Voter turnout reduced 

Compared to the 2014 Lok Sabha election, voter turnout has dipped in all four Bengaluru constituencies, as per figures released by the Election Commission at 9 pm on Thursday.

Of the three urban constituencies, Bangalore South’s turnout was the highest, at 54.2 percent. However, this turnout was 1.55 percent lower than that in the 2014 election. Turnout was the lowest in Bangalore Central, at just 50.84 percent. This was 5.27 percent lower than that in 2014.

As usual, the voter turnout in Bangalore Rural was higher than that in the urban constituencies. The turnout here was 64.09 percent, but this too was lesser than that in the previous election by 2.36 percent.

The city had sported a bandh-like ambience on election day as most shops shut down, and public transport facilities and roads were less crowded.

Many voters complained that their names were missing or deleted from the electoral rolls. BJP leader R Ashok said there were reports that 50,000 to 60,000 names had been deleted in each constituency in Bengaluru.

Under the NERPAP (National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme), 5.05 lakh names had been removed from the voter rolls in Bengaluru. The goal was to remove fake and duplicate entries, and also to update details of voters who had shifted residence or died. However, genuine voters too got deleted from the rolls. Even celebrities such as Kris Gopalakrishnan were missing from the rolls!

The election day ended the intense campaigning of the preceding fortnight. There had been reports of personal attacks during campaign rallies and roadshows, apart from fake video and audio tapes released through social media. Income Tax officials had also raided the associates of Congress and Janata Dal (S) candidates. This had led to protests, including one led by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy outside the Income Tax office.

Source: The Hindu |Deccan Herald| Citizen Matters

HC upholds minimum wage hike in 34 industries

Minimum wages of employees in 34 types of private industries have increased, as the High Court of Karnataka upheld government notifications increasing wages in 2016 and 2017. The court has now directed employers to pay the revised wages within eight weeks, with an interest of six percent per annum from the date on which these wages were payable. The revised wages had been unpaid till now because of the court’s stay order on the government notifications.

However, the court gave partial relief to the industries, for example, by quashing directions to pay additional allowances like seniority allowance.

The verdict was given by Justice Krishna S Dixit, while partly allowing petitions filed by the Karnataka State Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA), the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and several private companies, questioning the notifications issued by the Labour Department under the Minimum Wages Act.

Source: The Hindu

BMRCL to acquire properties for Metro Outer Ring Road line

The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) has issued notifications to acquire land and properties to construct the Metro Phase II-A line along the Outer Ring Road (ORR). Namma Metro’s ORR line will stretch from Silk Board to KR Puram.

The BMRCL requires 39,300 sqm of land to build the 17-km metro line with 13 stations, at an estimated cost of Rs 4,200 crore. This stretch is very important, as the metro train to Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) will begin from here.

Sources said that the BMRCL has identified 89 properties to be acquired, of which 47 are private and many others belong to the BDA, BBMP and BWSSB. Last December, BMRCL had cancelled the tender to construct the line due to various reasons, including obstacles in acquiring land and raising funds.

Higher cut-offs for commerce and arts degree college admissions

Following the II PU results, students are gearing up for admissions. The cut-off score for degree college seats are expected to shoot up in the commerce and arts streams, but will remain the same for science stream. Some top colleges have stated that only students scoring above 90 percent can apply for the commerce stream.

Experts point out that the pass percentage of students from the science stream has dipped by 0.9 percent compared to 2018. This year’s pass percentage in science stream is 66.58 percent. But pass percentage has improved in commerce (66.39 percent) and arts (50.53 percent) streams compared to last year.

Source: The Hindu

[Compiled by Revathi Siva Kumar]