Citizenship Act: Detained Kerala journalists in Mangaluru been released, say police

News Network
December 20, 2019

Mangaluru, Dec 20: Eight journalists from Kerala covering the anti-citizenship law protests here a day after two persons were killed in police firing, were detained by the city police on Friday.

They were released about seven hours later at Thalappady on Karnataka-Kerala border after the intervention of Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Mangaluru city police commissioner PS Harsha earlier said several Keralites had entered the city in the guise of journalists.

The Malayalam television journalists were detained outside the Wenlock Hospital, where those injured in the violence were being treated. Police allegedly snatched away their equipment and cellphones, saying they were not accredited journalists.

A viral video-which was not independently verified-showed Harsha interrupting a journalist on-air from the hospital. Though the reporter showed his identity card, the commissioner rejected it saying it was not a government-issued accreditation card. The reporter and his support staff were taken to a police van.

Soon after their detention, Kerala revenue minister E Chandrasekharan asked the state chief secretary to contact the Karnataka government and to probe the detention of journalists.

Karnataka chief minister B S Yediyurappa told reporters in Bengaluru that he had received a letter from his Kerala counterpart. "The journalists had no identity cards. We have asked the police to release them. Only seven-eight persons were detained and not 40," he said.

Police released the journalists at Thalappadi and returned the confiscated equipment around 3.30pm. "No case was booked against them," a police source said.

After returning to Kerala, the journalists said they were treated like criminals. The reporters said they were on-air from 8.15am, and the police commissioner asked them to leave the hospital.

Outside the hospital, police asked for their identity cards, and detained them.

"We were forced to remain in the police vehicle for four hours before shifting us to Mangaluru Town South Police Station," Mujeeb Rahman, senior reporter of Asianet, said. "Some of us were made to sit on the bus's platform, and were not allowed to talk to each other.

Rahman said others from the national and Kannada media were allowed to report. Police, however, said nearly eight journalists from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were also held.

Cameraman Sumesh Morazha of News18 said they were not shifted to the commissioner's office as claimed by the police.

Pratheesh Kappoth, a cameraman with Asianet, felt the journalists reporting from the hospital and airing the versions of the relatives of the slain men, could have provoked the police.

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News Network
May 11,2020

Bengaluru, May 11: As many as 343 Indians returned to Bengaluru from London by a special Air India flight on the fifth day of 'Vande Bharat Mission' on Monday. They arrived at the Kempegowda international airport at 4.40 am.

All passengers were found to be asymptomatic on arrival except one 27-year-old woman who had had an incomplete abortion and had vomiting on arrival. She has been shifted to KC General Hospital in Malleshwaram.

Dr Prabhu Dev Gowda, an officer on duty for COVID-19 screening at Kempegowda International Airport, said, "A 27-year-old woman has had an incomplete abortion of her three-month-old foetus before taking the flight from London. She was vomiting on arrival. She was shifted to Aster CMI Hospital for emergency care.”

“Thereafter, she and her husband were shifted to KC General Hospital in Malleshwaram. They will be in isolation there. Since there is nobody to look after her, we have to let the husband accompany her to the hospital where they will be in quarantine."

The patient was famished and was provided a few idlis on arrival, he added.

After she recovers at the hospital, the couple will be shifted to a hotel. As per protocol, their throat swabs were taken for COVID-19 testing too. All passengers whether symptomatic or not are being tested for COVID-19.

Dr Manjula Devi, District Health Officer, Bengaluru Rural district said that all passengers were found to be asymptomatic on arrival except this woman who is being treated as a non-COVID-19 emergency.

Ajith Rai, Devanahalli Tehsildar told DH, "All passengers have chosen to go to hotels over government hostels. We're yet to tabulate how many have chosen budget hotels, three-star and five-star hotels. Twenty of them are still here. The process is on."

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coastaldigest.com news network
July 1,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 1: Eighteen private hospitals here have been slapped with a show-cause notice after a 52-year old patient with influenza-like illness symptoms died here on being allegedly denied admission by them citing "non- availability" of beds. 

Health Minister B Sriramulu on Wednesdy said refusal to provide treatment was not only inhuman but also illegal as he tagged a copy of the notice in a tweet. 

"Notice has been served to the hospitals taking cognisance of the (media) reports about the denial of admission to a patient in emergency. Denying medical assistance during emergency is not only inhuman but also illegal," he tweeted. According to a report, the son and nephew of the patient took him to the 18 hospitals on Saturday and Sunday but he was not admitted on the pretext of non-availability of beds or ventilators. 

The man died later. The Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare issued the show-cause notice to the top authorities of the hospitals under the Karnataka Private Medical Establishment (KPME) Act, 2007. 

"By denying admission to the patient, your hospitals have violated the provisions of the KPME Act. You are liable for legal action," the notice said, seeking replies within 24 hours as to why action should not be against the hospitals. 

This was a "clear violation" of providing medical assistance and admission necessitated under the agreed provision of the KPME registration. Private medical establishments cannot refuse or avoid treatment to patients suffering from COVID-19 or having symptoms, the common notice added. 

The incident comes in the backdop of repeated instructions by the government that hospitals cannot deny admission to the patients suffering from coronavirus or having symptoms.

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News Network
March 1,2020

Mangaluru, Mar 1: Karnataka Minister for Major and Medium Industries Jagadish Shettar said that the flight service between Mangaluru and Hubballi will begin on March 29 under UDAN scheme.

Speaking to reporters on the sideline of the meeting of Industries Commerce of Magaluru, here on Saturday evening, he said while the city of Ports is the second busiest international airport after Bengaluru in Karnataka, other places, namely Hubballi, Belagavi, Kalaburagi and Bidar, have come on the air map with the UDAN scheme.

Stating that UDAN launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was what the Golden Quadrilateral highway project of former Prime Minister A B Vajpayee had envisaged, Mr. Shettar noted that more flights are operating to and from Mangaluru now. This has paved the way for Industrialisation of the important city on the Bombay-Karnataka region, he added.

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