Parents, two educated daughters commit suicide in Udupi

Hubballi, Jan 6: Elected representatives of the BJP, Congress and JD(S) on Sunday decided to sink their differences and fight unitedly for Karnataka’s rightful share in the Mahadayi and Kalasa-Banduri water dispute with Goa.

The meeting convened by JD(S) MLC Basavaraj Horatti here saw participation of BJP ministers Prahlad Joshi and Jagadish Shettar, Congress and JD(S) lawmakers, among others.

After a 70-minute closed door meeting, MLC Horatti told reporters that they discussed the water dispute in detail and decided to take steps based on inputs from legal and technical experts on the rightful apportioning of water. “Today, we took the first big step towards the overall development of the region, unencumbered by political divisions,” he said.

Though the air was filled with a sense of jubilation as the issue had united seemingly hostile political parties on one side, a few activists expressed disappointment that the meeting failed to set a timeline to resolve the dispute.

Bengaluru, Mar 14: Amid coronavirus threat, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has ordered shutting down for a week of all places/activities where people gather in large number including swimming pools, shopping malls, schools, colleges, cinema halls etc, state Health Minister B Sriramulu said.

This comes after Yediyurappa chaired an emergency meeting with ministers and senior officials on Friday to discuss the situation.

Earlier, schools in the state had announced early summer vacation for their students this academic year as a precautionary measure. Other public places have been shut down in the state amid the Covid-19 scare.

The shut down in Karnataka comes after various other state governments ordered similar steps. Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir etc. are some of the states where governments have ordered shut down as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

The central government has also taken several steps to contain the virus, including suspension of all visas to India till April 15. Till date, India has reported two deaths and 82 confirmed cases of the deadly coronavirus.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. The virus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan last year has spread to more than 100 countries worldwide, infecting over 1,30,000 people.

Udupi, Jun 5: Senior BJP leader and Lok Sabha member Shobha Karandlje accused members of Tablighi Jamaat of spreading Coronavirus, particularly in slums, in Bengaluru.

Speaking to newsmen here Friday night, she said that the members had intentionally spread the virus in Siddique Layout and Padarayanapura. Members had hatched a conspiracy to destroy the country. She would raise the issue with the central government.

She said that New Delhi and Maharashtra were responsible for rising Covid-19 cases in the country. Highlighting the programmes, introduced by Modi-led NDA government for the past six years, she blamed Covid-19 for the collapse of the economy. But for Covid-19 Modi government at the Centre would have been a leader in the world,” she added.

She said 13,541 people, stranded in other States and foreign countries, had returned to Udupi. “We have sufficient beds in the district to tackle the situation. But if more people decide to travel to Udupi, arranging quarantine facilities would be a huge challenge,” she added.