Thiruvananthapuram, July 8 (IANS) Days after CPI’s Kerala state Secretary Binoy Viswam went hammer and tongs at the conduct of the SFI – the CPI-M’s student wing, a CPI-M worker made a threatening post against him on social media.

Ranjish T.P. Kallachi, in his social media post which surfaced on Monday, asked Viswam “to behave” and not to take on the SFI.

“It’s best that you stop attacking the SFI, if not, it will not be the SFI which will reciprocate. You should not forget that you became a minister and a legislator in the past because of the hard work of the CPI-M cadres. So stop taking cudgels with SFI,” he wrote.

After the new academic year began last month, reports surfaced from several places of the SFI allegedly unleashing terror on campuses.

Viswan was the first Left leader from the ruling CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front to have come down heavily on the way the SFI is behaving.

He said the present generation SFI has deviated from the Left principles and if they do not mend their ways, the SFI will turn into a liability for the Left.

The CPI and Viswam in particular have not been happy with the conduct of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and their attacks peaked after the debacle the Left suffered in the Lok Sabha polls.

What has left the CPI-M fuming is the invite that came from the Congress-led UDF telling the CPI it’s time that it dumped the CPI-M and got back to the Congress-led political front which they were part of in the 1960s and 1970s.

–IANS

sg/bg

Bengaluru, July 8 (IANS) Bengaluru Police launched a hunt for a youth who was indulged in the obscene act of exposing his private part to college girls in broad daylight.

Police said that they received a complaint from college girls along with evidence. The incident was reported on the busy VV Puram Road in Bengaluru.

“This stretch of road is used by a large number of female students studying in reputed colleges in the vicinity,” the police said.

According to the complaint, the miscreant arrived on a bike with his face covered. He then parked his vehicle on a public road and, in full public view, while sitting on his scooter, opened the zip of his pants and exposed himself in front of the college girls.

When the girls raised an alarm, the miscreant quickly vanished from the spot. The girls, who have experienced this harassment repeatedly, made a video of the accused and lodged a complaint with the VV Puram police in Bengaluru.

The police have registered the case and have started to gather information about the accused. They have also obtained the registration number of the two-wheeler.

Further investigation into the case is underway.

–IANS

mka/dan

Mumbai, July 8 (IANS) A team of the Election Commission of India on Monday reviewed the preparations for the upcoming Maharashtra Assembly elections with the state Chief Electoral Officer S. Chockalingam, the Municipal Commissioners of Mumbai, Thane and Palghar, Commissioners of Police, and District Collectors.

The Assembly elections are likely to be held in September-October this year.

According to a state government release, the presentation was made to the visiting ECI team on the work done by the District Collectors and District Election Officers during the Lok Sabha elections.

The ECI team instructed the state and district officials regarding the work to be done for the ensuing Assembly elections. It asked the District Collectors to set up polling stations in high-rise buildings and group cooperative housing societies with more than 200 homes in cities in a bid to increase the voting turnout.

The other instructions include undertaking a drive to update the voters list and a special short revision programme of the voters list to reduce a few names and include new voter names, setting up new polling stations, and the printing and distribution of voter cards.

The ECI team gave information with regard to the required manpower, EVMs, and VVPATs for the upcoming elections.

–IANS

sj/vd

Mumbai, July 8 (IANS) In a major relief, the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday allowed the Sharad Pawar-led NCP SP to accept donations under section 29 B of the Representation of People Act.

ECI gave its ruling after hearing on NCP SP’s plea.

NCP SP Working President Supriya Sule welcomed the ECI’s order saying that the party is now allowed to accept donations under Section 29 B of the Representation of People Act.

“The people blessed us by seeing the manner in which Sharad Pawar’s party was taken away. Assembly elections will be held in the state soon. For this, the party had requested the ECI to register NCP SP as a separate political party under the Representation of the People Act, 1951 to raise funds. The Election Commission had a hearing on this today. After the hearing the ECI has allowed the NCP SP to accept donations under Section 29B,” she added.

“After having considered your letters, the ECI hereby authorises, on an interim basis, Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar to accept any amount of contribution voluntarily offered to it by any person or company other than a government company,” said the ECI in its order.

Sule said that ECI has assured to look into its plea to not to give a trumpet symbol to anyone where the symbol of a trumpeter is there.

Her plea was important as NCP-SP hit severely in Dindori and Satara in particular where the candidates with a trumpet contested the election against party nominees with a symbol of a trumpeter.

–IANS

sj/dan

Ranchi/New Delhi, July 8 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has approached the Supreme Court, challenging the Jharkhand High Court’s decision to grant bail to JMM leader Hemant Soren, who was sworn in again as Jharkhand Chief Minister, in a money laundering case related to a land scam.

The ED has filed a petition in the apex court, seeking that Soren’s bail be cancelled. The High Court had granted Soren regular bail on June 28 with certain conditions.

The ED’s move comes as a significant development, as Soren had taken oath as CM for the third time on July 4, just a week after his release from jail. His government won the trust vote in the Assembly on Monday.

Soren was arrested by the ED on January 31 and spent five months in jail before being released on bail.

–IANS

snc/vd