Banks turn to temples, liquor shops for small-value notes

Bengaluru, Mar 19: Karnataka High Court on Wednesday rejected the plea by Congress leader Digvijay Singh seeking directions to the police to allow him to meet rebel Madhya Pradesh Congress MLAs who are lodged in Bengaluru.

Earlier in the day, Singh said at a press conference, "I have filed a plea in the Karnataka High Court, seeking permission to meet Madhya Pradesh Congress MLAs who are putting up at Bengaluru. I have decided to be on fast and shall take a call on that after the decision of the Supreme Court and the High Court," Singh said at a press conference here earlier.

Singh said, "The BJP is busy in toppling duly-elected governments. We had successfully thwarted their plans to destabilise the MP government but we were let down by Jyotiraditya Scindia who had a very successful career in Congress."

"We never expected that he would ditch us and join hands with the BJP," he added.

The Congress leader also said that the BJP government had become insecure since the Kamal Nath-led government started tightening the laws on mining.

"Chief Minister Kamal Nath drafted a new mining policy for the sand under which the mines were allotted through auction. All this was unpalatable to the BJP and from Day 1 they started offering money to our Congress legislators," he said.

"In BJP, the Atal Bihari Vajpayee's kind of leadership no longer exists. The leadership which controls the BJP now includes people who have joined hands to do all kinds of unscrupulous things which has led to a stage in India where the banks are collapsing, non-performing assets and unemployment are growing," he added.

Earlier today, he was put under preventive arrest after he sat on a dharna near Ramada Hotel here allegedly for not being allowed to meet the 21 rebel Congress MLAs lodged in the hotel.

Mangalore University has been participating in the campus bird count a sub-event of ‘Great backyard bird count’ (GBBC) organized by Bird Count India for the past 5 years. This year, CBC was held from 14th to 17th February of 2020 across various campuses in India.

This year the four days event was successfully ended up with the sightings of 103 species of birds from various locations across the campus spread on 300 acres. In this Black Drongo, Black Kite, Brahminy Kite, Common Iora, Green Wabler, Purple-rumed Sunbird, Red-whiskered Bulbul, White-cheeked Barbet, Jungle Babbler and Plum headed parakeets were the common birds, and also observed House Crow with nest and nestlings, Indian Robin nest with eggs, Bronzed Drongo constructing the nest and Shikra mating and carrying nesting materials.  Whereas Yellow-billed Babbler is rare in the campus, Ashy Drongo, Barn Swallow, Booted Eagle, Grey Wagtail, Indian Pitta etc. were migratory birds, Grey-headed Bulbul (Near Threatened bird), Rufous Babbler and Grey-headed Bulbul were Western Ghats Endemics  and Brown Wood Owl, Barn Owl, Spotted Owlet, Nightjars (Savanna, Indian and Jerdon’s) and Sri Lanka Frogmouth were nocturnal birds. Blue-eared Kingfisher Grey-bellied Cuckoo which was very rare and new additions to avian list of the campus.

In the first year (2016) of Mangalore University’s CBC recorded 77 species, in 2017 recorded 95 species, in 2018 recorded 110 species and in 2019 recorded 107 species of birds. However some of the common species like Rose ringed parakeets, Blue tailed bee-eater, Nilgiri Flowerpecker and Indian roller etc., sighted last year were not seen this year. But with 2 new additions from this CBC, the checklist of Mangalore University Campus has been updated with a total of 141 species.

This event was coordinated by Vivek Hasyagar from the Department of Applied Zoology and Maxim Rodrigues from the Department of Marine Geology. Survey trails were led by more than 60 students and research scholars from various Departments of Mangalore University includes Applied Zoology, Biosciences, Microbiology, Botany, Physics, Chemistry and Material Science.  In addition, some enthusiastic participants from St. Aloysius College had involved in identifying the birds around the campus.

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Wild/planned fire affects negatively on the existing ecologically sensitive areas in and around the campus especially in lateritic grasslands. Because many insectivorous birds are dependent on these lateritic grassland habitats for their food and breeding grounds for many ground dwelling birds like Yellow wattled lapwing, Red wattled lapwing, Indian Robin and Barred buttonquails. Conserving these habitats will be helpful in protecting these birds.

Quotes from the participants: “The Campus Bird Count 2020 at Mangalore University was an experience of its own kind. Observing birds in their natural habitat gave me new perspective of viewing them not only as another living being, but as equals, or even of higher intelligence. The Campus Bird Count is an important step towards documenting bird life year after year, and creating awareness amongst youngsters, so that proper conservation steps can be taken to protect them from human interference”.

-Jyotsna Dessai ( 1 M.Sc Zoology)

New Delhi, Feb 18: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is holding a daylong meeting with 70 columnists from across India on Tuesday in an effort to clear misconceptions about the organisation, sources said.

RSS chief Bhagwat, who last year met representatives of international media organisations posted in India, is expected to deliver a keynote address that will be followed by a free-flowing conversation, they said.

The 70 columnists attending Tuesday's meeting write in different languages.

The meeting, in Chhattarpur in New Delhi, is a closed-door meeting and the proceedings are "strictly confidential", the sources said