Dubai-based doctor who studied in Mangaluru gifted me the watch, says CM

February 26, 2016

Bengaluru, Feb 26: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who has decided to announce his luxury watch as a state asset, revealed that it was it was a “gift” from his Dubai-based doctor and friend Girish Chandra Varma.

The Chief Minister, who came under severe attack from the Opposition JD(S) and the BJP on the “expensive and imported” watch, said: “Dr. Varma gifted me the watch last July when he visited India. I have been a close friend of Dr. Varma since 1983.” Mr. Siddaramaiah said he would pay the gift tax for the watch and provide information to the Lokayukta before July-end during declaration of assets and liabilities.

“I received the gift in July (2015) and I will provide information to the Income Tax Department before March 15. I will not wear the watch, instead I will donate it to the government to preserve it,” the Chief Minister said.

Mr. Siddaramaiah said Dr. Varma studied MBBS in Davangere and completed his postgraduation in Mangaluru. He later practised in France and the U.S. He now resides in Dubai. When the doctor visited India in July 2015, he removed the watch from his wrist and gifted it to Mr. Siddaramaiah. The doctor will provide all details of the watch, including bill receipt and payment of taxes, when he visits India this July.

“The doctor meets me whenever he comes to India and Bengaluru,” the Chief Minister said. “Dr. Varma is a cardiac surgeon. He has been my friend for more than 30 years. He gave me the gift as a gesture of affection and friendship. According to Dr. Varma, the value of the watch is 75,000 dirham,” Mr. Siddaramaiah said, adding that JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy has been making the watch “a big issue without any basis”.

During the run-up to the elections to rural local bodies, Mr. Kumaraswamy had alleged that Mr. Siddaramaiah, who boasts of socialist credentials and pro-poor policies, was wearing a watch worth Rs. 50 to Rs. 60 lakh, and sunglasses valued at Rs. 2 lakh. In its petition to the Enforcement Directorate, the BJP had urged the ED to conduct an inquiry into the Rs. 70 lakh Swiss wrist watch.

Asked whether he would file a defamation case against the JD(S) leader, the Chief Minister said he would not indulge in such “low-level politics”.

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Congratulations to Siddaramaiah for making the BJP's job easier. Hope he continues to lend his helping hand with his watch:)

It seems Siddaramaiah had said he wud sell his watch to anyone who paid him even Rs 5 lakh for it. Ready to beg, steal or borrow.

37 Chennai &38 Bangalore ranking is pretty bad. Siddaramaiah can utilise money from d auction of his watch to clean a mini area

After Modi’s luxury suit, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah’s Rs 70 lakh watch to be auctioned`

Siddaramaiah Govt must stop fooling people & work for the State. If not time will run out even on his 70 lakhs watch

Modi's few thousand worth suit becomes worth 10 lacs with nonstop coverage. But Siddaramaiah's 70 lacs watch doesn't get any coverage

It's a second hand watch gifted to me. I'll pay gift tax, won't wear it &will make a state asset

Will pay tax on Rs 70 lakh watch which was gifted to me but will not wear it, says Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah

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Karnataka crosses 1.5 Lakh mark in COVID-19 cases 30,000

News Network

August 6,2020

Chennai, Aug 5: Karnataka on Wednesday crossed the 1.5 lakh mark in respect of COVID-19 cases and Kerala was on the verge of 30,000 while Andhra Pradesh witnessed a five- digit daily caseload after a lull.

Tamil Nadu saw a small jump in its daily cases as compared to Tuesday while Telangana and union territory Puducherry reported their respective record single-day spikes.

The five states and the union territory reported a combined 24,415 fresh confirmed coronavirus cases and 316 fatalities on Wednesday.

A Puducherry Minister tested positive for the deadly virus while an opposition AINRC legislator who contracted the coronavirus earlier was discharged after being cured of it.

In Karnataka, the coronavirus cases stood at 1,51,449 with the addition of 5,619 fresh cases while 100 deaths were reported, pushing the total fatalities to 2,804, the health department said.

According to a health bulletin, 74,679 persons have been discharged so far, leaving 73,958 active cases. Andhra Pradesh''s COVID-19 surge continued on Wednesday too, with 10,128 cases reported afresh after easing a little in the last four days.

The overall tally rose to 1,86,461 on Wednesday. The state had last reported its five-figure daily tally on July 31 when it was 10,376.

The state also saw a record number of 77 coronavirus deaths in a day, pushing the toll to 1,681, the latest bulletin said.

In the last 24 hours, 8,729 patients had also recovered from the infection and there were 80,426 active cases.

As many as 1,04,354 patients have been cured and discharged so far. Kerala was on the verge of 30,000 cases, as its tally stood at 29,145 with the addition of 1,195 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.

The toll from the virus so far climbed to 94 with seven more deaths. Thiruvananthapuram continued to top the districts in infections with 274 cases on Wednesday, of whom 248 had been infected through contact.

Malappuram (167), Kasaragod (128), Ernakulam (120) and Alappuzha (108) reported over 100 cases. As many as 112 patients died of COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu, the highest reported in a single day so far, taking the toll to 4,461 on Wednesday while 5,175 more people tested positive, propelling the case count to 2.73 lakh.

Recoveries outnumbered fresh cases with 6,031 people getting discharged from various hospitals, taking the total cured to 2,14,815 as the active cases dropped to 54,184, a government bulletin said.

In Telangana, 2,012 new cases emerged while 13 related fatalities were reported, taking the total infection tally in the state to 70,958. Out of the new cases, 532 were from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), followed by Medchal-Malkajgiri 198 and Rangareddy 188, a state government bulletin said on Wednesday, providing data as of 8 PM on August 4.

The total number of people who recovered from the infectious disease touched 50,814, while 19,568 were under treatment.

The COVID-19 fatality rate in the state was 0.81 per cent, while it was 2.10 per cent at the national level, it said. The recovery rate was 71.6 per cent in the state, while it was 66.31 per cent in the country, it added.

Puducherry clocked its worst single-day spike of 286 infections, recording seven deaths, even as the overall tally of cases went up to 4,432.

The deaths during the 24 hours in the Union Territory took the toll to 65 so far since the outbreak of the virus, Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao told a virtual press conference.

His cabinet colleague M Kandasamy and his son reported positive for the virus and were admitted to JIPMER.

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Netizens target BJP after video of Sangh Parivar ‘man’ in burqa goes viral

coastaldigest.com news network

June 16,2020

Vijayapura, June 16: Even as a video of a man wearing a burqa who is being thrashed by locals is going viral on social media, netizens targeted Bharatiya Janata Party for their activist resorting to heinous acts.

The man who was caught in burqa has been identified as Siddu Paragond, an activist of Snagh Parivar hailing from Sindgi town in Karnataka’s Vijayapura district.

The bizarre incident took place in Sindgi on June 11 outside a bank.

“While people including women were standing in a queue outside the bank, the person in burqa was acting in a suspicious manner. The person was trying to get too close to women which was making them feel awkward,” local residents said.

“Getting suspicious, some locals tried to interact and their suspicion rose with the strange behaviour of the person. Suddenly some men took the person away from the bank and checked only to find that it was a man in burqa. The men thrashed him and handed him over to police,” the sources said.

Confirming this, Superintendent of Police Anupam Agrawal said that the Siddu Paragond has been arrested and remanded to judicial custody. He, however, made it clear that no suspicious objects were found on Siddu. “We are trying to find out the motive for his act,” the SP said.

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Finally mentally not fit

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Karnataka govt slammed for ‘anti-people and inflationary’ bus fare hike

News Network

February 27,2020

Benagluru, Feb 27: The sudden hike in bus fares by the state-run transport corporation has triggered a public outrage and protests by the opposition Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) in Karnataka.

Terming the hike as anti-people and inflationary, the Congress urged the ruling BJP to withdraw it forthwith and spare the commuters from the additional burden.

"KSRTC and its affiliates should not further burden the people when the cost of living has gone up and its bus service is used by the majority in the absence of trains in many regions of the state," said Ravi Gowda of the Congress.

In a surprise announcement on Tuesday night, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and its two affiliates -- North Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NEKSRTC )and North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKSRTC) -- increased bus fares by 12% with effect from Wednesday, drawing the ire of commuters and opposition parties alike.

Condemning the fare hike, JD(S) leader and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy urged the KSRTC to roll back the revised fares and give relief to the common man reeling under price rise due to CGST, SGST and food inflation.

"The BJP government has deliberately increased the bus fare ahead of the state budget for 2020-21 fiscal on March 2, catching people unawares. Though student passes have been spared from the hike, regular passengers are forced to pay Rs 5-32 more instead of getting better efficiency, management and productivity," Kumaraswamy said in a statement in Bengaluru.

It's an additional burden on us, said Bengaluru resident K. Venkatesh, while adding,

"The 12 percent hike in bus fares by the KSRTC and its north-east and north-west affiliates from Wednesday will hit passengers hard and make commuting costly.”

"The fare hike will negate the state government's efforts to encourage public transport service and force passengers to travel on the train, which is cheaper, faster and safer," asserted Venugopal Gupta, a cloth merchant in the city.

Justifying the hike, KSRTC Managing Director Shivayogi Kalasad told media that the hike was inevitable due to the steady increase in diesel price, dearness allowance in staff salary and overall cost of operations.

"Since the last fare revision came in May 2014, the operational cost has gone up substantially due to Rs 11.27 per litre hike in diesel price, increase in DA to employees and repairing, maintenance and fleet management costs," Kalasad said.

The financial burden due to fuel price hike is Rs 261 crore, DA Rs 341 crore and operational cost Rs 601 crore per annum for KSRTC alone, he said.

"For the benefit of rural passengers, fares have been reduced to Rs 5 from Rs 7 for the first 3 km. There is no increase in fares for the first 12 km and up to first 6 km in express service," Kalasad added.

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