Bajrang Dal leader accused of attacking, robbing Hindu youth in temple town

Mangaluru, Apr 22: City Police Commissioner Dr P S Harsha, on Wednesday, interacted with families of Covid-19 warriors of the Police Department through a special video conference to infuse confidence in them.

He spoke to the family members of the police personnel who, along with ASHA workers, are monitoring the home quarantined people and even assist them in supplying essentials and medicines.

Most of the family member of the police personnel were of North Karnataka origin and the Commissioner asked them to stay safe by staying at home and explained to them the good work done by their family members in the Police Department.

Bengaluru, Jul 1: Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar on Wednesday played down reports about confusion regarding valuation of Second Pre- University and the Secondary School Leaving Certificate exam papers.

"Creating confusion has become a habit. There was confusion before the exam, during the exam and now confusion about the valuation of the exam papers," Kumar told reporters in Ramanagara when asked about the confusion over the valuation of answer sheets.

He had gone there to inspect a few centres where the SSLC or the 10th standard exams are underway.

The minister reminded people not to speak about the abilities of the students with contempt.

"Our students have toiled hard and are enthusiastically appearing for the examination. They are eligible for the marks they will score. So we should not speak about our children with disrespect," Kumar said.

The Education Minister said he had spoken to many leaders including former chief ministers Siddaramaiah and H D Kumaraswamy on conducting the examinations.

"Kumaraswamy had insisted on postponing the examination. I personally spoke to him and apprised him about the steps taken by us. I told him that we will work with more sincerity to ensure the safety of the children," Kumar said.

The SSLC exam was scheduled to take place from March 27 but due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, it was postponed.

While the CBSE and a few other states either decided to give marks based on the students' performance in the previous examinations such as quarterly and half-yearly exams or gave general promotion to the students, Karnataka went ahead to hold the exam.

According to Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board officials, around 8.5 lakh students have enrolled this year for the SSLC examination.

The exams are being held at 2,879 exam centres across the state.

Prior to the SSLC examination, the last exam of the Second PUC was also conducted on June 18, which was also put on hold due to the lockdown.

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.