Amit Shah’s DK, Udupi tour in Feb; meeting religious leaders top on agenda

Bengaluru, Jan 13: Days after indicating that he may not travel to Davos to attend the World Economic Forum later this month, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Monday said he will be attending the global meet, and that the expansion of his ministry will take place before his foreign tour.

Reiterating that he will keep the promise of making disqualified legislators who have won bypolls on BJP ticket as ministers, he said ministry expansion will happen soon after his meeting with party national president Amit Shah on the matter. "There is no truth in speculations that are going on regarding the cabinet expansion, in fact, Amit Shah had given me time for meeting today in Delhi, but I had to attend important programmes here.

Tomorrow if possible I will cancel all my programmes and will go to Delhi, and get cabinet cleared, there is no problem in that," Yediyurappa said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said the legislators who have won in the bypolls need not worry about the speculations.

"I will fulfil the promise that I have made. If Amit Shah is available I will try to go to Delhi tomorrow. If not he is coming here (Karnataka) on January 17 and 18, will get things cleared and expand the ministry," he said. Yediyurappa had earlier said he will be going to New Delhi probably on January 11 or 12 to discuss cabinet expansion with the BJP high command. However, on Saturday, he said he has decided to discuss the exercise with Shah during the latter's visit to the state next week.

Shah will be here to address a huge rally at Hubballi on January 18 as part of the BJP's nationwide outreach programme to create awareness among the people about the Citizenship Amendment Act.

To a question about his visit to Davos, Yediyurappa said "everyone is persuading me to go, so I have decided to go. As I'm being sent by the central government, so I will have to go, and I will go and come." Yediyurappa along with Union ministers Piyush Goyal and Mansukh Mandaviya as well as chief ministers - Amarinder Singh (Punjab), Kamal Nath (Madhya Pradesh) are among those expected join over 100 Indian CEOs in the Swiss ski resort town of Davos later this month for the WEF's 50th annual meeting.

The Chief Minister, however, had last week, indicated that he may not travel to Davos.

Rubbishing reports about the Ministry expansion after Delhi assembly polls, he said there is no connection between the two.

"I will talk to Amit Shah in a couple of days and immediately take up ministry expansion after that, there is no need for anyone to worry, and there is no truth in certain media reports," he said, adding that expansion exercise will be completed before his Davos visit.

The Chief Minister is likely to travel to Davos on January 20, according to sources.

According to reports, disqualified legislators who got re-elected during the December 5 bypolls on BJP ticket and are all set to become Ministers too had put pressure on Yediyurappa to expand the cabinet before the Davos visit.

As the Chief Minister has already made it clear that 11 of the disqualified JDS-Congress MLAs who got re-elected in the bypolls on BJP tickets will be made ministers, lobbying has been on within the party for the remaining ministerial berths.

Currently, there are 18 Ministers, including the Chief Minister in the cabinet that has a sanctioned strength of 34.

However, with reports that the high command may not be keen on making all the 11 re-elected legislators, whom Yediyurappa has given assurance, as Ministers, it remains to be seen how things turn out.

Cabinet expansion will not be an easy task for the Chief Minister as he will have to strike a balance by accommodating the victorious disqualified legislators as promised and also make place for old guards, upset at being "neglected" in the first round of the induction exercise.

He also has to give adequate representation to various castes and regions in his cabinet and also deal with allocation of key portfolios.

Mangaluru, Mar 14: About 80 centres to check people for fever, cold, cough and other symptoms related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have been set up in the city, health officials said here on Saturday.

According to sources in district health department, apart from the testing centres at Wenlock District Hospital and Lady Goshen hospital, six centres in community health centres, 66 in primary health centres (PHC) and four in the taluk hospitals have been opened for people to get themselves checked if they show any COVID-19-related symptoms.

Two other testing centres are already working at the city’s airport and seaport.

Mumbai, May 30: Former Bollywood actress Zaira Wasim has deleted her Twitter and Instagram accounts after being heavily trolled for quoting from the Quran while talking about locust attacks.

"So We sent upon them the flood and locusts and lice and frogs and blood: Signs openly self explained: but they were steeped in arrogance -- a people given to sin. --Qur'an 7:133," Zaira had tweeted.

Soon, she started receiving hateful comments from netizens who interpreted her post as a justification of the locust attacks. They felt that Zaira was suggesting that the incident is God's way of expressing wrath.

Shortly after being deluged with such comments, Zaira Wasim deleted her Twitter and Instagram accounts.

However, a section of netizens continue to attack Zaira on her Facebook page, where she put up the same post.

Commenting on the post, a user wrote: "Lady you must have taken into account of those people of JK, Kerala and elsewhere who are also suffering from the virus. Moreover the crops which are damaged by locust had no name as to who will consume them. In this hours of crisis please post something which is positive and reflects your education."

Another user shared: "So according to you, with all due respect every year on the same time period, Allah send locust to India to destroy the crops of poor farmers who are not even involve in the industrial rise, who don't use vehicle to destroy the nature, and Allah send locust only to harm the poor farmers and not the rich one who actually destroy nature."

"So those farmers who lost there fields of crops and will probably go into debt and may also commit suicide, those farmers who feed the nation, who feed you and every one, are sinners?" asked yet another user.

However, there were a few on social media who felt Zaira had done nothing wrong.

"Quoting Quranic Verse is not a crime... Why is every Indian abusing @ZairaWasimmm. She didn't mention any particular nation or religion. I request everyone please stand with #ZairaWasim. She needs our support. #ISupportZairaWasim," goes a tweet.