Suresh Neramballi - an unsung Mangalurean hero in Kuwait

Mangaluru/Kasaragod, Jun 30: In what appears to be an ego clash between the officers of Karnataka and Kerala, around 150 Mangalureans including 12 pregnant women were evicted from the lodges in Kasaragod in the middle of the night and sent to Mangaluru.

Expressing shock over the incident, Mangaluru MLA U T Khader hit out at the authorities concerned for the lack of concern towards the stranded passengers. “If IAS officers don’t have humanity, what is the use of the IAS tag. Officers in the two states should learn to speak to one another and solve people’s problems,” he said apparently addressing DCs of Kasaragod and Dakshina Kannada. 

The 150 passengers had arrived on Saturday from Dubai in a chartered flight arranged by the Karnataka Cultural Foundation. The flight landed in Kannur after it was denied permission to land in Mangaluru.

But Karnataka’s nodal officer for stranded persons outside India C N Meena Nagaraj, an IAS officer, called up Kerala officials and questioned why the flight was allowed to land in Kannur, Khader said. She reportedly told Kerala officials that the passengers should be quarantined in the cities of arrival and that Karnataka would not take them in.

In the meantime, the Karnataka Cultural Foundation arranged seven buses to take the passengers to Mangaluru. By the time it was conveyed to them that they would not be allowed to enter Mangaluru, the buses had reached Kasaragod district. The representatives of the organisation made frantic calls to several political leaders. Congress leader and district panchayat standing committee chairperson Harshad Vorkady said he got a call for help around 10pm on Saturday. He spoke to owners of three lodges to accommodate them. The lodges were used by the district administration as quarantine centres. 

The lodge owners said they would take the passengers in only if the Kasaragod tahsildar gave permission. “So I called up the tahsildar. He only wanted to know who will pay for the lodging and food. When I told him that the passengers will pay, he gave permission. By midnight, all the passengers were put up in the three lodges,” he said. The police were also at the spot, he said.

According to the Covid protocol, those arriving from abroad should be in institutional quarantine for seven days and in room quarantine for another seven days. But by 4pm on Sunday, the police returned to the lodges and asked the passengers to vacate. They said it was the order of the collector. They produced the order to the lodge owners. The office-bearers of the Karnataka Cultural Foundation said they sought time from the Kasaragod police to arrange rooms in Mangaluru. But Kasaragod police denied it. 

On Sunday, there were Covid deaths in Mangaluru and the Mangaluru deputy commissioner was tied up as residents were objecting to the funeral of one of the victims. “By night, the police started threatening the lodge owners. The members of the Foundation said they would shift the passengers by Monday morning. But the collector would not listen,” said Harshad.

Around 11pm, the Kasaragod district administration brought in four KSRTC buses and sent all the 150 passengers to Mangaluru, he said. By 1am the buses crossed the Thalapdy border and Khader took over from there. But the MLA was livid with how officials treated the people. Collector Sajith Babu in a statement said his enquiry found that the tahsildar did not give permission to accommodate the passengers in Kasaragod lodges.

Global Toastmasters Club conducted Youth Leadership Program (GTC YLP– 2020), which  culminated with an extraordinary show at the Grand Finale in Puli Restaurant, Jubail, Saudi Arabia on Friday, January 31, 2020.

Toastmaster Mohammed Abul Khasim, who hails from Karnataka, Gulbarga was the Chief Coordinator for this Youth leadership program YLP, In this 10 weeks intensively focused program, the young future Leaders in the age group 13 to 15 were given quality coaching on Public Speaking, Listening, Writing, Evaluating and Life Skills, under the able guidance of Chief Coordinator.

The keynote speaker at the event was well-known veteran distinguish Toastmaster Dr R J George who motivated everyone to speak the language of love, removing all boundaries and barriers and invest on spending quality time together.

The performances of Youth Leaders were extraordinary and flawless and it was witness by top prominent figures of Jubail toastmaster fraternity likes of DTM Jamil Akhter,TM Nasiruddin Ansari, DTM Oomen Thomas, MTM Sair Oomen, DTM Hareesh, TM Amitab Serna, DTM Kotesh, MTM Shanti Rekha, DTM Suresh Kumar, TM Imtiyaz Khan, TM Asif Ali khan, MTM Farha Naved,TM Naved Hussain, Madam Sheeba, Dr Saleem Khan,TM Ashik Nazeer and TM Suhail Rais Khan. GTC YLP team thanks the Guest of Honor Mr. Abdul Majeed the Managing Director of Universal Inspection Company for sparing the valuable time as one of the sponsor of the event.

The Chief Guest at the Finale was Toastmasters District 79 Club Growth Director DTM Rami Jawad, laud the efforts of GTC for community service and urged all students to take full advantage of such chances as they present life changing opportunities, Division Direct ‘L” DTM Sadagopan address the audience and District PQD DTM Madhusha Grace the occasion. 

During the span of 10 weeks, more than 40 senior member of Jubail Toastmasters fraternity contributed to the success of this program as one to one mentors, Workshop Presenters and Assistant Coordinators. DTM Uzma Siddiqui, DTM Aziz Ahmed Siddiqui, DTM Safare Mohammed, DTM N V Arasu and DTM Jeyasankar and DTM Asif Ali Siddiqui, led the team of Toastmasters as overall Program Advisors, MTM Samina Mazher was chief judge for the event.

The grand finale saw four absorbing contests in Table Topics, Evaluation Speech, International Speech and Debate conducted by YL Ayesha Safare, YL Sai Pranav, YL Mohammed Saad and YL Fawaz Kannan respectively and YL Jaweriya conducted the banner parade.
Maliaka Maryam won the first prize in International Speech, while the second and third were earned by Mohammed Saad and Mohammed Umair. The Table topic contest was won by Ahmed Khan, where Jayveer Prajapati and Fawaz Kannan stood second and third respectively.

Sreena Nanda Kumar won evaluation Speech Contest, while Mohammed Sufyan and Sai Pranav stood second and third respectively. In Debate contest the team speaking against the topic represented by Hasib Javid, Muzaffer Shaik and Nabil Bin Tasnim stood first and runner team was represented by Sarah Nasir, Fathima Badruddin and Shanum Rabia . Hasib Javid was declared the best debate speaker.

The first term President Sarah Nasir and second term President Mohammed Ahmed Khan started the program with their presidential addresses after the Surah recitation by Nabil BinTasnim. YL Jumana Jaffer & YL Arman Raiq Siraj hosted the finale as Master of ceremonies. Immedate past Youth leaders and assistance Coordinators and workshop presenters Jaweriya Mariyam and Ayesha Safare conducted the award ceremony, while DTM Safare Mohammed handled contest operations.

Global Toastmasters President DTM Khalid Siddiqui and YLP Chief Coordinator TM Mohammed Abul Khasim thanked all Youth Leaders, Parents Sponsors and Toastmasters for their contribution in making the program successful. 

Past President of Global TMC, past Area63 Governor and first ever Joint Division E & L conference chairman Mangalorean DTM Shameer Ahmed Kudroli congratulated the Chief Coordinator Mohammed Abul Khasim for the effort and dedication to make the event a grand success and his journey to accomplish the DTM title soon.

Bengaluru, Apr 7: Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Siddaramaiah on Monday urged Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to announce a special package to help farmers, agriculture labourers and also working class in various sectors who are affected by the lockdown.

Mr Siddaramaiah put forth his demands during a telephonic conversation and the Chief Minister positively responding to it informed that he will formulate a programme keeping in mind the suggestions made by the Opposition, a statement from the LoP's office said.

It said, the Chief Minister also spoke to Mr Siddaramaiah regarding the government's decision to stop supply of free food for poor and needy through Indira Canteens.

Mr Siddaramaiah on Saturday had written to Yediyurappa urging him to utilise Indira Canteens efficiently and provide food for poor and needy until the coronavirus crisis and lockdown is over.

The former Chief Minister's letter had come a day after the state government had decided not to provide free food at Indira Canteens as concerns were raised about the quality and misuse that was happening.

It had, however, decided to continue to provide subsidised food- breakfast at Rs 5 and lunch and dinner at Rs 10, as usual.

Mr Yediyurappa during the phone conversation on Monday appraised Siddaramaiah that the decision to supply food by fixing a price was taken to stop misuse that was happening.

Mr Siddaramaiah, however, insisted the government should provide food free of cost to the poor and needy, by taking care that misuse doesn't happen.

The senior Congress leader asked the Chief Minister to take action against errant officials who allowed misuse to happen, the statement said, adding that Yediyurappa has promised to look into it.

Initially, the government last month had decided that the state subsidised Indira Canteens would provide food packets free of cost to the poor and needy in the wake of the lockdown.