Cong MLA Nagaraj hints at reconsidering resignation after DKS camps in his residence

Agencies
July 13, 2019

Bengaluru, Jul 13: As the Congress intensified efforts to woo back its disgruntled MLAs in Karnataka on Saturday, one of them hinted that he might consider withdrawing his resignation and also said he would try to persuade others.

State Housing Minister and Hoskote MLA MTB Nagaraj, one of the 16 rebel Congress-JD(S) MLAs who resigned from the Assembly last week, dealing a blow to the coalition government, said senior Congress leaders, including former chief minister Siddaramiah, met him and asked him to withdraw his resignation.

"Siddaramaiah and Dinesh Gundu Rao called me and requested me to withdraw the resignation and stay at the party. I have sought time to mull over it.

"I told them I will speak to Chikkaballapura MLA Sudhakar and persuade him to withdraw his resignation. We are planning to stay here only," Nagaraj told reporters.

He was flanked by Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara, state Water Resource Minister D K Shivakumar and other Congress leaders.

To a query on whether all the differences were sorted out, Nagaraj said he had resigned due to certain "discontentment" and that there was disagreement in every political party.

"The party high-command is trying to persuade the MLAs. I will also try my best to help them in their efforts," he added.

Nagaraj then left for state Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah's residence.

A day after Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy made a surprise announcement in the Assembly that he would seek a trust vote in the House, efforts were intensified by the ruling coalition to reach out to the rebel MLAs.

Congress's "troubleshooter" Shivakumar reached Nagaraj's residence early Saturday morning and camped there for almost four-and-a-half hours, trying to pacify the Hoskote MLA.

Subsequently, Parameshwara too reached Nagaraj's house to convince him to withdraw his resignation.

A similar attempt was on to persuade MLAs Ramalinga Reddy, Munirathna, K Sudhakar and R Roshan Baig.

Sources in the Janata Dal (Secular) said Kumaraswamy was in direct talks with at least four Congress legislators, who had resigned, and was hopeful that they would withdraw their resignations.

Triggering speculation, a group of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, led by MLA S R Vishwanath and Bengaluru corporator Padmanabha Reddy, met Ramalinga Reddy at his residence.

However, Ramalinga Reddy refused to comment on the development, saying he would not speak on politics till July 15 as he had to appear before the Assembly speaker.

Meanwhile, his daughter and Congress MLA Sowmya Reddy said she had no information about the meeting.

"I am in the Congress and I have not resigned. My father has resigned and all the questions pertaining to his resignation should be asked to him," she said.

In a bid to keep their flocks together ahead of the floor test in the Assembly that is likely to take place in the coming week, both the Congress and the BJP have shifted their MLAs to hotels and resorts.

Earlier, commenting on the developments, state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa said these efforts would not yield any result as the fall of the coalition government was "imminent".

"There is confusion in the Congress and the JD(S) due to which the MLAs are fleeing these parties. A systematic conspiracy is going on to bring the MLAs back," the former Karnataka chief minister told reporters here.

"The atmosphere is chaotic and the fall of the government is imminent," he said.

Claiming that the ruling coalition had lost majority in the Assembly, Yeddyurappa said seeking a vote of confidence was "meaningless".

Kumaraswamy made the announcement about seeking a trust vote on the floor of the Assembly after the Supreme Court ordered the speaker on Friday to maintain status quo on the resignations of 10 rebel MLAs of the Congress and the JD(S) till July 16.

The coalition government, which has been shaky since its formation last year following a post-poll arrangement in the wake of a hung verdict, is facing a serious crisis now with 16 legislators -- 13 of the Congress and three of the JD(S) -- resigning from the Assembly.

Besides, two Independent MLAs, who were made ministers recently to provide stability to the government, have quit the cabinet and withdrawn their support to the government.

The ruling coalition's strength in the House is 116 (Congress 78, JD(S) 37 and BSP one), besides the speaker.

With the support of the two independents, the opposition BJP has 107 MLAs in the 224-member House.

If the resignations of the 16 MLAs are accepted, the ruling coalition's tally will be reduced to 100.

The speaker has a vote too.

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News Network
June 22,2020

Bengaluru, June 22: Even as the covid-19 positive cases are steadily increasing in Karnataka, an expert has claimed that community transmission has begun in Bengaluru and cases could keep rising over the next two months.

“If you look at the natural course of this virus across countries around the world, it is about six months. Now we’re in the fourth month. This will go on for another two months. It also sounds like this is the beginning of the peak. There is also a possibility of the number of cases going up from now on. Even across India, cases are increasing,” says Dr CN Manjunath, director of Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research and State Task Force member.

Besides the increase in number of cases, the virus is advancing silently, stealthily. A lot of people who are testing positive are asymptomatic. In areas like Padarayanapura, Nanjangud and many places in north Karnataka, there have been positive cases who have not had any contact with infected individuals. Some cases recorded in Bengaluru over the last two to three days have not had any contact with Covid-positive people.

Dr Manjunath adds: “We are in community transmission. This will happen because nature is ahead of everything. We have to take all possible precautionary measures at our command. This has to happen. Only then some kind of herd immunity will be developed.”

“We are expanding the guidelines of testing to include a large number of people to be tested. Now, according to the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines, only symptomatic Influenza like Illness (ILI) or Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI), or a person coming in contact with an infected person are being tested.

But since we have crossed 100 days in Karnataka from the first reported case and we’re getting cases with no travel history or contact with a Covid-positive person, we have to start random testing across the sub-group population. Only then will we understand the burden of the disease and what precautions need to be taken,” he says.

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Agencies
January 12,2020

New Delhi, Jan 12: In a shocking revelation, one unemployed person committed suicide every hour during 2018 when a total of 1,34,516 suicides, including 92,114 male and 42,391 female, were reported in the country, NCRB's "Suicide in India 2018" says.

The latest data, issued by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), which comes under Ministry of Home Affairs, last week reveals that a total of 12,936 unemployed persons committed suicide in 2018, which accounted for 9.6 per cent of the total suicides, and were of aged below 18 years to above 60 years.

Those below 18 years include 31 males and nine females while those between 18 and 30 years comprise 1,240 male and 180 female. A total of 868 male and 95 female were aged between 30 and 45 years. A number of 237 males and 21 females were aged between 45 and 60 years while 2,431 males and 310 females were above 60 years.

Of the total suicides by unemployed persons, males are 10,687 while the females are 2,249.

The highest number of suicides - 12.3 per cent - committed by unemployed persons were in Kerala (1,585 out of 12,936 suicides), 12.2 per cent in Tamil Nadu (1,579), 9.7 per cent in Maharashtra (1,260 suicides), 8.5 per cent in Karnataka (1,094 suicides) and 7 per cent in Uttar Pradesh (902 suicides).

"Each suicide is a personal tragedy that prematurely takes the life of an individual and has a continuing ripple effect, dramatically affecting the lives of families, friends and communities. Every year, more than 1 lakh people commit suicide in our country. There are various causes of suicides like professional/career problems, sense of isolation, abuse, violence, family problems, mental disorders, addiction to alcohol, financial loss, chronic pain etc," says the NCRB adding it collects data on suicides from police recorded suicide cases.

As per the NCRB, rate of suicides has been calculated using projected population for the non-census years whereas for 2011, the population of the Population Census 2011 was used.

The NCRB data says that a total of 1,34,516 suicides were reported in the country during 2018 showing an increase of 3.6 per cent in comparison to 2017 and the rate of suicides has increased by 0.3 during 2018 over 2017.

Government servants accounted for 1.3 per cent (1,707 out of 1,34,516) of the total suicide victims as compared to 6.1 per cent (8,246 out of 1,34,516) of total victims from Private Sector Enterprises.

Employees from Public Sector Undertakings formed 1.5 per cent (2,022 out of 1,34,516) of the total suicide victims, whereas students and unemployed victims accounted for 7.6 per (10,159 victims) of total suicides. Self-employed category accounted for 9.8 per cent of total suicide victims (13,149 out of 1,34,516).

A total of 10,349 persons involved in farming sector (consisting of 5,763 farmers and cultivators and 4,586 agricultural labourers) have committed suicide during 2018, accounting for 7.7 per cent of total suicides victims (1,34,516) in the country.

A total of 11 transgenders have committed suicide in which three were daily wage earners, one each were 'professionals and salaried persons' and 'unemployed persons' while six falls under 'Other Persons'.

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coastaldigest.com web desk
January 14,2020

Mangaluru, Jan 14: Mangaluru city police commissionerate his notified traffic diversions on NH 73 in view of massive protest at Adyra Kannur in the city against CAA, NPR and NRC on January 15. It also has issued guidelines for the public, protesters and organisers of the protest.

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