From correspondents in Jharkhand, India, 06:04 PM IST

An average of 54 percent voting was recorded in the first phase of elections to the Jharkhand assembly Wednesday. The polling was largely peaceful and no untoward incident was reported, officials here said.

‘The average polling in 26 assembly seats is around 54 percent,’ said an official of the Jharkhand Election Commission.

Voting began on a slow note in the morning as the mercury dipped to six degrees Celsius, but voter turnout picked up in the afternoon. The highest voting percentage was reported at Pakur with 57.7 percent.

Elections were held in 26 of the state’s 81 assembly constituencies amid tight security. Due to security reasons, the poll timings were advanced and took place between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m.

‘There was complete peaceful voting in the first phase of polling. This was due to the adequate security arrangements in place, and air force helicopters were pressed into surveillance in the polling areas,’ Jharkhand police spokesperson V.H. Deshmukh told IANS.

However, police said that explosions, triggered by suspected Maoist rebels, were heard in Dhanbad district.

‘Some explosion was heard in the foothills behind Nano village of Dhanbad. We cannot say what kind of an explosion it was. The explosion was far away from the polling stations,’ Deshmukh said.

About 40,000 security personnel were deployed and four helicopters were pressed into service to ensure peaceful polling. Officials said voting started late in at least 13 places due to technical problems in the electronic voting machines (EVMs).

In the first phase, 470 candidates, including 194 Independents, were in the fray. Of these, 108 have criminal records and 27 are millionaires. Voting was held at 8,176 polling stations with 13,850 EVMs.

Most of the seats are witnessing a triangular fight between the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) and the Congress-Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik (JVM-P) alliance.

The key candidates include four former state ministers, six former MPs and speaker of the last assembly Aalamgir Aalam. The state unit chiefs of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Janata Dal-United and the Congress are also contesting in this phase.

The elections get over Dec 18 and the counting of votes will be held Dec 23.
Source: indiaenews.com
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The Hazaribagh District originally covered the entire North Chotanagpur Division, or the entire plateau of Hazaribagh, which is the northern tract of the massif divided by the Damodar river from east to west, with the Ranchi plateau lying to the south. Today the region is part of the new tribal state of Jharkhand (meaning Forest Land).

Some beautiful waterfalls of Ranchi are Dassam falls, Hundru falls, Hirni falls, Jonha Falls and Panch Gagh falls.

The major languages spoken in Ranchi are Hindi, Kurmali, Oraon, Nagpuri and Mundari.

Now, Marandi is saying that he is not averse to form an alternative government, if the situation so demanded.

State Congress chief Pradeep Kumar Balmuchu and Union minister and Ranchi MP Subodh Kant Sahay too have swung into action to make the best of the JMM’s compulsions. However, they are not forthcoming about their future strategy.

Source: [http://ranchiexpress.com/]

Jindal Steel & Power Ltd (JSPL) which is setting up a 6 million tonne per annum (mtpa) greenfield unit in two phases of 3 mtpa each at Patratu in Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand at an estimated investment of Rs 18,000 crore has started acquiring land for the project.

JSPL had acquired the closed plant of Bihar Alloy Steel Ltd (BASL) located at around 550 acre to start setting up the steel plant and needs a total of around 2,500 acre land for the entire project. “We are engaged in direct purchase of land for the project and have already acquired around 600 acre,” said SP Sharan, deputy general manager (corporate affairs).

The company which is engaged in winning over the confidence of the villagers staying near the site by way of opening vocational training centres and other training centres, including an ITI in the name of the late OP Jindal, has so far met with little resistance.

The company hopes to finish the first phase by 2012 as it will take some time to acquire land for the project and complete the work on the iron ore mine allotted to the company at Jaraldaburu near Chaibasa.

The company is also setting up a wire rod unit of 0.6 mtpa capacity at the site.

“The wire rod mill which was to commence production in October would now go on stream in December (2009),” said Sharan.

Source: www.financialexpress.com