BJP veteran, union minister Ananth Kumar dies of illness at 59

News Network
November 12, 2018

Bengaluru, Nov 12: Veteran leader of Bharatiya Janata Party and Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs H N Ananth Kumar passed away in the early hours of Monday after undergoing treatment for cancer at a private hospital in Bengaluru. He was 59.

Kumar, one of the chief architects of Karnataka BJP, was battling cancer for the last several months. Kumar's body, which has been taken to his Basavangudi residence, will be kept for public viewing at the National College Grounds from 8 am onwards.

He had undergone treatment in London and New York, before being flown to the Sri Shankara Cancer Hospital in the city a few days back.

Upon hearing the rapid deterioration of his health, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had visited Kumar at the hospital on October 28.

Speaking to DH, surgical oncologist Dr B S Srinath who heads Shankara Hospital said that Kumar was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer in the month of June. 

"After his diagnosis in Bengaluru, he was taken to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, where he was treated. He, however, failed to respond to the treatment, following which was brought back to Bengaluru and kept on life support," he added.

Incidentally, Kumar's wife Tejwaswini is one of the trustees of the Sri Shankara Cancer Foundation.

The six-time Parliamentarian, who had continuously represented the Bangalore South Parliamentary constituency, Kumar began his political career as an Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) leader.

After serving various positions in ABVP like the state secretary and later national secretary in 1985,  he decided to walk in the bigger ground of politics by joining the Bharatiya Janata Party in 1987.

His first important role was when he was nominated as the State President of BJP Yuva Morcha.

In 1995 he was appointed as the national secretary of the party. He was elected to Lok Sabha in 1996 for the first time. In 1998 he was inducted into Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet as the Minister for Civil Aviation. 

In 1999, he became one of the most important cabinet ministers in the NDA government handling various ministries including Tourism, Sports & Youth Affairs, Culture, Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation.

Born in a middle-class family on July 22, 1959, he is the son of Narayan Shastri and Girija N Shastry. Kumar is survived by his wife Tejaswini and two daughters, Aishwarya and Vijetha.

Comments

Ibrahim
 - 
Monday, 12 Nov 2018

Inna Lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un

Sandeep Ullal
 - 
Monday, 12 Nov 2018

It's a shock to me.. He was just 59

Reshma kodialbail
 - 
Monday, 12 Nov 2018

Rest in peace

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News Network
May 18,2020

Mangaluru, May 18: A boat which was engaged in an operation to fix the pipe relating to the reverse osmosis plant of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) at Tannibavi turned turtle due to strong wind.

Two workers had gone missing in the incident that occurred on Sunday late evening, and one of them was rescued shortly thereafter.

The person who has not yet been found happens to be Pandu Pist from Mumbai. The person who was rescued was Santosh from Dakshina Kannada.

Three workers from West Bengal who were facing danger were also rescued.

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News Network
April 27,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 27: Janata Dal-Secular leader and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy on Monday said that the government should work towards lowering the cost of living as the spending power of the consumer has weakened, and it should impose COVID cess on the ultra-rich.

"The economy won't bounce back within a very short period. It is important to lower the cost of living as the spending power of the consumer has depleted. The government must cut the petrol/diesel prices. The loss of revenue may be offset partially by imposing COVID cess on the ultra-rich," Kumaraswamy tweeted.

"According to RBI and international economic assessment agencies, the GDP growth rate of the country is expected to fall to a historic low. Such a dire situation calls for citizen-centric measures like full or partial waivers of EMIs, rents, school fees, and other levies," he added.

Kumaraswamy further said that the government must announce schemes to save the livelihoods of people, especially those in the unorganised sector.

"It is high time the government announced schemes to save livelihoods of people, especially those in the unorganised sector. The government must provide immediate relief to farmers, construction workers, cab and auto drivers, garment workers, etc," the former Karnataka CM tweeted.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) had said on April 23 that India's economic growth is likely to hover between zero and 1.5 per cent in the current financial year as the extended COVID-19 lockdown slows down activity across most sectors.

India is under a nation-wide lockdown which was imposed on March 25 and later extended on April 14 to May 3 to stem the spread of coronavirus.

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News Network
July 21,2020

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.

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