Govt resorts to unusual step to restrict foreign aid to Zakir Naik's NGO

Mangaluru, Apr 4: About 20,000 quintal boiled rice has been distributed among the ration card holders through Public Distribution System, District-in-charge Minister Kota Srinivas Poojary said here on Saturday.

As people in the district prefer boiled rice over white rice, the government has given approval for distributing boiled rice. From next month, only boiled rice will be distributed in the district at fair price shops.

In the last two days, rice has been distributed among 61,302 cardholders in the district.

Bengaluru, Jul 23: The Siddi community in Karnataka got its first lawmaker as Governor Vajubhai Vala nominated five persons, including Shantharama Budna Siddi, to the Karnataka Legislative Council on Wednesday.

Shantharama Siddi had been working as a social worker and was a post holder at the Vanavasi Kalyan Prakalpa, a tribal welfare initiative of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The Siddis, an ethnic group in India, are said to have descended from the people of the East African region. They are included in the list of Scheduled Tribes (ST) in Karnataka.

Apart from the Shantharama, the inclusion of CP Yogishwar, who had left Congress to join BJP in 2017 but failed to retain his seat in the 2018 Assembly polls, is also considered as a big decision.

Adagur H Vishwanath, another former JDS leader, who had quit his party and joined BJP but failed to retain his seat has also caught the attention of the people.

Further, Governor Vala has nominated Talwar Sabanna and Bharathi Shetty to the Upper House in the state.

Bengaluru, Feb 7: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) ordered the destruction of a tilted building in the city after evacuating about 150 people from 35 families in the vicinity, an official said on Thursday.

"The top portion of the building has been destroyed 70 per cent today (Thursday). Later, the destruction contractor will allow machines to be used," Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Yelahanka joint commissioner Ashok said.

Located on Vinayaknagar Street in Hebbal's Kempapura, the five-storey building being used as a hostel for boys got tilted on Wednesday morning, spreading panic in the neighbourhood.

Though the tilted building owned by one Rahul, a jeweller, was a sound structure, Ashok said a neighbour, Babu, hired a JCB excavator to dig deep beside the affected structure to build his own structure.

"Babu not only dug very deep but also damaged the foundation pillar of the tilted building, weakening the structure and leading to its slant," said Ashok.

Babu has been booked and arrested even as the police are on the look-out for the JCB owner and operator.

The titled building erected five floors unauthorisedly and falls into the B Khata category. It was constructed without the civic body's plan, said Ashok. 

A Khata and B Khata denote the two types of khatas that exist under BBMP. Khata is a document which shows a property owner having an account with the municipality to pay taxes. An A Khata denotes that the building owner has paid relevant property taxes and that the building conforms to building bylaws and government rules. A B Khata denotes that the building is in violation of government regulations regarding properties in Bengaluru, even when the civic charges for the property have been cleared by the owner.

"As per procedure, we issue notice, but such constructions are rampant in the city. Under the BBMP jurisdiction, there are 15 lakh B Khata structures," said Ashok.

For all B Khata sites, the civic body does not give any plan and there is no proper control on them, he said.

Ashok said the case to regularise the B Khata buildings to A Khata buildings is currently pending in the Supreme Court.

Luckily, no injury or loss of life has been reported from the tilted building.

The civic body arranged alternative accommodation for the affected families, but most of them chose to stay with their relatives, said Ashok.