From The Newsroom: Iconic singer S P Balasubrahmanyam passes away; Election Commission announces Bihar Assembly election schedule

In your evening news brief, From the Newsroom, S P Balasubrahmanyam breathed his last at 1.04 pm after suffering a cardio-respiratory arrest in the morning, MGM Healthcare announced in a statement; Four people were injured, two seriously, in a knife attack in Paris Friday outside the former offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo; The Election Commission announced the schedule of the assembly polls in Bihar.

Here are the top news of today, Thursday: September 25, 2020:

Legendary playback singer S P Balasubrahmanyam, whose magical and deep rich voice gave life to thousands of songs that mesmerised millions of music lovers transcending borders and languages, passed away on Friday after losing a 52-day long battle against the novel coronavirus.

Sripathi Panditaradhyula Balasubrahmanyam (74), who is survived by his wife Savitri, son S P B Charan, and daughter Pallavi, got himself admitted to MGM Healthcare here on August 5 after he tested positive for Covid-19.

He breathed his last at 1.04 pm after suffering a cardio-respiratory arrest in the morning, MGM Healthcare announced in a statement.

Four people were injured, two seriously, in a knife attack in Paris Friday outside the former offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, said the Prime Minister.

Two of the victims were in a critical condition, the Paris police department said, adding two suspects were on the run.

Police later said one suspect had been detained after the attack, which occurred as the trial was underway for the alleged accomplices of the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack.

The Election Commission announced the schedule of the assembly polls in Bihar on Friday. With me is DH correspondent Anirban Bhaumik with details on the announcement.

The polling will be conducted in three phases on October 28, November 3 and November 7. The votes will be counted on November 10.

The commission held indirect polls to fill vacancies in the Rajya Sabha and the legislative councils in the states over the past few months, but the general elections to the Bihar Legislative Assembly will be the first direct one to take place after the Covid-19 pandemic swept the country.

Bihar currently has 13,015 active cases of the SARS-CoV-2 infection registered, while 160178 people have recovered after being infected by the virus. The state recorded 878 deaths due to the Covid-19 so far.

The EC on August 21 issued broad guidelines for holding polls at the time of pandemic.

It, however, left it to the Chief Electoral Officers in the poll-bound states to frame specific plans for holding elections amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic, based on the broad guidelines issued by it.

The EC of late brought down the maximum number of electors to be facilitated at a polling station from 1500 to 1000 to ensure implementation of social distancing norms in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of polling stations in Bihar thus jumped by 40 per cent, from 65,000 to 100,000.

The EC’s guidelines for conducting polls during Covid-19 require all voters to come with masks on their faces. If anyone forgets to do so, they will be provided masks while waiting in the queues before entering polling booths – maintaining six feet distance from each other. They will also get gloves to put on before pressing the buttons on the Electronic Voting Machines. Apart from infrared thermometers for checking the body temperatures of the voters, the polling stations will also have sanitizers, soap and water and all poll officials too will be issued masks, face-shields and gloves to put on. The polling booths will be sanitized, preferably a day before the date of voting. If a voter running high body temperature turns up at a polling station, she or he will be sent back with a token and asked to come again at the last hour to cast votes.

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