News Dabba for 18 March 2024: Five stories for a balanced news diet

Indie Journal brings you the daily updates that the internet is talking about through various news websites. Here's a glance through some of the National and International news updates, from SC's new order to SBI on electoral bonds, EC ordering removal of home secretaries of 6 states, to Vladimir Putin's victory in Russia.

Hindustan Times on EC ordering removal of Bengal DGP, home secretaries of 6 states

The Election Commission of India on Monday -- days after announcing the 2024 Lok Sabha elections schedule -- ordered the removal of top officials of several states, including the West Bengal director general of police and home secretaries of six states. Hindustan Times reports that Home secretaries in six states, namely Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, have also been directed to be removed. Additionally, secretaries of the general administrative departments in Mizoram and Himachal Pradesh are among those removed, the report adds. The ECI, under CEC Rajiv Kumar, also ordered the removal of Brihanmumbai municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, along with additional commissioners and deputy commissioners. Read the full report here.

SC directs SBI to disclose all details on electoral bonds to ECI by March 21, Indian Express

The Supreme Court’s Constitution bench hearing the electoral bonds matter on Monday asked the State Bank of India (SBI) to also disclose the unique alphanumeric code on the bonds to the Election Commission of India (ECI), Indian Express reports. The bench presided over by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud also asked the Chairman and Managing Director of SBI to file an affidavit on or before 5 pm on March 21 stating that the bank has disclosed all details of the bonds to the ECI. “Such details, the court has indicated ‘shall include the date of purchase of each electoral bond, the name of the purchaser of the bond and the denomination of the electoral bond purchased’,” the bench said, referring to a previous order, as per the report. Read the full report here.

Journalist who purchased Electoral Bonds points to possible discrepancy in released list, The Wire

Investigative journalist Poonam Agarwal, back in 2018 as a reporter with The Quint, was one of the of the first Indian scribes to buy an electoral bond for an article. The Wire report mentions that she had bought two electoral bonds worth Rs 1,000 each in April 2018. However, the list of purchasers revealed by the Election Commission of India under directives from the Supreme Court has her name as purchasing a bond dated October 20, 2020. The report says that unless there is a large coincidence under which an individual by the same name purchased a bond of the same value (the lowest possible denomination), this would suggest that there is an error in the released date. There is no way to confirm this, since the State Bank of India has not revealed the unique bond numbers. Read the full reporter here.

Israeli troops raid Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital, The Straits Times reports

Israeli troops raided the compound of Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital early on Monday in an operation that Palestinian health authorities said caused multiple casualties and set off a fierce fire in one of the buildings. The Straits Times reported the military saying that the soldiers were conducting a “precise operation” based on intelligence that the hospital was being used by senior Hamas leaders. Al-Shifa, the Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital before the war, is now one of the only healthcare facilities that is even partially operational in the north of the territory, and is also housing hundreds of displaced civilians. Read the full report here.

Al Jazeera: Russia’s Putin hails victory in election criticised as illegitimate

Al Jazeera reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin has cemented his grip on power in a landslide election victory that has been widely criticised as lacking democratic legitimacy. In a post-election news conference, Putin cast the outcome as a vindication of his decision to defy the West and invade Ukraine, the report adds. Shortly after the last polls closed on Sunday, early returns pointed to the conclusion everyone expected: that Putin would extend his nearly quarter-century rule for six more years. According to Russia’s Central Election Commission, he had some 87 percent of the vote with about 60 percent of precincts counted. Communist candidate Nikolay Kharitonov came second with just under 4 percent, the report says. Read the full report here.