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Bengaluru, Jun 18: Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah has accused the BJP-led government of not passing the benefit of the low price of crude to the common man and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take steps to bring down prices of petroleum products.

Hitting out at the BJP-led government, he termed it as "opportunistic" and said the price of petroleum products were being increased when people were facing difficulties due to COVID-19.

"It is very disheartening to witness and unprecedented opportunistic government which is trying to extract every pound and flesh from the common man, that too when the whole country is suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic. This is in the backdrop of the continuous price hike in the last 10 days," said the letter was written on Wednesday.

The Congress leader said that the policy decisions taken by the government "with respect to managing fuel sources are inconsistent with the prudent measures generally adopted".

"When the price of crude oil was remarkably low in March, April and May 2020, your government was very reluctant to pass on the benefits to the people by reducing the fuel prices proportionately, but, instead, your government continued to capitalise by increasing the excise duty," he said.

He said the government had also "failed" in the last six years to increase the oil storage capacity which could have been used for the country's advantage when the international crude oil price fell really low.

He said the government should roll back the excise duty and help in the reduction of fuel prices.

"The reduced burden will help the common man to have additional money in hand that will be spent on essential goods and services which will ultimately help them tide over these difficult times," he said.

Bengaluru, Feb 10: The Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Sunday conducted a route march (Pathsanchalan) in Ramanagara to express solidarity with the anti-Christian forces protesting against a project to install 114-feet tall Jesus Christ statue atop Kapalabetta in Harobele town in Kanakapura taluk in Ramanagara district.

Hindutva ideologue Kalladka Prabhakara Bhat, who had led a rally in Kanakapura last month against the project, also led the Sunday’s route march and addressed a public meeting following the march.

“The district name is Ramanagara, but they have not nurtured the culture of Ram here. They have developed a strong culture of Ravana, which we pledged to dislodge,” Bhat told the gathering.

He said the Sangh Parivar will never allow the statue to come up as he said it would foment religious conversion that is rampant in Harobele.

“The so called Kapalabetta is of stones, which are revered as Lord Muneswara by the Hindus. This hillock must be named as Muneswara Betta,” he added.

Referring to the ongoing protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), Bhat said the law was brought in to protect the Hindu minority in Pakistan and Bangla Desh.

“The Muslims living in India hail Pakistan. But when we ask them to go to Pakistan, they will never go,” he took a jibe at the minority community.

Reacting to the RSS route march, senior Congress functionary DK Shivakunar, who represents Kanakapura assembly seat, said the Sangah Parivar is trying to disturb the communal harmony in the district and they will never succeed in it.

“The BJP is operating through the Sangh Parivar in the Ramanagara district. The party has won as may as 26 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, still they are doing all these things to keep their support base. People of Ramanagara will never back them,” said Shivakumar.

Bengaluru, Apr 17: The Karnataka government has announced the purchase of an additional two lakh rapid test kits for COVID-19 detection at a task force meeting on Thursday.

Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai and other senior officials were present at the task force meeting chaired by Deputy Chief Minister Dr CN Ashwathnarayan.

The Chinese government has agreed to supply rapid test kits to an officially listed company, which will increase the number of tests once it arrives, Ashwathnarayan said.

Moreover, 250 kiosks will be set up in the state to collect saliva samples of a person with COVID-19 symptoms. Such kiosks will be launched one-by-one in taluks of the state.

Ashwathnarayan explained that this would increase the sample collection process and prevent the spread of disease.

Ashwathnarayan said the purchase of the required 25,000 RT-PCR kits was also approved.
He stated that COVID-19 patients should be treated at government-appointed hospitals. A separate coronavirus helpline will be made operational to address the queries of people, Ashwathnarayan said.

During Ramadan, it has been decided not to allow mass prayers, he said. And added that tracing of cases related to the Tablighi Jamaat meeting in Delhi has been completed in the state.