Govt. simplifies NEET-UG 2026 counselling process

DMK MLA P.K. Sekarbabu arriving at a strongroom as ECI begins the verification of EVMs used at 14 polling stations in the Kolathur Assembly constituency during the April 23 polling for Tamil Nadu Assembly election, at Chintadripet on July 29, 2026 | Ragu The checking and verification of the burnt memory and microcontroller of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used in 14 polling booths in the Kolathur Assembly constituency during the 2026 Tamil Nadu Assembly election is under way on Wednesday (July 29, 2026) following a petition filed by defeated DMK candidate and former Chief Minister M.K. Stalin before the Election Commission of India (ECI).Mr. Stalin lost the constituency to Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) candidate V.S. Babu by a margin of 8,795 votes.Acting on Mr. Stalin’s representation, Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner G.S. Sameeran, who is also the District Election Officer, wrote to the DMK leader requesting him or his authorised representative to be present during the verification process. Mr. Stalin is being represented by senior advocate N.R. Elango. The verification is being carried out at Chintadripet.In his petition, the DMK candidate alleged that the votes expected to have been polled in his favour were not recorded in these 14 polling booths.Verification in other districtsMr. Sameeran said similar checking and verification of EVMs were under way in a few other districts, including Kancheepuram, Virudhunagar, and Sivaganga. He said the facility was available to candidates who had secured one of the top three positions in a constituency, with verification being carried out for up to 5% of the EVMs used.“We are checking and verifying the EVMs used in 14 polling stations selected by the candidate in the Kolathur constituency. The exercise will be carried out in two phases. In the first phase, the ballot unit, control unit, and VVPAT of two polling stations will be verified. The authentication is being carried out under the supervision of engineers from Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL),” he said.Mr. Sameeran said the representatives of the candidates were shown the votes polled by each candidate as recorded in the burnt memory, and no discrepancies had been found.“In the second phase, a mock poll involving a minimum of 500 votes and a maximum of 1,400 votes will be conducted. The entire exercise is intended to verify the authenticity of the EVMs,” he said.The checking and verification process will continue for seven days. Published - July 29, 2026 12:55 pm IST

It is unlikely that the department will achieve the herculean target within the set deadline of August 31, with only 21,602 meter readers across the State. | MURALI KUMAR With rampant server issues and a fewer number of meter readers on job, the Gruha Jyothi door-to-door verification has slowed down. Launched on July 1, 2026, the Energy Department has been able to verify only around 45 lakh beneficiaries, of the estimated 1.65 crore beneficiaries.It is unlikely that the department will achieve the Herculean target within the set deadline of August 31, with only 21,602 meter readers across the State.ESCOMMeter readingsBescom7,409Cesc1,594Gescom2,156Hescom6,031Hrecs52Mescom4,360Total21,602According to the Energy Department officials, Bescom meter readers have completed verification of 25 lakh houses in its jurisdiction with only 7,409 meter readers. There are a total of 65 lakh beneficiaries in the Bescom jurisdiction, and 40 lakh households are yet to be verified.Server issuesA resident in Malleshpalya in C.V. Raman Nagar said, “Meter readers came around 12 p.m. to our residence for the Gruha Jyothi verification process. It wasn’t even half a day that the server slowed down and the app crashed. After waiting for 20 minutes for the server to recover, meter readers had to leave saying they will visit again.” Another resident in Chandra Layout said, “There are four houses in our building. While my house verification was completed, the meter readers couldn’t complete three more houses of verification due to server being slow.”When asked about the server issues crippling the survey, a senior Energy Department official explained, “At the end of the process, all the data of Gruha Jyothi is uploaded to the Seva Sindhu portal. Since, multiple utility services, including issuing of Khata under Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA), Health Department services, ration card, guarantee schemes including Gruha Lakshmi, Shakti are also captured on this portal and used by multiple users, the server slows down.”“The meter readers have been working on Saturdays and Sundays also to cover the target of beneficiaries assigned to them. They are visiting a house multiple times, even after working hours to enter details of a particular household if needed,” the official said.Decided to give upA senior Energy Department official said that more than 20,000 people who had opted and are benefitting from the Gruha Jyothi guarantee scheme have denied to give any details to the meter readers. “The beneficiaries have opted to give up and signed on Part B in their respective forms. The Part B clearly states that the beneficiary has no objection for discontinuation of the benefit to the electricity connection provided to their home,” the official said. Published - July 26, 2026 07:51 pm IST