Death toll of tourists from Karnataka mounts to 8 in Sri Lanka blasts

News Network
April 23, 2019

Bengaluru, Apr 23: Sri Lankan authorities have confirmed the death of at least eight tourists from Karnataka including JD(S) workers in the serial blasts that ripped through Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.

Soon after the Sri Lankan foreign ministry announced details of Indian victims, the Karnataka government on Monday evening confirmed the death of six tourists and minutes later, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, in a tweet, mentioned the death of two more Kannadigas.

Confirming the death of four tourists from Bengaluru who happened to be JD(S) workers, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy identified the victims as Lakshmana Gowda Ramesh, K M Lakshminarayana, M Rangappa and K G Hanumantharayappa. Later in the evening, Kumaraswamy tweeted to announce the death of yet another JD(S) worker H Shivakumar.

Subsequently, sources also confirmed that Maregowda, one of those who were reported missing, was also dead.

Meanwhile, Sushma Swaraj tweeted about the death of Nagaraj S R and V Tulsiram. While Nagaraj was confirmed to be from Bengaluru, it was not clear where Tulsiram hailed from, according to sources.

Condemning the attack, Kumaraswamy tweeted, “I am deeply pained at the loss of our people in the Colombo attacks. Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar is in constant touch with the Indian High Commission and coordinating with officials.”

The state government has appointed senior IAS officer Anjum Parvez as the nodal officer to coordinate with the Indian embassy in Sri Lanka. Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda also spoke to Sushma Swaraj and sought help to safeguard tourists from Karnataka.

Sources in the Sri Lankan tourism industry also revealed that there were at least 30 people from Karnataka at Shangri La hotel when the bomb exploded. However, the Indian High Commission authorities are yet to confirm it.

Following the blasts, the state government has been making all efforts to evacuate all stranded travellers from Sri Lanka.

“A group of tourists stranded in Kandy is on its way back and they will help us in identifying the dead,” the Chief Minister tweeted. A team of five tourists from Bengaluru landed at Kempegowda International Airport on Monday evening.

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Agencies
July 3,2020

New Delhi, Jul 3: The aviation regulator DGCA said on Friday it was extending the suspension of scheduled international passenger flights in the country till July 31 but added that some international scheduled services on selected routes may be permitted on a case to case basis.

Scheduled international passenger flights were suspended in India on March 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Modifying its June 26 circular that stated that scheduled international passenger flights will remain suspended till July 15, 2020, the regulator stated on Friday it has decided to extend the deadline to July 31, 2020.

However, international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on a case to case basis,” said the circular by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Air India and other private domestic airlines have been operating unscheduled international repatriation flights under the Vande Bharat Mission, which was started on May 6 by the Central government.

India resumed scheduled domestic passenger flights on May 25, after a gap of two months.

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News Network
July 16,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 16: Former Prime Minister and JDS supremo H D Devegowda on Thursday gave a clarion call to party workers to take steps to strengthen the party from the grossroots level and to 'expose the failures' and 'anti-people' policies of BJP government both at the Centre and State.

In an open letter to the workers here, he alleged that the urgent need is to create awareness among the people about failure of the governments which have brought in policies which are deterrent to the poor and downtrodden.

BJP government headed by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa in Karnataka has come up with an amendment to the Land Reforms Act,1961, which is 'against' interests of the small and medium farmers as even a non-agriculturist can purchase agriculture land, thus giving an opportunity to the rich people to 'exploit' illiterate farmers and purchase their land and use it for some other purpose after some time.

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News Network
May 6,2020

Mangaluru, May 6: The Karnataka NRI Forum - UAE has collected the details of those seeking to return to Karnataka amidst coronavirus lockdown.

Of these, 121 of these expats are pregnant women, 27 are senior citizens, 157 are in urgent medical need, 522 are unemployed, 377 are in the UAE on visit visa, 109 are in the UAE on expired residency visa, 30 are students and 566 others.

On Tuesday, May 5, the Government of India released a list of flight schedules for the repatriation of Indians who are stranded abroad. "...sadly we do not see any flights going from UAE to Karnataka," the KNRI said in a letter to Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers D V Sadananda Gowda, who is also a Kannadiga.

"We, Dubai Anivasi Kannadigaru and KNRI have collected the information of those who are in dire condition and would like to travel immediately. We would like to bring to your attention that in this list there are pregnant women and senior citizens who are in critical conditions and are waiting to travel," the KNRI wrote, urging the Union Minister to start at least one flight to Mangaluru as the majority are from this coastal city and not from Bengaluru.

Additionally, in order to help these struggling Kannadigas, the KNRI has notified the Government of India and Government of Karnataka several times through letters and conference calls, along with the Kannadiga's helpline, UAE.

With the help of likeminded businessmen and professionals, the KNRI Forum and Dubai Anivasi Kannadigaru have opened a helpline called "Kannadigas Helpline" through which they have received around 2,500 requests for food, medical, legal and other assistance.

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