Vol. 35 No. 24 | SUNDAY | MARCH 10, 2024 | 29 Pages | `5 & for Pune `6 only MEMBER: AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION Reg. No. MCS/048/2021-23; RNI No. 46955/1988 M.p.c.s. office Mumbai-400001 Just when an announcement of the election dates was imminent, Election Commissioner Arun Goel has resigned, taking the entire political establishment by surprise. No reason has been purportedly assigned for the resignation on the eve of elections. Goel is believed to enjoy good health. With Goel’s resignation, the EC, which is a three-member body is , left with only Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar. There was already a vacancy in the EC after Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey retired last month. Now, the entire responsibility for the poll logistics, deployment of election machinery espe, cially EVMs, devolves on Rajiv Kumar.     President Droupadi Murmu has accepted the resignation, thus foreclosing all government options in the matter, and without a replacement in place. The resignation came even as Centre had initiated the committee-run process for the appoint- www.freepressjournal.in EDITIONS: MUMBAI*, Pune, Nashik, Konkan, Indore, Bhopal, E-paper One nation, one poll, one EC GAURAV VIVEK BHATNAGAR / NEW DELHI Quality at Value ment of a new election commissioner in place of Pandey who retired last month. The dates of the elections, tentatively ARUN GOEL scheduled for April-May are yet to be announced , even though teams have been visiting states to check the poll preparedness at the ground. The poll schedule could be impacted by the intimely resignation. On Friday the , Election Commission held a security meeting with the Union home ministry and the railways ofRAJIV KUMAR ficials for the deployment and movement of security personnel across the country Apart from the .  high-stakes Lok Sabha election, the commission will also have to conduct Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim, Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh. Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale said the development is very disconcerting because the post of the other election commissioner is already vacant. “Modi Govt has introduced a new law whereby Election Commissioners will now be appointed with a majority vote of PM Modi & 1 Minister chosen by him. Ergo, before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Modi will now appoint 2 out of the 3 Election Commissioners after today’s resignation. This is VERY VERY con- A few days before the announcement of poll dates and just when poll preparations are in full swing, EC Arun Goel tenders his resignation cerning," Saket posted on X. Following the President's assent to the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Elections Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, a significant change in the appointment process for new election commissioners is set to take effect. As per the Bill, a committee, chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be formed to oversee the appointment of election commissioners. The committee will include the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and a Union Cabinet minister nominated by the Prime Minister. A Punjab cadre officer, Goel had a 37-year stint in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) before he moved to the poll body He was . the Union heavy industries secretary when he opted for voluntary retirement on November 18, 2022. He was scheduled to retire on December 31 that year. A day later, on November 19, President Murmu appointed him EC and he took charge on November 21. CONTD. ON NATION Constables dump unconscious man in luggage bogie MEGHA KUCHIK / MUMBAI In a shocking display of utter callousness, two constables of the railway police dumped a man lying on the platform of Sewri station in the luggage compartment of a CSMTbound train. Later when the train reached Goregaon station, some commuters complained to the local railway police about the man. The local police then rushed the unconscious man to Shatabdi Hospital at Kandivali where the doctors declared him dead. The body had been lying overnight in the compartment.  The police were totally clueless as to how the body was dumped in the luggage compartment and by whom. They formed teams which closely scrutinised CCTV footage on Western Railway and the harbour line. The team examining the harbour line footage finally found out what exactly happened. The footage revealed that on February 15, the man Allauddin Mujahid boarded a CSMTbound train at Sewri Station at 2:13 pm from platform no. 2. The train arrived at Reay Road Railway Station at 2:22 pm, where he disembarked and sat on a bench. The footage showed that he was not feeling well. He collapsed on the bench and then fell on the platform.  At 3:35 pm, two constables and an unidentified individual brought him and placed him in the luggage compartment on a local train heading towards CSMT. According to the Police, on February 16, at 8:15 am, a local train arrived at platform no. 2 of Goregaon railway station from CSMT. On being alerted by commuters, the Goregaon railway police inspected the compartment and found the man in an unconscious state. They police rushed him to Shatabdi Hospital in Kandivali West, where the doctors declared him dead. An Aadhar Card found on his dress identified him as Allauddin Mujahid (47), residing in Sharma Master Chawl, Sewri Cross Road, Sewri. He was working as a salesman in a shop. The police informed his relatives, and after post-mortem, the body was handed over to them. The postmortem report indicated that he died due to a brain haemorrhage.The two constables were identified as Mahesh Andhale and Vijay Khandekar and booked  under IPC sections 304 (A) (causing death by negligence) and 334 (voluntarily causing hurt). The cops told their interrogators that they thought that the man was either intoxicated or high on drugs. But they had no answers when asked why they did not summon a doctor. They apparently dumped him in the luggage compartment so as to wash their hands of the incident.  An official admitted that  "The constables exhibited total lack of sensitivity and behaved in an irresponsible manner." HOLI GESTURE FOR WOMEN Yogi gifts 1.75 cr free gas cylinders BISWAJEET BANERJEE / LUCKNOW In a bid to make the festival of colors, Holi, especially memorable for underprivileged women and their families across the state, the Yogi government is set to distribute free gas cylinders. This initiative aims to directly benefit around 1.75 crore individuals. Notably , this follows a similar benevolent gesture during Diwali, where the Yogi government provided free cylinders to women. Under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, the Yogi government has decided to allocate two free cylinders per year. The first cylinder was distributed during Diwali, and the second will be provided during Holi. For the financial year 2023-24, a budget of Rs 2312 crore has been earmarked to provide two free cylinder refills to approximately 1.75 crore beneficiaries under the scheme in the state. In the initial phase of the scheme, cylinder refills were distributed to a total of 80.30 lakh beneficiaries from November 1, 2023, to February 15, 2024. In the subsequent phase, approximately 50.87 lakh beneficiaries received cylinder refills from January 1, 2024, till date. This brings the total number of cylinder refills distributed under the scheme to 131.17 lakh (over 1.31 crore). During the launch of the scheme on November 10, 2023, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expedited the process by simultaneously transferring subsidy amounts to the accounts of lakhs of Ujjwala beneficiaries. DGIPR 2023-24/9650