Mangaluru: SSF holds jihad against terrorism' awareness rallies

Bengaluru, Jul 22: Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar on Wednesday urged Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa to waive all property taxes in urban local and rural panchayats for a period of one year as citizens are bearing a huge financial brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taking to Twitter, Shivakumar wrote, "Citizens are bearing a huge financial brunt of the Corona Pandemic. It's imperative on the government to ease the financial burden on citizens. I urge CM B.S. Yediyurappa to waive all property taxes, in urban local bodies and rural panchayats, for a period of one year on humanitarian grounds."
In yet another demand, Shivakumar on Tuesday said the state government should give details of the amount it spent on migrants and labourers during the coronavirus crisis if it is transparent.

"The image of Karnataka has come to a very rotten position. We all know that Karnataka has failed in sorting out the problem. Let them (the state government) tell what has been the amount spent on the labour, migrants and food kits on the health department. We want an account (of the expenditure) if they are so transparent," Shivakumar said.

He said the state government should have approached the hospitals for treating COVID-19 patients and if any private hospital refused, a message should have been given that the government would take it over.

He also accused the state government of corruption.

Mangaluru, Mar 10: Four airports which are run by the Airport Authority of India (AAI), including Mangaluru International airport, have been adjudged among the best aerodromes in the world, winning 10 awards in four different categories at the 2019 ASQ awards.

ASQ is a globally established programme that measures passengers’ satisfaction while traveling through an airport. Airports Council International (ACI), which is an independent agency of airport operators, carries out international benchmarking of aerodromes.

“Four AAI airports — Chandigarh, Mangaluru, Trivandrum and Lucknow — have been adjudged the best in the world in recently announced 2019 ASQ awards. These airports won 10 awards in four categories,” Airports Authority of India (AAI) said in a release here on Tuesday.

The survey measures passengers’ satisfaction across 34 key performance indicators that include eight major categories such as access, check-in, security, airport facilities, food and beverage, retail, airport environment and arrival services.

The four categories in which these airports bagged the best airport awards were size and region, environment and ambiance, customer service and infrastructure and facilitation, as per the AAI.

The survey was carried out at across 356 airports across North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

The survey results are monitored by airport tariff regulator AERA, NITI Aayog, and civil aviation Ministry, the release added.

Bengaluru, May 26: Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa has been urged to cancel the proposed SSLC examinations in Karnataka and allow “mass-pass” for every student in the wake of covid-19 crisis. A group of intellectuals and educationists have put forth this demand.

In the letter released by educationist VP Niranjan Aradhya, said that they were listing the scientific reasons to the CM for cancellation of exams which are slated to be held from June 25 to July 4th.

In the letter, the intellectuals have elucidated a number of reasons for cancelling the upcoming exams. “There are close to 8.5 lakh students and 2.5 lakh staff involved. If we include parents who would drop their kids at the exam centre, around 30 lakh people will be involved in the process, making it a risky affair. Though the government has said that it will separate the students with fever or other ailments, will students admit to having fever? What if they consume paracetamol and come to write exams?” asks the letter. 

Added to this, the question papers have to be sent from the district and taluk centres and there may be chances of transmission.

“Even if we conduct exams, then what about the students who have failed? Every year, around 2.5 lakh students fail in the exam. Will the government conduct the supplementary exams again? The whole process of conducting exams comes at a huge cost of Rs 20 cr to Rs 25 crore. Hence, we are suggesting that the government cancels the exams and pass the entire group of student en masse,” said the letter.