11-year-old boy single-handedly fights mighty python, rescues himself

Bengaluru, May 8: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Friday held a meeting with opposition parties at his office here over COVID-19 situation in the state.

Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Congress leaders SR Patil and DK Shivakumar participated in the meeting. From Janata Dal (Secular), former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and HD Revanna were present.

"Congress legislative party leader Siddaramaiah and DK Shivkumar have arranged the Chief Minister to request the central government to announce a special package of Rs 50,000 crore to Karnataka to fight coronavirus and also special packages requested for small and medium scale industries," said Siddaramaiah's media secretary.

Meanwhile, Yediyurappa has announced a special package for those involved in leather works, especially those who work on the roadside.

The special package has been announced for cobblers and leather workers, who work on the roadside.

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 21: A school in the city has allegedly denied admission to a boy whose parents did not fill the religion column in the application form, prompting the Kerala education department to seek a report.

The parents, Naseem and Dhayna, had sought admission for their son to the first standard at the St Mary's school, a government-aided institution. They alleged that school authorities had claimed that registration will not be possible on the education department's 'Sampoorna' portal without filling the 'religion' column.

"We were informed by the school authorities that it was not possible to give admission to our child as we wrote 'nil' in the religion column. They claimed that if nil is mentioned, the admission process will not get registered in the school management software of the education department," Naseem said.

Sampoorna is a school management system project implemented by the Kerala education department to automate the system and process of over 15,000 schools in the state.

The parents later approached the ministry and the Directorate of Public Instruction (DPI) to get further clarification.

"The state government officials denied that there were any issues with the software and confirmed to us that the admission process was going on.

When we approached the school authorities again, they asked us to give in writing that we, the parents will take responsibility of any issues that may occur in the future," Naseem said.

The parents then decided not to enroll their son at the school due to the manner in which the issue was handled by the institution. Reacting swiftly, the state government sought a report from the DPI and the deputy director of the education department on the matter.

"We have asked the DPI and the deputy director of the education department to look into the matter and file a report as soon as possible," Education minister C Raveendranath told PTI. The parents said after the news spread, a school official called them offering admission.

"But we decided not to enroll him there due to the approach of the school authorities," he said.

Naseem runs a catering business after returning from the Gulf.

The school management in a release claimed that they sought a letter in writing from the parents to avoid trouble in the future. "When school authorities asked why the religion column was left blank, the parents said they were not interested in filling that part. The parents have that right.

But most benefits given by the government to school children are based on religion. We just wanted to ensure that the parents take the responsibility in case the student misses out any such benefits in the future," the management said.

School authorities maintained they never denied admission to any student. The parents are now looking for admission for their son in other schools in Thiruvanathapuram.

Ravindranath recently claimed in the state Assembly that over one lakh children in Kerala had left columns relating to caste and religion blank in school admission records during the 2017-18 academic year. In a written reply, he said as many as 1,24,147 children had not filled these columns while enrolling in different classes in government and government-aided schools during the period.

Bengaluru, May 21: The prestigious Bengaluru Tech Summit (BTS) on Wednesday been postponed to November 19 to 21 2020 in view of the prevailing conditions.

A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister C S Ashwathnarayan, who is also the Minister for IT/BT, here.

Originally, the BTS was scheduled for September 21-23 this year. However, owing to anticipated inability of international delegates to attend the summit in view of Covid-19, BTS has been postponed, informed Dr Ashwathnarayan.