CM Siddarmaiah to declare gifted luxury watch as state asset

February 25, 2016

Bengaluru, Feb 25: Under attack from the Opposition over his luxurious watch, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddarmaiah today said he would declare it as a state asset and hand it over to the government.cmwatch

"About the expensive watch I was wearing, which has been discussed almost everyday and reported in the media, I have this much to say that I will be declaring it as the state asset and deposit it with state secretariat," he told reporters here.

The controversy was fuelled by former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy who had claimed the diamond-studded Hublot watch was worth Rs 70 lakh and had been gifted to Siddaramaiah and that he had proof for his claims.

Siddaramaiah revealed that the expensive watch was gifted to him by his close friend (NRI) Gopal Pillai Girish Chandra Verma who visited India last July.

"The full name of the person who gifted this invaluable watch is Gopal Pillai Girish Chandra Verma. He had come to India in July last year. I know him since 1983 and whenever he visits India, he meets me," the Chief Minister said.

Siddaramaiah further clarified, "Verma gifted me the watch, even though I was not keen on accepting it. However, he insisted that I accept it and I accepted because of our long friendship but I did not know how expensive it was."

The CM said he would furnish relevant documents of the watch to the Lokayukta and Income Tax.

The Chief Minister's decision to declare the watch as a state asset comes in the backdrop of criticism from various quarters.

State BJP President and MP Prahalad Joshi had sought a probe by the Enforcement Directorate to find out the owner of the watch and whether customs duty had been paid for it.

A complaint had been filed by city-based activist S Bhaskaran with the state Lokayukta seeking Siddaramaiah's prosecution under the Prevention of Corruption Act for accepting the expensive gift and not declaring it before appropriate authorities.

Reacting to Siddaramaiah's announcement, Congress MLC V S Ugrappa, who had yesterday suggested three options including declaring the watch as a state asset, welcomed it.

Seeking to turn the tables, he asked Kumaraswamy to declare his "luxurious" assets, including cars and watches, as state asset.

Replying to a query, Ugrappa said the Chief Minister was busy with recent by-election, and Taluk and Zilla Panchayat polls and hence could not find time to come out with facts about the controversy earlier.

Kumaraswamy had argued that the Chief Minister should have come out openly the very next day the watch controversy came out in public.

Comments

Curious
 - 
Friday, 26 Feb 2016

Once During Umer rah ruling he distributed clothes to every one, after couple of days he was found wearing new kurtha and pajaama. One person stood and asked ' from the cloths which you distributed we could stitch only kurtha and was not enough for pajaama' but how it was possible to you? Umer rah replied for this question my son will answer . His son said, I gave my cloths to father to complete the set. A good lesson for every rulers.

Vaman Rai
 - 
Friday, 26 Feb 2016

state assets means his property only fooling public, corrupt politicians must be killed infront of public so that people are scared of taking bride.

Bhavya Shree
 - 
Friday, 26 Feb 2016

so many uncounted worth of crores gifts he got in the name of bribe, bribe can be called easily as a gift.. his friend is mad o what? he dont have family o what to gift him a 75lakh not even fools will gift this costly gift, siddaramaiah must be lieing.. govt should scan his every property. looted so many tax payers money i myself pay every year altogether around 6000 hard earned money to the fake govt, who cares.

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News Network
July 2,2020

Mangaluru, Jul 2: Mangaluru BJP Corporator Manohar Shetty, who entered a manhole to clean a drain, said that he did it to avoid waterlogging ahead of monsoon as people were facing several problems for the past few years.

"In my ward, there is a rainwater drain at Kadri Kambla junction and for the past few years, there was a waterlogging problem due to trash water used to collect and vehicles used to find it difficult to pass in that area," Shetty said.

"Since there was a lot of trash it had to be cleared to avoid waterlogging. We changed our dresses, and then I along with my three party workers entered manhole and cleared the trash," he said.

The Mangaluru BJP Corporator further said that it was not a publicity stunt, and he cleaned the drain to solve the problem of people. "During elections, I had promised people to get the drain cleaned. Since monsoon was coming; something had to be done; we did not do it for publicity but to solve a problem," he said.

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News Network
February 21,2020

Chikkamgaluru, Feb 21: Wazi Noronha, aka, Vojald, the father of Amulya Leona Noronha, who lives in Koppa taluk of Chickmagalur district has said that he was shocked by his daughter’s pro-Pakistan slogans.

“Let her rot in jail. I don’t mind if police break her bones, I don’t support what she said and I will not approach lawyers for her bail. She has committed a grave mistake,” he said.

Amulya, a 19-year-old student activist, was booked for sedition yesterday after she raised ‘Long Live Pakistan’ slogans at a CAA-NRC rally. A visibly embarrassed Asaduddin Owaisi, AIMIM chief and MP tried to snatch the mic away from her and slammed her. Karnataka Police have registered a case under IPC Section 124A (Offence of sedition) against Amulya.

Mr. Wazi, who owns a two-acre areca plantation and runs a poultry farm, said he would not make any attempts to get her bail. “Let the law take its course. I cannot approve of her statement,” he said.

He said he had cautioned his daughter against getting involved in protests. “I told her to complete studies first and later she could fight for poor people. But what she said yesterday is not acceptable. I don’t know what made her so. I hope a probe would bring out who prompted her to make such statements,” he said.

Mr. Wazi also admitted that he was associated with BJP and had worked for saffronite leaders like Shobha Karandlaje and D N Jeevaraj.

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News Network
March 31,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 31: Venkara Raghava, a software engineer from Bengaluru, who was infected with the coronavirus has recovered and is currently "doing perfectly well".

"I am doing perfectly well now. I had travelled to Los Angeles via Heathrow airport and that is when I came in contact with many travellers. I might have picked up the infection there," Raghava told news agency.

It was in Los Angeles when he started getting a 'low-grade fever' which led him to prepone his flight to Bengaluru. "When I landed back in Bengaluru on March 8, I had a fever and I isolated myself. The same day I went to a hospital where my travel history was taken and I tested positive for COVID-19", he said.

The next day, he was admitted to the isolation centre. His entire family was also tested but the results came back negative.

When asked about what does suffering from COVID-19 feel like, he responded that it was a like a regular viral fever and was "nothing to be scared of". "The fever is very grinding, and since my childhood, I never had a fever. I had a fever for almost 15 days consistently 100 degrees (F)," he said.

About his experience at the isolation centre, he said that it was an experience unlike that of a hospital. "At the isolation centre, one has to take care of themselves, unlike a hospital where doctors and nurses take care of the patient. I had to put a wet cloth on myself and you cannot overdose yourself with Calpol or Paracetamol," he said.

For him, "The tough times are now over" and now he has fully recovered but in the process, he ended up losing about five kilograms. "After the fifteenth day when I woke up with no fever, they took a test for the nose and the throat and it came back negative," he recalled, and on March 22, he was set free.

For one week, he has been in self-quarantine at home "being completely watchful" that the symptoms do not reoccur.

The number of total coronavirus cases reached 1,251 on Monday. There are 1117 active cases in the country, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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