After re-evaluation, Bhadravathi girl stands 2nd in SSLC with 624/625 marks

Bidar, Feb 5: The police has intensified investigation into the 'sedition case' against the management and staff of a school here, where children are facing chare of insulting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and others, in the context of CAA, in a drama they staged on January 21.

The police again visited Shaheen School on Tuesday and questioned children and staff -- this time in plain clothes, after their questioning of children in uniform on January 28 drew criticism from some quarters, a school official said.

"Morning three police personnel came with two members of Karnataka State Child Rights Protection Commission. Later, the deputy superintendent of police H Basaveshwara joined them.

The cops were in civil dress," the official said.

The police have been questioning the children and staff about those who wrote the script and assigned to deliver specific dialogues.

Police have already arrested Nazbunnisa, the mother of one of the children, who had allegedly delivered the controversial dialogue and their teacher Fareeda Begum, who oversaw the event.

When contacted, the deputy superintendent of police of Bidar H Basaveshwara refused to comment on the matter saying that he was still investigating the case.

Meanwhile in Bengaluru, Congress MLA and former minister U T Khader slammed the BJP government in the state as well as the Centre for "filing sedition charges against people".

Addressing a press conference, he alleged that the Central and state governments were trying to suppress the voice of people in the country using law enforcement agencies.

Khader claimed that the two women who "depicted the problems they were facing" in the drama were booked under the sedition law. During investigation, the children were forced to sit at the police station, he alleged.

Bengaluru, Jul 23: The opposition party Congress on Thursday demanded a judicial enquiry in the alleged scam in coronavirus related medical equipment procurement by Karnataka government.

However, Deputy chief minister Ashwathnarayan and Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai denied all the allegations.

Leader of Opposition (LoP) and former Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar addressed a press conference here and demanded a judiciary enquiry under a sitting High Court judge to investigate "BJP's Corona Scams."

"I made allegations on July 3. Nobody has denied it officially. On July 20, Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu and Deputy Chief Minister Ashwathnarayan in a press conference denied my allegations. Today, I furnished 14 documents. If you go through it, you will find corruption and misappropriation in medical equipment purchase," Siddaramaiah said.

"The documents are available with the government, how can they deny their own documents. They are telling that they have spent only Rs 324 crore but according to me the government has spent more than Rs 4,000 crore and nearly Rs 2,000 crore went in the minister and bureaucrats' pockets," he said.

He further said, "Centre has procured 50,000 ventilators under PM Cares at a cost of Rs 4, lakh per unit. Tamil Nadu has procured at Rs 4.78 lakh. But in our state, the price is between Rs 5.6 lakh to Rs 18.2 lakh. Is this not corruption?"

Siddaramaiah also dared the government to step up for an enquiry if they are "honest and transparent".

"I am demanding, constitute a judicial committee headed by sitting high court judge, let there be an enquiry in detail," he said.

DK Shivakumar said that his party has made the allegations based on government documents and media reports showing corruption.

"Karnataka government is purchasing equipment at high rates. We have exposed BJP's Rs 2,000 crore scams today. The government's main focus is to loot. They have paralysed the state administration," he said.
Denying the Congress' allegations, Deputy Chief Minister, Ashwathnarayan said that the government is ready to discuss this in the Assembly house.

"They have alleged Rs 700 crore misappropriation by health department but we have shown we have spent only Rs 290 crore," he said.

Giving details of the SDRF expenditure towards COVID-19 containment he said, "We have released Rs. 23,220.01 lakh in SDRF accounts and they have spent Rs Rs. 15, 918.99 lakh in various activities like migrant relief measures, measures for quarantine, sample collection, screening from March 14 to July 16."

Karnataka Home Minister, Basavaraj Bommai, said, "Karnataka government has spent Rs 506 crores for medical equipment and Rs 1,611 crores for other activities related to combatting COVID-19. So, we have spent Rs 2,117 crores as of now and there is no corruption in it."

Bengaluru, Mar 13: Health Minister B Sriramulu on Thursday assured the House that the state government will recruit doctors in all Primary Health Centres across the state through direct recruitment by the end of April this year.

The minister was answering MLA A T Ramaswamy, who raised the issue of shortage of doctors on Thursday. Sriramulu said there are 2,359 primary health centres in Karnataka, of which 1,432 centres have permanent doctors, 436 have doctors on contract basis, 236 have Ayush doctors, 55 have doctors who work under rural service, and the rest work on contract basis under the National Health Mission.

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, who had recently directed ministers to cancel KPSC recruitment and go for direct recruitment, expressed his anger  as it hasn’t been implemented even now. Sriramulu said, “I have directed the concerned District health officer to take action and go for direct recruitment. It will be done by end of April.”

He also said he is aware of the difference in salary between doctors working under the health department and those working under the medical education department. “This will also be rectified,’’ he assured.

Meanwhile, Sriramulu said that a hospital that he had inaugurated recently in Mysuru, has been shut due to the lack of doctors and furniture. “This will be sorted out soon,’’ he assured.