Maharashtra bypolls: Voting cancelled in 35 polling stations in Bhandara-Gondiya
Mumbai, May 28: With serious malfunctioning in the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) electronic voting machines (EVMs), polling was cancelled in at least 35 polling stations in the Bhandara-Gondiya Lok Sabha bye-elections on Monday.
Election Commission (EC) officer in Bhandara-Gondiya, Anant Walaskar told reporters that EVM-VVPAT malfunctioning complaints were received from 64 polling stations in five hours since polling began for Palghar and Bhandara-Gondiya constituencies at 7 a.m.
The EC has repaired some EVM-VVPATs or deployed spare machines in many areas, but in at least 35 polling stations, voting would be held at a later date, Walaskar added.
The officer denied rumours that elections in the entire constituency were cancelled, saying polling continued normally in all the other areas.
The EVM-VVPATs malfunctioned in polling booths at Khapa, Mandhal, Hingna and Kharbi in Bhandara-Gondiya, besides Tarapur, Shelvali, Kamare, Satpati, Maikhop, Dhuktan, Chinchan and other polling stations in Palghar.
Work on replacing the VVPAT-EVMs was underway as hundreds of voters patiently waited to cast their votes in the blistering heat.
According to current estimates, complaints of faulty or malfunctioning EVM-VVPATs were received from a total of 140 polling stations in both the constituencies.
Taking strong objections, Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh (BBM) President Prakash Ambedkar demanded cancellation of the elections in Bhandara-Gondiya.
"I have received reports of problems in some 450 polling stations. Its clear that the EVM-VVPATs have been tampered as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is losing the elections. The entire elections must be cancelled and held afresh," said Ambedkar, the grandson of Dalit leader B.R. Ambedkar.
Since polling started, both the constituencies recorded brisk polling with more than an average 15 per cent of the electorate exercising their franchise, but the tempo is likely to subside as people may remain indoors in the afternoon due to high temperatures.
Tight security has been deployed in both the Lok Sabha constituencies to prevent any untoward incidents.
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Democracy invests in higher education so that graduates may govern themselves well: CJI
Chandigarh (PTI): A democracy does not invest in higher education so that its graduates may simply prosper, it does so to ensure that they govern themselves well, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant said on Saturday.
"Every institution of public life -- the courts, the civil services, the schools, the hospitals, the local governance bodies -- all depend for their quality on the calibre of the people who choose to serve within them," the CJI said while addressing the 12th convocation ceremony of the Central University of Haryana in Mahendragarh.
Justice Kant said in barely 17 years, the university has earned national accreditation and recognition for its swift growth.
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He told the gathering of students that the degrees conferred on them certify the knowledge they have acquired and they should be proud of it but at the same time, he emphasised that "what your degree does not certify, and no examination can measure -- how your character and judgment hold up once the structure of formal education is no longer around you. In my experience, this ultimately determines the trajectory of life".
The CJI said there are graduates of the most-celebrated institutions who have faltered under pressure, not because they lacked knowledge but because they were never tested by anything other than a school or college examination.
"And then there are professionals from institutions nobody has heard of, who rise with composure and seriousness, earning the confidence of every room they enter," he said.
So what is the distinguishing factor then, he asked the students.
"In my view, it has nothing to do with the talent one may display in the classroom and almost everything to do with upbringing.
"Those who grew up observing their families manage scarcity with dignity, who understood early on that the world does not rearrange itself for your convenience and who entered professional life already knowing that hard work is not just a phase but a permanent state, they carried something that no curriculum can teach. They carried a seriousness that was not performative but genuine," Justice Kant said.
Many of the students present on the occasion carry exactly this formation, he said.
"You grew up in homes where a university degree was not a given but a goal that the entire family organised itself around. The investment by your families was not made so that you could merely earn a comfortable living.
"It was made because they believed, even if they could not always articulate it, that an educated daughter or son would use what they learned to build something beyond themselves," the CJI said.
This belief is the bridge between "what your upbringing gave you and what the world is now entitled to expect from you", he told the students.
The CJI said it is often discussed what education provides to an individual.
It opens doors, boosts earning potential and enhances mobility, he said, adding that however, there is a fundamental question that a congregation at a central university should address.
"What does your education owe to the society that funded it? The resources that build these classrooms, the resources that paid your faculty and the resources that maintained the laboratories where you trained came from the public exchequer. Which means they were derived from citizens' earnings and taxes, many of whom will never set foot in a university themselves," he said.
"This fact creates an obligation. Not a sentimental one, but a structural one. A democracy does not invest in higher education so that its graduates may simply prosper. It invests so that they may govern themselves well...," Justice Kant said.
In the Ramayana, when Bharat was handed the throne of Ayodhya by his father's own decree, he chose to place Ram's "paduka" on the seat of power and govern from Nandigram as a trustee, not as a sovereign, he pointed out.
"This distinction between holding authority for yourself and holding it on behalf of others is what your obligation towards the public means," the CJI said.
He told the students that "wherever your careers take you, carry with you the awareness that our collective life depends on whether educated people choose to engage with the systems around them or simply benefit from them".
Giving the example of a "raider" in a Kabaddi game, the CJI told the students, "Watch the finest raiders carefully.... Their greatness is not in the distance they cover, but in the precision with which they judge the line between ambition and overreach.".
He told the students that as they advance in their chosen careers, they must carry the discipline their families have imparted, the endurance that this landscape has taught them and the straightforwardness that Haryana is known for.
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