The Evening Wrap: Nine injured in blast at Bengaluru's Rameshwaram Cafe

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said an improvised explosive device (IED) is suspected to be behind the low-intensity blast that occurred at The Rameshwaram Cafe in Brookefield in east Bengaluru on March 1, 2024, leaving nine people injured. Fire department officials said they received a call at 1.09 p.m. Initially suspected to be a cylinder blast, fire department officials have now dismissed this hypothesis. According to preliminary information, one person came to the café just after noon with a bag that he left behind. The person made a payment to the cashier, obtained a token, ate his breakfast and left behind a bag that reportedly contained the explosive. Police is going through the CCTV recording in the café and questioning the cashier to gather more information. DG&IGP Alok Mohan, Internal Security Division officials and NIA officials rushed to the spot in the afternoon, apart from Bengaluru City police commissioner B. Dayananda and forensic experts. Speaking to the media, Alok Mohan said there was no threat to anyone’s life. Of the nine injured, six were shifted to Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) in Whitefield for treatment and the other three to Brookefield Hospital. According to Dr Pradeep Kumar, Medical Director of Brookefield Hospital, two men and one woman were being treated there and all three were out of danger. While no serious injuries were sustained by the men, the woman has suffered 40% burns and will have to undergo plastic surgery. “We have two customers and a staffer of the cafe admitted with us. One of them, a woman of around 45 years of age, has suffered around 40% burn injuries, mostly on the right side of her body. She’s being treated in an ICU. She has suffered cut injuries on the right side of her body. She will need a plastic surgery. Her eardrum is also damaged due to the explosion sound,” he explained. Two other injured are being treated in a general ward and have suffered minor injuries. “One of them is suspected to have suffered splinter injuries. We are doing a CT scan to determine the material in the skin. May be glass or some other material,” he added. When asked what the injuries tell about the nature of the blast, Dr. Kumar said that it was probably a low intensity explosion as there were no “rip-off injuries” on any of the injured, including the woman. “She has suffered injuries mostly to her right side suggesting the blast occurred to her right. No serious injuries on her left side indicate it was a low-intensity explosion,” he said, adding that they had preserved the clothes the injured were wearing during the explosion. They will be handed over to forensic experts to check for any chemicals on the clothes. Meanwhile, of the six people (three men and three women) consulted at VIMS, one was treated in the Out Patient Department (OPD) and sent back whereas five others have been admitted, said Dr. Ravi Babu, Chief Administrative Officer, VIMS. “One woman has an eye injury and has been shifted to the Operation Theatre (OT). We suspect it to be a corneal injury. The others have sustained minor injuries including some particles on the back and ear injuries. They are in minor OT and are being observed,” Dr. Babu said. “It is very clear that the blast has not happened because of any cylinder or any other kitchen-related equipment as none of it was near the blast site. All our equipment is at the back of the restaurant. There is only a handwash area with a sink, dustbin and a stand to collect plates. Some people told us that someone came and kept a bag there and went and the blast happened after that. We have found a bag that exploded at the spot,” Divya Raghavendra, Managing Director and founder, The Rameshwaram Cafe, told The Hindu. “The doctors have told us that they (injured staffers and customers) are out of danger. The police are further investigating the matter and we are providing full support. We’ve already given them access to all the CCTV footage,” she added. Speaking to media persons near the restaurant, Shabarish, an eye witness said, “There was a loud sound a little after 1 p.m. which must have been audible up to a kilometre away. There was a lot of smoke around the restaurant. When I went and checked, a few customers and employees were injured and bleeding. We sent them to hospital in the ambulance.” Sachin Lamani, a security guard with The Rameshwaram Cafe at Brookfield told The Hindu that he was just outside the cafe when he heard a loud explosion at around 1:15 pm. As he rushed inside, he saw smoke and fire near the wash basin area, he said. The eatery is very popular among locals and usually bustling with people during lunch hour. Supreme Court rejects plea to ‘digitally monitor’ MPs, MLAs The Supreme Court on Friday disagreed with a petitioner’s view that Members of Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies should be “digitally monitored” to prevent instances of corruption and horse trading. Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said lawmakers were not “convicted felons” who needed watching 24X7 lest they may flee from justice. Surely, the petitioner did not want microchips on legislators to keep track of their every movement. “There is also something called ‘privacy’. They too have families,” the Chief Justice told petitioner S.N. Kundra. Kundra argued that ordinary citizens like him had elected these MPs and MLAs. There was a need for transparency about lawmakers. “After getting elected, they behave like our rulers. They made the choice to enter public life. Now, they cannot claim privacy. They are our salaried representatives,” he contended. The Chief Justice said Kundra should not paint all legislators with the same brush. “You cannot make the charge [of corruption and misuse of office] against all MPs and MLAs,” the top judge reasoned. But Kundra asked the court why these “salaried representatives” of the people should lord over the public, making laws for them. “The ultimate authority is the people. We should make laws, but instead our salaried servants are making laws for us,” he argued. The Chief Justice responded that the Parliament, and not individual citizens, enacted laws in a democracy. Chief Justice Chandrachud highlighted the need for debate in the legislature before making laws. The Chief Justice pointed out that while Kundra believed that legislators should be digitally monitored while a hundred million other Indians may not agree. “Laws are not made on the streets by individuals. Then people will ask ‘why do you need judges’. For example, many people would want to kill a pickpocket… That is not done in a democracy. That is why we have judges to decide disputes in an institutional way,” the Chief Justice observed. The court had initially warned the petitioner of imposing a hefty fine against “wasting judicial time”. At the end of the hearing, the court dismissed the petition and termed it a “misuse of process”, but did not impose a fine. Child slapping incident | Supreme Court to examine implementation of Right to Education in Uttar Pradesh on March 15 The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday informed the Supreme Court that child rights protection agencies like Childline, Muskan, and HAQ have been roped in to provide counselling to a seven-year-old Muslim child who was repeatedly slapped by his classmates on the orders of their teacher at a Muzaffarnagar private school. Appearing before a Bench headed by Justice A.S. Oka, Uttar Pradesh Additional Advocate General Garima Prasad informed that Childline would hold the counselling sessions with the help of Muskan. The counselling sessions would continue till April 24. The court has made it clear that the sessions should include the classmates of the boy. The State had faced flak from the Supreme Court in January for not taking steps to initiate counselling for the boy and his classmates. The court had squarely blamed the State government for its failure to provide a safe environment, recognised schools and qualified teachers for children in accordance with the Right to Education Act. The Act mandates quality, free, and compulsory education for children up to 14 years without any discrimination on the basis of caste, creed or gender. The court had flagged the slapping incident as a “very serious” and direct violation of Article 21A (the fundamental right of a child to free and compulsory education) of the Constitution, the Right to Education Act and even the Uttar Pradesh Rules which task the local authorities to ensure that children do not face discrimination in classrooms. The court said it would separately take up the larger issue of the implementation of the Right to Education Act in Uttar Pradesh on March 15. The Bench directed the State government to file a detailed affidavit on the measures so far taken in the implementation of the Act. In September last year, the court had criticised the State for a “watered-down” and delayed FIR against the school teacher, who was shown on video showering communal remarks on the child. The court had at the time raised questions about religious discrimination and quality of education in Uttar Pradesh. “The manner in which the incident has happened should shock the conscience of the State,” Justice Oka had observed. Justice Oka had said the FIR, registered after a “long delay” by the Uttar Pradesh Police, had ignored statements made by the child’s father about objectionable remarks made by the teacher, Tripti Tyagi. The petitioner, Tushar Gandhi, represented by advocate Shadan Farasat, highlighted that corporal punishment was rampant in the Indian education system. “The appalling and ghastly episode is preceded by a series of instances of violence against students belonging to marginalised communities,” the petition said. The plea said violence in schools had an insidious effect even on students who witness it, creating an atmosphere of fear, anxiety, intolerance, and polarisation. Number of candidates contesting Lok Sabha polls jumped four-fold between 1952 and 2019 The number of candidates contesting the Lok Sabha polls has seen a rise of over four times from 1,874 in 1952 to 8,039 in 2019, according to official data. The average number of candidates per constituency has jumped from 4.67 to 14.8 in the same period, the data showed. With the Lok Sabha polls nearing, the battleground is set but it is yet to be seen how many candidates are in the fray even as the proportion of candidates contesting has seen a rise since 1952 when the first elections were held. On an average, there used to be only around three to five contestants per Lok Sabha seat until the sixth Lok Sabha elections in 1977 but in the last elections 14.8 candidates on average contested from per constituency across the country. According to an analysis by non-profit organisation PRS Legislative Research, there were 8,039 candidates contesting from 542 Parliamentary constituency seats in the 2019 general assembly elections. A closer look at the last Lok Sabha polls in 2019 show that on an average, among all the states, Telangana had the highest average number of candidates contesting. This is primarily due to 185 contestants from Nizamabad. Excluding Nizamabad, the state’s average number of contestants would be 16.1. After Telangana, Tamil Nadu had the highest average of independent candidates contesting in the last election. Of the candidates in each constituency in Tamil Nadu, an average of two-thirds contested as independent candidates. After Nizamabad, the second highest number of candidate representation was seen in Belgaum, Karnataka. The five constituencies that had the highest candidate representation were from the southern states of Telangana, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. The Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress contested 435 and 420 seats respectively. They were in competition with each other in 373 seats. BSP fielded the third highest number of candidates contesting in the 2019 elections. The seven national parties together fielded 2.69 candidates per constituency. Among the largest five states, West Bengal had the highest representation of candidates from national parties at 4.6 and had candidates from five national parties contesting in the state. Recognised state parties together fielded 1.53 candidates per constituency. Bihar (6 state parties) and Tamil Nadu (8 state parties) saw a high representation of candidates from state parties at 1.2 and 1.3 respectively. Five states have more than 30 Parliamentary constituency seats: Uttar Pradesh (80), Maharashtra (48), West Bengal (42), Bihar (40), and Tamil Nadu (39). These states together have 249 seats i.e., 46 per cent of Lok Sabha. There has been a marked increase in the total number of candidates contesting the elections over the years. According to official data, while in 1952 there were 1,874 candidates for 489 seats, giving an average of 3.83 candidates per constituency while the number steadily increased to 2,784 candidates in 1971 giving an average of 5.37 candidates per constituency. In 1977, 2,439 candidates contested and average candidates per constituency stood at 4.5, the data showed. The 1980 elections saw an increase in the number of candidates to 4,629, giving an average of 8.54. In 1984-85, the eighth general elections had 5,492 contestants, with an average of 10.13 per constituency. The ninth general elections in 1989 had 6,160 candidates in the fray, with an average of 11.34 candidates, while in the 10th Lok Sabha elections in 1991-92, 8,668 candidates contested for 543 seats, giving an average of 15.96 per constituency. In the 11th general assembly elections, the average of per seat contestants recorded a sudden hike in average with 25.69 candidates per seat indicated an abnormal shift. There were a record number of 13,952 candidates in fray for 543 Lok Sabha seats, bringing the average of per seat contestants to 25.69 from 16.38 in the previous elections in 1991. The Election Commission of India hiked the amount of the security deposit from a mere ₹500 to ₹10,000 which apparently, helped in bringing down the number of contestants per seat to 8.75 candidates in 1998 Lok Sabha elections when after a long gap, the total number of contestants was less than 5,000 — 4,750 to be precise. The number of candidates only rose marginally in 1999 general elections to 4,648, averaging 8.56 contestants per seat. In 2004, the figure of total contestants again crossed the 5000-mark with 5,435 contestants in the fray for the same number of 543 Lok Sabha seats, averaging just over 10 contestants per seat. In the 2009 general elections, a total of 8,070 candidates contested for 543 Lok Sabha seats, therefore the average rose sharply to 14.86, the official data showed. A total of 8,251 candidates were in the fray in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Maldives Parliamentary elections rescheduled The Maldives’ Parliamentary elections has been rescheduled for April 21, the Election Commission has said, after President Mohamed Muizzu ratified a Bill that allowed for the postponement of the polls. The elections were originally scheduled to be held on March 17 this year, but the opposition sought a deferment, citing Ramadan — from March 10, 2024 to April 9, 2024 — that practising Muslims observe as a month of prayer and fasting. Nagaland Assembly resolves agains fencing of India-Myanmar border The Nagaland Assembly on March 1 adopted a resolution urging the Centre to reconsider its decision to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) with the neighbouring country. The Assembly also resolved to appeal to the central government to work out regulations for movement of people across the boundary in consultation with the people inhabiting the border areas, and for suitably bringing in the village council authorities concerned in the entire system of regulations.” Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 01 March 2024 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Bengaluru Rameshwaram Cafe blast | Nine persons injured in low-intensity explosion, use of IED suspected Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said [an improvised explosive device (IED) is suspected to be behind the low-intensity blast]( that occurred at The Rameshwaram Cafe in Brookefield in east Bengaluru on March 1, 2024, [leaving nine people injured](. Fire department officials said they received a call at 1.09 p.m. Initially suspected to be a cylinder blast, fire department officials have now dismissed this hypothesis. According to preliminary information, one person came to the café just after noon with a bag that he left behind. The person made a payment to the cashier, obtained a token, ate his breakfast and left behind a bag that reportedly contained the explosive. Police is going through the CCTV recording in the café and questioning the cashier to gather more information. DG&IGP Alok Mohan, Internal Security Division officials and NIA officials rushed to the spot in the afternoon, apart from Bengaluru City police commissioner B. Dayananda and forensic experts. Speaking to the media, Alok Mohan said there was no threat to anyone’s life. Of the nine injured, six were shifted to Vydehi Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) in Whitefield for treatment and the other three to Brookefield Hospital. According to Dr Pradeep Kumar, Medical Director of Brookefield Hospital, two men and one woman were being treated there and all three were out of danger. While no serious injuries were sustained by the men, the woman has suffered 40% burns and will have to undergo plastic surgery. “We have two customers and a staffer of the cafe admitted with us. One of them, a woman of around 45 years of age, has suffered around 40% burn injuries, mostly on the right side of her body. She’s being treated in an ICU. She has suffered cut injuries on the right side of her body. She will need a plastic surgery. Her eardrum is also damaged due to the explosion sound,” he explained. Two other injured are being treated in a general ward and have suffered minor injuries. “One of them is suspected to have suffered splinter injuries. We are doing a CT scan to determine the material in the skin. May be glass or some other material,” he added. When asked what the injuries tell about the nature of the blast, Dr. Kumar said that it was probably a low intensity explosion as there were no “rip-off injuries” on any of the injured, including the woman. “She has suffered injuries mostly to her right side suggesting the blast occurred to her right. No serious injuries on her left side indicate it was a low-intensity explosion,” he said, adding that they had preserved the clothes the injured were wearing during the explosion. They will be handed over to forensic experts to check for any chemicals on the clothes. Meanwhile, of the six people (three men and three women) consulted at VIMS, one was treated in the Out Patient Department (OPD) and sent back whereas five others have been admitted, said Dr. Ravi Babu, Chief Administrative Officer, VIMS. “One woman has an eye injury and has been shifted to the Operation Theatre (OT). We suspect it to be a corneal injury. The others have sustained minor injuries including some particles on the back and ear injuries. They are in minor OT and are being observed,” Dr. Babu said. “It is very clear that the blast has not happened because of any cylinder or any other kitchen-related equipment as none of it was near the blast site. All our equipment is at the back of the restaurant. There is only a handwash area with a sink, dustbin and a stand to collect plates. Some people told us that someone came and kept a bag there and went and the blast happened after that. We have found a bag that exploded at the spot,” Divya Raghavendra, Managing Director and founder, The Rameshwaram Cafe, told The Hindu. “The doctors have told us that they (injured staffers and customers) are out of danger. The police are further investigating the matter and we are providing full support. We’ve already given them access to all the CCTV footage,” she added. Speaking to media persons near the restaurant, Shabarish, an eye witness said, “There was a loud sound a little after 1 p.m. which must have been audible up to a kilometre away. There was a lot of smoke around the restaurant. When I went and checked, a few customers and employees were injured and bleeding. We sent them to hospital in the ambulance.” Sachin Lamani, a security guard with The Rameshwaram Cafe at Brookfield told The Hindu that he was just outside the cafe when he heard a loud explosion at around 1:15 pm. As he rushed inside, he saw smoke and fire near the wash basin area, he said. The eatery is very popular among locals and usually bustling with people during lunch hour. Supreme Court rejects plea to ‘digitally monitor’ MPs, MLAs The Supreme Court on Friday [disagreed with a petitioner’s view]( that Members of Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies should be “digitally monitored” to prevent instances of corruption and horse trading. Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said lawmakers were not “convicted felons” who needed watching 24X7 lest they may flee from justice. Surely, the petitioner did not want microchips on legislators to keep track of their every movement. “There is also something called ‘privacy’. They too have families,” the Chief Justice told petitioner S.N. Kundra. Kundra argued that ordinary citizens like him had elected these MPs and MLAs. There was a need for transparency about lawmakers. “After getting elected, they behave like our rulers. They made the choice to enter public life. Now, they cannot claim privacy. They are our salaried representatives,” he contended. The Chief Justice said Kundra should not paint all legislators with the same brush. “You cannot make the charge [of corruption and misuse of office] against all MPs and MLAs,” the top judge reasoned. But Kundra asked the court why these “salaried representatives” of the people should lord over the public, making laws for them. “The ultimate authority is the people. We should make laws, but instead our salaried servants are making laws for us,” he argued. The Chief Justice responded that the Parliament, and not individual citizens, enacted laws in a democracy. Chief Justice Chandrachud highlighted the need for debate in the legislature before making laws. The Chief Justice pointed out that while Kundra believed that legislators should be digitally monitored while a hundred million other Indians may not agree. “Laws are not made on the streets by individuals. Then people will ask ‘why do you need judges’. For example, many people would want to kill a pickpocket… That is not done in a democracy. That is why we have judges to decide disputes in an institutional way,” the Chief Justice observed. The court had initially warned the petitioner of imposing a hefty fine against “wasting judicial time”. At the end of the hearing, the court dismissed the petition and termed it a “misuse of process”, but did not impose a fine. Child slapping incident | Supreme Court to examine implementation of Right to Education in Uttar Pradesh on March 15 The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday informed the Supreme Court that child rights protection agencies like Childline, Muskan, and HAQ have been roped in to provide counselling to a seven-year-old Muslim child who was repeatedly slapped by his classmates on the orders of their teacher at a Muzaffarnagar private school. Appearing before a Bench headed by Justice A.S. Oka, Uttar Pradesh Additional Advocate General Garima Prasad informed that Childline would hold the counselling sessions with the help of Muskan. The counselling sessions would continue till April 24. The court has made it clear that the sessions should include the classmates of the boy. The State had faced flak from the Supreme Court in January for not taking steps to initiate counselling for the boy and his classmates. The court had squarely blamed the State government for its failure to provide a safe environment, recognised schools and qualified teachers for children in accordance with the Right to Education Act. The Act mandates quality, free, and compulsory education for children up to 14 years without any discrimination on the basis of caste, creed or gender. The court had [flagged the slapping incident as a “very serious” and direct violation of Article 21A]( (the fundamental right of a child to free and compulsory education) of the Constitution, the Right to Education Act and even the Uttar Pradesh Rules which task the local authorities to ensure that children do not face discrimination in classrooms. The court said it would separately take up the larger issue of the implementation of the Right to Education Act in Uttar Pradesh on March 15. The Bench directed the State government to file a detailed affidavit on the measures so far taken in the implementation of the Act. In September last year, the court had criticised the State for a “watered-down” and delayed FIR against the school teacher, who was shown on video showering communal remarks on the child. The court had at the time raised questions about religious discrimination and quality of education in Uttar Pradesh. “The manner in which the incident has happened should shock the conscience of the State,” Justice Oka had observed. Justice Oka had said the FIR, registered after a “long delay” by the Uttar Pradesh Police, had ignored statements made by the child’s father about objectionable remarks made by the teacher, Tripti Tyagi. The petitioner, Tushar Gandhi, represented by advocate Shadan Farasat, highlighted that corporal punishment was rampant in the Indian education system. “The appalling and ghastly episode is preceded by a series of instances of violence against students belonging to marginalised communities,” the petition said. The plea said violence in schools had an insidious effect even on students who witness it, creating an atmosphere of fear, anxiety, intolerance, and polarisation. Number of candidates contesting Lok Sabha polls jumped four-fold between 1952 and 2019 The number of candidates contesting the Lok Sabha polls has seen [a rise of over four times from 1,874 in 1952 to 8,039 in 2019]( according to official data. The average number of candidates per constituency has jumped from 4.67 to 14.8 in the same period, the data showed. With the Lok Sabha polls nearing, the battleground is set but it is yet to be seen how many candidates are in the fray even as the proportion of candidates contesting has seen a rise since 1952 when the first elections were held. On an average, there used to be only around three to five contestants per Lok Sabha seat until the sixth Lok Sabha elections in 1977 but in the last elections 14.8 candidates on average contested from per constituency across the country. According to an analysis by non-profit organisation PRS Legislative Research, there were 8,039 candidates contesting from 542 Parliamentary constituency seats in the 2019 general assembly elections. A closer look at the last Lok Sabha polls in 2019 show that on an average, among all the states, Telangana had the highest average number of candidates contesting. This is primarily due to 185 contestants from Nizamabad. Excluding Nizamabad, the state’s average number of contestants would be 16.1. After Telangana, Tamil Nadu had the highest average of independent candidates contesting in the last election. Of the candidates in each constituency in Tamil Nadu, an average of two-thirds contested as independent candidates. After Nizamabad, the second highest number of candidate representation was seen in Belgaum, Karnataka. The five constituencies that had the highest candidate representation were from the southern states of Telangana, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu. The Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress contested 435 and 420 seats respectively. They were in competition with each other in 373 seats. BSP fielded the third highest number of candidates contesting in the 2019 elections. The seven national parties together fielded 2.69 candidates per constituency. Among the largest five states, West Bengal had the highest representation of candidates from national parties at 4.6 and had candidates from five national parties contesting in the state. Recognised state parties together fielded 1.53 candidates per constituency. Bihar (6 state parties) and Tamil Nadu (8 state parties) saw a high representation of candidates from state parties at 1.2 and 1.3 respectively. Five states have more than 30 Parliamentary constituency seats: Uttar Pradesh (80), Maharashtra (48), West Bengal (42), Bihar (40), and Tamil Nadu (39). These states together have 249 seats i.e., 46 per cent of Lok Sabha. There has been a marked increase in the total number of candidates contesting the elections over the years. According to official data, while in 1952 there were 1,874 candidates for 489 seats, giving an average of 3.83 candidates per constituency while the number steadily increased to 2,784 candidates in 1971 giving an average of 5.37 candidates per constituency. In 1977, 2,439 candidates contested and average candidates per constituency stood at 4.5, the data showed. The 1980 elections saw an increase in the number of candidates to 4,629, giving an average of 8.54. In 1984-85, the eighth general elections had 5,492 contestants, with an average of 10.13 per constituency. The ninth general elections in 1989 had 6,160 candidates in the fray, with an average of 11.34 candidates, while in the 10th Lok Sabha elections in 1991-92, 8,668 candidates contested for 543 seats, giving an average of 15.96 per constituency. In the 11th general assembly elections, the average of per seat contestants recorded a sudden hike in average with 25.69 candidates per seat indicated an abnormal shift. There were a record number of 13,952 candidates in fray for 543 Lok Sabha seats, bringing the average of per seat contestants to 25.69 from 16.38 in the previous elections in 1991. The Election Commission of India hiked the amount of the security deposit from a mere ₹500 to ₹10,000 which apparently, helped in bringing down the number of contestants per seat to 8.75 candidates in 1998 Lok Sabha elections when after a long gap, the total number of contestants was less than 5,000 — 4,750 to be precise. The number of candidates only rose marginally in 1999 general elections to 4,648, averaging 8.56 contestants per seat. In 2004, the figure of total contestants again crossed the 5000-mark with 5,435 contestants in the fray for the same number of 543 Lok Sabha seats, averaging just over 10 contestants per seat. In the 2009 general elections, a total of 8,070 candidates contested for 543 Lok Sabha seats, therefore the average rose sharply to 14.86, the official data showed. A total of 8,251 candidates were in the fray in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Maldives Parliamentary elections rescheduled The [Maldives’ Parliamentary elections has been rescheduled]( for April 21, the Election Commission has said, after President Mohamed Muizzu ratified a Bill that allowed for the postponement of the polls. The elections were originally scheduled to be held on March 17 this year, but the opposition sought a deferment, citing Ramadan — from March 10, 2024 to April 9, 2024 — that practising Muslims observe as a month of prayer and fasting. Nagaland Assembly resolves agains fencing of India-Myanmar border The Nagaland Assembly on March 1 [adopted a resolution]( urging the Centre to reconsider its decision to fence the Indo-Myanmar border and scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) with the neighbouring country. The Assembly also resolved to appeal to the central government to work out regulations for movement of people across the boundary in consultation with the people inhabiting the border areas, and for suitably bringing in the village council authorities concerned in the entire system of regulations.” Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. 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