Under-19 and Under-16 cricketers selected for KSCA Academy coaching

Bengaluru, May 17: Amidst mounting demand form Kannadigas across the world for repatriation flights in the wake of covid-19 lockdown, Dr Arathi Krishna, former Deputy Chairman of the NRI Forum of Karnataka government, has written to Hardeep Singh Puri Minister of Civil Aviation to operate more special flights to Gulf repatriate Kannadigas from gulf countries. 

Dr Arathi Krishna’s first request in the letter was to add flights from Kuwait, Bahrain and Jeddah to Bengaluru as many (from Karnataka) are stranded in these cities in precarious situations.

In addition, she also requested for a couple of flights from Dammam and Riyadh to Bengaluru as there are more than 3780 Kannadigas registered to return from Saudi Arabia and members of Bearys Chamber of Commerce and Industry are requesting the same. Any number of flights from Dubai to Bengaluru and Mangaluru will also help the stranded people, the letter stated. 

“Old and sick people, pregnant women and others are in urgent need to connect with the world are looking up to you for getting flights from different comers of the world. Indian communities are hopeful that you will use your position to help them to get the much needed mobility at this time,” the letter stated. 

She also said that the people in Karnataka are grateful to you (Mr Hardeep Singh Puri) for adding two flights from Dubai to Bengaluru in the last two schedules and one flight each from Riyadh, Dammam, Muscat and Doha.

Dr Arathi Krishna is currently serving as the Chairman of the NRI Cell of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee and Secretary of Indian Overseas Congress.

Hassan, Mar 13: In what could have been a major tragedy, an under construction flyover across Hassan-Mangaluru railway level crossing, near the new KSRTC Bus stand here collapsed today.

Fortunately no casualties occurred despite six concrete beems of 50 feet height, collapsed and broke into pieces.

The much awaited project was completely neglected by the successive governments for over a decade due to politics.  It was sanctioned eight months ago.

The Rs 42 crore project was taken up by a joint venture between state, center and South Eastern railway. The contractor or the Engineer were not present when the incident occurred.

Blaming the contractor, the locals alleged that poor quality of work led to the incident. No contractor or engineer was present even during construction, they added. Siddaiah, who runs an eatery near KSRTC bus stand said that it could have been a major tragedy if people were underneath the flyover when it crashed. The incident should be probe and the contractor should be punished, he added.

Feb 26: The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday claimed that it prevented Karnataka from discussing the contentious Mekedatu reservoir issue at the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) meeting held in New Delhi.

Besides the representatives of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka at the fifth meeting of CWMA, presided over by Central Water Commission Chairman R K Jain, officials of Kerala and Puducherry also participated.

CWMA member and TN PWD Secretary K Manivasan told reporters after the meeting that the state government prevented Karnataka from discussing the dam issue by pointing out the pending petitions in the Supreme Court against the project filed by the E Palaniswami government.

"We have told participants of the meeting that Mekedatu reservoir will be against the interests of Tamil Nadu and its farmers. Our consistent stand is that it should not be built at any cost. Finally the issue was not discussed in the meeting," Manivasan said.

The Mekedatu reservoir is proposed to be constructed by Karnataka across Cauvery river near Mekedatu, about 110 km from Bengaluru, in Kanakapura taluk.

It was first proposed along with Shivanasamudra hydro power project at Shimsa in 2003 with an intention to use the water for a hydro power station and supply drinking water to Bengaluru city. It was designed to store 67 tmc feet of water.

While Tamil Nadu is claiming that the construction of a balancing reservoir will disturb Cauvery water flow to the state affecting irrigation, Karnataka says the project is basically designed to take care of the drinking water needs of Bengaluru after releasing water to Tamil Nadu as per the quantum specified by the Cauvery water disputes tribunal.