Modi fans target Ramya for criticising his indifference towards flood victims

Davanagere, Jun 15: Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu was on Monday seen without face mask at an event in Davanagere amid COVID-19 crisis in the country.

The Minister was attending the wedding ceremony of son of former minister Parameshwar Naik at Hagaribommanahalli in Davanagere.

This is not the first time that Sriramulu has flouted the norms for preventing the spread of COVID-19. He took part in a procession in Chitradurga on June 2 and flouted social distancing norms. He was seen surrounded by several supporters while a big garland was being offered to him.

The state has reported 6,245 COVID-19 cases including 2,977 cured, 3,196 active cases and 72 deaths.

As part of the Indian Overseas Congress Mera Bharat Mahaan NRI Series, a Facebook live Global Conference was facilitated by Dr Arathi Krishna, Dy. KPCC NRI Chairman and Mr. Mohammad Mansoor President IOC Bahrain on 30th May, 2020.

In the one and half hour live interaction, questions and answers were addressed by DK Shivakumar, President of PCC Karnataka and attended by hundreds of participants, accumulating an impressive 300K people viewing the live broadcast across the globe.

The event was inaugurated with a welcome address by the inspiring and innovative IOC chairman Sam Pitroda followed by the motivational speech of AICC Secretary Shri Himanshu Vyas, IOC US President Mr. Mohinder Singh Gilzian and former KPCC NRI Dy Chairman Dr. Arathi Krishna by whom Shivakumar was introduced.

The event was remarkably successful with maximum interaction of global congress family members and straight forward answers by Shivakumar. 

He emphasized on the present political issues in India and the Indian government's negligence in handling the crisis related to Covid-19 and the indefinite lockdown. He added at present, that the Congress is playing a frontline, constructive role by addressing and articulating the Covid-19 issues and offering critique-based solutions to the government as a responsible opposition party.

The insightful meeting covered the congress strategy and the rebuilding of the KPCC, as well as discussed counter corrupt and hatred politics of current regime along with the role of constructive opposition, etc.

IOC Bahrain President Mr. Mohammad Mansoor thanked IOC Chairman Sam Pitroda, AICC Secretary  Himanshu Vyas for their role in strengthening the party and motivating the team; former KPCC NRI Dy Chairman Dr. Arathi Krishna for introducing the guest; IOC global IT Cell Chairman Manoj Shinde, along with Dananjay and Vinay for professionally managing the event;  IOC US President Mohinder and  Karnataka Chapter President Gauri Shankar for emphasizing the guest of honour; Ms Sofiya Sharma and Ms Vijya Nadela for beautifully moderating the event and all the distinguished guests and Presidents of IOC and KPCC wing Leaders from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE, Germany and other countries who were present on the online meeting and especially  Mr. Althaf,  PA to DKS and Mr. A.N.Nataraj Gowda in charge of KPCC IT Cell for helping facilitatethe online meeting.

The euphoria over the claim that around 3,000 tonnes of gold reserves, worth Rs 12 trillion, have been discovered in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra district could not last even 24 hours, with the Geological Survey of India (GSI) clarifying on Saturday there had been no such discovery.

The GSI, headquartered in Kolkata, rebutted the claims of the Uttar Pradesh Directorate of Geology and Mining (UPDGM), and said “miscommunication” must have led to the wrong reporting of facts.

M Sridhar, director general of the GSI, said nobody in the agency gave any such data. He said 52,806 tonnes of gold ore was found in Sonbhadra district during the exploration work in 1998-2000. From this reserve, only 160 kg of gold can be extracted.

“There must have been some miscommunication of facts because of which the gold ore deposits have been overestimated. We have written a letter to Uttar Pradesh (UPDGM), stating the facts. The GSI has not estimated such kind of vast resource of gold deposits in Sonbhadra,” Sridhar said.

ALSO READ: 2,900-tonne gold mine found in Sonbhadra, 4 times that of India's reserves

The UPDGM had said on Friday that gold deposits were found in Son Pahadi and Hardi areas of the district. Sridhar said while gold ore was found in the area during the GSI’s exploration work in 1998-2000, it had told the state government about the discovery in November last year.

Under the new regulation, which came into effect from 2015, the GSI has to inform the state government when ore deposits are discovered. Earlier, no such action was mandatory. In its report, the GSI estimated that only 3.03 gm of gold can be extracted from a tonne of ore. It also clarified that even the extraction amount was tentative and could not be established for certain.

Moreover, Sridhar said the deposits were spread across only 0.5 sq km in forest land, which made the mining of ore economically unviable. “When there are several mines nearby, we can club it into a block and then it makes sense to mine the ore. But in this case, the deposits are too small to make it viable for any company to mine it,” he said. The GSI usually prioritises its exploration work based on the needs of the Centre. While strategic minerals like tin, cobalt, lithium, beryllium, germanium, gallium, indium, tantalum, niobium, selenium, and bismuth are atop the list in GSI exploration, gold is another commodity on its priority list.

According to the World Gold Council, India has reserves of 630 tonnes of gold.