‘Vote from home’ option for voters above 80 yrs in Karnataka polls

News Network
March 11, 2023

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Bengaluru: The Election Commission on Saturday said it has introduced the facility to Vote-from-Home (VFH) for people above 80 years of age and those with disabilities in the upcoming assembly elections in Karnataka.

For the first time, the ECI is going to provide the facility to those above 80 years of age. Our teams will go there with a form-12D to exercise their franchise, the Chief Election Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar told reporters here.

Though we encourage those above 80 years to come to the polling station, those who cannot can avail this facility, he added. Secrecy will be maintained and the entire process will be videographed, Kumar explained.

“All the political parties will be informed whenever there is a movement for Voting From Home (VFH),” Kumar said.

For people with disabilities, a mobile application ‘Saksham’ has been introduced, which they can login to and choose the facility to vote, the CEC said. Another mobile application, ‘Suvidha’ has been developed, which is an online portal for candidates to file nominations and affidavits.

“Candidates can also use the SUVIDHA portal for seeking permission for meetings and rallies,” the top election official explained.

The ECI has also launched a campaign called Know Your Candidate (KYC) for the benefit of voters. “Political parties have to inform the voters on their portals and social media platform as to why they chose a candidate with criminal background and gave ticket to contest the election,” Kumar said.

Speaking of the Karnataka assembly election, he noted that the state with 224 constituencies has 36 seats reserved for the SCs and 15 for the STs. There are 5.21 crore voters including 2.59 women voters. The number also includes 16,976 centenarians, 4,699 third gender and 9.17 lakh first time voters.

Also, there are 12.15 lakh voters above the age of 80 and 5.55 lakh people with disabilities (PWD).

The state has 58,272 polling stations, including 24,063 in urban areas. The average voters in each station is 883. Of these polling stations, 1,320 are women managed, 224 are youth managed and 224 are PWD managed. There will be webcasting in 29,141 polling stations, the CEC said adding 1,200 are critical polling stations.

As most of the polling stations are in schools, these will have “permanent water, electricity, toilet and ramps.”

“These facilities will be permanent in nature. This is a gift from the ECI to the schools and to the school children,” said Kumar, who is on a three-day visit to the state to review election preparedness.

To a query on possible election date, the CEC said it has to be conducted before May 24, when the tenure of the current assembly comes to an end. He directed the official machinery to gear up for a fair and transparent elections in the state. 

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News Network
March 19,2024

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Mangaluru: The Mangalore International Airport (MIA) will connect to a new domestic destination with the introduction of a non-stop flight to Tiruchirappalli International Airport in Tamil Nadu. 

The non-stop service, once-a-week, will operate on Wednesday (from TIA) and Thursday (from MIA), starting April 3. Air India Express will operate the flight.

The flight is expected to help those taking up a pilgrimage to Vailankani shrine.

Sources from the AIE said that the airline carrier decided to fly non-stop between the two southern Indian cities as a flight to Jeddah, which will start from April 3, arrives from Tiruchirappalli International Airport. 

“It is a ferry or positional flight from TIA to MIA. Instead of flying empty, the management has decided to run it as a commercial flight. This will help both passengers and the airline. The airline will deploy Boeing 737-800 aircraft with a 186-seater all-economy configuration on this route. 

The same flight, after landing in MIA, will further fly to Jeddah,” a source said. 

The flight IX 1498 will depart every Thursday at 5am from MIA to TIA. The TIA-MIA flight IX 1499 departs at 12.50pm. It is a one-hour nonstop flight. The same flights will also operate nonstop between Jeddah and MIA. 

The non-stop flight IX 499 will depart MIA at 2.50pm and reach King Abdulaziz International Airport, Jeddah at 6.25pm. The IX498, will depart from Jeddah at 7.25pm and reach MIA early at 3.40am.

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News Network
March 18,2024

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Mangaluru, Mar 18: The rising temperature has become a growing concern for residents of coastal district of Dakshina Kannada, as the issue of drinking water shortage continues to worsen in several parts. 

Though the water supply of Mangaluru city has not been affected much, nearby urban local bodies, including Ullal, Kotekar, Bajpe and other parts on the outskirts of Mangaluru have been facing an acute shortage of drinking water.

Though the water level in the Thumbe vented dam across Nethravati River has started going down in the last few days, officials have ruled out possibility of rationing the water supply in the city.

According to officials, the water level at Thumbe dam of the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) stood at 5.8 m as against the maximum storage capacity of 6m height on March 16. The water level at the dam during the same period last year was 5.3 metres. The water level reduced from 5.9 m on March 15 to 5.8 m on March 16 due to the scorching heat, causing evaporation.

The MCC has been drawing 160 MLD of water from the Thumbe vented dam. According to officials, without inflow, the maximum water stored in the dam will be sufficient for only 50 days. Meanwhile, the MCC has already started pumping backwater from downstream of the Thumbe vented dam back to the dam using pumpsets. Water from Thumbe dam can be drawn only if it has more than 1.5m of water in it.

DC Mullai Muhilan MP said that the district administration is closely monitoring water levels in all the dams that supply water.

The AMR dam located upstream of Thumbe dam has 18 m of water from sea level. If the water level in the Thumbe vented dam recedes, then water from the AMR dam will be released into the Thumbe dam. There is water in a dam at Biliyoor, which is located upstream of the AMR dam, the DC said.

“Drawing water for irrigation purposes from Thumbe and AMR dams has been banned,” the deputy commissioner said, adding that an order in this regard has already been issued. Some of the pockets in rural areas too have started facing water crisis.

“We have made arrangements to supply water through tankers in Ullal, Kotekar and Bajpe areas. We will not introduce water supply rationing in MCC limits for the time being,” he said and appealed to citizens to use water judiciously.

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News Network
March 27,2024

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At least seven people have been killed when Israeli warplanes bombed an emergency center in southern Lebanon near the border with the 1948 Israeli-occupied territories with air-to-surface missiles, according to Lebanese security sources.

Two sources, speaking on condition of anonymity said early on Wednesday that the strike targeted the Islamic Group’s emergency and relief center in Lebanon’s southern village of Habbariyeh.

Jamaa Islamiya, a Lebanese group closely linked to the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, said in a statement that “a number” of people had been killed, and called the strike a “heinous crime.”

An official from the group said “seven rescuers” were killed in the aerial assault.

Another Jamaa Islamiya official, also requesting anonymity, said a dozen medical staff were in the emergency center at the time of the strike, adding that bodies were being pulled from the rubble.

Lebanese lawmaker Hassan Mrad said “the Israeli aggression on Habbariyeh adds to the long list of Israeli crimes.”

Israel has been launching air strikes against Lebanon since the beginning of its onslaught against the Gaza Strip in early October.

An Israeli strike knocked down part of a building in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh on February 14, killing seven members of the same family, including a child, Lebanon’s official National News Agency said. A boy initially reported missing was found alive under the rubble.

In a separate Israeli attack, a woman and her two children were killed in the village of as-Sawana in southern Lebanon.

The Israeli regime launched its devastating hostilities in the Gaza Strip on October 7 after the territory’s Hamas-led Palestinian resistance groups carried out a surprise retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the occupying entity.

Israel's raids have resulted in retaliatory strikes from Hezbollah in support of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

The movement has vowed to keep up its retaliatory operations as long as the Tel Aviv regime continues its onslaught on Gaza.

The Israeli campaign in Gaza has killed at least 32,414 people, most of them women and children. Another 74,787 individuals have also been wounded.

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