‘Sandwiched’ Sikkim is suffering, says CM
Modi and Xi could cross paths at a meeting of Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) on the sidelines of the two-day G-20 Summit, Indian officials said.
The two leaders had a positive meeting last month on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Summit in Astana, they added.
Over the weekend, Chinese deputy foreign minister Li Baodong had told reporters that Modi and Xi were expected to meet as part of the informal talks among Brics leaders.
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“The people of Sikkim did not merge the state with India to become sandwiched between China and West Bengal,” local newspapers on Thursday quoted Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling as saying amid growing turmoil in the state’s neighbourhood.
Sikkim, which became India’s 22nd state following its merger in 1975, shares its borders with China in the north and West Bengal in the south. India and China are embroiled in a tense border standoff at the tri-junction with Bhutan, while renewed protests for the creation of a separate Gorkhaland have triggered disquiet in north Bengal.
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The Supreme Court on Thursday asked a reluctant Election Commission to try using electronic voting machines (EVMs) with paper trails in the Gujarat assembly elections, due in December.
The top court asked the poll body to respond within 4 weeks. “...It appears, you do not want to use EVMs with VVPAT system in Gujarat. Just do it, if you can,” a bench of Chief Justice JS Kehar and Justice YV Chandrachud said as the EC expressed reluctance over a December rollout.
Amid a debate over suspected vulnerability of EVMs to tampering, several parties, such as the Congress, have demanded mandatory use of printed paper slips — called Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) — in all elections. The EC maintains that EVMs cannot be manipulated.
The SC order came on a petition seeking its intervention for implementing a 2013 judgment where it said that ‘paper trail’ is an indispensable requirement of free and fair elections.
Though the poll panel has been experimenting with VVPAT, the EC opposed its use for the Gujarat elections, saying the machines have to be tested to see if there was a mismatch between the EVM and paper trail output.
The government, in its affidavit to the court, has said that in the past EC has used EVMs with VVPAT in 143 assembly and eight parliamentary constituencies and there was no report of mi match in EVM-VVPAT output.
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