BJP leaders praised Jinnah, secretly visited Pak: UT Khader on Ramya row

Bengaluru, Jun 8: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief DK Shivakumar on Sunday said that Congress is a secular party and they clearly do not want any third candidate from BJP to win the Rajya Sabha elections.

Speaking to news agency, Shivakumar said, "We are a secular party. We are very clear that we don't want any BJP third candidate to win the Rajya Sabha election. My leader, Sonia Gandhi will take a call on it."
"My party leaders have taken a call on HD Devegowda Ji, very soon they will come with an announcement," he added.

Shivakumar had on Saturday said that the party has decided to field one candidate for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha elections.

He said the party would soon take a decision on the issue of support to former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda's candidature to the Upper House.
The elections to fill the vacant 18 Rajya Sabha seats from seven states will be held on June 19.

Mangaluru/Udupi, Mar 23: The coastal district of Dakshina Kannada including the city of Mangaluru today refused to return to normalcy from yesterday’s Janata Curfew, as the government imposed lockdown in the district till the month end to contain the Covid-19 caused by the deadly novel coronavirus.

The lockdown coupled with the prohibitory orders under Section 144 has forced all the commercial establishments barring few to remain closed in the district.

The police started issuing stern warning to the people through loudspeakers against venturing out of their homes unnecessarily. People are allowed to move only in case of any emergency or basic needs.

The police warning came after a few people started ignoring the lockdown and ban orders. A few private buses also were seen plying on the roads in the morning.

Under the proibitory orders, the district administration banned from venturing out of their homes except in case of emergency or extreme necessity. All public programmes including religious ceremonies, cultural programmes also are banned. All shops, commercial establishments, workshops and godowns with other unessential goods are supposed to remain closed. Bus service, both government and private, are to suspended. Mass prayers and religious ceremonies are not allowed in temples, mosques and churches. Beaches and other tourist spots are closed.

Udupi

The lockdown in 9 districts of Karnataka has forced many private buses in Udupi to stay off the roads for second day on Monday. Some buses plying between Udupi to Kundapur have resumed service a day after Janata Curfew, with very minimum occupancy.

Due to lockdown in Dakshina Kannada, all services operating from Mangaluru to Udupi, Manipal, and Kundapur have been suspended till the month end. Buses on Karkala-Udupi route have also stopped their operations.

Bengaluru, May 20: Ride-sharing company Ola Cabs said on Wednesday it will lay off 1,400 of its employees due to business uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic while the revenue has come down by 95 per cent in the past two months.

"The COVID crisis continues to unfold all around us causing unprecedented economic and social destruction. It has also become evident that the coronavirus will not be eliminated any time soon," wrote co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal to all Ola employees.

"In these circumstances, today I write to all of you with the toughest decision I have ever taken -- the need to downsize our organisation and let go of 1,400 of our valued employees," he said.

Aggarwal said the fallout of virus has been very tough for the cab aggregating industry in particular. "The company's revenue has come down by 95 per cent over the past two months," he said.

Initially, he said, the company hoped it would be a short-lived crisis and that its impact would be temporary. "But unfortunately, it is not been a short crisis. And the prognosis ahead for our business is very unclear and uncertain. It is going to take a long time for people to go out and about like before."
With more companies preferring to have a large number of employees work from home, air travel limited to essential trips and vacations being put off for better times, the impact of this crisis is definitely going to be long-drawn, said Aggarwal.

"The world is not going to revert to the pre-COVID era anytime soon. Social distancing, anxiety and an abundance of caution will be the operating principles for everyone," he told employees.

Aggarwal said the crisis necessitates the need to conserve cash aggressively so that Ola is able to invest in opportunities in the future, adding the downsizing exercise has been a very tough and sad decision for the management team to make.

"While we restructure our organisation to the new realities of our business, we are also going to recommit ourselves to strengthening our operational excellence and leverage a lot more technology to improve efficiencies and reduce cost across all parts of our business," he said.