Gujarat polls: Congress MLA Imran Khedawala leads in Muslim dominated Jamalpur-Khadia seat
AIMIM at 3rd place
Ahmedabad (PTI): Imran Khedawala, the sitting Congress MLA from Jamalpur-Khadia seat in Gujarat, took a lead over BJP candidate Bhushan Bhatt while AIMIM nominee Sabir Kabliwala was relegated to the third position, as per the latest poll counting trends available on Thursday.
Khedawala was ahead with 57,708 votes polled in his favour so far. Bhatt was at the second place with 44,007 votes.
Kabliwala, the former Congress MLA and currently All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen's (AIMIM) state president, polled 15,631 votes so far, according to the figures available on the Election Commission's website.
The entry of the Asaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM seems to have failed to damage the prospects of Khedawala.
Located in Ahmedabad city, Jamalpur-Khadia comprises 60 per cent voters, or 1,35,000, from the Muslim community, out of the total of nearly 2.31 lakh voters.
It is also the seat where all eyes were on whether the AIMIM could dent the prospects of the Congress candidate, who too belongs to the Muslim community, by dividing their votes.
Khedawala had based his campaign narrative around the work he had delivered in his constituency. He expected to win the election with the support of voters from both the Muslim and Hindu communities, and a dedicated base of workers.
BJP candidate Bhushan Bhatt, the son of former minister and ex-Speaker Ashok Bhatt, had during his poll campaign promised better healthcare and educational facilities to the voters by setting up smart schools and modern hospitals.
The seat came into existence in 2012 following delimitation.
A division of votes between two strong candidates from the Muslim community -- one from the Congress and another Kabliwala, who then contested as an independent -- had led to Bhatt's victory.
The BJP leader, who was defeated in the 2017 election, contested this time. And so did Kabliwala, the then independent candidate who this time contested on AIMIM's ticket.
In the triangular contest, Khedawala faced a challenge from Kabliwala. Both of them belong to the Chhipa Muslim community.
A total eight candidates were in the fray from the seat, including Aam Aadmi Party's Harun Nagori, also from the Muslim community. Nagori failed to make a mark and polled 5,683 votes, as per the latest trends available on the EC's website.
Two other independent nominees were also from the Muslim community.
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Banks to clear cheques within few hours from Oct 4: RBI
Mumbai, Aug 13 (PTI): The RBI will introduce a new mechanism from October 4 for clearance of cheques within hours of being presented to banks, reducing the current time period of up to two working days.
Cheques will be scanned, presented, and passed in a few hours and on a continuous basis during business hours. The clearing cycle will be reduced from the present T+1 days to a few hours.
Cheque Truncation System (CTS) currently processes cheques with a clearing cycle of up to two working days.
To improve the efficiency of cheque clearing and reduce settlement risk for participants, and to enhance customer experience, the RBI has decided to transition CTS from the current approach of batch processing to continuous clearing with 'on-realisation-settlement'.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a circular for introduction of Continuous Clearing and Settlement on Realisation in CTS.
"It has been decided to transition CTS to continuous clearing and settlement on realisation in two phases. Phase 1 shall be implemented on October 4, 2025 and Phase 2 on January 3, 2026," it said.
There will be a single presentation session from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
Cheques received by the branches shall be scanned and sent to the clearing house by the banks immediately and continuously during the presentation session, RBI said.
"For every cheque presented, the drawee bank shall generate either positive confirmation (for honoured cheques) or negative confirmation (for dishonoured cheques)," it said.
During Phase 1 (from October 4, 2025 to January 2, 2026), drawee banks will be required to confirm (positively/negatively) cheques presented on them, latest by the end of the confirmation session (7:00 PM), else those will be deemed to have been approved and included for settlement.
In Phase 2 (from January 3, 2026), the item expiry time of cheques shall be changed to T+3 clear hours.
Giving an example, the RBI said the cheques received by drawee banks between 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM will have to be confirmed positively or negatively by them by 2:00 PM (3 hours from 11:00 AM).
Cheques for which confirmation is not provided by the drawee bank in the prescribed 3 hours shall be treated as deemed approved and included for settlement at 2:00 PM.
RBI further said that on completion of settlement, the clearing house will release the information of positive and negative confirmations to the presenting bank.
"The presenting bank shall process the same and release the payment to the customers immediately, but not later than 1 hour from successful settlement, subject to usual safeguards," it said.
RBI directed banks to make their customers adequately aware of the changes in the cheque clearing process.
Banks have also been asked to be in readiness to participate in continuous clearing in CTS on the prescribed dates.
