yadav said when the history of betrayal will be written, Manjhi's name will be the first in it. The party accused him of indiscipline and demanded that Governor ask him to take a trial of strength in the Assembly. The power struggle in Bihar JD(U) escalated as Manjhi ruled out his resignation before a trial of strength in the assembly.
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Reacting to the political development in Bihar , BJP today said that it is yet to take a decision on supporting Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi. BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said, Mr Manjhi looks confident of proving his majority while the Nitish Kumar camp disappointed. He also said that the majority has to be proved on the floor of the Assembly and not in any party's office, as claimed by JD-U leader Nitish Kumar. He accused Mr Nitish Kumar of being hungry for power and that he stood exposed for wanting the Chief Minister to be his puppet.
Congress Spokesperson P. C. Chacko alleged that BJP is hand in glove with Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi in the whole episode.
The BJP is in hands in glove with this defector of JDU and they are trying to prop up him against the JD(U).
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Haryana Police today arrested eight persons for the brutal rape of a mentally challenged Nepalese woman in Rohtak district. Haryana Director General of Police Yashpal Singhal said that eight persons have been arrested for the rape and murder, while one accused is still absconding.
The arrested persons include one Santosh, who is also a Nepali national and he was reportedly working at the shop of one of the accused, Singhal said. The DG said that the Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar himself was monitoring the probe in the case and action would also be taken against police officials if found guilty in the case.
Police sources also said that apart from the nine accused, more persons could have been involved in the Nepalese woman’s brutal rape and murder.
The Head of forensic medicine in the Post Graduate Institute of Medical sciences, Dr S. K. Dhatterwal has said that he has supervised or conducted around 30,000 autopsies, but has never seen such brutality in his 29-year career. He said the body of the deceased was decomposing when autopsy was conducted on it. He said doctors took five hours to conduct the autopsy.
Police said the woman belonged to Nepal's Vardia district and had been under treatment in Haldwani. She had come to Rohtak a few months back to visit her sister, who works as a domestic help in the city.
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Former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor may be questioned by Delhi Police's Special Investigation Team again in the Sunanda Pushkar murder case. Talking to reporters, Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi said the SIT has analyzed the statement of Shiv Menon, son of Sunanda Pushkar recently. He said the SIT will question Mr. Tharoor on the basis of the information gathered from Shiv Menon.
Earlier, former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and some journalists were also questioned in the case.
Sunanda, the wife Mr. Tharoor, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in January last year at a hotel in New Delhi.
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The Supreme Court today disallowed DMK leader and former Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran and his brother Kalanithi Maran from approaching Delhi High Court against a special CBI court order in 2G spectrum allocation case.
The special CBI court had summoned them as accused in the Aircel-Maxis case, arising out of the probe into the 2G spectrum allocation scam. A Bench comprising Justices V Gopalagowda and R Banumathi said that petitioners could state before the Special Court that the Aircel-Maxis case was not part of the 2G spectrum scam. The apex court said, the special court would decide the jurisdictional issue raised by Maran brothers.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi today directed concerned Ministries to work in a mission mode for electrification of the remaining 20 thousand unelectrified villages within a defined time-frame. Chairing a high-level meeting on infrastructure in New Delhi, Mr. Modi said that innovative solutions should be explored for ensuring total rural electrification through various sources including solar energy in the country.
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The Indian economy is estimated to grow at 7.4 per cent in 2014-15 against 6.9 per cent in previous year. The estimate is based on new formula. According to estimates released by Central Statistics Office today, the economy grew at 7.5 per cent during the October-December quarter of 2014. The GDP growth for the first quarter of 2014-15 has been revised to 6.5 per cent as opposed to 5.7 per cent estimated earlier. GDP growth for the second quarter has been revised to 8.2 per cent from 5.3 per cent estimated earlier.
The Central Statistics Office had revised its base year to 2011-12 and released revised annual estimate of National Income and other macroeconomic aggregates on the 30th of last month. We asked Economist D.K.Joshi about the upwardly revised GDP numbers:-
For 2014-15 which is the current fiscal year, the growth comes at 7.4 percent. This means that the economy is out of the woods. This is the highest growth in Asia . Going ahead pace of recovery should quicken given that Government is taking steps to form the economy further as of now this is a pleasant surprise.
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And now news from the business world
The Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange declined for the seventh straight session--its longest losing streak in 15 months--plummeting 491 points, or 1.7 percent, to close at a near a three-week low of 28,227. The Nifty at the National Stock Exchange plunged 135 points, to 8,526. We asked market expert, Puneet Jain about the continued market fall.
The rupee slumped 48 paise, to a nearly four-week low of 62.17 against the dollar. Pradeep Kumar, AIR News.
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Some new names have been revealed in the list of the people having accounts in foreign Banks. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley made this comment on a newspaper report which appeared today. The list has revealed 1, 195 names including that of businessmen and politicians. He said that the veracity of these names is being checked by the Ministry and that most of the names revealed in the list are known to the Government.
The government or the revenue department already has most of the names that came out today. It is not about the names. In addition, the evidence of the accounts and the stolen data is required so that a strong case can be made. On the basis of just names, the required inquiry cannot be conducted in the court."
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In the ongoing National Games at Tiruvananthapuram, Athletics events started today hosts Kerala were in for an early shock . Their star long jumper Ranjit Maheshwari could not make it to the finals due to a faulty start. Meanwhile Services won both the individual and team gold in Men's triathlon. Meena Chandra of the services won gold in individual category and later teaming up Dilip and Gurudutt won the team gold also. In the Women's triathlon Pooja Chourushi of Gujrat won the individual gold. Later the Gujarat team consisting of Pooja, Pallavi and Pragya won the Team Gold as well.
Services continue to occupy the first position in the medals tally with, 78 medals including 48 gold. Maharashtra are second with 91 medals including 27 gold . Haryana are third, winning 52 medals till now which include 27 gold. Hosts Kerala are at the fourth spot with 56 medals including 16 gold.
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Union Health Minister J P Nadda has said that health sector is the government's priority. Inaugurating National Deworming Programme in Jaipur today, the Health Minister said that the programme will help in the physical and mental development of children.
He said that in the first phase, more than 14 crore children of eleven states would be provided medicines for deworming tomorrow at all government hospitals, schools and Anganwadi kendras. Mr. Nadda also said that the government will provide all financial assistance to check the spread of swine flu in Rajasthan.
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News Services Division of All India Radio will broadcast live bilingual discussion "Dilli Chunaav Vishleshan" from 0830 hrs to 1200 hrs tomorrow (10th February) in connection with counting of votes to Delhi Assembly election. This programme will be available on Rajdhani and FM Gold channels.
All India Radio will also broadcast a special live bilingual phone-in-programme "Verdict of Delhi Election" tomorrow (10th February) from 2130 hrs to 2230 hrs. This programme will be available on Indraprastha and FM Gold channels.
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