Four 'adventurous' madrasa students trespass at Belagavi airport

Mar 11: The Karnataka government on Wednesday started a campaign called 'Namaste over Handshake' that encourages people to greet in the traditional Indian style, to tackle the spread of coronavirus.

The campaign also includes health advice on how people can protect themselves from the infection by adopting hygiene practices such as regularly washing hands to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

As part of the campaign, the state health and family welfare department has uploaded a poster on the social media, featuring a 'Bharatnatyam' dancer draped in a red saree saying 'Namaste'.

"Use Namasthe to greet others, fight against corona" read a message on the poster online.

The poster has health helpline numbers (104 and 011- 23978046) for public queries on the viral disease, which has claimed 4,251 lives worldwide.

A health department official told PTI that as part of the campaign, posters have been uploaded on social media and it would be printed and despatched to different districts to be put up at important junctions.

"We had been working on this idea. Kerala has already done it. They are using Kathakali dancers whereas we are using a Bharatanatyam dancer as our model," the official said.

Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar too had insisted that people should adopt 'Namasthe' or 'Namaskara' to greet people instead of handshakes or hugs.

Bengaluru, Feb 22: Thanks to joint efforts by the Protector of Emigrants in Bengaluru and Indian Embassy in Qatar, a 26-year-old woman from Karnataka who had been kept in confinement in Qatar has been rescued and brought back to India.

Anupama (name changed) from Holenarasipura in Hassan district arrived in Bengaluru on Thursday night. She was allegedly locked up in a house for 14 days, restrained from using a mobile and wasn't fed. There were three other women with her. On the midnight of February 12, they broke the window panes and fled before contacting local police.

Anupama, a diploma graduate in computer science, was jobless and her friend working in Kuwait suggested she try for a job abroad. She contacted an agency based in Chikkamagaluru which offered her a nanny's job in Qatar. After document verification, the agency demanded she pay Rs 2 lakh but she said she didn't have that kind of money.

The agency sent Anupama on a visitor visa but told her if questioned by immigration officials, she must claim she was visiting her sister. They also gave her a return ticket.

As Anupama was travelling abroad for the first time, she said she was ignorant about several things.

On January 12, Anupama left Bengaluru. But as she reached Qatar, all her documents, including passport, were confiscated by the agency. Her return ticket was cancelled and she was sent to a house to work as babysitter-cum-cook for Rs 30,000. She lived with four other maids in the same house, where they were made to work for 16-18 hours a day.

"I used to wake up around 5.30am every day and had to prepare breakfast for the employers by 6.30am. My work would end around 11pm every day. We never even got time to eat," Anupama told media on Friday. Four days into work, Anupama's nose started bleeding. However, the employers cared little and insisted she continue to work. After 18 days, she requested her employers that she be relieved.

The agency sent her to a house where three women were already present and locked her up with them. "They used to give us a glass of raw rice, an onion, tomato and potato to cook for ourselves. While we got rice every day, we had to use the vegetables for three days. We were not supposed to use mobiles or go out. Two people were monitoring us," she recalled.

Anupama and the others decided to approach police but for that they needed to escape. Around 1.30am on February 12, the four women managed to break window panes and jumped out. They ran for more than a kilometre and managed to approach police, who summoned the agency and got the women to speak to their families.

Anupama called her brother-in-law, who approached the Protector of Emigrants office in Koramangala, Bengaluru. Shubham Singh, PoE in Bengaluru, said they took up the issue with the Indian Embassy in Qatar, which immediately got in touch with Qatar police. Anupama said, "We were kept in prison for a couple of days and were sent to the deportation centre later."

Meanwhile, the Indian embassy got the agency to return the women's documents. However, the agents did not pay their salaries. Two of the women were sent to Hyderabad and the third to Kerala. On Friday, Anupama met Singh at his office, where her statement was recorded. "We have started the process of initiating action against the agency in India," he said.

Ballari, Jan 5: Thousands of Muslims, joined by the members of various organisations, on Saturday staged a massive protest in the town condemning the provocative speech by Bellary MLA G Somashekar Reddy.

The police caned the agitators after they tried to lay siege to the house of BJP legislator.

The protesters holding national flag took out a rally from Kaul Bazaar, which passed through the major streets, and culminated at Gadagi Channappa Circle. They raised slogans against the BJP and burnt the effigy of Somashekar Reddy.

The protest sent the traffic haywire Gadagi Channappa Circle and the cascading effect of it was seen across the town. SP C K Babu told the agitators that the MLA has been booked for making provocative speech and pleaded them to hold a protest at Municipal College grounds. But the agitators were in no mood to relent.

Inspector General (Bellary Range) I G Nanjundaswamy has rushed to the town to oversee security. The BJP MLA on Friday made inciting remarks against minorities during his speech at a pro-CAA rally in the town.

FIR against Reddy

The Gandhinagar police in the town on Saturday registered an FIR against MLA Somashekar Reddy, for making a provocative speech, under IPC Sections 153 A (promoting enmity between two religions), 295A (insulting religious beliefs) and 505B.

During his speech at a pro-CAA rally on Friday, Reddy had said, "Hindus are 80% of the population while minorities are 17%. What will happen to you if we hit back? Hence, you should be very careful about your moves and steps."

The legislator came down heavily on those staging protests against CAA in Ballari. "We won't keep quiet if another protest is staged against the CAA. Each Hindu is like Shivaji. Nobody will be alive if all Hindus come out to streets holding swords," he had said.