Karnataka govt hikes salaries of NHM doctors to Rs 45,000

Bengaluru, Mar 4: The Karnataka High Court has issued a notice to the state government in connection with the denial of retirement benefits to a retired deputy commissioner of commercial taxes who had fought against the illegal iron ore lobby.

Justice G Narendra also directed the state to respond to the notice before March 9, stating the reasons for withholding the officer’s retirement benefits.

Advocate Ramananda, appearing for the retired officer Josephat Andrews, explained that the single-judge bench also warned the government of stringent action.

Petitioner Josephat Andrews said his retirement benefits amounting to Rs 25.88 lakh were being withheld since 2014.

In 2009, Andrews detected a huge scam involving Vijaya Leasing, a company associated with former minister Gali Janardhan Reddy. Immediately he wrote to his higher officials explaining to them how the department was owed Rs 1,400 crore in taxes by the company. Immediately after that, Andrews was transferred to Bengaluru.

The media exposed the scam in 2012. Thereafter, to harass the officer, Andrews was served notice for allegedly not conducting an inspection of M/s Vijaya Leasing, which was controlled by the family of then tourism minister Gali Janardhana Reddy, on July 11, 2012.  He was discharged by a full departmental enquiry.

The petitioner was issued a second show cause notice on Jan 29, 2014 on the same charges. Before his retirement, he was docked two increments, denied promotional benefits and his pension was reduced without following due process.

He was served yet another notice with charges that he did not inspect goods vehicles, and an order was passed on April 30, 2019 reducing his pension by 5 per cent, an unprecedented punitive action.

This order was quashed by the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT), which also ordered payment of retirement benefits to Andrews within five months. However, the benefits were not released to him.  

“Rule 214 of the Karnataka Civil Services Rules (KCSR) make it clear that no enquiry can be held four years after an officer’s retirement.  Belying all statutory rules and precedents of the Supreme Court, Josephat Andrews’ retirement benefits were withheld for five years. Andrews therefore approached the High Court,” advocate Ramananda explained.

Josephat Andrews recalled to Deccan Chronicle that although mining activity was in full swing in 2008, the commercial tax department maintained that it had nothing to do with mining. “I travelled to Gujarat, Maharashtra and Bellary to investigate. I found tax evasion of thousands of crores. When I visited M/s the Vijaya Leasing facility – it was operating from an old oil mill premises–within 20 minutes I got calls from Ali, a person claiming to be the personal assistant of Gali Janardhan Reddy. He told me to get out of the premises as it belonged to his boss. Then calls came from minister Sreeramulu and MLA Nagendra. 

Within minutes 200-300 rowdies gathered around the building and my superior asked me to come back. Instead of filing a police complaint and forming a special team to deal with the situation, the department transferred me to Bengaluru,” he explained.

Talking about the High Court directive, Josephat Andrews said, “I have suffered a lot. Instead of getting a reward for increasing revenues by Rs 2,000 crore, I was punished.”

Bengaluru, May 16: At least 23 new COVID-19 positive cases have emerged in the past 19 hours, raising Karnataka''s tally to 1,079, a health official said on Saturday.

"New cases reported from Friday 5 p.m. to Saturday noon are 23," said the official.

Among the 1,079 cases, 548 are active and isolated in designated hospitals across the state, 494 patients got discharged and 36 died of the virus.

In the past 19 hours, cases spiked in Benglaluru Urban, the place hosting the highest number of coronavirus cases in the state.

Of the new cases, Bengaluru Urban reported 14 cases, followed by 3 in Hassan and Mandya, Ballari, Bagalkote, Davangere, Dharwad and Udupi, 1 each.

All the 14 cases, men, from Bengaluru Urban were secondary contacts of positive case 653.

All Hassan, Dharwad and Bagalkote cases had a history of inter-state travel to Mumbai, Maharashtra, India''s largest sufferer of Covid.

A 46-year-old man from Ballari had a travel history to Ahmedabad in Gujarat, another major COVID-19 hotspot state in India.

A 40-year-old man from Mandya had inter-district travel history to Kolar and Bengaluru.

A 1-year-old infant girl from Udupi had international travel history to Dubai.

Among the new cases, 15 are contacts of earlier cases.

Of the all cases, 20 are men and three women.

Only four of the 23 cases are above 50 and 18 below 40.

Of the 1,079 cases, 12 per cent patients were senior citizens, 66 per cent men and 34 per cent women with a discharge rate of 44 per cent.

Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 12: At least 66 children have ended their lives in Kerala since the Covid-19 lockdown began on March 25 with youngsters facing stress unable to bear the unprecedented situation where schools are shut and friends are out of reach to share their woes.

According to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, there has been an increasing instance of suicidal tendencies among children in the state due to various reasons, including parents scolding them over mobile phone use and failure to attend online classes.

This has prompted the government to launch a teleconsultation facility for children facing stress and also cautioning parents against hurting their sentiments while being concerned about welfare of their wards. It has also ordered a study into the issue. "Among the children an increasing instance of suicidal tendency is being witnessed which will become an extremely serious social issue.

Since March 25, when the national lockdown was imposed, 66 children, below 18 years of age, have ended their lives due to various reasons", Vijayan said. A mother scolding her child for not attending the ongoing online classes, or a parent questioning a child for downloading a sleazy video on the smartphone or the constant rift between the parents were among the reasons which triggered the suicidal tendency, he said on Saturday.

As the schools have not yet re-opened due to the lockdown, the children are unable to meet their friends and share their problems. Vijayan said though the parents were intervening keeping in mind their child's welfare, it was essential to ensure that the young minds were not hurt in the process. To helpthe children facing issues relating to mental pressures, 'Chiri'atele-counselling initiative has been started by the government under its Our Responsibility to Children Programme (ORC), a planned community intervention that connects with people between the age of 12-18 years. The state health department has also launched "Ottakalla Oppamundu" (You are not alone,we are with you) programmeto help children facing any kind of mental distress and to prevent the suicidal tendencies among them.

Health Minister K K Shailaja said under the psychosocial support assistance, her department has so far reached out to 68,814 children and 10,890 children have been given counselling. The changes in the behaviour of their children should be noted by the family members and if they find something amiss, the district psychosocial help desk should be informed, she said. A 15-member team of Students Police Cadets will be constituted in each of the 14 districts to help the children needing any assistance,police sources said. Education should not be a competition, but a means to gain knowledge, Vijayan said.

A society's future lies with the children and it is the duty of the society and the government to ensure their physical and mental well being. Taking a serious view of the situation, the state government has constituteda committee headed byFire and Rescue Services DGP R Sreelekha to conduct a study on child suicides in the state. The aim of the ORC was also to create a multi collaborative platform for government and professional agencies, parents and teachers to equip youth with appropriate know-how to face challenges, officials said.