Sanjith Das & Giri
Port Blair, September 22: Telugu Desam Party supporters of Dairy Farm area today sat on a strike in front of Aberdeen Police Station and demanded justice against alleged misbehaviour of Bharthiya Janta Party.
As per allegation the supporters of BJP while celebrating the victory of BJP candidate C H Babu allegedly damaged a bike of TDP worker and allegedly have thrown colour on the wife of the losing candidate Mr Padmanathan of TDP.
According to TDP workers, when the Police was informed instead of picking up the workers of BJP, Police allegedly arrested eight TDP workers including Mr Padmanaban. A case has also been registered against TDP workers it is learnt.
When the last report poured in more than 500 people were sitting on Dharna infront of Aberdeen Police Station and were demanding justice.
Report of clashes between Congress and BJP workers are also pouring in from Shoal Bay 11. It has been learnt that police have arrested one person from Shoal Bay area.

Port Blair, Sept 21: All Political Parties and contesting candidates have been informed that all arrangements for counting of votes for Panchayat and Municipal Election has been completed and the exercise will commence at 8 am on Sept 22, 2015 at respective Counting Halls.
Accordingly, all the counting agents shall be allowed inside the counting premises from 7.30 am and all staff on counting duty will have to reported to the respective Returning Officers at 6.30 am. No mobile phones shall be allowed inside the counting premises. Accordingly all persons authorised to enter Counting Hall premises are requested not to bring mobile phones to counting hall.

Sarthak Kanjilal

Port Blair, Sept 21: Even as the local office for the Municipal and Panchayat elections claimed to have conducted the elections peacefully on Sunday, reports of resentment have surfaced from a couple of constituencies in the city. Independent Candidate contesting from Ward no. 23 of Municipal Council, Mr Sanjay Meshack has alleged irregularities in the conduct of polls in his constituency.
Speaking to Andaman Sheekha, Mr Meshack claimed that voters were puzzled on Sunday during voting due to discrepancy in the election symbol in the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM). “Voters cross-voted during the polls as the election symbol on the EVM lacked clarity. My election symbol was Torchlight without illumination. But the symbol displayed on the EVMs in Ward no. 23 carried the symbol of an illuminated Torchlight in total contrast of the actual symbol. Voters recorded their votes in favour of others due to the confusion,” Mr Meshack claimed.
He also said that the Director of Municipal and Panchayat election has been apprised of the irregularity. “Though the Director of Municipal and Panchayat Election admitted the fault, no official action has been initiated in the matter,” he informed.

Sheekha Bureau

Port Blair, Sept 20: The polling for the Municipal and Panchayat elections in Andaman and Nicobar Islands were held peacefully in these remote Indian Islands.

There was no report of any violence of major disturbance during elections.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which are experiencing heavy rain since last one week due to low pressure in Bay of Bengal, surprisingly witnessed clear sky today.

According to official figures the number of net voter in final Panchayat rolls -2015 is 1,54,000 out of which 80,275 are male and 73725 are female.

The minimum number of voters was 46 each are in both Hutbay-6 and Hutbay-8 constituencies while the maximum number of voters 649 are in Hope Town Panchayat.

According to official data, the number of Zila Parishad Member Constituencies are 35, Panchayat Samiti Member constituencies are 70, Pradhan Constituencies are 68 and the number of member constituencies is 658.

In Municipal rolls, the total number of voter is 1,13, 616 out of which 61,196 are male while 52,420 are female.

Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were used for Municipal Election while ballot papers were used for Panchayat Elections today.

At late evening there were reports of minor disturbance at Attam Pahar and Bhatu Basti area, details of which were not available with police.

Reports of peaceful elections are also pouring in from Diglipur, Mayabunder, Billyground, Rangat, Baratang and other Islands.

Port Blair, Sept 20: The overall voting percentage for Panchayats under South Andaman District, North & Middle Andaman District and Nicobar District have been 73, 74 and 73 percent respectively and 60 percent for Municipal Council.
The cent percent voting has been recorded at Polling Station No. 94 of Ganesh Nagar Panchayat under Diglipur Tehsil which is the highest for Panchayats. The voters of Polling Station No. 191 of Prafulla Nagar Panchayat under Mayabunder Tehsil boycotted the Elections due to their local demands although the Deputy Commissioner, North & Middle Andaman and Assistant Commissioner (Headquarter), North & Middle Andaman tried to persuade them for casting their vote and not missing this opportunity.
At the time of final counting of votes, the votes casted through Postal Ballots by Polling Personnel on Election Duty will also be added before arriving on final results.
Total 12294 numbers of SMS were received on SMS facility created for the facilitation of the Voters to get the details of their Polling Station along with Address by sending their EPIC number.
After commencement of the Poll, the Polled Materials have been collected at respective Tehsils under tight security arrangements.
The second round of training on counting and declaration of results shall be conducted on 21st September 2015 at 04:00 PM in Tagore Govt College Auditorium & DRBAIT Auditorium for PBMC & Panchayats respectively. All concerned are directed to attend the same without fail.
The Polling have been conducted very smoothly under the close supervision and monitoring of Shri. Anand Prakash, IAS, Chief Secretary, Shri. N K Sharma, IAS, Home Secretary who is also Secretary (Panchayat & Municipal Elections) and Shri. Vijay Kumar Bhiduri, IAS, Director (Panchayat & Municipal Elections)/ Deputy Commissioner, South Andaman. Secretary (Panchayat & Municipal Elections) and Director (Panchayat & Municipal Elections) also kept the UT Election Commissioner apprised of conduct of the Polling at every Two Hours.

Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, Sept 20: Lakhs of rupees have been spent for spreading awareness among the voters to exercise their franchise but due to clash of CTET exam and election dates, hundreds of youths and many of their parents could not cast their votes in today’s Panchayat and Municipal Elections.
Since Friday hundreds and hundreds of youths started reaching Port Blair from different remote Islands to appear in CTET exam on 20th September, which was also the date for Municipal and Panchayat Election.
For these youths it was impossible to go back to the respective Islands to cast their votes and hence they had to make a choice between vote and CTET exam. Obviously youths opted for CTET exam as the crucial exam is directly connected to their future.
Not only this, hundreds of parents, who reached Port Blair with their kids’ CTET exam also failed to cast their vote.
Since the declaration of election dates several political parties and media had pointed out that such clash of dates would reduce the polling percentage but no one paid any heed.
“I have two papers today and don’t even have time for lunch. How can I go for casting votes, although want to cast my vote,” said a candidate.
Adding to the pain many candidates, who are already government servant and wanted to appear in CTET exam could not come to Port Blair for CTET exam due to election duties.

Port Blair, September 18: Following a tip off, a team of PS Aberdeen raided hotel Sun Palace at Dairy Farm and found that a DMK leader is distributing liquor among party workers.
As today was dry day a case has been registered against the DMK leader.

Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, September 16: A 30 year old woman was allegedly killed by her husband in Chouldary 10 number village this morning.
According to reports, Mrs Sarmista was strangled to death by her husband Mr Thana Bahadur, aged 35 years at his home at around 10.00 am.
According to residents of the area, Thana Bahadur after killing his wife lighted incessant sticks and kept those near her dead body and went to the Humphrygunj Police Station and surrendered himself.
The reason behind the killing is still not known. The body was later sent to the Manglutan Hospital for the postmortem. A case has been registered against the accused.
According to villagers, the couple had a love marriage.