Daily Bulletin: Chhattisgarh's Naxal belt votes today in first phase; SC to hear CVC's report on CBI director Alok Verma; day's top stories

First phase of Chhattisgarh Assembly election today: State’s Naxal-belt votes Voting began in 10 out of 18 Assembly constituencies in the first phase of Chhattisgarh elections on Monday under a tight security blanket comprising over 1.25 lakh police and paramilitary personnel.  In the first phase, 190 candidates are in the fray and as per electoral rolls, there are 31,80,014 voters. Polling time in 10 constituencies — Mohla-Manpur, Antagarh, Bhanupratappur, Kanker, Keshkal, Kondagaon, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur and Konta — is from 7 am to 3 pm. On the eve of the polls, a sub-inspector of the Border Security Force (BSF) lost his life when Naxals detonated an improvised explosive device (IED) in Kanker district while a Maoist was gunned down in an encounter in Bijapur district. Naxal outfits have given calls for boycott of the election and executed over half-a-dozen attacks in the last 15 days, three of them major ones which left 13 people dead including a cameraman of national broadcaster Doordarshan who was covering the election campaign. BJP leader Ananth Kumar dies at 59 Senior BJP leader and Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar died at a private hospital in Bengaluru in the early hours of Monday, BJP spokesman told the media. He was suffering from cancer and had come back from the US in October after treatment at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre, New York. Fifty-nine-year-old Kumar is survived by wife and two daughters. He breathed his last around 4 am, party spokesman Prakash told PTI. Kumar’s wife Tejaswini and his two daughters were with him when he passed away, he said. Kumar was a BJP MP from south Bengaluru constituency. Supreme Court to hear CVC’s report on director Alok Verma today The Supreme Court on Monday is scheduled to hear the version of the Central Vigilance Commission, which was directed to complete within two weeks its preliminary inquiry against CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma, who has been divested of his duties and sent on leave by the Centre. The hearing assumes significance as Verma, who has a running feud with Special CBI Director Rakesh Asthana, has been appearing before the three-member CVC headed by K V Chowdary and is understood to have given point-wise refusal to all the allegations levelled against him by his deputy. Verma’s plea, which had been heard by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on previous occasions, is now listed for hearing on 12 November before a two-judge bench comprising the CJI and Justice SK Kaul. Narendra Modi in Varanasi today Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate two major national highways and an inland waterways project at his parliamentary constituency, Varanasi, on Monday. These include a Rs 254-crore 140-MLD (million litres per day) sewage treatment plant (STP), pumping stations at Chaukaghat (140 MLD), Phulwaraia (7.6 MLD) and Saraiya (3.7 MLD) worth Rs 34 crore, the official of the National Clean Ganga Mission (NMCG) said. The projects also include construction of a relieving trunk sewer, rising mains and interceptor sewers along Varuna and Assi for 28 km with a cost of Rs 156 crore. Narendra Modi, Amit Shah to address meetings in Chhattisgarh today Modi is set to address a public meeting at Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur at 11.30 am on Monday. BJP president Amit Shah will also be going to Chhattisgarh on Monday on a two-day trip to address a series of rallies in the state which goes to polls in two phases on 12 and 20 November. As per the programme scheduled, Shah will address a public meeting at Shivrinarayan, Janjagir Champa district at 1.15 pm, Patan, Durg district at 2.15 pm and Mahadev Vallabhacharya Premises Champaran, Raipur District at 2.30 pm on Monday. Janardhana Reddy arrested, sent to judicial remand in Ponzi scam case; bail plea hearing today Mining baron and former Karnataka minister G Janardhana Reddy was arrested in Bengaluru on Sunday after marathon questioning by police in connection with a multi-crore Ponzi scam case, a top police official said. Reddy, whose whereabouts were not known and remained incommunicado since Wednesday till he appeared at the Central Crime Branch (CCB) police office on Saturday, was arrested after the intense questioning ended Sunday morning, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Alok Kumar told reporters. Later, he was produced before the 6th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court which remanded him to judicial custody till 24 November.  Reddy, on Saturday, moved a city civil court seeking anticipatory bail. The hearing will take place on Monday. GST led to increase in growth, says Arun Jaitley The Goods and Services Tax (GST) implementation was a “monumental reform” which had disruptionist impact on growth only for two quarters, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, hitting out at “critics and cynics” who blame it for hurting the GDP expansion. The finance minister said after suffering for two quarters, growth increased to 7 percent, then to 7.7 percent and went up till 8.2 percent last quarter and specifically pointed out that this is much higher than the 5-6 percent expansion achieved between 2012-14. The GST, India’s biggest tax reform since independence which came into force on 1 July 2017, had “disruptionist” impact on economic growth only for two quarters, he said.