I am also a Hindu, don't need sermons from Yogi: Siddaramaiah

Bellari, Feb 23: Fringe outfit Sri Ram Sena leader Sanjeev Maradi said on Friday said that organization will reward Rs 10 lakh to the person who will 'eliminate' those who have raised "pro-Pakistan" slogans including Amulya who recently raised "Pakistan Zindabad" slogan at an anti-CAA protest in Bengaluru.

"We request both state and central government not to release them (Pro-Pakistan sloganeers) on bail. If they will be released Sri Ram Sena will eliminate them or will give a reward of Rupees 10 lakh to those who kill them," said Sanjeev Maradi.

"We condemn such slogans. This is like a virus. First, it happened in Jammu and Kashmir, then in JNU, then Mysore and then a student named Amulya raised pro Pakistan slogan in Bengaluru," he added.

A girl named Amulya raised 'Pakistan Zindabad' slogan on Thursday at an anti-CAA protest where AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi was also invited.

Thereafter, a case was registered under Section 124A (Offence of sedition) of the Indian Penal Code against the student.

Meanwhile, Imran Pasha, the organizer of the anti-CAA protest said that Amulya was not invited to the event.

"We were the organizers of the event. At around 6:45 pm on Thursday, when I and Member of Parliament Asaduddin Owaisi were entering the stage area, we did not notice Amulya was present there. I did not invite her," Pasha told media.

Bengaluru, May 12: Former chief minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said that the Central and Karnataka government have failed in containing the coronavirus spread despite having enough time for preparations.

"Central and state government failed in properly controlling COVID-19. The first coronavirus case was reported in Kerala on January 30. Lockdown was imposed on March 24. Both Centre and state had enough time for preparations," Siddaramaiah said in a press meet here.

He said that the Central government did not stop the airline services on time.

"Karnataka government might have been able to stop COVID-19 properly. However, both the state and central government are playing politics over the issue and blaming Tablighi Jamaat for the spread, which is a political strategy painted by the RSS," Siddaramaiah said.

"Who gave the licence to Tablighi's international convention? Who gave them permission in Delhi? They didn't control it. Central government is directly responsible for the increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases in India," he added.

Siddaramaiah said that the lockdown was imposed without any preparation, which he said caused huge problems for the migrant workers across the country.

"Now, the government is collecting ticket fare and looting migrant workers. They don't have jobs or food, they don't have money, and they earn every day to survive. How will they pay for the tickets? Why the government is not arranging for free trains?" the Congress leader said.

He said that around Rs 35,000 crore have been credited to PM CARES fund, Rs 3,000 crore of which was credited from Karnataka alone. "Why are they not using that money?" he asked.

Siddaramaiah said that the party is demanding for the Centre to arrange for migrant workers to return to their native places across the country free of cost.

"We asked Chief Minister to call an all party meeting. We gave many suggestions, which this government did not consider. We also took a delegation and gave a memorandum about farmers, daily wage workers, road side vendors, barbers, problems faced by the unorganized sector. But this government didn't consider any of it," he said.

Questioning the Central government's suggestion to States to amend their Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Acts, Siddaramaiah said that the move is against the federal system of the country and claimed that it harms the interests of small scale farmers.

He said that the BJP-led state government has also decided to postpone the Gram panchayat elections in the state and is trying to nominate their party workers for village panchayat elections.

"The Government must continue with the present members of the Gram panchayat. If BJP tries to nominate their party members to village panchayats, we will take to streets to protest despite the lockdown," Siddaramaiah added.

Bengaluru, Jul 21: The total number of Covid-19 cases in Karnataka breached the 70,000 mark on Tuesday as the state reported 3,649 fresh infections, while 61 fatalities took the death toll to 1,464, the health department said.

The day also saw 1,664 patients getting discharged after recovery. Out of 3,649 fresh cases reported on Tuesday, a whopping 1,714 were from Bengaluru urban alone. As of July 21 evening, cumulatively 71,069 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed in Karnataka, which includes 1,464 deaths and 25,459 discharges, the health department said in its bulletin.

It said that out of the 44,140 active cases, 43,557 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 583 are in Intensive Care Units.

Twenty-two out of 61 deaths reported on Tuesday are from Bengaluru urban, followed by five each from Dakshina Kannada, Mysuru and Dharwad, four each from Kolar and Belagavi, three each from Hassan, Tumakuru and Haveri, Bidar 2, and one each from Chikkaballapura, Chikkamagaluru, Chamarajanagara, Gadag and Vijayapura.

Most of the deceased either had a history of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) or Influenza-like illness (ILI). Out of 3,649 cases tested positive on Tuesday, contacts of the large number of the cases are still under tracing.

Among the districts where new cases were reported, Bengaluru urban accounted for 1,714, Ballari 193, Dakshina Kannada 149, Mysuru 135, Yadgir 117, Uttara Kannada 109, Hassan 107, Kolar 103, followed by others.

Bengaluru urban district topped the list of positive cases, with 34,943 infections, followed by Dakshina Kannada 3,829 and Kalaburagi 2,966. Among discharges Bengaluru urban was on top with 7,476 discharges, followed by Kalabuagi 1,834 and Udupi 1,731.

A total of 10,64,734 samples were tested so far, out of which 43,904 were tested on Tuesday alone, the bulletin said. It said that 19,328 of the 43,904 samples tested today were rapid antigen tests.