FRIDAY EIGHT APPLICATIONS RECEIVED FOR EVM VERIFICATION, SAYS POLL PANEL 21 The Election Commission said eight aggrieved candidates have sought verification of tampering or modification of microcontroller chips in EVMs JUNE, 2024 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard 30 DAYS WAR POWER GRID UNDER ATTACK IN UKRAINE Russia resumed its aerial pounding of Ukraine’s power grid and Kyiv’s forces again targeted Russian oil facilities with cross-border drone strikes PAGE 9 IS THE TIME FROM ANNOUNCEMENT OF RESULTS WITHIN WHICH SUCH PLEAS MUST BE FILED VERIFICATION SOUGHT FOR 92 POLLING STATIONS A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS NEW DELHI J8.00 The BJP’s Ahmednagar candidate Sujay Vikhe-Patil, who lost to Nilesh Lanke of the NCP (Sharad Pawar), sought verification of EVMs from 40 polling stations. A YSRCP nominee and a Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) candidate in Tamil Nadu are also among those who have sought verification. In all, verification is sought for 92 polling stations across six states PAGES 12 KEJRIWAL GETS BAIL, TO WALK OUT OF JAIL Institutional failure of NTA: Govt Panel to scrutinise NTA UGC-NET paper leaked on the dark net Pradhan urges Oppn to have faith in system Says isolated incidents shouldn’t affect lakhs of NEET aspirants ED likely to move HC against bail order today E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ New Delhi CBI files case in UGC-NET paper leak 17 in which it named the CM and also AAP as accused. The cognisance of this prosecution complaint is yet to be taken. The Supreme Court had reserved its order on the legality of Kejriwal’s arrest. The ED arrested 55-year-old Kejriwal, also the national convenor of AAP, from his residence on March 21. He was released on interim bail for 21 days for campaigning in the Lok Sabha elections. Kejriwal is expected to come out of jail by Friday evening after completing the formalities. The regular bail to the CM will give AAP and its allies a stick to beat the NDA government as, according to Section 45 of the PMLA, bail can be granted only if the judge is prima facie satisfied that the accused has not committed the offence and that he may not commit any offence while on bail. The AAP said that the court decision was the victory of truth, adding that it is a “tight slap” in the face of the BJP Cel. ebrations erupted outside the CM’s residence and the party headquarters as crackers were burst by AAP workers. P4 UNDER fire over alleged irregularities in the NEET-UG and the UGC-NET, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday admitted that consecutive paper leak cases affecting the lives of at least 35 lakh students represent an institutional failure of the National Testing Agency (NTA). He announced the formation of a high-level panel to scrutinise the functioning of the NTA, which conducted those exams. The panel will comprise eminent people, sociologists and education experts who will examine the NTA’s structure, functioning, exam processes, transparency and data management, Pradhan said. Pradhan’s announcement came a day after the NTA cancelled the UGC-NET after conformation the question paper was leaked on the dark net. The matter is now under investigation by the CBI. Addressing concerns about the NEET-UG, Pradhan said isolated instances of malpractice should not unfairly impact lakhs of students who legitimately passed the exam. He urged the Opposition not to politicise the matter and assured The CBI on Thursday registered a case against unknown persons under various sections of the IPC on the basis of a complaint from the Secretary, Department of Education. “The complaint said UGC recieved inputs that the integrity of UGC-NET may have been compromised,” a senior CBI official said SUCHITRA MOHANTY & U J W A L J A L A L I @ New Delhi IN a major relief to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, a city court granted him bail in a money laundering case stemming from the excise policy scam. The vacation judge of the Rouse Avenue Court Niyay Bindu passed the order after hearing the Enforcement Directorate and Kejriwal. The CM was given bail after furnishing a bail bond of `1 lakh. The judge also declined the ED’s prayer to keep in abeyance the bail order for 48 hours to allow it to avail of legal remedies such as moving a superior court. The court imposed certain conditions before granting him the relief, including that he will not try to hamper the investigation or influence the witnesses. Official sources told this newspaper that the probe agency will in all likelihood approach the High Court on Friday challenging the bail order. , The probe agency filed a supplementary chargesheet in the money laundering case on May PM will struggle to run govt: Rahul K A V I TA B A J E L I - D AT T @ New Delhi Congress leader Rahul Gandhi launched a sharp attack on the prime minister saying he is silent on NEET because he is “crippled” and is only worried about the Lok Sabha Speaker’s election. Rahul claimed the PM has psychologically collapsed and will struggle to run a government like this | P7 THE heatwave sweeping large swathes of the country killed at least 110 people in the past oneand-a-half months and left around 40,000 people grappling with the effects of suspected heat stroke, health ministry sources said on Thursday The . figures emerged from the data received from states between March 1 and June 18. Of this, six deaths were recorded on June 18 alone, officials said. SC STAYS PROCEEDINGS ON NEET-UG IN HCs, ISSUES NOTICES TO NTA, GOVT THE Supreme Court on Thursday stayed all proceedings before various high courts on the conduct of the NEET-UG exam and issued notices to the National Testing Agency (NTA) and the Centre on a fresh bunch of pleas against irregularities in the examination. A two-judge vacation bench of justices Vikram Nath and S V N Bhatti was hearing the NTA’s request to transfer all cases filed in various high courts on the matter to itself. The bench tagged it along with other pending pleas for hearing on July 8. The court reiterated its refusal to stay the counselling. More than 35 petitions have been filed in the top court, including a fresh petition by a group of 20 students, seeking the scrapping of the NEET-UG 2024 and an SCmonitored probe by the CBI or any other independent agency into the alleged irregularities. “ this has been argued from All day one and they (some petitioners) have been wanting stay of counselling. We have denied that. Ultimately if all of you suc, ceed, everything will go,” the bench told the petitioners, one of whom sought deferment of the counselling till July 8. strict actions against any the guilty including NTA officials. , “Let us have faith in our systems; no irregularities or malpractices will be tolerated by the government,” he said. On the cancellation of UGCNET for junior research fel- lows, assistant professors, and PhD scholars, Pradhan said that the exam paper had been leaked on Telegram. He said that the government was committed to maintaining the integrity of the exam process and sought trust in the system. Pradhan said though an anticheating bill had been approved by Parliament earlier this year, the law ministry is refining the associated regulations. “At present, we lack effective measures to confront such challenges,” he said. P7 S U C H I T R A K A LYA N M O H A N T Y @ New Delhi Heatwave hits over 40,000, kills 110 since March: Officials 26 DEATHS IN 24 HRS IN CITY | P3 They added that the numbers could go up as they were assessing data on heat-related incidents submitted by states. They added that Uttar Pradesh is the worst affected, followed by Bihar, Rajasthan, and Odisha. In a review meeting held on Wednesday Health Minister J P , Nadda had directed states and UTs to submit data from all health facilities daily and flag suspected heat-related deaths. The direction came in the absence of official data on cases and deaths due to heatstroke. Nadda said he has issued directions to all hospitals to treat heatstroke cases on priority .
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