EC cancels Anantnag poll: ground situation there scary

THE ELECTION Commission has cancelled the Anantnag Lok Sabha bypoll, which was scheduled for May 25, in view of the unconducive and “scary” conditions prevailing in south Kashmir.

The 10-page order, issued late Monday night, came after the Home Ministry informed the EC that it could spare only 30,000 central paramilitary personnel for the bypoll, as against 74,000 personnel sought by the Commission.

The EC’S decision to cancel the bypoll was based on the state government’s assessment of the ground situation in south Kashmir. According to the report of the J&K Chief Secretary sent to the EC on April 20, the order said, polls in Anantnag might not only witness large-scale violence but also an abysmal turnout.

“The reports received from the state administration of Jammu and Kashmir, including the reports of the Chief Electoral INVESTIGATIONS HAVE begun against49individualsandentities bytheenforcementdirectoratein the Panama Papers case, the Governmenthastolda Parliamentary panel.

In a three-page note, the Central Board of Direct Taxes has told the Public Accounts Committee that the ED investigation comes after a referral from the Reserve Bank of India that these entities “may have contravened the provisions of FEMA, 1999.”

The CBDT response comes a month after two BJP members, Nishikant Dubey and Anurag Thakur, had asked Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia to disclose action taken on Panama and HSBC cases.

The government has, however, not revealed the names under investigation.

The CBDT has said that as on February 15, 266 requests have been sent to 18 foreign jurisdictions in the Panama Papers case. These are destinations which house offshore entities owned by Indians named in the Panama Papers and revealed by The Indian Express in April last year as part of an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung.