Congress leader lashes out at party over JSW land deal

TNN
June 6, 2019

Bengaluru, Jun 6: Barely 24 hours after senior Congress leader R Ramalinga Reddy slammed leaders of his party for the poor show in the Lok Sabha elections, another veteran Congressman, HK Patil, hit out at his colleague, KJ George, over a land deal.

Patil criticized the Congress-JD(S) coalition government for selling 3,666 acres of land (2,000 acres in 2006 and 1,666 acres in 2007 at Toranagallu, Sandur taluk, Ballari district) to Sajjan Jindal-promoted JSW Steel for a concessional price. This, despite the company owing the state-owned Mysore Mineral Limited (MML) Rs 1,200 crore for failing to honour its commitments and unilaterally hiking premium on iron ore in its joint venture.

Ever since the cabinet decided two weeks ago to execute an absolute sale deed in favour of JSW for 2,666 acres of land — the company has constructed its steel plant and township on the land — the government has been struggling to justify the decision. Opposition from within and outside has landed the coalition in a spot of bother.

Last week, the government had claimed that Jindal fulfilled all conditions and George, who is minister of large and medium size industry in HD Kumaraswamy’s cabinet, had claimed that Jindal had no dues pending towards the state government.

However, on Wednesday, Patil released documents on his official Twitter handle citing cases filed in Bengaluru’s city civil court and also a dispute between the two parties that suggest JSW still owes the government over Rs 1,200 crore. Patil claimed he had even written two letters to Kumaraswamy in this regard, but they were ignored.

The documents included findings of the Comptroller and Accountant General (CAG) in a report probing the losses in MML. The CAG noted alleged faults in JSW’s dealings with MML and its failure to honour its agreements with the PSU.

Neither George, who was flying to Delhi, nor officials from the industries department were available for comments.

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News Network
January 19,2020

Mysuru, Jan 19: The 'City of Palaces', for the first time in history, got a Muslim woman as its first citizen, on Saturday.

Tasneem, a JD(S) Corporator, is elected as the 22nd Mayor of Mysuru. The 34-year-old Tasneem is a second-time corporator, representing Ward number, 26. She defeated BJP candidate Geetha Yogananda, representing Ward no 65 of Srirampura, by a margin of 24 votes. Out of 70 members, who were present during the election, 47 voted for Tasneem, 23 for Geetha Yogananda.

Tasneem thanking the party leaders said the JD(S) gave her an opportunity to serve the city and its people. JD(S) gives more priority for minorities. The party facilitated the first Muslim Mayor, Arif Hussian, in 1996. Later, Congress corporator Ayub Khan served as mayor in 2008.

Women from different communities had served as mayor of the city, but, Tasneem is the first Muslim woman to be elected as Mayor of Mysuru.

Tasneem, a BA Graduate from Maharani's College, was proud for being the first citizen and thanked party supremo H D Deve Gowda, leaders H D Kumaraswamy, MLAs Sa Ra Mahesh, G T Devegowda, K S Rangappa, and her colleagues in the Mysuru City Corporation. Tasneem extended her gratitude to her voters, who voted her for the second time.  

'Mysuru is known for cleanliness. Thus, my first priority is to maintain cleanliness and I will work towards retaining the 'Clean city' tag. The city is facing issues related to street lights among others for many days. I will make prompt attempts to resolve them,' she said.

JD(S) city president K T Cheluvegowda said the party nominated Tasneem for mayor's post as per the suggestion from the party supremo H D Deve Gowda and other leaders. There were other aspirants, but, they were convinced and nominated Tasneem, he said.

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News Network
July 2,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 2: As many as 3,363 students from Covid-19 containment zones have appeared for SSLC examinations in different parts of Karnataka till yesterday. On the first day of exam, i.e., on June 25, only 998 students these zones had written the exam.

In the past few days the number of containment zones has increased across the state in general and Bengaluru in particular. In all, 32 students could not appear for the exam as they turned positive.

While on June 25, the number of students who were found unwell during the check up at exam centre was 201, it was 613 on Wednesday. Students who are sick and those from the containment zones take the exam in a different room.

The social science exam on Wednesday saw an attendance percentage of 97.96 (7.68 lakh). This was against 98.78% last year. There were 7.45 lakh fresh candidates, 20,000 private candidates and 593 from outside the state.

Five students in Yadgir district were given question papers based on the old syllabus for maths exam on June 27. Their answerscripts will be evaluated separately and action will be taken against the officials.

Malpractices assisted by schools by switching off CCTV cameras were reported in Ballari and Koppal. “We’ve completed all the core subjects. Now only languages are left. We’ll complete them too in a safe environment,” said S Suresh Kumar, primary and secondary education minister.

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News Network
May 5,2020

Dubai, May 5: Saudi Arabian prosecutors have ordered the arrest of a Saudi citizen for insulting an Asian expatriate and abusing him for not embracing Islam.

A video went viral online showing the expat, apparently with little knowledge of the Arabic language, being insulated by an Arabic-speaking man who does not appear in the clip, for having not embraced Islam and for not fasting.

A monitoring centre affiliated with the public prosecution examined the video the content of which “shows the citizen’s use of abusive words against the Asian resident on the pretext of inviting him to Islam,” the prosecution source said.

“The public prosecution closely follows up whatever infringes rights of citizens and residents including harm to their dignity and legal rights regardless of pretexts of such infringement,” the source added.

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