Congress attacks Swamy's cavalcade with eggs, ink

Bengaluru, Jan 25: Several women have completed a 24-hour protest here against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and are going strong to stretch it to 48 hours.

"More than a thousand women gathered on the Masjid Road at Frazer Town to denounce the CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC)," participant and Mount Carmel College student Noor Zahira told IANS.

The women protesters extended their support to the students in Jamia Millia Islamia, the Aligarh Muslim University, the Jawaharlal Nehru University and others who were recently roughed up allegedly by police and masked goons.

Zahira, 20, said the women's protest was planned only for 24 hours but is continuing to touch 48 hours.

Starting 3pm on Thursday, the women, several of them in burqas, niqabs and hijabs, are sitting on the road just outside the Haji Sait mosque in Frazer Town in a flash protest. Though they have informed the police, they did not wait for the permission. Around 11 pm, police arrived and shut off the protesters' loud speakers.

Zahira said already four such women's anti-CAA protests were taken out in Bengaluru. Women from all ages groups have joined the protest and are sloganeering.

As the women are protesting on the road, men are guarding them standing on the opposite road, ensuring all supplies such as food and others to them, she added.

"Muslim women were not alone in denouncing the CAA... we were joined by the transgenders, Hindu women, Christian women, Dalits and others, " she said.

Some of the protesters also indulged in creative work such as composing songs against the CAA and making placards.

Though four anti-CAA women's protests happened at the Town Hall and other landmarks in Bengaluru, they were only a few hours long.

The protesting women are also showing support to women protesters at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi who were accused of demonstrating for Rs 500. However, the protest did not align anti-CAA demonstration with any political party, keeping it apolitical.

Bengaluru, Jun 29: The results of second pre-university and the Secondary School Leaving Certificate examination results will be out by July last week and August first week, Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar said on Monday.

Instead of giving general promotion to the 10th and 12th standard students as the Central Board of Secondary Education and other states have done, the Karnataka government decided to hold the examination defying the coronavirus scare.

"We are trying to get the SSLC results out by the first week of August.The PUC results will be out in the last week of July," the minister told reporters in Bengaluru.

Amid reports of schools increasing the school fees ignoring the government's direction, the minister said he has got reports that 1,150 schools have increased their fees of which action has been taken against 450 schools.

"We have directed all the schools not to increase the fees in view of the coronavirus scare.

It is a peculiar year.Humanity says no one should increase fees.

We have set up a helpline. If we come across such practices, we will initiate action," Kumar said.

He said an officer has been entrusted to look into the complaints against schools.

Speaking about online classes for kindergarten students, the minister said such classes are not allowed.

The schools can hold talks with parents twice a week about grooming their children.

Kumar said a decision on opening kindergarten schools will be taken after July 5.

He, however, conceded that most parents are unwilling to send their children to school.

The government is gathering the opinion of parents based on which a decision would be taken, he added.

Regarding education to students from Class one to Class 10, Kumar said the Centre has given guidelines, which will be followed.

The state has formed an expert committee to recommend guidelines on education to children from Class I to Class six.

"Once the committee report comes, we will formulate regulations," Kumar added.

Bengaluru, Apr 18: The Karnataka government has fixed the cost of test for COVID-19 in private laboratories at Rs 2,250, an official said on Friday.

"Based on the discussions and negotiations, the cost per test has been fixed at Rs 2,250. This includes the screening test and a confirmatory test," said order by Health and Family Welfare Department's Additional Chief Secretary Jawaid Akhtar.

A total of 16 laboratories (11 government and 5 private) have been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for testing samples of possible COVID-19 cases in the state.

Realising that early detection of coronavirus cases and timely treatment was the need of the hour, meetings were held to rope in more private laboratories to conduct COVID-19 sample tests.

As per the protocol by the Centre, testing the samples of suspected COVID-19 cases can be taken up in private laboratories subject to conditions which include sharing the lab data pertaining to the diagnosis of COV1D-19 with the state government and with the ICMR on a timely basis.

As per the Union Health Ministry, 353 people have infected from coronavirus in the state of which 83 are cured and discharged and 13 succumbed to the virus.