Hindustan Times News | 9th March 2022 | 6 PM

HT Daily News Wrap

An air alert was sounded in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, Samajwadi Party tweeted a video to back the claims of "manipulation of voting machines" ahead of the election results in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar cabinet has approved changes to the state’s liquor prohibition law and other top news in this bulletin.
An air alert was sounded on Wednesday in and around Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and residents were urged to reach shelters on an urgent basis. Taking to social media platform Telegram, regional administration head Oleksiy Kuleba said there was a threat of a missile attack. “Kyiv region – air alert. Threat of a missile attack. Everyone immediately to shelters,” he wrote. The development came amid reports of Russia breaching agreements for safe evacuation of citizens for the third time. The city of Mariupol, which sits on the Azov Sea, has been surrounded by Russian soldiers for days and a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the encircled city of 4,30,000. Meanwhile, a humanitarian corridor out of the besieged city of Sumy would continue for the day, said regional governor Dmytro Zhyvytskyy said. He separately said the city’s residential area had been bombed overnight, with at least one bomb killing 22 civilians. Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party on Wednesday tweeted a video to back the claims of “manipulation of voting machines” ahead of the election results in Uttar Pradesh. In the video, an official is heard admitting a protocol lapse. “There was a lapse in the protocol in the movement of electronic voting machines. But I can assure you that taking away voting machines is impossible. There is a three-level security. There is only one entry point (where machines are kept) where CCTV cameras have been put. If the representatives of political parties want, they too can maintain vigil,” Varanasi commissioner Deepak Agarwal is heard saying in the video. Reports of “fiddling with the EVMs have come across from several parts,” the Samajwadi Party alleged on Twitter: “At whose behest is all this happening? Are the officials working under the pressure of the CMO. The Election commission should please clarify.” The allegations come just hours ahead of the counting in the critical state of Uttar Pradesh where the BJP is eyeing a second term and Akhilesh Yadav is the key challenger. Exit polls, however, have predicted a win in majority of seats for the BJP. On Tuesday, the Samajwadi Party chief accused the BJP of trying to “steal the votes”. “The Samajwadi Party is winning Ayodhya, that is why BJP is scared. Election Commission officials are tampering with the EVMs,” he said. Congressional leaders reached a bipartisan deal early Wednesday providing $13.6 billion to help Ukraine and European allies plus billions more to battle the pandemic as part of an overdue $1.5 trillion measure financing federal agencies for the rest of this year. Though a tiny portion of the massive bill, the money responding to the Russian blitzkrieg that’s devastated parts of Ukraine and prompted Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II ensured robust bipartisan support for the legislation. President Joe Biden had requested $10 billion for military, humanitarian and economic aid last week, and Democratic and Republican backing was so staunch that the figure grew to $12 billion Monday and $13.6 billion just a day later. “We’re going to support them against tyranny, oppression, violent acts of subjugation,” Biden said at the White House. Party leaders hoped to whip the 2,741-page measure through the House on Wednesday and the Senate by week’s end, though that chamber’s exact timing was unclear. Lawmakers were spurred by the urgency of helping Ukraine before Russia’s military might makes it too late. The Bihar Cabinet has approved changes to the state’s liquor prohibition law to make it less stringent for the first-time offenders and those caught carrying liquor in lesser quantities in smaller non-commercial vehicles, officials aware of the matter said. The modified sections will come into force after the state assembly approves them. The law was enforced in April 2016, banning the manufacturing, sale, and consumption of liquor. It provides for up to life imprisonment for serious offences and confiscation of houses, vehicles, and other properties from where liquor is seized. The Bihar government has drawn flak over the poor implementation of the prohibition law, which has been blamed for hooch tragedies that have claimed dozens of lives. Chief minister Nitish Kumar has faced criticism even from his alliance partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the hooch tragedies. Former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s party, which is a part of the government, has demanded a repeal of the law. The Supreme Court too has criticised the law saying it was impacting the functioning of the judiciary with 14-15 Patna high court judges only hearing the bail pleas relating to arrests made under it. On Tuesday, the state government told the Supreme Court the law would be modified. The court said the Bihar government brought the law without any legislative impact study. It said almost every bench in the Supreme Court is dealing with petitions arising out of the prohibition. As a first major step towards “Atmanirbharta” vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Defence Ministry has approached the Union Cabinet to green light the setting up of an independent nodal umbrella body to meet the wide-ranging testing and certification requirements of weapon systems developed and manufactured by the Indian private sector. While the independent testing and certification body was envisaged in the Union Budget this year, the move is a huge step towards decoupling the Indian private defence sector industry from the clutches of the humongous veto exercising military bureaucracy on the Raisina Hill. By painting the private players as mere profiteers, the Indian military industrial complex has been at the mercy of these mandarins who are fantastic in promise but very low on delivery. The new independent authority will ensure that private sector is not at the mercy of government’s laboratories and testing ranges for getting their equipment approved for both domestic sales and exports. With 68 per cent of defence capital procurement budget earmarked for domestic industry this financial year, it is time that the private defence sector took advantage of this move and started towards manufacturing high end products likes armed drones, autonomous combat vehicles, aircraft engines and submarines by setting up SPVs with western defence majors who are willing to set up shop in India. That’s all from us for now. We will be back with the morning news bulletin.