Puducherry Assembly Elections | 54 candidates face criminal charges
The Hindu
28 have declared serious criminal cases pending against them
An analysis of the affidavits submitted by candidates in the 30 constituencies across the Union Territory of Puducherry for the April 6 Assembly election shows 17% of them face criminal charges. The analysis, done by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR)/The Puducherry Election Watch, found that 54 candidates (17%) of the 323 candidates had declared criminal cases pending against them and 28 (9%) declared serious criminal cases pending against them. In the 2016 Assembly election, of the 343 candidates analysed, 68 (20%) had declared criminal cases and 30 (9%) had declared serious criminal cases.A crowd comprising farmers, researchers, professors, students, and horticulture enthusiasts thronged the ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Hesaraghatta, Bengaluru, on Friday for the inaugural ceremony of the Triphal Diversity Show which showcased 300 mango, 100 jackfruit, and 100 banana genotypes in collaboration with ICAR-National Research Centre for Banana, Tiruchirappalli.
The State government on Friday constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), headed by Additional Director-General of Police, Manish Kharbikar of the Economic Offences division of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the alleged multi-crore scam in the government-run Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation.