ATMs go dry in northeastern states
Agartala/Kohima/Itanagar, May 5: The cash drought in most of the ATMs of the northeastern states has caused a lot of inconvenience for the people in the past few days.
Senior bank officials said that the delay in supplying of remittances by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in Guwahati caused the note crisis in most of the ATMs.
"We should put fresh notes in the ATMs to run the apparatus smoothly. Currently, the bank has old notes and we have asked the RBI in Guwahati to supply fresh notes of different denominations urgently," State Bank of India (SBI) Regional Manager Dipak Chowdhury told IANS.
He said, "We expect that the situation would be normalised by mid next week. This is a temporary phenomenon."
Reports of cash scarcities in the ATMs in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, and Mizoram in the first week of the month have left the public in a state of anguish.
An SBI official in Itanagar said that the bank had to make an internal arrangement of cash from rural branches to urban branches to address the cash deficit.
Dimapur SBI Assistant General Manager Debjyoti Dutta said that the short supply of notes from the RBI aggravated the situation and hardships to the people.
"RBI would be disbursing the cash for Nagaland soon and ATMs would likely be refilled immediately. However, at the bank branches, there was still cash-at-hand to manage everyday transactions," Dutta said.
A bank official in Imphal said that the shortage was also due to the "overdraw" of cash out of ATMs.
An official of the United Bank of India (UBI) said that the ongoing problem is also due to RBI's introduction of rationing system in supplying cash to commercial banks.
"The RBI has been distributing cash to commercial banks in northeast India on a pro-rata basis that means disbursal of cash in proportion of total number of bank account holders of a state and that of number of bank branches in the region," the official added.
As the bank officials publicly clarified about the cash crisis in ATMs, various rumours also forced people to rush in ATMs and banks to withdraw money.
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BJP worker’s 16-year-old son allegedly casts eight votes in Uttar Pradesh’s Farrukhabad; Video viral
Lucknow (Farrukhabad): A viral video has surfaced showing a 16-year-old son of a BJP worker allegedly casting eight votes to the saffron party during the ongoing general elections in Uttar Pradesh. The video has sparked controversy, and the opposition has urged for prompt action from the Election Commission of India, reports scroll.in.
The video shared by the Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav on micro-blogging site ‘X’, showed the youngster recording himself while casting multiple times in a series of instances. The incident reportedly took place in Khiri Pamaran village, which falls under the Aliganj Assembly constituency within the Farrukhabad parliamentary seat. Mukesh Rajput, the sitting MP, is the BJP candidate in this constituency. Polling in Farrukhabad occurred on May 13 during the fourth phase of the general election.
In the viral video, the youngster is seen casting eight votes in total, all for the BJP, one by one with different clippings.
The youngster in the video has been identified as Rajan Singh Thakur, confirmed his father, Anil Singh Thakur to the Scroll.in. Anil Singh Thakur is the gram pradhan (village head) of Khiri Pamaran and a member of the BJP.
Anil defending his son told the Scroll that the ‘Video misrepresented his son,’ and claimed that the voting was done when the machine was being tested in some instances and other clipping of him voting on behalf of mentally and physically disabled voters was merged and made into a video.
Despite the Anil's caims, the video has drawn significant criticism. Subhash Chandra Prajapati, the additional district magistrate of Farrukhabad, confirmed to the Scroll that the administration will file a case soon. He mentioned that the returning officer is investigating the matter following a directive from the chief electoral officer in Lucknow.
The opposition has been vocal in its criticism, with Akhilesh Yadav demanding action from the Election Commission. In his social media post, Yadav accused the BJP of undermining the electoral process and described the party's booth committee as a "loot committee." The Congress party also called on the Election Commission to take action, in a ‘X’ post the party wrote, “Dear Election Commission…are you watching..a boy is voting 8-8 times ... .at least wake up now.”
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, took to ‘X’ to express, “Fearing and seeing their defeat, the BJP is attempting to undermine democracy by pressuring government machinery to deny the mandate. The Congress expects all officers performing election duties to remember their constitutional responsibilities despite any pressure from those in power. Otherwise, once the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc government is formed, actions will be taken to ensure that anyone will think ten times before violating their 'Oath to the Constitution'."
Following the video's circulation, Naval Kishor Shakya, the Samajwadi Party candidate in Farrukhabad, filed a complaint with the district election officer. Shakya's complaint alleges that Rajan Singh Thakur cast votes after snatching voter information slips from other voters and that he was assisted by Dinesh Thakur, the local police station's station house officer. Shakya has called for re-polling at the affected polling center.
In a related incident earlier in May, Gujarat Police arrested two BJP workers for allegedly casting bogus votes and live-streaming the act on social media in the Dahod constituency. The Election Commission conducted re-polling at the affected booth following the incident.
The opposition INDIA bloc, including the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, has repeatedly accused the Election Commission of failing to take prompt action against election model code of conduct violations.
अपनी हार सामने देख कर भाजपा जनादेश को झुठलाने के लिए सरकारी तंत्र पर दबाव बना कर लोकतंत्र को लूटना चाहती है।
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 19, 2024
कांग्रेस चुनावी ड्यूटी कर रहे सभी अधिकारियों से यह अपेक्षा करती है कि वो सत्ता के दबाव के सामने अपनी संवैधानिक ज़िम्मेदारी न भूलें।
वरना INDIA की सरकार बनते ही ऐसी… https://t.co/fk4wXL8QZy
