Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], February 27 (ANI): Election Commission of India on Saturday appointed 38 IAS as general Observers and 16 IPS officers of Punjab as Police observers for poll-bound five states Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Union Territory Puducherry.
Disclosing this today, Chief Electoral Officer Punjab (CEO) Dr S Karuna Raju said that ECI will conduct a briefing meeting of Observers on March 3rd, 2021 through video conference in this regard.
“Vijay Kumar Janjua, Anurag Agarwal, Raji P Shrivastava, Sarvjit Singh, Anurag Verma, Kakumanu Siva Prasad, Dhirendra Kumar Tiwari, Hussan Lal, Seema Jain, Raj Kamal Chaudhuri, Veerendra Kumar Meena, Vikas Garg, Ajoy Sharma, Nilkanth S Avhad, Kumar Rahul, Rahul Tewari, Dr Vijay Namdeorao Zade, Rajat Agarwal, Manvesh Singh Sidhu, Tanu Kashyap, Daljit Singh Mangat, Sibin Chakkyadath, Pradeep Kumar Aggarwal, Ravi Bhagat, Manjit Singh Brar, Kanwal Preet Brar, Mohammad Tayyab, Bhupinder Singh, Parveen Kumar Thind, Amit Kumar, Puneet Goyal, Mohammad Ishfaq, Bhupinder Pal Singh, Kumar Saurabh Raj, B Srinivasan, Bhupinder Singh II, Keshav Hingonia and Vineet Kumar are among IAS officer who are appointed as Observers,” he informed.
Dr Raju further said that Barjinder Kumar Uppal, Kuldeep Singh, Anita Punj, B Chandra Sckhar, Amardeep Singh Rai, Ram Singh, Gollapalli Nageswara Rao, Gautam Cheema, MF Farooqui, Vibhu Raj, Lakshmi Kant Yadav, Arun Pal Singh, Shive Kumar Verma and Babu Lal Meena are among IPS officers who have been appointed as observers.
A total of 824 assembly constituencies shall be going for polls in four states–Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam– and the Union Territory of Puducherry.
The polling in these states will start from March 27 and end on April 29. The counting of votes for elections to four states and one UT will be held on May 2. (ANI)

Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], February 27 (ANI): Odisha Government has made a partial modification to its earlier precautionary measures issued for the passengers travelling from other States to Odisha. It has limited the measures to passengers from five high-risk states instead of twelve.
Additional Health Secretary, Health and Family Welfare (H&FW), Pradipta Mohapatra has asked the district authorities to limit the precautionary measures to passengers from Maharashtra, Kerala, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
“The situation is under watch and surveillance may be extended to other States in future if the situation so warrants,” said the instructions issued by Mohapatra.
Mohapatra further stated, “The 7-day mandatory home isolation for arrivals from the 5 high-risk States can be dispensed with for asymptomatic passengers who have an RT-PCR Negative report (done not more than 72 hours before boarding) or a Covid Vaccination Final certificate.”
Earlier, the H&FW Department of Odisha on Friday issued the precautionary measures to be adopted at airport and railway stations for the incoming passengers from Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, Punjab, Delhi, Chandigarh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. (ANI)

Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) [India], February 27 (ANI): Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday said that Kashi represents India and Hindu culture and has the potential to grow as a religious tourism spot.
While reviewing the progress of a CNG boat conversion project and the Khirkiya Ghat redevelopment project, the Union Minister said, “Kashi is a statement of our Indian and Hindu culture. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has created a new India. He envisioned it to increase employment and increase the prosperity of the people. Kashi will emerge as a religious tourism spot soon.”
The Khirkiya Ghat redevelopment project is being undertaken by GAIL (Gas Authority Of India Ltd) and Indian Oil.
Pradhan also flagged-off two boats powered by CNG.
“Reviewed the progress on the CNG dispensing station under CNG boat conversion project and ghat revitalisation project being undertaken by Gail
and Indian Oil at Khirkiya Ghat, one of the most sacred ghats in the holy city of Varanasi,” he tweeted later in the day.
“Gail India is undertaking work to strengthen the CNG infrastructure and convert 2000 diesel-run boats into CNG to help reduce pollution in mother Ganges and ensure a clean environment. Indian Oil is redeveloping the Khirkiya Ghat to preserve its heritage and glory,” he added. (ANI)

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], February 27 (ANI): Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday urged students of the Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University (TNDALU) to make the judicial system more accessible, affordable and understandable to every citizen.
While addressing students at the University’s 11th Convocation, Naidu told students that the cost of legal processes often deterred people from getting justice and a way must be found to reduce the expense for common citizens.
“You have a unique opportunity to deepen our country’s democratic roots. You can make the judicial system more accessible, affordable, understandable to every citizen. The cost of legal processes is a major impediment in making justice accessible to all. A common perception is that there are many hidden costs in availing the legal route to resolve disputes. We have to find ways to reduce this out-of-pocket expenditure to the common citizen,” he said.
He called for the disposal of criminal cases related to public functionaries in a speedy, dispassionate, objective manner.
“Special courts can be constituted to exclusively deal with criminal cases involving public servants and elected representatives,” the Vice President suggested.
He also proposed separate fast track courts for resolving electoral cases and to look into electoral malpractices and also opined that defection cases in legislatures should be dealt with expeditiously in a time bound manner.
He further added, “There is also a serious issue of protracted litigation. Timeliness in rendering justice is a major concern… This delay is often attributed to huge pendency in courts, frequent adjournments and long leaves of courts. We have to do whatever is possible in our own purview to ensure speedier justice.”
The Vice President also encouraged the students to excel in their profession and not to settle for mediocrity.

Naidu observed that pendency in cases is also a serious concern. Underscoring the importance of timely justice, he suggested we find systemic solutions to solve the nearly 4 crore pending cases in the country, with most cases stuck in the lower courts, where around 87 percent of the total pending cases lie.
The Vice President outlined a few measures to tackle this problem. “Frequent adjournments could be avoided and except in extraordinary situations, we can develop a Standard Operating Procedure that limits the number of adjournments to a reasonable number like one or two. He also suggested that alternative dispute redress mechanisms like Lok Adalats may have to be fully leveraged for speedy disposal of cases,” he said.
He further motivated the young graduates to lead the wave of new innovations in legal jurisprudence and fully leverage it to improve access, to lower costs and to reduce pendency.
“The practice of online courts and e-filing was accelerated greatly during the COVID pandemic and they can continue to serve us greatly in not only improving the ease of access to justice but also reducing the associated costs and improving the ease of doing business,” he said.
He added that appointments to the courts must also be expedited and vacancies must be filled in a time-bound manner. (ANI)

New Delhi [India], February 27 (ANI): The Delhi High Court has issued notice on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking direction to State Election Commission to remove election symbol from the ballot paper, including the unit of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), in the municipal elections in the national capital.
The Plea states that the election symbols are not required in the presence of photograph of the candidate and the presence of reserved election symbol is ultra-virus the provisions of law enshrined in the Constitution of India and the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC), Act 1957. The presence of reserved election symbol is the root cause of corruption in the Corporation.
The Division Bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh on Friday sought response from all the respondents in the matter and slated the matter for April 13th for further proccedings.
The Petitioner, Alka Gehlot is an Ex-Contestant of last municipal election held in 2017 had earlier too approached the Delhi HC in 2019 and that petition was disposed by the court with a direction to the Respondents (including State Election Commission, Delhi) to look into the grievance of the petitioner.
The State Election Commission (SEC) later, refused to grant the prayer of the petitioner without hearing the petitioner on the ground that the Commission cannot make any amendment either in the Act or in the Rules. Further, the SEC refused to grant the prayer of the petitioner on the ground that there is no merit in it and the commission shall continue with the existing impugned provision of putting up election symbol on the ballot paper, plea read.
Advocate HS Gehlot, represented petitioner states that the DMC Act 1957 provides that the councilors to be chosen by direct election on the basis of adult suffrage from various wards which the corporation comprises of without any preference to candidates of political parties. Hence, The SEC ought to conduct election to elect a candidate and not a party. Presence of reserved symbol on the ballot paper is blatant violation of Fundamental Rights and other constitutional rights of the people.
The Plea stated that, Population of Delhi is growing exponentially in violation of NCR Planning Board Act, 1985 and the Municipal Government cannot escape responsibility as most of the corporators are indulged in property dealing or have nexus with them. As a result of unplanned growth Delhi has become one of the most polluted city in the world. (ANI)

Haridwar (Uttarakhand) [India], February 27 (ANI): A centralised control room has been set up at Haridwar railway station ahead of Kumbh Mela 2021, informed Kumbh Mela Administration on Saturday.
“A centralised control room set up at Haridwar railway station ahead of Kumbh Mela 2021. All the nearby railway stations have been connected through CCTV, with their feed being streamed at this control room. A telephone line has also been set up at the centre,” it said.
The preparations are underway for Kumbh Mela 2021 to be held from 1st to 30th April in Haridwar.
The Uttarakhand government has decided to limit the Kumbh this year to 30 days due to pandemic.
Officers in charge of the Kumbh Mela said that those who attend the religious congregation should do prior registration at a portal and should have a COVID-19 negative report.
Kumbh Mela is not only a religious pilgrimage, but one of the largest mass gatherings at one place. It is celebrated four times over a course of 12 years and spans four locations namely Prayagraj, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik. The Maha Kumbh is celebrated in a cycle of 12 years at four river-bank pilgrimage sites across India. (ANI)