QBullet: Repoll Ordered in 122 Booths; CBSE Class 10 Results Out
Here are the top headlines of the day.
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1. Reelection in 123 Polling Stations of UP, Maharashtra, Nagaland
The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday, 29 May, announced re-poll in 73 polling stations in Uttar Pradesh's Kairana, 49 polling stations in Maharashtra's Bhandara-Gondia and one polling station in Nagaland, after VVPAT machines developed snags during Monday's Lok Sabha bypolls.
The re-poll will be held from 7 am to 6 pm on Wednesday, official sources said.
The EC has ordered the transfer of the Gondia collector for "dereliction of duty," a top official of the poll panel said, adding that the new collector has assumed charge.
(Source: PTI)
2. CBSE Class 10 Board Exam Results Declared
Four students topped the class 10 CBSE examinations this year, even as girls once again stole a march over boys.
The overall pass percentage was 86.70, the CBSE said. Girls, with a pass percentage of 88.67, did better than the boys, who registered a pass percentage of 85.32.
Four students – Prakhar Mittal of DPS Gurgaon, Rimzhim Agarwal of RP Public School, Bijnor, Nandini Garg of Scottish International School, Shamli and Sreelakshmi G of Bhavan's Vidyalaya, Kochi – topped the exam with 499 marks out of 500, the board said.
(Source: PTI)
3. More Rain Likely Today In Coastal Karnataka, Relief Force On Alert
The powerful tropical cyclone Mekunu hit coastal parts of Karnataka on Tuesday, 29 May, flooding Mangaluru and Udupi. Strong winds uprooted trees and blew light structures off their hinges in several towns and villages in coastal Karnataka.
Coastal Karnataka is likely to receive more rain on Wednesday, the weather office has said.
As heavy rain pounded Mangaluru, 375 kilometres from Bengaluru, and water started stagnating on the streets and entering buildings, some schoolchildren went home on orange inflatable boats escorted by disaster management volunteers in their bright yellow helmets.
(Source: NDTV)
4. Centre Plans Connectivity Push on China Border
The ‘invasion’ of Chinese radio channels has made the Centre plan installation of optical fibre cables (OFC) in areas bordering China.
The OFC push is expected to arm civilians and defence personnel with cellular and radio connectivity strong enough to counter the Chinese waves, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in Arunachal Pradesh’s capital, Itanagar, on Tuesday, 29 May.
Sitharaman said she experienced poor communication network during her recent visit to Kibithoo, the last border village in Arunachal Pradesh’s Anjaw district.
“I came to know people in the area access Chinese radio frequency but not All India Radio,” she said.
(Source: The Hindu)
5. Jammu and Kashmir: Encounters Fuel Militant Hiring, Says Official Report
Almost half the recruitments into militant ranks in the Valley after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani came from within 10 km of the residences of killed militants or encounter sites, and these recruitments took place within 40 days of the encounters.
These are among the findings of security agencies in Jammu and Kashmir, part of a report on militancy and recruitment in the region that set the stage for the Ramzan ceasefire.
The report analysed 43 encounters since 5 November, 2016, until 26 April this year, in which 77 militants were killed. After the death of Burhan Wani on 8 July, 2016, 121 militants have been killed and 216 local youths joined militancy.
Of these, 104 were directly linked to the killing of militants in their area or a killed militant belonged to their area.
(Source: The Indian Express)
6. President Ram Nath Kovind Rejects First Mercy Plea
President Ram Nath Kovind has rejected the mercy petition of murder convict Jagat Rai whose death sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court almost five years ago.
This is the first mercy petition to be decided by President Kovind — it is learnt that detailed consultations were held over 10 months. Incidentally, the case is from Bihar where Kovind served as governor before taking over as president last July.
Along with his accomplices, Jagat Rai was convicted of killing five children and the wife of one Vijendra Mahato by setting their house on fire while they were fast asleep on the night of 1 January, 2006, at Rampur Shyamchand village in Vaishali district of Bihar.
In September 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Rai, ruling that the gravity of offence was such that this case fell into the category of “rarest of rare” cases.
(Source: The Indian Express)
7. US Report Says India Does Not Prosecute Violence by Vigilantes
The US State Department said in an annual religious freedom report released on Tuesday, 29 May, that authorities in India “often did not prosecute violence by vigilantes against persons, mostly Muslims”, trading in or consuming beef.
“Members of civil society and religious minorities stated that under the current government, religious minority communities felt increasingly vulnerable due to Hindu nationalist groups engaging in violence against non-Hindu individuals and their places of worship,” the annual report on the state of religious freedom around the world said.
The report, which excludes the US, said that “while the national government sometimes spoke out against incidents of violence, local political leaders often did not”, citing minority community representatives.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
8. Thunderstorms Kill 12 in Jharkhand, 15 in UP and 19 in Bihar
As many as 46 people have reportedly lost their lives after thunderstorms lashed different parts of Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, 29 May.
While 12 people have died and 28 have been injured in Jharkhand, 15 persons were killed and 10 others were injured in parts of Uttar Pradesh and 19 were killed in Bihar.
“Thunderstorm accompanied with rain/squall/hailstone is likely to occur today during next three hours over some areas in Hardoi, Sitapur, Farrukhabad districts and adjoining areas,” the India Meteorological Department said.
Read the full story here.
9. Nervous Congress Waits for Pranab Mukherjee's Speech
Concern is palpable in Congress over what former President Pranab Mukherjee’s speech at a 7 June convocation of RSS pracharaks is likely to cover, but the mood in the party is that comments be reserved till the event in Nagpur.
Congress spokesman Tom Vadakkan stuck to the “no comment” line but made it clear that there was “a lot of difference between the ideology of Congress and that of RSS.”
Another party spokesman, Abhishek Singhvi, said, “Mukherjee left politics on assumption of the presidency. His speaking at any convocation is no indication of his beliefs. Judge him by what he says and what are his established beliefs in 50 years of his political life.”
Some who know Mukherjee said he was likely to speak to the RSS gathering on the “real sense” of nationalism — a discourse that could turn out to be a critique of the “exclusivist” view associated with the Hindutva camp.
(Source: The Times of India)
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