by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Devyani Chhetri and Sejal Singh,
Mumbai : On November 28, Mizoram — the last northeast bastion of the Congress — will vote to elect a new government that will oversee what is planned as Indias gateway to Southeast Asia.
With about half as many voters as south Mumbai, Mizoram is one of India’s fastest-growing, healthiest (second) and most-literate (third) states.
However, there are issues that threaten to slow the growth of a state that has been administered by either the Congress or the Mizo National Front (MNF), ever since the peace accord of 1986. That agreement ended the long-running Mizo uprising, marked by air raids on capital Aizawl in March 1966, the only time the Indian Air Force bombed its own people.
Mizoram’s 768,000 voters will vote in 40 constituencies to determine if the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will make its first inroads and complete the party’s surge into the northeast. After the victory of the BJP-led Northeast Democratic Alliance (NEDA) in Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura earlier in 2018, seven of eight states in the region —Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur — are governed by the alliance.
Led by Lal Thanhawla, former insurgent-turned-mainstream politician, the Congress has administered Mizoram for the last 10 years. Previously, in the 2013 elections in Mizoram, the party won 34 of 40 seats. But since 2014, the Congress’ vote share declined 13.4 percentage points across the northeast.
Mizoram has been positioned as the epicentre of the Centre’s Act East Policy, which aims to harness shared cultural and border ties between India’s northeast and south-east Asian countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand and other ASEAN nations.
Filtered through various indicators, Mizoram boasts a raft of high-performing statistics. The state is one of the fastest-growing in the country, with its economy growing by 12 per cent between 2013 and 2016. It has India’s second-best health indicators and third-best literacy.
However, the state’s achievements are challenged by four issues: Increasing poverty, racial tensions, high school-dropout rates and inter-district inequalities, which hinder growth.
It also grapples with illegal migrants, inter-tribal differences, an inability to create jobs for its educated youth and tensions sparked by allegations of corruption against the current government. These tensions have led to the rise of sub-regional alliances, such as the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) — comprising of regional parties such as Zoram Nationalist Party, Mizoram People’s Conference and Zoram Exodus Movement — and this may disrupt the traditional exchange of governments between the Congress and MNF.
More than 94 per cent of Mizoram is tribal, 80 per cent is Christian, and minorities — the Chakmas and Brus — claim racial discrimination at the hands of majority communities, such as the Lusei, Ralte, Hmar, Khiangte and Lai.
Mizoram has one of the lowest rates of anaemia among women in the northeastern (24.8 per cent), child wasting (8.4 per cent), stunting (28.1 per cent) and underweight children (12 per cent), according to data from the National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4).
It ranked first among smaller states and second nationally in NITI Aayog’s overall 2018 Health Performance Index. The state’s health-related successes can be attributed to its per capita expenditure on health, which was five times the national average: 4.5 per cent of GDP in 2015, compared to India’s 1.02 per cent.
However, Mizoram’s progress has lagged other states. Manipur, which ranked second among smaller states in NITI Aayog’s Health index, improved by 7.18 per cent compared to Mizoram’s 2.43 per cent.
The proportion of Mizoram’s people living below the poverty line rose from 15.4 to 20.4 per cent over seven years to 2011. Mizoram’s high literacy rates are marred by high school-dropout rates and inter-district disparities. The dropout rates in primary and secondary schools are 15.36 and 30.67 per cent, respectively, more than the comparable national averages of 6.35 and 19.89 per cent; Mizoram’s dropout rates are also the northeast’s highest.
There is a 38.76 percentage point gap in literacy between the most literate district (Serchhip, 98.76 per cent) and the least literate (Mamit, 60). The districts of Lawngtlai (66 per cent) and Mamit suffer literacy rates lower than not just the state average but the national average of 70.04 per cent.
Hills cover over 80 per cent of Mizoram, and with 60 per cent of the population dependent of agriculture, the state is challenged by difficult-to-farm areas and declining soil quality, affected by the tradition of jhum — or slash and burn — cultivation.
A National Land Use Policy, 2009 (NLUP), which aims to revitalise the primary sector by introducing alternatives to jhum cultivation, such as reforestation and market infrastructure, has been a prominent promised intervention by the state government and the Congress’ previous election campaigns.
But NLUP funding has been roiled by allegations of corruption. In 2015, a government audit found funds for bamboo plantations filched. Farmers took to the streets of Aizawl to protest the NLUP’s failure in providing a market to farmers, who were made to choose broom grass and ginger cultivation.
Mizoram reports 976 females per 1,000 males, as per Census 2011 — the national statistic is 943 females per 1,000 males — and it records the second-highest rate of female labour force participation (54 per cent) after Chhattisgarh.
Yet, as the state goes to vote, another contradiction emerges: Mizoram had 2.62 per cent more women voters than men in 2013. But all 40 legislators are men. Of the six women who contested the 2013 elections, only one was from the Congress. In 2018, 4.8 per cent more women electors are set to vote. Whether any of the men will be displaced will be clear on December 11, when results are announced.
(In arrangement with IndiaSpend.org, a data-driven, non-profit, public interest journalism platform, with whom Sejal Singh is an intern. Devyani Chhetri is a graduate of LSR College. Views expressed are those of IndiaSpend. Feedback at respond@indiaspend.org)
—IndiaSpend/IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Networking, News, Politics, Social Media, Technology
New Delhi : The Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT on Thursday told the government to make Facebook commit that it would not misuse the users data to influence elections in India or for any other extraneous purposes outside the purview of the local laws or terms of user agreement.
The panel headed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Anurag Thakur told the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to take a pledge in writing from Facebook that it would not “misuse” the data “politically or otherwise”, sources said.
Earlier, Thakur said in a tweet that the panel met on Thursday to examine the issue of citizens’ data security and online privacy, and also heard the views of MeitY officials in this connection.
“This is an important issue and we will hold further meetings. The citizens may email their views on the matter to the Standing Committee,” he said.
According to sources, the panel also expressed concern at the lack of IT regulatory framework in the country.
The Standing Committee’s observation came after last month it came to light that British data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica had harvested the data of around 50 million Facebook users to influence elections in many countries, including the US presidential elections of 2016.
The Indian government has issued a notice to Facebook over suspected data breach of Indian citizens and also sought details of the measures the social media giant had put in place to ensure the safety and prevention of misuse of personal data of the users.
Facebook has admitted that nearly 5.62 lakh users in India were “potentially affected” by the breach.
Assembly elections are due this year in several crucial states in the country including Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. Polling is scheduled in Karnataka on May 12.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
By Quaid Najmi,
Mumbai : There are contradicting records of the numbers of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in stock, their costs, their mode of transportation and other details, as per replies received under the Right to Information Act.
Further, it has emerged that no audits have been conducted by the State Election Commissions of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh on EVMs.
Seeking to corroborate the information received from Election Commission of India (ECI), Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL), Hyderabad and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), Bengaluru, Mumbai RTI activist Manoranjan S. Roy had sought information on EVMs from two major states — Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh — and received alarming replies.
The Maharashtra State Election Commission (M-SEC) informed on May 2, 2017 that since 2014-2017, it had not conducted any audit pertaining to the number of EVMs, their cost, the security staff, mode of transportation of the EVMs, etc.
However, M-SEC confirmed it is in possession of 76,250 Balloting Units (BUs) and 76,050 Controlling Units (CUs) — the two parts of the EVM system. Additionally, the ECI had provided it with another 15,000 BUs and 110,000 CUs, each costing Rs.9,200 (BU+CU). But it gave no information on the number of defective EVMs lying with it.
When probed further on this, major differences came up in the information provided by the ECI on March 03, 2017 and July 01, 2017 — which points a needle of suspicion towards misuse of EVMs, Roy contended.
In response to a query, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said that for corporation elections on February 21, 2017, it had set up 7,304 polling centres in which it deployed 8,161 BUs and 7,304 CUs.
At that time, 136 BUs and 752 CUs were were found to be defective prior to the elections and another 16 BUs and 15 CUs broke down on election day.
To similar queries, the Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission (UP-SEC) said on 08-05-2017 that it had deployed a total 159,791 BUs and 147,164 CUs in the February-March 2017 assembly elections.
Like M-SEC, the UP-SEC also stated that no audits were conducted for the same, adding the (audit) could be available with ECI.
There were differences in the number of EVMs the UP-SEC said it had received from ECIL in 2012, since the ECIL had already made it clear it had not supplied any EVMs to any state during 2006-2013.
Also, the ECI and UP-SEC figures differ vastly on number of polling booths. According to UP-SEC, the total number of polling booths set up were 190,388 in Assembly elections 2017 while the ECI said the number of booths were 11,356 — an obviously incorrect figure.
For those elections, the BEL supplied 139,438 BUs and 105,218 CUs of Model M2MEK, and ECIL supplied 84,480 BUs and 85,170 CUs from five different states, totaling to 224,918 BUs and 190,388 CUs for the assembly polls.
Again at variance with the ECIL’s replies, the UP-SEC said on 30-10-2017 that in 2011, the company had supplied 16,730 BUs and 12,100 CUs for a payment of Rs 142.86 crore plus transportation and VAT of Rs 32,276.
The ECIL had earlier stated that from 2006-2013, it had not supplied any EVMs to any state, as per RTI reply of 16-09-2017.
No transportation details were provided by UP-SEC on grounds that the EVMs were received from different states across India.
The UP-SEC said for the 2017 elections, it received 6,000 BUs and 3,000 CUs from Maharashtra plus another 81,800 BUs and 47,750 CUs from the ECIL, contradicting the UP-SEC’s own figures which said on 08-05-2017 it had deployed a total 159,791 BUs and 147,164 CUs in the assembly elections.
On January 11, 2018, the Madhya Pradesh-State Election Commission (MP-SEC) had supplied on loan 50,000 BUs and 25,000 CUs of EVM Model M1 to the UP-SEC.
“The RTI replies by both Maharashtra and UP SEC’s show they have not conducted audits, maintained proper accounts, there are contradictions galore among all the concerned agencies on the number of EVMs supplies Or received, raising serious doubts on where such huge amounts of public money have actually gone,” Roy said.
“There are absolutely no records of which EVMs were actually used for elections, how many are defective or defunct, why and which different models were deployed, who has approved these different models, the type of software-hardware used and whether they are hack-proof, whether the software is dedicated (exclusive) or purchased from the markets, etc,” Roy said.
The net result is that large stocks of unaccounted EVMs along with BUs/CUs are lying with various state elections commissions all over India and prone to severe misuse by vested interests during different elections where they are deployed, he explained, adding that Karnataka elections are coming up in May 2018.
Moreover, since the past 30 years, there is continuous purchase of EVMs by the ECI for the elections, but even the basic details are missing.
“There’s clearly (unexplained discrepancy) running into many thousands of crores of rupees, blatantly going on since nearly three decades. If this is the situation in just two states, the state of affairs in all other states can well be imagined,” Roy said.
All this calls for a thorough review of the authentic stock position of all EVMs from 1989, the number of non-functional or defective EVMs of both the suppliers and the available stocks with all states, the models and software installed, etc, well before the next general elections, Roy demanded.
Roy has filed a Public Interest Litigation in Bombay High Court, seeking directions to all parties to provide all records/documents pertaining to EVMs, setting up of a suitable probe panel to ban EVMs till the logical outcome of the probe.
Part-1 : EVM skeletons in RTI replies: Contradictory numbers from EC, suppliers raise question mark on polls
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs)
By Quaid Najmi,
Mumbai : Indiscriminate acquisition of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) by the Election Commission, inexplicable mismatch in numbers of machines from producers and buyers, and insecure transportation have emerged as major concerns from official replies to Right to Information (RTI) queries.
Mumbai RTI activist Manoranjan S. Roy — who painstakingly pursued the matter for nearly a year — said the RTI responses may have severe repercussions on the conduct of free, fair and credible elections in the country.
Terming the revelations “extremely grave”, Roy said the poll panel and the EVM manufacturing companies need to be asked to explain these discrepancies as it “affects the very foundation of the Indian democracy and its election system”.
Used in India since 1989, the EVMs — comprising a Balloting Unit (BU) and a Control Unit (CU), and recently, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) — are currently manufactured by only two PSUs — Electronics Corp of India Ltd (ECIL), Hyderabad, and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL), Bengaluru.
Roy’s RTI queries revealed that from 1989-90 till May 15, 2017, the Election Commission procured a total of 1,005,662 BUs and 928,049 CUs from BEL, plus another 1,014,644 BUs and 934,031 CUs from ECIL.
?
An RTI query to the Union Ministry of Law and Justice showed that the government received intimation of purchase of 1,395,306 BUs and 930,716 CUs in 2016-17.
BEL said on June 9, 2017, that it supplied 125,000 CUs and 190,000 BUs to EC, from 2010 to 2017.
ECIL said it provided 222,925 BUs and 211,875 CUs to EC from 2010 to 2017, and another 497,348 BUs and 307,030 CUs for the same period.
According to Roy, against the figures provided by the EC on the number of EVMs received, BEL and ECIL have submitted data with huge differences in the numbers they have supplied, at times ranging from several thousands to lakhs of EVMs, raising questions on “where the excess number of EVMs are going, what is being done with them”.
Roy says all this “indicates something very suspicious is going on between these organisations”.
On the questions of payments too, major discrepancies came out in the figures from 2006-07 to 2016-17.
Against the EC’s “actual expenditure” of Rs 5,360,175,485 (spent) on EVMs, the BEL RTI reply said it received from EC a payment of Rs 6,525,644,000 — a difference (excess) of Rs 116.55 crore.
On the mode of transportation, the capacity of trucks vis-Ã -vis the dimensions of the EVMs, BUs and CUs — figures provided by both BEL and ECIL also were way off.
“In many instances, the transportation details are at complete variance with the purported capacity of the trucks vis-Ã -vis the EVM dimensions and the carrying load of the containers that are disclosed,” Roy said.
“According to the standard calculations, a 32x8x8 feet container can accommodate 199 BUs or 261 CUs, and a 20x8x8 feet container can take 124 BUs or 163 CUs, but the BEL says it has dispatched between 320 to 400 units per container. Were extra machines
dispatched to EC? If so, what happened to them,
?”?asked Roy.
Even on the question of voter and candidates capacity of the EVMs, the figures thrown up points to non-standardisation from both the manufacturers.
“Between 1989 and 2000, the ECIL EVMs capacity was 64 candidates and voter capacity 3,902. It was modified in 2014-15 to accept 384 candidates but only for 2,000 voters. In 2014-15, its EVM’s capacity was for 60 candidates and 8,000 voters. But the capacity of VVPAT EVMs was a mere 1,500 voters,” said Roy.
BEL said in its reply that, till 2005, its EVMs had a capacity of 3,824 voters which was later reduced to 2,000 from 2006. At present, their EVMs have capacity for only 16 candidates. “There is absolutely no logic or standardisation applied. Who authorised these design changes,” Roy asked.
Roy has filed a writ petition in the Bombay High Court, through Pawar & Company, seeking directions to all parties to provide all records/documents pertaining to EVMs, setting up of a suitable probe panel to ban use of EVMs till the logical outcome of the probe.
(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at q.najmi@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Gandhinagar : A marked increase of the None Of The Above (NOTA) voters in the Gujarat assembly elections played a significant role in deciding the result as many victories of the ruling BJP, which ended up with 99 seats in the 182-member assembly, were with thin margins, exceeded by these votes.
Out of the total 1,50,19,245 votes cast in the 2017 assembly elections, almost 1.8 percent, that is 5,51,414 votes, were NOTA. In many of the seats, the Congress candidates were defeated with very narrow margins, even less then this third major vote getter, NOTA.
Ahmedabad’s Dholka constituency was won by BJP Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama with a thin margin of 327 votes over the votes of Congress’ Ashwin Rathod. While the third-highest vote getter was Independent Shaktisinh Sisodiya with 4,222 votes, there were 2,347 votes for NOTA.
In Khambhatt constituency, BJP’s Mahesh Rawal got 71,459 votes against Congress’ Khushmanbhai Patel with 69,141 – a victory margin of 2,318 votes. The third highest votes went to NOTA – 2,731 votes.
In Visnagar, BJP’s Rushikesh Patel won by 2,869 votes over Congress’ Mahesh Patel, while the NOTA votes amounted to 2,992.
In Fatehpura constituency, BJP’s Rameshbhai Katara won by 2,711 votes over Congress’ Raghubhai Machhar, while the third highest votes went to NOTA – 4,573 votes far more than the Nationalist Congress Party candidate’s 2,747 votes.
In Matar, BJP’s Kesharisinh Solanki won with a margin of 2,406 votes over Sanjaybhai Patel of Congress, where the third highest was NOTA with 4,090 votes, far more than the next independent candidate with 1,936 votes.
In Himmatnagar constituency, BJP’s Rajendrasinh Chavda beat Congress candidate Kamleshkumar Patel by 1,712 votes, while NOTA was third with 3,334 votes.
In Porbandar, sitting BJP member and Cabinet Minister Babubhai Bokhiria defeated senior Congressman Arjun Modhwadia with a thin margin of 1,855 votes. While the Bahujan Samaj Party candidate for 4,337 votes, NOTA votes totalled 3,433, just enough for Modhwadia to get the coveted seat.
The Umreth constituency was grabbed by BJP candidate Govind Parmar over Congress’ Kapilaben Chavda with thin margin of 1,883 votes, where NOTA was third with 3,710 over the fourth-placed candidate, an independent who got 1,286 votes.
The Rajkot rural seat was secured by BJP’s Lakhabhai Sagathiya with narrow margin of 2,179 votes over Vashrambhai Sagathiya from the Congress. Although the third-highest vote getter was BSP candidate with 3,323 votes, NOTA grabbed 2,559.
However in constituencies like Sanand, Gariadhar, Deesa, Sayajiganj (Vadodara), Chanasma, Mahuva (Surat), Vijapur, Gandhinagar (south), Kheralu, the BJP candidates’ victory was facilitated by Independent candidates whose votes, if going to the Congress, could have led to their candidates’ victory.
—IANS
