Bengaluru, Apr 15: Police on Wednesday conducted surprise raids at nearly 120 shops in Bengaluru following complaints of black marketing and sale of foodgrains above the MRP rate.
Sandip Patil, Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime, Bengaluru in a tweet said that action has been initiated against these shopkeepers.
Though the government has maintained the supply chain of essential items, few shopkeepers have used the lockdown opportunity to charge higher prices for essential items.
Bengaluru, Apr 19: With six new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, Karnataka's total count of coronavirus patients has surged to 390, said the State's Health Department on Sunday.
"Six new cases have been confirmed for COVID-19 in the State from 5 pm yesterday till 5 pm today. Cumulatively, 390 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state," said the Health Department in a statement.
The total coronavirus cases in the State include 16 deaths and 111 discharges.
Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan said that "only essential and critical number of" employees of the Information Technology (IT) companies will be allowed to work from offices from April 20 onwards in Bengaluru, while others will have to continue working from home.
According to the latest update by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of positive cases in India has mounted to 16,116 and 519 deaths have been reported till now.
Social media giant Twitter briefly blocked the Karnataka BJP's account after it posted several provocative tweets and taunted Muslim women.
Ironically, the BJP called its unhygienic tweets as "liberal views". "It is unfortunate that our handle was locked out by Twitter for speaking the truth about liberals," it said.
"A big thanks for your support and encouragement. Satymeva Jayate. Jai Hind," the political party said to its supporters.
However, it did not specify for how long Twitter blocked its account but tweeted again on Wednesday after Monday.
Last week Karnataka BJP drew flak on Twitter for taking a swipe at Muslim women who appear to be standing in a line to vote in Delhi's assembly polls. ""Kaagaz Nahi Dikayenge Hum" ! ! ! Keep the documents safe, you will need to show them again during NPR exercise (sic)," the party's Karnataka Twitter handle posted using the hashtag #DelhiPolls2020.
It tweeted on Monday, accusing Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Vijay Bahuguna for "cheating" Dalits.
Karnataka BJP spokesperson G. Madhusudhan said that he had no idea about the account being blocked and then unblocked by Twitter.
"What has happened? I don't know," said Madhusudhana.
Reacting to the drubbing BJP suffered in the Delhi Assembly polls, the party tweeted that there is no need to lose heart.
"Now is the time to go back to voters to win their hearts and minds. Let us plan for 2025 from today. We are with you," tweeted Karnataka BJP on Wednesday.
Though BJP congratulated Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for winning the Delhi polls, the party highlighted that it managed to increase it vote share by six per cent compared to 2015.
Also Read: Karnataka BJP taunts Muslim women, asks them to keep document safe for NPR
No need to block them. What else can we expect from a bunch of idiots? Especially from "bada goatala kiya saar"
Even as the Muslims of undivided Dakshina Kannada district broke out of the “spiral of silence” and made history by leading an unprecedented protest against CAA, NPR and NRC as well as the categorial mistreatment of non-saffronites at the hands of the police across the country, mainstream media turned a blind eye to the spectacle at the Shah Garden Maidan in Mangaluru’s Adyar where about two lakh patriots with tricolor in their hands converged to assert themselves on January 15th, 2020, a date which will be remembered by the people of coastal Karnataka forever.
The largest gathering in the history of Mangaluru was absolutely peaceful, law-abiding and respectful. While the slogans of ‘Azaadi’ were reverberating in the atmosphere, the protesters were seen making way for vehicles and passersby, taking care of women and helping elderly citizens on the highway adjacent to the ground. Though the organisers and most of the participants were Muslims, they collectively identified themselves as “We, the people of India”.
The district administration and the police department hadn’t imagined or even dreamt of such a mammoth gathering after blocking the highway and banning public transport from 9 am to 9 pm. Many opine that this action was taken only to discourage the concerned from participating in the protest and to create fear in the hearts of the people who are yet to process the unjustifiable deaths of two innocent citizens in an unwarranted police firing a few weeks ago.
What has since surprised the protesters most is the mainstream media’s blatant attempt to downplay the significance of this largest ever gathering. Shockingly, it could not make it to the front pages of any of the state-level Kannada daily newspapers except city-based Vaartha Bharathi. In the absence of The Hindu, which had announced a holiday on account of Makar Sankranti, most of the English newspapers too pitilessly buried the historic event in their inner pagers. National TV channels too were evidently reluctant to cover the event until NDTV started telecasting the news of the protest.
This uneasy relationship between the media and minorities in coastal Karnataka has long existed, but the non-coverage of the huge protest of Jan 15 marks a quantum leap beyond the media’s traditional pro-Sangh Parivar stance and biases –– which in the past had often demonised non-saffronites –– to now completely ignore and suppress the people’s voice. This media bias has naturally evoked a sharp response from netizens, who took to social media to issue clarion calls to boycott the mainstream media forever.
Cleanliness Drive
Most major protest meets and rallies –– both religious and political –– leave behind tonnes of garbage, especially water bottles, placards and buntings. However, the organisers of the Jan 15 protest meet led by example by launching a cleanliness drive in the area soon after the protesters left the venue peacefully. The drive continued on Jan 16 too. (Ironically, amidst this ongoing cleanliness drive, a local news portal captured photos of a few plastic bottles scattered along the road at Adyar and published a report accusing the event organisers and participants of polluting the area!)
Comments
Need tough punishment.
Instead of helping with lesser price, troubling the people. These are cruels.
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