India

Bijbehara (J-K), Apr 23 (PTI) A low voter turnout of just above two per cent was witnessed Tuesday in this assembly segment, the home of former chief minister and PDP candidate Mehbooba Mufti, in south Kashmir's Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency, a militancy hotbed, where the election is being held in three phases due to security reasons.

The authorities clubbed seven polling booths of the town inside a building housing the office of the Executive Engineer, Public Health Engineering (PHE), Bijbehara 45 kms from the summer capital Srinagar.

Wayanad, Apr 23 (PTI) Billed as a key seat given the presence of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on the ballot, the Wayanad Lok Sabha segment witnessed a record turnout of voters Tuesday as polling was held in the State's 20 constituencies.

The voting percentage was 76.21 as of 6 pm when the polling time officially ended, three per cent more than what was recorded in 2014 (73.2).

Kolkata, Apr 23 (PTI) West Bengal government's 'Utkarsh Bangla' scheme, aiming to create a pool of skilled candidates industry ready, on Tuesday was awarded the prestigious World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) award of the United Nations, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said.

"Out of 1062 nominations in 18 categories from all over the world, #UtkarshBangla emerged No 1 in the Capacity Building category to win this prestigious award of @WSISprocess #wsis2019," she tweeted.

Ghaziabad, April 24 (PTI) Software engineer Sumit Kumar, who allegedly killed his wife and three children here last week, has been arrested from Karnataka, police said Wednesday.

Ghaziabad Police arrested Kumar with the help of Udipi Police on Tuesday night. Three teams were deputed to nab him.

On the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday, Kumar allegedly served sedative-laced drinks to his wife Anshu Bala (32), son Prathimesh (5), daughter Akriti and son Arav (twins aged 4 years) and then slit their throats, police had said.

Mumbai, Apr 24 (PTI) Urmila Matondkar, leading Bollywood actor of the 90s who joined the Congress recently, says she has faced a lot of trolling on social media and personal attacks after her entry into politics, but asserted that she is here to stay.

Matondkar, who is contesting from the Mumbai North Lok Sabha constituency -- a BJP stronghold, said these elections will decide the direction in which the country will go and if democracy will be saved.

Muzaffarnagar (UP), Apr 24 (PTI) A police sub-inspector (SI) in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district was suspended allegedly for bigamy, a senior official said Wednesday.

The SI, Lavik Tyagi, posted at Thana Bhawan, was suspended Tuesday, the official said.

According to SP Ajay Kumar Pandey, the action was taken after Tyagi's second wife submitted a complaint in this regard.

The SI had married her around five years ago and also has a child from his second marriage, Pandey said.

Asansol, Apr 24 (PTI) If you don't want to be identified as a sympathiser of a particular political party, do what the people of Asansol do. They attend meetings called by every political party, and say it is the surest way to keep away from being aligned to any one of them ahead of polls marred by violence.

Residents are wary of discussing their political preference openly in Asansol, a metropolitan city and important coal-trading centre in West Bengal. They say the atmosphere is not conducive for such a discussion.

New Delhi, Apr 24 (PTI) Disgruntled BJP MP from northwest Delhi Udit Raj joined the Congress on Wednesday, a day after being denied ticket by the saffron party.

Raj joined the Congress after meeting party president Rahul Gandhi here this morning. On Wednesday, Raj tweeted he would not have been "hurt" had the BJP told him earlier that he would not be given a ticket.

Kanpur: Cubs intact but medical help ahead for survival. All the three cubs of leopard are getting care at Kanpur zoo since its arrival here. However, the Chief Conservator of Forest Sunil Pandey has directed the zoo director to be more careful towards those newly brought cubs. 

The cubs were recovered from interiors of Mordabad district and the forest department officials thought it suitable to keep the little cubs at the famous Allen Forest zoo here. 

New Delhi, Apr 22; PTI/GANASHAKTI:  An Election Commission general observer, who was suspended for checking Prime Minister Narendra Modi's helicopter in Odisha's Sambalpur in violation of norms for dealing with SPG protectees, has been sent back to Karnataka.

He is a 1996 batch IAS officer of Karnataka cadre.

The Commission had last week suspended its general observer for Sambalpur in Odisha for violating its instructions that SPG protectees should not be checked.