Bengaluru: Event manager held for trapping, blackmailing, raping models

Mysuru, Feb 14: Citing the coronavirus scare prevalent in the city, hotel owners have urged the civic corporation to shut down roadside food vends, calling them a risk to public health.

A team of the city Hotel Owners Association, led by president C Narayanagowda and honorary secretary Ravindra Bhat, met mayor Tasneem Bano and MCC commissioner Gurudatta Hegde on Tuesday and urged them to implement the high court’s ban on street food vending.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the association said it had raised the poor hygiene at such joints amid the coronavirus threat and increasing incidence of chikungunya and malaria in the city. There is no check on the ingredients or water used and the cleanliness of the kitchens and cooking staff, they pointed out. Many of the joints operate near drains and public urinals and don’t have running water for washing or cleaning utensils, they said. Besides, the vends dump unsegregated garbage and compromise pedestrian safety by blocking pavements, they alleged.

“As this involves the livelihood of the vendors, I will take a decision after discussions with the commissioner and elected representatives,” the mayor said while pointing out that MCC had issued identity cards to the vendors after collecting details about them and their stalls. She said the health and education standing committees would also be consulted.

Commissioner Hegde said MCC was planning to move the vendors to designated hawking zones to ensure their livelihood was not affected. He explained that any drive to remove the vends was fraught with law and order problems. “False cases have been filed against MCC officers whenever they conducted drives against footpath food vendors in non-hawking zones. We will consult with the city police commissioner before taking any steps,” he said.

Mangaluru, May 24: A 42 –year-old man who was the secondary contact of P 1233 has been tested positive for COVID 19, in Dakshina Kannada on Sunday.

The man is being treated at the designated COVID-19 hospital in Mangaluru. With this, DK has registered a total of 66 positive cases with 34 active cases.

P 1233 was a 30-year-old man who had inter-state travel history from Maharashtra, said DK DC Sindhu B Rupesh.

The news case took the district's covid tally to 66 and 34 of them are active cases.

Bhuj, Feb 14: In a horrifying incident, as many as 68 undergraduate girls were paraded through their college into the restroom and forced to individually remove their undergarments to prove that they were not menstruating. 

This shameful exercise was conducted at Shri Sahjanand Girls’ Institute (SSGI) in Gujarat’s Bhuj under the supervision of principal and other teachers. 

It all began after the hostel rector complained to the principal that some of the inmates had been violating the Hindu religious norms specifically for menstruating females.

According to the sect’s norms, menstruating females are barred from entering the temple and kitchen. They are even forbidden from touching other students. However, the hostel administration reportedly complained to principal Rita Raninga that some girls who were having their periods not just mingled with other hostel inmates, but also entered the kitchen and ventured near the temple on the premises. 

“It was sheer mental torture and we don’t have words to describe it,” a student who underwent the traumatic experience said, adding that there were total 68 girls who were forced to pass through the test.

“The hostel administration levelled this allegation and insulted us on Wednesday. On Thursday, when we were attending lectures, rector Anjaliben called the principal and complained about this. We were forced to leave our classrooms and queue up outside in the passage. The principal abused and insulted us, asking which of us were having our periods. Two of us who were menstruating stepped aside,” said another victim.

“Despite this, we were all taken to the washroom. There, female teachers asked us to individually remove our undergarments so they could check if we were menstruating,” she added.

Another teenage undergraduate said, “We come from farflung villages. The college campus houses a school that runs classes from Class 1to 12. They provide hostel facilities to the school students. The college does not have its own hostel. We live with the school-kids in their hostel.”

She added, “The principal, hostel rector and the trustees harass us regularly over the issue of menstruation. We are punished for having periods. This happens even if we follow their religious rules. They made us remove our undergarments because they thought some of us were lying about not having periods, and mingling with the others against rules. But the humiliation meted out to us on Thursday was the last straw. When we protested against this, trustee Pravin Pindoria told us that we could take legal action if we wanted but we would have to first leave the hostel. He also forced the students to sign a letter saying nothing happened in college. But enough is enough.”

Kutch University authorities have, meanwhile, swung into action and a five-member team including in-charge vice-chancellor, Darshna Dholakia, and two other senior female professors visited the college on Thursday. “We will speak to the students and the college authority and later initiate appropriate action based on the findings,” Dholakia said.

Run by followers of Swaminarayan Mandir, the college was set up in 2012 but moved into a new building on the premises of Shree Swaminarayan Kanya Mandir in 2014. The college which offers BCom, BA and BSc courses has about 1,500 students of which 68, who come from remote villages, stay in the hostel on campus. The college is known for its pro-Hindutva stance.