'Diluted' anti-superstition bill gets State Cabinet nod

DHNS
September 28, 2017

Bengaluru, Sept 28: After much ado, the State Cabinet on Wednesday approved a diluted anti-superstition bill that seeks to ban 16 practices, including human torture in the name of rituals and creating panic by threatening to invoke ghosts.

The Karnataka Prevention and Eradication of Inhuman Evil Practices and Black Magic Bill, 2017 is a watered down version of the Karnataka Prevention of Superstitious Practices Bill, 2013 which had proposed to ban numerology and astrology too.

However, the 2013 bill had met with resistance from various quarters, including religious institutions, and was referred to a scrutiny committee for review. Numerology, astrology and vaastu have now been spared from the purview of the bill.

The words “aghori” and “narabali” (cannibalism and human sacrifice) have also been deleted in the revised bill as these practices are not found in the State.

Briefing reporters, Law Minister T?B?Jayachandra said the bill will be tabled in the winter session of the State legislature, likely to be held in November in Belagavi.

The bill is modelled after a similar legislation in force in Maharashtra. It seeks to ban practices such as exorcism, black magic, witchcraft, rituals promoting self-injury, throwing of infants from a height on a bed of thorns, parading women in the naked and sexual exploitation by invoking supernatural powers.

Made snana out

The bill also bans the controversial “made snana” practised in some temples. Without naming the practise, the bill states that facilitating any person to roll over leaves with leftover food by others, in public or religious places, is banned.

The bill does not cover worship, teaching of ancient and traditional learning, holding prayers, religious celebrations, piercing of ears, nose in accordance with rituals, vaastushastra, astrology and advice on sourcing groundwater.

The bill contains penal provisions and designates police inspectors as vigilance officers for detection and prevention of violations of the provisions of the bill.

Comments

Unknown
 - 
Thursday, 28 Sep 2017

This is good , we will keep Yeddi's people away from performing such stupid act

Vijay
 - 
Thursday, 28 Sep 2017

irrelevant to this article.

Shiva
 - 
Thursday, 28 Sep 2017

Going by superstitious practices of Congis,worship of Gandhis to be abolished?!!!.stop glorification of progressive thinkers,gauri lankesh.......etc!!!!

Gopalkrishna
 - 
Thursday, 28 Sep 2017

I think , i need clarify what education means in my comment, many times most of get misled. I don't mean schooling and getting degrees is education. thats only earning a degree not getting educated. Hope i made my stand clear

Kumar
 - 
Thursday, 28 Sep 2017

Education is has no bearing on superstitions. Many well educated Pundits' superstitions are in fact make others to believe too. I have seen many believe in astrology, vastu, puranas, and so on. Many uneducated are atheists too.

Gopalkrishna
 - 
Thursday, 28 Sep 2017

Wonder any rule can stop practices, but education can.. can government spend time and money in spreading awareness. Just law does not help in any fashion. Unless we change the minds of the ppl. This will be a defunct law as even enforcers do not believe in this the law enacted...

Gopalkrishna
 - 
Thursday, 28 Sep 2017

Wonder any rule can stop practices, but education can.. can government spend time and money in spreading awareness. Just law does not help in any fashion. Unless we change the minds of the ppl. This will be a defunct law as even enforcers do not believe in this the law enacted...

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News Network
April 1,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 1: The Opposition Congress leader in the Karnataka Assembly, and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has appealed the party legislators and MPs to contribute a minimum rupees one lakh each, towards the KPCC's Corona relief fund.

In a statement, here on Tuesday, Siddaramaiah had stated that the COVID-19 disease had created a havoc among the people of the state, and had thrown thousands of people jobless and struggling to get access to the food grains as well as to medical aid.

The people of the state, who had battered from the unprecedented rains and floods recently, had to face another daunting challenge of the spread of COVID-19 virus across the state.

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News Network
March 25,2020

Chithradurga, Mar 25: COVID-19-positive cases in Karnataka jumped to 42 from 33 on Tuesday, with nine cases added to the list overnight. The daughter of G M Siddeshwara, Davanagere MP, is the latest case.

Sources from the Siddeshwara family said that the MP’s daughter, along with her two children, who started from Guyana, first landed at New York airport and from there, she took a flight to New Delhi.

From Delhi, she flew to Bengaluru. And then, she and her children travelled with her father in a chaffeur-driven car on March 21 to their house in Bheemasamudra.


Siddeshwara said that protocol for COVID-19 had been followed and all who returned were under self-quarantine at his house. However, the administration was not informed of her travel history till the samples were given for test, Chitradurga Deputy Commissioner Vinoth Priya R told TNIE. The DC said the test results of the MP’s daughter were collected by district health authorities and sent to Shivamogga Institute of Medical Sciences on March 22.

The test turned out to be positive for COVID-19 and she was shifted to the isolation ward at Chigateri district hospital in Davanagere. This is the first positive case in Chitradurga.The patient, who is the wife of an Indian Diplomat in Guyana, complained of flu-like symptoms and remained self-quarantined at her house at Bheemasamudra. Her condition was informed to the health department, which collected her samples and forwarded it to the SIMS for tests, results of which arrived on Tuesday evening.

The DC said that samples of family members including the two children, and those working at the MP’s house would be collected and sent for testing to ensure proper protocol is followed. The administration has declared a ‘red zone of a 5km radius around Siddeshwara’s house at Bheemasamudra. DHO Dr Palaksha said that the patient is not suffering any serious problems and is normal. However, we have put her in the isolation ward of Chigateri District Hospital in Davangere, he said.

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News Network
July 31,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 31: The Karnataka government on Wednesday put on hold a controversial proposal to drop certain chapters, including on Islam, Christianity, Tipu Sultan and his father Hyder Ali, from social science textbooks to reduce the 2020-21 syllabi for students in classes 1-10.

Citing the COVID-19 pandemic and the disruption caused to the academic calendar of the year, the government had earlier dropped the chapter on Tipu Sultan and Hyder Ali from the Class 7 social science textbook, saying chapters on Tipu Sultan have been retained in the Class 6 and 10 textbooks.

The move did not go down well with the opposition, which saw certain ulterior motives behind the decision.

Apparently under sharp criticism, the Department of Public Instruction issued a new notification on Wednesday "on the directions of the Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar".

There is a delay in opening the schools during the academic year 2020-21 due to COVID-19 pandemic, said the latest order.

In this context, the order said, chapters were dropped to fit in 120 days of the academic year for classes 1 to 10 and the same was published in the department's website.

"However, on the directions of the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education, the decision to drop certain chapters has been put on hold. A review will be done following which the deleted chapters will be uploaded in the website," the order read.

Earlier in the day, Mr Kumar had issued a statement, saying that the decision to truncate the syllabus has not been finalised yet. He also made it clear that his department would not remove chapters unnecessarily.

Former chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah had attacked the government on the issue.

"The government, which has failed to control the spread of coronavirus, is using it as an opportunity to push its clandestine agenda of saffronising the textbooks," Siddaramaiah tweeted.

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