Bhopal: A total of 11.50 per cent voters
Exercised their franchise till 10 am on Tuesday for bypolls to 28 Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, an election official said.
Polling began at 7 am with COVID-19 prevention protocols in place and will continue till 6 pm, he said.
“A total of 11.50 per cent voters cast their votes till 10 am in the state’s 19 districts where polling is going on,” the official said.
“No glitches were reported from anywhere during mock polling conducted before the beginning of voting,” he said.
The last hour of voting will be for COVID-19 patients and people suspected to be carrying the respiratory disease, he said.
A total of 355 candidates, including 12 ministers, were in the fray.
Constituency-wise polling till 10 am was – Agar 11.34 per cent, Ambah 9.24 per cent, Anuppur 6.0 per cent, Ashok Nagar 8.91 per cent, Badnawar 17.47 per cent, Bamori 14.18 per cent, Bhander 8.4 per cent, Biora 14.08 per cent, Dabra 12.57 per cent, Dimani 11.25 per cent, Gohad 11.2 per cent, Gwalior 14.48 per cent, Gwalior-East 6.06 per cent, Hatpipalya 12.75 per cent, Jaura 7.5 per cent and Karera 12.58 per cent.
Besides, Bada Malhara recorded 11.35 per cent voting till 10 am, Mandhata 9.61 per cent, Mehgaon 10.69 per cent, Morena 8.0 per cent, Mungaoli 12.27 per cent, Nepanagar 11.52 per cent, Pohari 14.51 per cent, Sanchi 10.25 per cent, Sanwer 15.3 per cent, Sumaoli 13.0 per cent, Surkhi 13.44 per cent, Suwasra 13.69 per cent, the official said. (AGENCIES)

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said he was saddened by the dastardly terror attacks in Vienna and asserted that India stands with Austria during this tragic time.
Gunmen opened fire at multiple locations across central Vienna, killing at least two people and wounding several more.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has described it as a “repulsive terror attack”, according to media reports.
“Deeply shocked and saddened by the dastardly terror attacks in Vienna,” Prime Minister Modi tweeted.
“India stands with Austria during this tragic time. My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” he said. (AGENCIES)

NEW DELHI: The national capital’s air quality slipped back into the “very poor” category again on Tuesday after recording a marginal improvement over the last 24 hours.
Officials at the India Meteorological Department said the air quality had improved on Monday with high wind speed aiding dispersion of pollutants. However, stagnant night-time conditions led to accumulation of pollutants.
The city recorded an air quality index (AQI) of 332 at 10 am. The 24-hour average (AQI) was 293, which falls in the “poor” category.
It was 364 on Sunday, with stubble burning contributing 40 percent to Delhi’s pollution.
An AQI between 0 and 50 is considered ‘good’, 51 and 100 ‘satisfactory’, 101 and 200 ‘moderate’,201 and 300 ‘poor’, 301 and 400 ‘very poor’, and 401 and 500 ‘severe’.
The Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi said a “significantly” large number of fires were observed over Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on Sunday which is likely to impact the air quality in Delhi-NCR and northwest India on Tuesday and Wednesday.
According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ air quality monitor, SAFAR, the share of stubble burning in Delhi’s pollution was 16 percent on Monday.
It had soared to 40 percent on Sunday, the maximum so far this season.
Stubble burning accounted for 32 percent of Delhi’s PM2.5 pollution on Saturday, 19 percent on Friday and 36 percent on Thursday.
Last year, the farm fire contribution to Delhi’s pollution had peaked to 44 percent on November 1, according to SAFAR data.
According to the India Meteorological Department, the predominant wind direction was northwesterly and the maximum wind speed was 8 kilometers per hour on Tuesday.The city recorded a minimum temperature of 10 degrees Celsius, the lowest in the season so far.
Calm winds and low temperatures trap pollutants close to the ground, while favourable wind speed helps in their dispersion.
According to the Air Quality Early Warning System for Delhi, the city’s ventilation index – a product of mixing depth and average wind speed – was expected to be around 8,000 meter square per second on Tuesday – favourable for dispersion of pollutants.
Mixing depth is the vertical height in which pollutants are suspended in the air. It reduces on cold days with calm wind speed.
A ventilation index lower than 6,000 sqm/second, with the average wind speed less than 10 kmph, is unfavourable for dispersal of pollutants.
In a bid to control pollution, the Delhi government has also said that only “green firecrackers” can be manufactured, sold and used in the national capital in accordance with a 2018 Supreme Court order.
‘Green crackers’ are not as polluting as the conventional types of firecrackers and they contain at least 30 percent less particulate matter such as Sulphur Dioxide and Nitrogen Oxide.
Fireworks can take place between 8 pm and 10 pm only on festivals like Diwali and Gurpurab etc. On Christmas eve and New Year eve, it would be from 11:55 pm till 12:30 am only, according to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee.
The National Green Tribunal has also issued notice to the Centre, Central Pollution Control Board, and the governments of Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, asking if crackers could be banned between November 7 and November 30 in the interest of public health and environment. (AGENCIES)

NEW DELHI: As the minimum temperature in Delhi dropped to 10 degrees Celsius, the season’s lowest so far, on Tuesday, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said it will declare a cold wave in the city if the situation persists for another day.
The weather department also said the month of November this year is expected to be the coldest in the last four to five years.
“The trend of below normal minimum temperature continues. A similar situation is expected to prevail for another four to five days,” Kuldeep Srivastava, the head of the regional forecasting center of IMD, said.
For the plains, the IMD declares a cold wave when the minimum temperature is 10 degrees Celsius or below and is 4.5 notches less than normal for two consecutive days.
“The criteria for Tuesday has been met. We will declare a cold wave in Delhi if the situation persists on Wednesday,” Srivastava said.
He said the month of November this year is expected to be the coldest in the last four to five years.
Normally, the Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative data for the city, records a minimum of 14.8 degrees Celsius in the first week of November.
The mercury dips to 11-12 degrees Celsius by the last week of November, according to IMD officials.
The senior IMD scientist said the minimum temperature is expected to be recorded in single digits in the next three to four days.
Delhi has been witnessing a trend of low minimum temperatures due to the absence of cloud cover, he said.
Clouds trap some of the outgoing infrared radiation and  radiate it back downward, warming the ground.
Also, there has been snowfall in the higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh in the last three to four days, so cold winds from that region have started affecting Delhi’s weather, he said.
On Monday, the city recorded a minimum temperature of 10.8 degrees Celsius.
The month of October was the coldest in 58 years in the national capital, according to IMD.
The mean minimum temperature in October this year was 17.2 degrees Celsius, the lowest since 1962, when it was 16.9 degrees Celsius, it said.
Normally, Delhi records a mean minimum temperature of 19.1 degrees Celsius in October. (AGENCIES)

AHMEDABAD: Voting for bypolls in eight Assembly seats in Gujarat began on Tuesday morning, an election official said.
Polling began at 8 am and will end at 6 pm, the official said, adding authorities are taking steps to check the spread of COVID-19 during voting.
Altogether 81 candidates are in fray in the eight seats, which collectively have 18.75 lakh voters, he said.
As not more than 1,000 voters are allowed in one booth due to COVID-19 concerns and guidelines of the Election Commission, 3,024 polling booths have been set up, higher than in a normal scenario.
“To stop spread of the infection, we will also provide plastic hand gloves to all the voters as they will be required to sign the register and touch the EVM buttons. Their hands will be sanitised while coming in and going out of the polling booths,” he said.
The official said 3,400 thermal guns, 41,000 N-95 masks, 82,000 disposable masks, 41,000 face shields and an equal number of rubber hand gloves have been procured for the staff deployed for polling.
The voting process is being webcast live from 900 polling booths, the official said.
Pollig is being held in eight seats- Abdasa (Kutch district), Limbdi (Surendranagar), Morbi (Morbi district), Dhari (Amreli), Gadhada (Botad), Karjan (Vadodara), Dang (Dang district) and Kaprada (Valsad).
The bypolls were necessitated after Congress MLAs there resigned ahead of Rajya Sabha polls in June this year.
Five of them joined the ruling BJP and the party has fielded them from the seats which they won in 2017.
The five are Brijesh Merja (Morbi), Akshay Patel (Karjan), Jitu Chaudhary (Kaprada), Pradyumansinh Jadeja (Abdasa) and J V Kakadiya (Dhari).
The other three BJP candidates are- Atmaram Parmar (Gadhada), Vijay Patel (Dang) and Kiritsinh Rana (Limbdi).
Parmar and Rana are former state ministers who lost the 2017 Assembly polls from the same seats.
The opposition Congress has fielded Jayantilal Patel (Morbi), Kiritsinh Jadeja (Karjan), Babubhai Vartha (Kaprada), Shantilal Sendhani (Abdasa), Suresh Kotadiya (Dhari), Mohan Solanki (Gadhada), Suryakant Gavit (Dang) and Chetan Khachar (Limbdi).
The Bharatiya Tribal Party, which has two MLAs at present in the 182-member House, has also fielded two candidates – in Dang, a seat reserved for Scheduled Tribe candidates, and Karjan.
Smaller outfits like the Bahujan Maha Party, Bahujan Mukti Party, Bharatiya Jana Parishad, Akhil Bharatiya Rajarya Sabha, All India Majlish-e-Inqulab-e-Millat, Rashtravadi Jana Chetna, Yuva Jan Jagruti, Vyavastha Parivartan Party and Rashtriya Jankranti Party have also fielded a few candidates.
The counting of votes will take place on November 10. (AGENCIES)

PATNA: Polling got underway in 94 constituencies of Bihar assembly on Tuesday morning in the second phase of elections which will decide the electoral fate of RJD leader and Mahagathbandhan’s chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav and more than 1,450 other candidates.
The poll opened at 7 am but the time for its conclusion has been extended by one hour till 6 pm to facilitate COVID-19 patients and those with symptoms of the disease to exercise their franchise in the last hour.
Polling will, however, conclude early in naxal-hit areas.
The Election Commission said voting will end at 4 pm on eight seats of Gaura Bauram and Kusheshwar Asthan in Darbhanga district, Minapur, Paroo and Sahebganj in Muzaffarpur, Alauli and Beldour in Khagaria, and Raghpur in Vaishali.
The polling hours have been reduced in the three Muzaffarpur seats because of their naxal history, while in the rest five due to other reasons related to terrain and riverine settings, a senor poll official said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to electors to vote in large numbers while following social distancing norms and wearing a mask.
“Make this festival of democracy successful by voting in large numbers. During the exercise, apart from maintaining social distancing, also wear a mask,” he tweeted in Hindi Tuesday morning.
Voting is simultaneously taking place for the Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha seat by-poll, which was necessitated by the death of sitting JD(U) lawmaker Baidyanath Mahto.
Tejashwi urged people to vote for better education, health, improvement in law and order, and a developed Bihar. “A change is necessary for building a new Bihar in a new era,” he tweeted in Hindi.
Besides Tejashwi, his elder brother Tej Pratap Yadav and four state ministers are also in the fray in this phase, which also features one transgender candidate, fielded by the LJP.
Congress leader Shatrughan Sinha’s son Luv Sinha is also contesting the poll in this phase.
Of the 2.85 crore voters, 1.50 crore are male, 1.35 crore female and 980 transgender, according to Election Commission data.
A total of 1,463 candidates — 1316 male, 146 female and one transgender — are trying their luck.
The RJD has fielded 56 candidates, LJP 52, BJP 46, JD(U) 43, RLSP 36 and the Congress 24.
Maharajganj has the maximum 27 candidates, while the minimum four are from Darauli (SC) constituency.
The Election Commission said it has set up 18,823 polling stations where people can cast their votes in 41,362 booths.
The 94 constituencies are spread across 17 districts of West Champaran, East Champaran, Sheohar, Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Gopalganj, Siwan, Saran, Vaishali, Samastipur, Begusarai, Khagaria, Bhagalpur, Nalanda and Patna.
The poll panel said 8,694 polling booths and 4,01,634 voters have been declared “vulnerable”, and 44,282 people categorised as “intimidators”.
Webcasting arrangements have been made at 3,548 polling centres, while 20,240 postal ballots were issued for electors above 80 years and those with disabilities, the poll panel said.
In view of the coronavirus situation, not more than 1,000 people will vote at one booth and wearing face masks has been made mandatory. Earlier the upper limit of voters at a booth was 1,600.
The Election Commission said 12.8 lakh hand sanitiser bottles (100 ml) each and 6.4 lakh bottles (500 ml each) have been provided across the state for use during the exercise, besides 1.06 lakh infrared thermometers, 25.6 lakh pair of gloves, 56 lakh masks and 12.8 lakh face shields.
Additional Director General of Police (Headquarter) Jitendra Kumar told PTI-Bhasha that central armed police forces have been deployed at all polling stations.
“We have sealed the border with Uttar Pradesh. Security forces are deployed 24 hours there. We are also patrolling riverine areas. Mounted police squads have also been deployed there. We will be conducting aerial reconnaissance in sensitive areas for which two helicopters will be deployed,” he said.
He said the state police will supplement central forces at polling locations with comparatively larger number of booths.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, over 55 per cent polling was recorded in the first phase on October 28, surpassing marginally the 2015 turnout. (AGENCIES)

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday urged voters to cast their votes in the second phase of the Bihar Assembly election and participate in the “festival of democracy” in large numbers while adhering to social distancing norms and wearing masks in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The second of the three phases of Bihar Assembly elections is being held on Tuesday in which over 2.85 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of nearly 1,500 candidates.
Voting will take place in 94 assembly segments, more than a third of the 243-strong assembly spread across 17 districts.
“Votes will be cast for the second phase in the Bihar assembly elections today. I appeal to all voters to make this festival of democracy successful by voting in large numbers,” Modi said in a tweet in Hindi.
He urged voters to adhere to social distancing norms and wear a mask while voting.
Modi also urged voters to vote in large numbers in the bypolls taking place in various parts of the country.
“Today, there are by-polls taking place in various places across India. I urge those voting in these seats to vote in large numbers and strengthen the festival of democracy,” he said.
Voting is being held on Tuesday for by-elections to 54 assembly constituencies in 10 states, including 28 seats in Madhya Pradesh. (AGENCIES)

UNITED NATIONS: Strongly hitting out at Pakistan, India has said it is taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to enhance support to cross-border terrorism and has resorted to “unbridled hate speech” to try and create divisions among India’s religious communities.
Addressing an interactive dialogue with Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, First Secretary in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN Ashish Sharma on Monday said the hate speech by Pakistan is not merely directed towards one community in India but also against organisations, individuals and even against high ranking political leaders.
“While the world has come to a standstill due to the pandemic, Pakistan has only enhanced support to cross-border terrorism taking advantage of the pandemic,” he said.
Pakistan has resorted to “unbridled hate speech trying to foment violence and intolerance in our country,” he told the UN forum. India strongly hit out at Pakistan for abusing the UN platform to forward its “nefarious political agenda.”
Sharma said that Pakistan is trying to “create divisions among our religious communities as well. Fortunately, their provocation is falling on deaf ears since India has had a tradition of pluralism and co-existence where all communities live in harmony under a democratic framework.
India called on Pakistan to practice co-existence in their own country and eschew all sectarian violence, discrimination and intolerance against their own people.
Sharma said the world today is confronted not only by the challenge of tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, but also the challenge of “infodemic”, which in many cases has been responsible for rise in hate speech and seeding hatred within communities.
In June, India along with 12 countries co-sponsored the Cross-Regional Statement on “Infodemic” in the Context of COVID-19 – a first of its kind statement by UN Member States to counter the increase in hate speech and misinformation during the pandemic.
“India is fighting COVID 19 pandemic in the most transparent manner with equal access to medical facilities to all citizens,” Sharma said at the Third Committee meeting of the General Assembly, adding that special efforts have been taken to ensure that vulnerable communities are provided adequate medical support. (AGENCIES)

NEW DELHI: As polling began for the second phase of the Bihar Assembly election, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday urged people to vote so that a new government of their choice can be formed.
Taking to Twitter, the former Congress chief said he will be in Bihar’s Korha and Kishanganj on Tuesday and will talk about issues such as “growing unemployment”, problems faced by farmers and a “weak economy”.
“Some districts in Bihar will be voting in the second phase of the polls. Do vote, so that a new government of your choice is formed,” Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.
The second of the three phases of Bihar Assembly polls is being held on Tuesday in which over 2.85 crore voters are eligible to decide the fate of nearly 1,500 candidates.
Voting will take place in 94 assembly segments, more than a third of the 243-strong assembly spread across 17 districts. (AGENCIES)