Crossing river, trekking hill voters reach polling booths to cast vote in Surguja LS constituency
Balrampur/Chhattisgarh (PTI): Enthusiastic voters reached polling booths trekking steep hilly paths, crossing a river and even on a horse to cast their votes in remote areas of the tribal-dominated Balrampur district in Chhattisgarh on Tuesday, officials said.
Balrampur district falls under the Surguja Lok Sabha constituency which was among seven seats where polling was held in third and last phase of Lok Sabha elections in the state. The Surguja Lok Sabha recorded 74.59 per cent voting, as per the Turnout application.
Voters, belonging to Pahadi Korva, a particularly vulnerable tribal group, including Rajesh, Madan, Sukhu, Gopal and Nandlal, crossed a river to exercise their franchise at a polling booth in village panchayat Amera under the Samri assembly constituency, a government official said.
Similarly, electors, including Lakhan Nagesia, Sahu, Phulsai and Kalesh of Bachwar village under the Ramanujganj assembly constituency walked through hilly terrain for about two hours covering 8 kms to reach a polling booth and cast their vote, he said. A voter, Parimal Dey, reached a polling booth in Sagarpur village under the Ramanujganj assembly seat on a horse, the official said. Dey is a cattle rearer who owns 150 goats.
Two hyper sensitive polling booths -- Chunchuna and Pundag -- located in a Naxal-affected area of the district which shares border with Jharkhand, also recorded significant turnout, he said. The two booths are located in the Samri assembly constituency.
"Special security arrangements were put in place in this area to ensure peaceful voting. Voters of Chunchuna and Pudang ensured their participation in the great festival of democracy braving Naxalite threat," he said. The Chunchuna polling booth has 767 voters and it recorded 84.35 per cent turnout, while Pundag has 595 electors and it registered a turnout of 72.44 per cent till 5 pm, the official added.
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Rohit Sharma lashes out at IPL broadcasters for breaching privacy
New Delhi, May 19: India skipper Rohit Sharma on Sunday lashed out at the IPL broadcasters for "breaching" cricketers' privacy by recording their conversations with friends and colleagues at training and on match days and then telecasting the contents.
Rohit expressed his disappointment after a video involving him and Kolkata Knight Riders assistant coach Abhishek Nayar, in which the former is seen contemplating his future at the Mumbai Indians, went viral.
"The lives of cricketers have become so intrusive that cameras are now recording every step and conversation we are having in privacy with our friends and colleagues, at training or on match days," Rohit posted on X.
He added, "Despite asking Star Sports to not record my conversation, it was and was also then played on air, which is a breach of privacy."
"The need to get exclusive content and focused only on views and engagement will one day break the trust between the fans, cricketers and cricket. Let better sense prevail."
Rohit was seen making a request to the broadcasters to shut down the audio while recording him after his chat with Nayar. The conversation between the two took place after MI's IPL fixture against KKR on May 11.
The audio of the chat was posted by KKR on their social media handle and fans assumed that the cricketer is speaking about leaving MI after the ongoing season.
Following the controversy, the video was taken down by the Knight Riders' social media team.
Few days after that, on May 17, Rohit was once again seen having a chat with Dhawal Kulkarni ahead of MI's fixture against Lucknow Super Giants. Seeing himself being recorded, the opener, with folded hands, requested the broadcaster to turn off the audio as one audio has already got him into trouble.
"Bhai audio band karo haan, already ek audio ne mera waat laga diya (Brother please close the audio, one audio has already made things difficult for me)," said Sharma in the video that also went viral.
