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
April 21,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 21: The group who had attacked police and healthcare workers at the minority-dominated Padarayanapura in the city on Sunday night had raised slogans ''kill police'' when the team went to quarantine some people, the police alleged in an FIR.

Around 100 to 120 people rushed out onto the road targeting the police and health workers who wanted to pick up primary and secondary contacts of coronavirus patients.

Cases have been registered against the miscreants based on the complaint of police officers.

In one of the FIRs, police sub-inspector Raman Gowda complained that when he went to quarantine 43 people with the healthcare officers, around 120 people rushed out and attacked them.

"The group of people holding sticks and stones rushed from Arafat Nagar," Mr Gowda said.

When he was trying to stop them from destroying a CCTV camera, the mob attacked him shouting slogans ''Kill the police. Don't spare them," he alleged in the FIR.

"They wanted to kill us with stones and sticks and some of our staff sustained injuries," the officer said.

According to police, 59 people have been arrested including A woman who had allegedly masterminded the attack.

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 19,2020

Mangaluru/Mysuru, May 19: Though the Karnataka government permitted the private buses, operators in Dakshina Kannada district have decided not to operate buses until May end. In Mysuru district too the private buses remained off the roads.

Dakshina Kannada Bus Owners’ Association President Dilraj Alva said “Technically, private bus operators are not able to operate services as all of us have surrendered our permits. If we start services we will have to pay the tax for entire month. Hence, we have decided to resume bus services from June 1.”

The private buses had suspended their services since March 24.

In addition, bus owners also have two more demands which the state government needs to consider on priority, he said.

“We have requested the government to exempt private buses from paying tax for the next six months. We were not plying buses during lockdown and it will be tough for us in the next three months to operate as per new conditions.”

“The government has allowed only 30 persons in each bus to maintain social distancing. In addition, we have been urging the state government for bus fare revision since 2013. The government has revised the bus fares of KSRTC twice after that,” Alva said adding that bus owners will be meeting Mangaluru RTO on Tuesday.

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News Network
May 29,2020

Karwar, May 29: A five-month-old baby girl was discharged from Kasturba Institute of Medical Sciences (KIIMS), Mangaluru after her successful recovery from Covid-19 on Friday.

The baby was admitted to a hospital in Mangaluru in the third week of April for the treatment of epilepsy and on May 8, the baby, her parents tested positive for Covid-19 and they were also admitted. It is said that they contracted the virus from their 18-year-old relative.

Although the parents were discharged from KIMS on May 23, since the baby had epilepsy, doctors continued the treatment for 19 days.

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