0815 HRS.

4th December,2013

THE HEADLINES:

•  Polling begins in Delhi for the 70 member Assembly.
• Prime Minister says, government committed to the formation of Telangana. Appeals to all political parties for smooth functioning of Winter session of Parliament beginning tomorrow.
• Empowered Group of Ministers, approves merger and acquisition guidelines for telecom sector
• A new surrender and rehabilitation policy for Maoists announced by Bihar Government.
• And OPEC Members meet in Vienna today to decide on their Oil output for next year.

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Polling begins for the 70 member Delhi Assembly. It will continue till 5 p.m. An electorate of nearly 1.2 crore including over 4 lakh first time voters, are eligible to exercise their franchise. The Election Commission has made all arrangements to conduct a free, fair and peaceful election in the national capital. 11,763 polling booths have been set up, out of which 630 are critical and hyper critical. For the first time, the None of the Above, NOTA option will be available for voters in the EVMs who do not find any of candidates suitable. The NOTA option will be printed in pink on EVMs. The Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi, Vijay Dev has appealed to voters to come out in large numbers to cast their votes and reminded them of the theme slogan "Dil Me Hai Dilli, Vote Karenge".

We now go over to our correspondent Sant Bahadur reporting from the New Delhi Constituency where Chief Minister Shiela Dixit is facing a three cornered contest from the BJP and the Aam Admi party.

Also in Delhi, our correspondent Anand is in the Krishna Nagar constituency in East Delhi where the BJP Chief Ministerial candidate Dr. Harsh Vardhan is contesting.

Counting of votes will be taken up in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh on Sunday and for the Mizoram Assembly on Monday.

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In Tamil Nadu, polling for the byelection in the Yercaud Assembly constituency is being held today. It will be a direct contest between ruling AIADMK’s Saroja and DMK’s Maran. Nine independents are also in the fray. NOTA option is being given for the first time in Tamil Nadu elections.

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The Election Commission has ordered re-polling in three more Assembly polling booths in Madhya Pradesh. Repolling will take place in Kalibavdi polling booth of Manawar segment, booth number 61 of Bhopal South-West and booth number 93 of Bhopal Madhya segment tomorrow.

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The Prime Minister has said the government is committed to the formation of Telangana. He told this to the all party meeting convened by the Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar in New Delhi yesterday.

"Our government is committed to the formation of Telangana and it will be our efforts to make full use of the due process of law to ensure that Telangana does come about."

Dr. Manmohan Singh appealed to all political parties for the smooth functioning of the winter session of Parliament beginning tomorrow. He appealed to all parties to try to make optimal use of the brief session and said the government will ensure its smooth functioning. Dr. Singh sought cooperation of the parties to run both the Houses of Parliament smoothly and said financial business will get priority.

"On behalf of the government, we will do everything in our power to ensure that both the Houses run smoothly and in this matter, we seek the cooperation of all segments of the two Houses."

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath has said all parties have agreed on tabling the Telangana Bill in Parliament. He said, the government will talk to Rajya Sabha leaders after Lok Sabha leaders had suggested extending the Winter Session of Parliament in the meeting.

The Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj asked the government to introduce the Telangana Bill in this session of Parliament.

"Telangana Bill must be brought in this session of Parliament. We will request the Parliamentary Affairs Minister to bring the amended Lokpal Bill in the Lok Sabha after its passage by the Rajya Sabha because this will become an act only after it is passed by the Lok Sabha again."

Mrs. Swaraj said, there was unanimity in the meeting for extending the Parliament Session which concludes on the 20th of this month.

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The meeting of the Group of Ministers, GoM, set up to look into the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh will continue today as it remained inconclusive yesterday. The GoM headed by the Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde met in New Delhi last evening to finalize the Cabinet note. Union Ministers P Chidambaram, A K Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jairam Ramesh and V Narayansamy attended the meeting. Official sources said the Ministerial Panel will meet today again to take a final call on the Cabinet note. Some Union ministers from Andhra Pradesh were also invited for the meeting.

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The Empowered Group of Ministers, EGoM headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, approved the much-awaited guidelines on the telecom merger and acquisition. The quantum of 2G spectrum to be auctioned in January 2014 was also decided by the EGoM. Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said after the meeting that merger and acquisition guidelines have been finalised and the quantum of spectrum that will be put up for auction in the 2G band has also been finalised.

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The Bihar government has approved a new surrender and rehabilitation policy for Maoists announcing that 2.5 lakh rupees would be given to top leaders, who renounced arms. The move comes after seven policemen were killed in a land mine blast by the rebels in Aurangabad district of the state yesterday.

The policy was approved in a Cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. The Principal Secretary for the Cabinet Coordination Committee, Brajesh Mehrotra told reporters in Patna that 2.5 lakh rupees would be given for state, regional, central committees and to polit bureau members of Maoists who surrender under the new policy.

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The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC meets in Vienna today to decide on its oil output for the next year. OPEC supplies nearly 35 percent of world's oil and is expected to maintain its output ceiling of 30 million barrels per day. More from our West Asia Correspondent.

 "The OPEC meeting comes in the backdrop of a modest relief in sanctions for Iran, global slowdown in crude oil demand and unrest in Libya. The crude demand has slowed down with open supply lanes, boom in the gas output and Shale gas and oil discoveries. Libya's output has plunged to around 250,000 barrels per day from 1.5 million due to the fighting between radical Islamists and the army. Fresh from the nuclear deal, Iran will be looking at boosting its oil output and the exports. However, OPEC’s largest producer and exporter, Saudi Arabia has maintained that the current output and the prices around $100 per barrel is ok for the producers without too much burden on the consumers. Atul K Tiwary, AIR News, Dubai."

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In Himachal Pradesh, people living in remote and far flung areas of Shimla, Sirmour and Kullu districts are celebrating the belated festival of lights, named Bhudhi Diwali. It falls just a month after Diwali festival. More from our correspondent:

"Buddhi Diwali is celebrated in Ani and Nirmand areas of Kullu district, Shillai, Sangrah and Rajgarh of Sirmaur and Chopal of Shimla district. People clean their houses, purchase utensils, and clothes and cook special dishes. They please their deities and perform traditional Puja with singing of folk songs. The reason behind this festival is that the news regarding return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya reached late in these areas and since then people used to celebrate this belated Diwali. Shishu Sharma Shantal, AIR News, Shimla."

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Refusing to budge from its tough stand on food security issues, India has pressed for a fair and balanced outcome of the WTO ministerial meeting in Bali. The WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo, however warned that it was now or never as formal negotiations started to reach a consensus on issues such as food subsidies and trade facilitation.

Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said the outcome of the four-day Ninth Ministerial Conference of the WTO is a collective responsibility and a fair and balanced result would be possible only if the genuine concerns of developing countries, including India, are satisfactorily addressed.

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NEWSPAPER HEADLINES

• With Delhi voting for a new Assembly today, most news papers lead with related stories. "Beat that, Delhi" says the Hindustan Times. The paper writes that with the four states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Mizoram having clocked record voter turnout, its now the capital's turn to walk the talk. "Sheila's toughest test today" opines the Indian Express adding "BJP hopeful, Congress has fingers crossed, all eyes on debutant AAP".
• "Navy Chief fears rerun of 26/11", says the Mail Today, writing that the Naval Chief Admiral DK Joshi has said that merchant vessels with armed guards on board have been passing too close to the Indian coast. Floating armories, he said were of very serious concern causing security implications for us.
• The Times of India reports that the law graduate whose sexual harassment accusation against Justice AK Ganguly was inquired into by a 3 judge committee told the panel that he made advances towards her despite her clear disapproval and said she had evidence to back up her charge.
• "Supreme Court rejects Sajjan's plea to quash murder Charge" reports the Tribune, referring to Congress leader Sajjan Kumar's plea for quashing the murder charge framed against him by the trial court in a case relating to the 1984 riots in Delhi's Sultanpuri area.
• "US wants exclusive meeting with India at WTO", says the Hindu. The paper writes that all eyes are on the India-US meeting as a package depends largely on whether the two can agree on a common middle ground on the outstanding issues.