Bengaluru: Thousands of voters from households of minority communities in Karnataka, who have EPIC, are missing from the voters’ list, according to a random survey undertaken by a team of volunteers from the Congress. They claim that only one or two votes per family figure on the list.

Anwar Pasha, a resident of J.C. Nagar in Shivajinagar Assembly constituency, has nine members in his family. All of them have Voter IDs (EPIC) and had voted during the 2013 elections. This time, only one vote from the family figures on the electoral rolls.

This is not a lone case. According to a The Hindu report, R. Roshan Baig, area MLA, claims that 14,591 households in Shivajinagar had just one or two votes on the voters’ list.

Similar surveys were done in 49 constituencies across the State and it was found that 6,22,056 households showed single occupancy on the list, although the families had five or more members each.

“Overall, names of nearly 18 lakh eligible voters have been left out of the electoral rolls, especially in minority-dominated areas,” alleged S.R. Mehroz Khan, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee secretary.

Mr. Khan, along with Mr. Baig, Syed Nasir Hussain, Rajya Sabha member; Brijesh Kalappa, AICC spokesperson; M.N. Suraj Hegde, former AICC secretary; and Naseer Ahmed, chairperson of the Karnataka State Minorities Commission; met the Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar on Monday and submitted a memorandum in this regard.

 ‘None deleted suo motu’

Sanjiv Kumar, Chief Electoral Officer, said not a single vote had been deleted suo motu.

“During our special summary revision, a total of 3,67,445 names of dead persons, 6,10,783 names that were repeating on the list and 4,88,140 names that had been shifted were deleted. There is nothing visible to indicate that names of 18 lakh eligible voters have been deleted as alleged by the Congress delegation. We will, however, inquire into the issue,” he said.

He added that people still had time, till April 14, to get themselves enrolled if their name is not on the list.

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Bengaluru(PTI): An Air India Express flight from Bengaluru to Kochi made an emergency landing at Bengaluru after a fire was noticed in one of the engines, the Bangalore International Airport Limited said on Sunday.

All the passengers and crew were evacuated and no one was injured, Air India Express said in a statement. According to sources, the fire was noticed minutes after the take off.

The crew members alerted the Air Traffic Controller and a full scale emergency was declared.

Soon after emergency landing at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru, the fire was extinguished.

"On May 18, 2024, IX 1132 from Bengaluru to Kochi made an emergency landing at BLR Airport at 2312 hrs, due to a reported fire in one of the engines," a spokesperson of the BIAL, which manages KIA, said in a statement.

A full-scale emergency was declared, and the fire was promptly extinguished upon landing. All 179 passengers and six crew members have been successfully evacuated from the aircraft, the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) spokesperson said.

An Air India Express spokesperson said that due to suspected flames from the right engine after takeoff, the Bengaluru- Kochi flight 'elected' to return and carried out a precautionary landing at Bengaluru . The ground services also reported flames, resulting in an evacuation.

"The crew accomplished an evacuation with no injuries to any guests. We regret the inconvenience this has caused and are working to provide alternative arrangements for our guests to reach their destination as soon as possible," it said.

"A thorough investigation with the regulator shall be accomplished to establish the cause,” it said.