Death toll goes up to 149 in China's earthquake
Beijing (PTI): The death toll from the 6.2-magnitude earthquake that jolted northwest China earlier this week has risen to 149 with two people still missing.
The quake, the worst in nine years in the region, struck midnight on December 18 at a depth of 10 kilometres.
The Quake hit Jishishan County, Gansu Province, and Minhe County in the neighbouring Qinghai Province last Saturday causing heavy death and destruction.
The death toll in Qinghai Province has risen to 32 while two people are still missing, the Qinghai Emergency Management Department said on Monday. Search for the two missing people was continuing, the department said.
The death toll in Gansu Province stood at 117 and 781 people in injured. About 200 people were injured in the Qinghai quake.
Chinese Premier, Li Qing visited the quake-hit areas on Saturday and asked the rescue and relief teams to make sure that people live through the winter safely.
So far, about 500 individuals have been discharged from the hospital after receiving treatment, while 282 people remain under treatment. Among them, 17 are in critical condition and 69 are severely injured, according to official media reports.
China's National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) has allocated disaster-relief materials to Gansu and Qinghai which included 1,335 pieces of cold prevention materials and communication equipment, state-run Xinhua reported.
Primary and secondary schools in Jishishan County, northwest China's Gansu Province resumed classes on Monday, state-run CGTN TV reported.
The quake was China's deadliest since an earthquake killed 617 people in Yunnan province in 2014.
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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.
