Four Indian athletes handed provisional suspension, two banned for doping offences
New Delhi (PTI): Goa National Games silver medal-winning steeplechaser Mohammed Nur Hasan, 2019 Asian Championships bronze medallist Murli Kumar Gavit, and India's World Cross Country Championships participants Hemraj Gurjar and Anjali Kumari have been put under provisional suspension after they tested positive for banned substances.
Distance runner G Lakshmanan and sprinter Himani Chandel have also been handed two and four-year bans respectively by the National Anti-Doping Agency panels in fresh doping cases in Indian athletics.
Hasan had won a 3000m steeplechase gold each in the Federation Cup and National Open Championships last year.
Gurjar had won the National Cross Country Championships in Gaya in January but finished 88th at the World Cross Country in Belgrade in March.
Anjali Kumari had finished second in the National Cross Country Championships in January and was chosen for the Worlds where she finished 80th.
Gavit, who won a bronze in 2019 Asian Championships in Doha, was the gold winner in a strange 5000m race at the National Open Championships last year where no athlete seemed keen to win the race.
All four of them figured in the latest list of athletes handed provisional suspension by the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA). It is not known where and when the samples were collected.
Meanwhile, it also emerged that Lakshmanan, who won a gold each in 5000m and 10,000m in the 2017 Asian Championships, has been handed two-year ban from August 10 last year onwards. His name figured among those who were handed sanctions by either the Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel or the Anti-Doping Appeal Panel of the NADA.
Top sprinter Himani Chandel has also been banned for four years effective from June 15 last year.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Electorate in 9 states, UTs shrink by 1.70 crore after SIR
New Delhi (PTI): Voter base in nine states and Union territories has shrunk by more than 1.70 crore following the publication of final electoral rolls as part of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), according to official data.
The data shared by the chief electoral officers of Gujarat, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Goa and Kerala on Saturday showed that their combined voter base stood at over 21.45 crore before the SIR exercise began on October 27 last year.
It shrunk to 19.75 crore after publication of their final electoral rolls this week, a net change of over 1.70 crore electors.
While the exercise, which kept the Election Commission in the spotlight, has been completed in Bihar, it is currently underway in 12 states and Union territories covering nearly 60 crore electors.
The remaining 40 crore electors will be covered in 17 states and five Union territories.
In Assam, a "special revision", instead of SIR, was completed on February 10.
Due to a variety of reasons, the SIR in the nine states and three Union territories have seen frequent tweaking in schedules.
As in Bihar, political parties have approached the Supreme Court challenging the exercise in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
