SP Annamalai warns saffron groups, media against trying to twist Dhanyashree suicide case

Bengaluru, Jan 20: The suspense over chief minister BS Yediyurappa expanding his council of ministers is set to continue until after he returns from his trip to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

Yediyurappa, who heads a 10-member delegation to the Swiss ski resort, left on Sunday. Prior to his departure, he told reporters cabinet expansion will happen only after his return on January 24. “I discussed the issue with [BJP] national president Amit Shah for 30 minutes or so. He has given a positive response and I will expand the cabinet within two days after my return,” Yediyurappa said.

But sources said Shah, during his visit to Hubballi on Saturday, had indicated the exercise is likely to be delayed further as the central leadership will be busy with the assembly elections in Delhi. “Indications are there is no possibility of expanding the cabinet until February 11 when the electoral process for the Delhi elections ends,” said a source.

The development has obviously left ministerial aspirants, especially defectors from Congress and JD(S) who were re-elected on BJP tickets last month, restive. Moreover, while Yediyurappa has promised ministerial berths to all MLAs who switched to the BJP from Congress and JD(S), sources say Shah is only in favour of inducting six defectors (11 of whom won MLA seats on saffron party tickets in the byelections) into the cabinet.

“Shah’s advice to Yediyurappa is to strike a balance between defectors and loyalists. His concern is loyalists should not be left disappointed, while justice should be served to the defectors as well,” said a BJP functionary.

Meanwhile, KS Eshwarappa, senior party functionary and minister for rural development, said the BJP would never let down the defectors. “The party is indebted to them and I am sure they will all be rewarded,” he said.

BC Patil, one of the defectors, said some of them had met Shah in one-on-one meetings in Hubballi. “It was more a courtesy call and the issue of cabinet expansion didn’t come up during the meeting,” he said.

Bengaluru, Jun 15: A total of over 4,000 COVID patients have been discharged in Karnataka so far, as the state on Monday reported 213 new cases of coronavirus and two related fatalities, taking the total number of infections to 7,213 and the death toll to 88.

On Monday alone 180 patients were discharged in the state after recovery. As of June 15 evening, cumulatively 7,213 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 88 deaths and 4,135 discharges, the health department said in its bulletin.

Out of the 2,987 active cases, 2,931 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 56 are in Intensive Care Units. Among the two deaths were a 65-year-old man from Dharwad, who was the contact of another patient already tested positive.

He was admitted on June 14 at a designated hospital and died the same day. The other was a 75-year-old woman from Bengaluru, diagnosed with ILI (Influenza Like Illness) A known case of Diabetes mellitus and Hypertension , she was admitted on June 13 at a designated hospital and died on June 15.

Out of 213 new cases 103 are returnees from other states, a majority of them from neighbouring Maharashtra, while 23 are those who returned from other countries.

Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Kalaburagi accounted for 48, followed by Bengaluru urban 35, Dharwad 34, Dakshina Kannada 23, Raichur 18, Yadgir 13, Bidar 11, Ballari 10, Koppal 4, three each from Vijayapura, Bagalkote and Shivamogga, two each from Udupi, Haveri and Ramanagara, and one each from Hassan and Davangere.

Udupi district tops the list of positive cases with a total of 1,028 infections, followed by Kalaburagi 944 and Yadgir 822.

Among discharges also Udupi is on top with total of 736 discharges, followed by Kalaburagi 459 and Bengaluru urban 329. A total of 4,49,331 samples have been tested so far, out of which 5,362 were tested on Monday alone.

So far 4,32,346 samples have been reported as negative, out of which 4,738 reported negative today, the bulletin said.

Bengaluru, May 27: Aimed at giving a boost to affordable housing, the Karnataka government on Tuesday decided to slash the stamp duty on new apartments costing up to ₹35 lakh.

The decision was taken during a meeting chaired by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to review the progress of the Stamps & Registration department.

The Chief Minister directed that the stamp duty be cut from the existing five per cent to two per cent on apartments costing less than ₹20 lakh, getting registered for the first time, his office said in a statement.

Further, the stamp duty on apartments costing between ₹21 lakh - ₹35 lakh will be down from five per cent to three per cent, it said. It is estimated that in 2020-21 due to COVID-19 induced lockdown, Stamps and Registration department might fall short of its revenue target by ₹3,524 crore. The revenue target for 2020-21 is ₹12,655 crore.