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Coffee King laid to rest in family estate

coastaldigest.com web desk
July 31, 2019

Mudigere, Jul 31: Café Coffee Day founder V G Siddhartha, who apparently committed suicide by jumping into the Netravati river near Mangaluru following harassment by I-T department, was on Wednesday cremated at his family’s coffee estate in Chatanahalli village.

His eldest son Amartya Hegde lit the funeral pyre after the last rites were performed in an atmosphere marked by quiet grief, as his mother Malavika Hegde and her father and former Chief Minister S M Krishna struggled with their emotions.

Earlier in the day, thousands of people paid their last respects to Siddhartha at Coffee Day Global Ltd, a firm owned by him in Chikkamagaluru town. Siddhartha’s biggest entrepreneurial innovation, CCD, had its roots in the coffee-growing hilly districts of Chikkamagaluru and Hassan where his father owned large estates.

It was in the early hours of Wednesday that the body of Siddhartha was found by a group of local fishermen in the Netravati river near Mangaluru. He had gone missing from the bridge on the river since Monday evening and an intensive, all-day search by a 300-strong team on Tuesday had failed to find the body. Three fishermen found the body floating near the Hoigebazar area where the river joins the Arabian sea, at 6.30 a.m. They brought it ashore and informed the police. The police have also recovered the mobile phone of Siddhartha.

Meanwhile, the police are continuing investigations into the circumstances that led to his death, with a letter purportedly written by him, blaming the Income Tax Department for his “succumbing to the situation.”

While the IT department has expressed doubts about his veracity of the letter, the police say that it would be treated as dying declaration, after checking its authenticity. Kamal Pant, Additional Director-General of Police (Law and Order), Karnataka, confirmed to The Hindu, “We have recovered the letter from his family members. We will take necessary action further.”

The board of Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd. (CDEL), that met on Wednesday, is also considering getting an independent forensic study of the letter. They need not wait for the police investigation to take up independent inquiry, said a source.

The day saw many politicians in the opposition camp, including former chief minister Siddaramaiah, saying that “harassment” by central agencies had pushed the entrepreneur to the brink.

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News Network
August 6,2020

Bengaluru, Aug 6: With rains in several parts of Karnataka amid Covid-19 pandemic, state Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar on Thursday asked the people to maintain caution and contact the Health department helpline in case of any symptoms.

"There is heavy rain in several districts of the state's coastal, Malnad and north interior regions. People have to observe utmost caution during these rains amid corona infections. In case of any symptoms like fever, cough and cold immediately call the health department helpline 104," Sudhakar tweeted.

As of August 5 evening, cumulatively 1,51,449 Covid-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 2,804 deaths and 74,679 discharges.

Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Bengaluru urban tops the list accounting for 64,881 cases.

Regarding Bengaluru, Sudhakar said, there are 4,276 beds across 11 Covid care centres in Bengaluru.

"As of today morning, 936 of them i.e., 27.79 percent are vacant. Out of the 3,346 patients, 306 patients are due for discharge today," he said in another tweet.

Aimed at availing beds at Covid-19 hospitals for symptomatic patients and those in need, the government had decided to shift all asymptomatic patients to Covid care centres.

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News Network
January 12,2020

Bengaluru, Jan 12: Protesters plan to intensify their anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act movement from sit-down satyagrahas and rallies to street and door-to-door campaigns in different parts of the city.

The street campaigns began on January 1 with 20-30 volunteers of Hum Bharat Ke Log, reaching out to people in Koramangala and Whitefield and explaining the CAA, National Population Register (NPR), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and related issues. They have organised four campaigns.

According to Zia Nomani, member of Hum Bharat Ke Log, the campaign will intensify soon. “Over 200-400 volunteers will organise nukkad sabhas and other activities around JP Nagar and Banashankari,” Nomani said.

She added that though protests began as a medium for people to vent their concerns, more needs to be done.

“We have realised that many people have begun working on their personal documents and want to help them understand what CAA is all about,” Nomani said.

Volunteers will talk to people at street junctions, discuss issues and run signature campaigns. They say: “Our movement is focussed on reaching out to people. Pro-CAA workers too started a door-to-door campaign last week.”

Avani Chokshi, an advocate who participated in a campaign, said though people had a cursory idea about these issues, they didn’t know the details. “It through such campaigns that we can reach more people. It’s important to talk to people who haven’t made up their mind about the issues or are even pro-CAA,” said Avani, adding, “It hard to combat hatred in a short span of time. The movement needs to be sustained.”

Activist Geeta Menon, who has been at the forefront of the street campaign, says they were heckled at some places.

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 21,2020

Mangaluru, May 21: The third repatriation flight from Dubai to Mangaluru will operate on Saturday, May 23, confirmed union minister D V Sadananda Gowda. This will operate via Bengaluru.

The first and second direct repatriation flights from Dubai had landed at Mangaluru International Airport on May 12 and May 18. There were more than 175 passengers on board each of these flights.

On May 23, Air India flight (IX 0384) will take off at Dubai at 4:30 p.m. and land at Bengaluru at 9:50 p.m. It will again take off at 10:50 p.m. and land at Mangaluru at 11:45 p.m.

However, ministry of civil aviation sources said that no final decision has been taken about carrying passengers by these flights to Mangaluru.

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