60-70 per cent voter turnout in first phase of Chhattisgarh polls
Raipur, Nov 12: A voter turnout of between 60-70 per cent was recorded Monday in the first phase of elections in Chhattisgarh covering 18 assembly segments of the Naxal-hit Bastar division and Rajnandgaon district, officials said.
There were three encounters between security personnel and Naxals, and an IED blast in the districts that went to the polls during the day but the voting process, held under heavy security cover, was not affected, they said.
The Election Commission, at a press conference in New Delhi, said 70 per cent turnout was recorded in phase one of Chhattisgarh polls. However, Chhattisgarh chief electoral officer Subrat Sahoo, told reporters at Raipur later that 60.49 per cent turnout was recorded, adding the figure may go up.
Prominent among the 190 candidates in the first phase of polling was Chief Minister Raman Singh (Rajnandgaon).
"An average voting turnout of 60.49 per cent was recorded in 18 constituencies which went to polls on Monday.
This is an interim figure while the final (percentage of) turnout may rise," Sahoo said.
Around 52 per cent turnout was recorded in 10 segments till 3 pm where polling time was from 7 am to 3 pm. In rest of the constituencies, where poling time was from 8am to 5pm, the turnout was 70.08 per cent till 5 pm, he said.
"The final turnout will be declared once final reports are received from all constituencies," he said.
Polling in 10 constituencies - Mohla-Manpur, Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Kanker, Keshkal, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur and Konta -- concluded at 3 pm amid tight security.
In the other eight segments - Khairgarh, Dongargarh, Rajnandgaon, Dongargaon, Khujji, Bastar, Jagdalpur and Chitrakoot -- the polling process ended at 5 pm.
Five personnel of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action (CoBRA), an elite unit of the Central Reserve Police Force, were injured in two separate encounters with ultras in Pamed police station area of Bijapur district, police said.
Two Naxals were gunned down in an encounter with security forces in Sukma district, they said.
An improvised explosive device (IED) was detonated by Naxals early Monday in Katekalyan area of Dantewada district, police said. No one was injured, they added.
Four IEDs - two each in Kanker and Bijapur - were also recovered, an official said.
In remote Naxal-affected areas, the polling received a good response from voters who appeared excited to exercise their franchise, Sahoo said.
The Chintagufa polling booth within the Konta assembly constituency in Sukma district reported 68 per cent polling, he said.
After 15 years, polling was held for the first time in Palam Adgu village of Sukma district, he said.
Similarly, polling was held for the first time in remote Nilawaya and Moolar villages in Dantewada district where 19 and 10 voters respectively exercised their electoral rights, he said. "It reflects faith of people on this festival of democracy," he added.
A surrendered Naxal couple, Mainuram and his wife Rajbati, also voted in the Narayanpur assembly segment.
In Kanker constituency, a polling booth was shifted from Amapani to nearby Thema village due to Naxal problem, Sahoo said.
This booth was shifted in the last polls in 2013 also but villagers boycotted voting this time citing shifting of the booth, he said.
Forty-six polling parties, comprising 197 polling members, were ferried from polling booths to their respective district headquarters by helicopters after the voting ended, he said. The remaining 171 polling parties would be airlifted Tuesday, he added.
During the polling, 53 ballot units, 47 control units and 84 VVPATs of EVMs were replaced due to technical snag, he added.
As many as 4,341 polling booths were set up and 19,079 polling personnel deployed for the first phase, he said.
Over 1.25 lakh police and paramilitary personnel were also deployed in the 18 constituencies falling under Naxal-hit areas of Bastar, Kanker, Sukma, Bijapur, Dantewada, Kondagaon, Narayanpur and Rajnandgaon districts.
Among the prominent candidates in the fray in the first phase were state ministers Kedar Kashyap (Narayanpur) and Mahesh Gagda (Bijapur) and Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Kanker Lok Sabha MP Vikram Usendi (Antagarh).
Nine Congress MLAs were also among the candidates.
Besides the ruling BJP and the main Opposition Congress, the other parties in the fray include Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), former chief minister Ajit Jogi's JCC(J) and the Communist Party of India (CPI).
Of the 18 seats, 12 were reserved for Scheduled Tribes (STs) and one was for Scheduled Caste (SC) category.
The second phase of polling in 72 seats, out of the 90-member Assembly, would be held on November 20 and counting of votes would take place on December 11.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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