Covid-19: Safety of families of Dubai Kannaidgas is our responsibility: Karnataka Home Minister

Bengaluru, Feb 21: Historian Ramachandra Guha on Thursday refuted Karnataka home minister Basavaraj Bommai's claim that the latter had apologised for police allegedly manhandling him during an anti-CAA protest in the city, saying he received no such call or apology.

The writer further said even if such an apology had been offered, he would have rejected it.

"The Home Minister of Karnataka has claimed on the floor of the State Assembly that he apologised to me by phone for the manhandling by the Bengaluru police on 19th December 2019. This is false.

I received no such call or apology," Guha tweeted.

"Even if such an apology had been offered, I would have rejected it.

The imposition of Section 144 was illegal (as the Karnataka High Court has since held) and I was proud to be one of thousands of peaceful protesters who defied the States arbitrary action on that day," he said in another tweet.

During his reply to the debate on law and order situation in the state, Bommai on Wednesday claimed that he had apologised to Guha.

The minister was apologising to senior Congress MLA and former Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar for police serving him notice and detaining him along with others at Mangaluru airport in December for trying to enter the city despite restrictions following violence there.

Stating that anti-CAA protests have taken place peacefully across the state, he had said, there might have been minor discrepancies, like that with historian Ramachandra Guha, being manhandled during a protest.

"I have called and apologised to him," he had said.

Guha was detained on December 19 for staging a demonstration against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens at the Town Hall here, in defiance of the prohibitory orders imposed in the city.

He was taken away by police personnel and led to a police vehicle parked nearby.

Leader of Opposition in the assembly and former chief minister Siddaramaiah said Bommai has committed a "perjury" in the House, and asked him to apologise to people and Guha in front of media.

"Bommai has committed a perjury on the floor of the House. It answers the question of where @BJP4India workers derive their motivation to spread fake news.

Bommai has insulted the people whom he represents," he tweeted and demanded that he apologize to people and Guha.

Mangaluru, Apr 16: An old refrigerator has been turned into a "disinfection chamber" by researchers who are striving to come up with solutions to tackle the spread of coronavirus.

Dr Arun M Isloor, head of Chemistry Department, National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal, along with research scholar Syed Ibrahim has come up with the device which can disinfect items kept inside it.

"We have named this as ZERO-COV," Dr Isloor said.

He says the device ensures 99.9 per cent destruction of microorganisms present on the surface of items.

"We can keep items like vegetables, currency notes, books or envelopes inside the chamber. Switching on the chamber for 15 minutes ensures 99.9 per cent destruction of microorganisms present in the surface of the items," Dr Isloor added.

Newsroom, Jun 2: The government of India has announced operation of another 20 special flights to repatriate stranded NRIs from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under Vande Bharat Mission.

All the repatriation flights will take off from three major airports – Dammam, Riyadh and Jeddah – between June 10 and June 16. Most of the flights will land in Kerala.

The first flight from Saudi Arabia to Karnataka in the new schedule will be operated on June 11. It will take off from Jeddah with passengers from both Kerala and Karnataka. After landing in Kozhikode it will continue its journey to Bengaluru. 

The next three flights  –  Dammam to Bengaluru on June 12, Jeddah to Bengaluru on June 13 and Riyadh to Bengaluru on June 15 – will directly fly to Karnataka. 

Even though thousands of Mangalureans are stranded in Saudi Arabian cities due to lockdown, the government has not announced any flight to Mangaluru International Airport.

The following are the newly announced flights from Saudi Arabia to India: