ULB polls begin at D.K, Udupi
Mangaluru: Elections began for Ullal and Puttur City Municipal Corporations, Bantwal Town Municipal Corporation and Udupi distrcit’s four local bodies today. Of the 89 wards, 1,17,979 voters are required to elect 89 Representatives, with a total of 250 candidates in the arena.
Of the 31 wards in Ullal, 102 candidates are contesting, with 44,132 voters. Out of 31 wards in Puttur, 77 candidates are in the fray, with 39,745 voters. Of the 27 wards in Bantwal, 71 candidates are in the arena with 34,102 voters.
Ullal has 43 polling stations, including 18 most sensitive and 11 sensitive stations. There are 41 polling booths in Puttur, with 27 sensitive. Bantwal has 18 very sensitive and 14 sensitive of 32 booths.
A total of 145 voting machines are being used for elections to three local bodies. Also, 145 ballet units and control units are also installed.
Nota usage
Voters who do not want to vote for any of the candidates are allowed to vote for NOTA option in the voting machine.
Polling booth Details of Udupi district
For the 35 wards of the Udupi Urban Local Bodies, 98 polling stations have been setup. Of 97,561 voters, there are 47,538 men, 50,022 women and one other.
There are 23,302 voters, including 11,292 men and 12,010 women in 23 Kundapura town Municipality.
In 23 wards of Karkala Municipality, there are 23 polling stations. It has 9,879 men and 10,725 women, with a total of 20,604 voters.
There are 16 polling stations for 16 wards of the Saligrama Town Panchayat, with 6,213 men and 6,748 women, with a total of 12,961 voters.
General Holiday:
In a bid to fecilitate voter to exercise their franchise, general holiday for all the state government offices, schools, colleges (including aided educational institutions) of the respective constituencies have been decleared holiday on August 31.
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Supreme Court rejects plea for reverting to ballots in elections
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition seeking to revert to ballot paper voting in elections in the country.
"What happens is, when you win the election, EVMs (electronic voting machine) are not tampered. When you lose the election, EVMs are tampered (with)," remarked a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and P B Varale.
Apart from ballot paper voting, the plea sought several directions including a directive to the Election Commission to disqualify candidates for a minimum of five years if found guilty of distributing money, liquor or other material inducement to the voters during polls.
When petitioner-in-person K A Paul said he filed the PIL, the bench said, "You have interesting PILs. How do you get these brilliant ideas?".
The petitioner said he is the president of an organisation which has rescued over three lakh orphans and 40 lakh widows.
"Why are you getting into this political arena? Your area of work is very different," the bench retorted.
After Paul revealed he had been to over 150 countries, the bench asked him whether each of the nations had ballot paper voting or used electronic voting.
The petitioner said foreign countries had adopted ballot paper voting and India should follow suit.
"Why you don't want to be different from the rest of the world?" asked the bench.
There was corruption and this year (2024) in June, the Election Commission announced they had seized Rs 9,000 crore, Paul responded.
"But how does that make your relief which you are claiming here relevant?" asked the bench, adding "if you shift back to physical ballot, will there be no corruption?".
Paul claimed CEO and co-founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, stated that EVMs could be tampered with and added TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, the current chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, and former state chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had claimed EVMs could be tampered with.
"When Chandrababu Naidu lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with. Now this time, Jagan Mohan Reddy lost, he said EVMs can be tampered with," noted the bench.
When the petitioner said everybody knew money was distributed in elections, the bench remarked, "We never received any money for any elections."
The petitioner said another prayer in his plea was the formulation of a comprehensive framework to regulate the use of money and liquor during election campaigns and ensuring such practices were prohibited and punishable under the law.
The plea further sought a direction to mandate an extensive voter education campaign to raise awareness and importance of informed decision making.
"Today, 32 per cent educated people are not casting their votes. What a tragedy. If democracy will be dying like this and we will not be able to do anything then what will happen in the years to come in future," the petitioner said.
