Mangaluru: Cong protests flyover delay; demands probe into NHAI’s substandard work

Bengaluru, May 29: Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy on Thursday said the Centre has objected to the state's decision to increase working days at factories, and the matter would be discussed in the next cabinet meeting.

"....the Centre has raise objection to extending working days and has said it should be brought down. We will amend it....I will share the details after the next cabinet meet, the matter did not come up today (Thursday), we have received the letter," Madhuswamy told reporters in response to a question after the cabinet meeting.

He noted that a couple of states that had increased the working hours have withdrawn it. The Karnataka government had, on May 22, issued a notification allowing factories to extend working hours upto 10 hours a day and 60 hours a week till August 21. The extension of work hours is from the existing eight hours a day and 48 hours a week.

Pointing out that while announcing COVID-19 relief package, the Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had announced Rs 5,000 per acre for maize farmers, Madhuswamy said while issuing the circular which mentioned that relief would be applicable to rabi crop, as it would not benefit many farmers.

Now, it has now been decided to give Rs 5,000 per acre to all maize farmers, irrespective of rabi or kharif. There were also several rules and regulations for barbers, autorickshaw and taxi drivers among others to claim their one-time compensation of Rs 5,000, the Minister said.

"We have decided to relax most of them (rules) other than those essential and give compensation, as regulations wouldn't have benefited many," he said. With five nominated seats of legislative council falling vacant on June 23, the cabinet has authorised the Chief Minister to nominate for 5 seats.

The cabinet also gave post-facto approval for Karnataka Repealing of Certain Enactments and Regional Law Bill 2020 that has been passed by the legislature.

Udupi, Mar 25: Fearing Corona infection a 56-year-old man has committed suicide over in Udupi. 

The deceased has been identified as Gopalkrishna Madivala.

He was a KSRTC bus driver and was currently performing a duty to train new drivers.

He suspected his friend had contracted COVID-19 and as he had a close association with him, he feared he too will be infected and hence hanged himself on a tree.

Although symptoms of Corona infection do not appear to him, he left behind a death note which stated that he resorted to the extreme step over suspicion of having been infected by a corona trait of a friend. 

Recently, the first COVID-19 positive case in Udupi where a 34-year-old man has been tested positive.

A press release issued by the District Health and Family Welfare Officer on Wednesday said that the man had come from Dubai to Udupi district on March 18.

Since he showed symptoms of COVID-19, he was admitted to the District Government Hospital on March 23. His throat swab was sent for test and the preliminary report stated that he had tested positive for COVID-19.

Bengaluru, Jul 10: Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Thursday condemned the decision of the HRD Ministry to drop chapters on citizenship, secularism and federalism from Class 11 political science syllabus, stating that this will "deprive a generation of students from understanding the important pillars of Indian democracy".

"I strongly condemn the decision of @HRDMinistry to drop chapters on citizenship, secularism and federalism. This will deprive a generation of students from understanding the important pillars of Indian democracy. #Stop Saffronisation Of Education," Siddaramaiah tweeted.

The Congress leader further alleged that BJP does not believe in the principles of citizenship, secularism and federalism.

"Chapters on citizenship, secularism and federalism are dropped from Class 11 Pol Science. syllabus. Does this explain something? Yes, it explains that @BJP4India doesn't believe in these principles and validates its past behaviour," he said in another tweet.

Earlier in the day, Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank rejected criticism over alleged conspiracy in CBSE's decision to reduce the syllabus of schools due to COVID-19 outbreak and urged the critics to "leave politics out of education".

"There has been a lot of uninformed commentary on the exclusion of some topics from #CBSESyllabus. The problem with these comments is that they resort to sensationalism by connecting topics selectively to portray a false narrative," the Union Minister tweeted.

"It is our humble request:#Education is our sacred duty towards our children. Let us leave politics out of education and make our politics more educated," he added.

The CBSE has revised the syllabus for the classes IX to XII during the academic session 2020-21 in the wake of the situation created by COVID-19.

In a circular issued to all the heads of the institutions affiliated to it, the CBSE had said that the revision of syllabi has been done due to the extraordinary situation prevailing in the country and different parts of the world.