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Defeat those who are politicising gods and spoiling harmony: Prakash Raj

News Network
December 12, 2017

Mangaluru, Dec 12: The walk for amity launched by Dakshina Kannada district in-charge minister B Ramanath Rai at Farangipete in Bantwal taluk earlier in the day culminated at Mani in Puttur taluk covering about 22 km on Mangaluru-Bengaluru National Highway 75.

Hundreds of Congress workers, Left wing activists, representatives of Raita Sangha and other social organisations took part in it.

Though Mr. Rai got tired after walking 12 km in four hours, he retained his spirit as he reached Melkar Junction at 2 p.m. This was the first break for Mr. Rai, who started the walk at Farangipet.

This was the second time that Mr. Rai has taken part in a walk organised by the Congress. In 2013, Mr. Rai was among a few Congress leaders to walk 44 km during the party’s padayatra to Ballari in protest against illegal mining in the State.

“It is arduous. But for a cause I am ready to take this strain,” Mr. Rai said and added that a regimen of physical exercise was helping him take up such a walk.

Sporting black walking footwear, Mr. Rai walked briskly for a while from Farangipet. Then, he slowed down and took the help of two Congress activists in his further journey. His slow walking led a group of walkers stay with Mr. Rai, while other participants moved ahead. This also led to the programme getting delayed by nearly two hours.

While Congress MLAs and MLCs preferred to walk only a few metres during the walk, Mr. Rai walked the entire distance. “This is the word that I gave to the people following the communal incidents in the district. I have acted accordingly,” Mr. Rai said.

Expressing happiness over the overwhelming support for the padayatra, Mr. Rai said that this was a display of the strength of the people who are for communal harmony. “We may fight elections on our agendas and principles. But when it comes to maintaining communal harmony, we are one,” said Mr. Rai, who was glad with the support that he received from the Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Raita Sangha and other social organisations for the padayatra. He did not wish to comment on the opposition to the padayatra from the Social Democratic Party of India and the United Muslim Organisations.

There were a few others who walked the entire distance. It included All India Congress Committee member P.V. Mohan, Democratic Youth Federation of India State president Muneer Katipalla and 70-year-old Sundaranna from Panemangaluru. The Congress activists had arranged for water, watermelon and curds for the walkers and the security personnel all along the route.

Superintendent of Police Sudheer Kumar Reddy C.H. and Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil S. covered the distance in a vehicle even as they oversaw security arrangements.

Defeat communal forces: Prakash Raj

Speaking during the valedictory celebrations of the walk, multilingual actor Prakash Raj urged people to raise their voices against persons trying to engineer communal trouble.

“You need not be spoon-fed. You all know the persons who are trying to spoil communal harmony. You also know the harm they will cause if they are elected,” Mr. Raj said. 

He added that those politicising gods should not be encouraged. The actor said people were not fools and they knew the forces that were engineering communal riots, be it in Uttara Kannada or Rajasthan. He said while murdering a person was condemnable, it was sinful to politicise the murder of a person.

Mr. Raj said the goal of the padayatra was to stand against forces that profess murder for a murder.

Minister for Food and Civil Supplies U.T. Khader; Congress MLAs J.R. Lobo, T. Shakuntala Shetty, K. Vasantha Bangera, and B.A. Mohiuddin Bawa; MLC Ivan D’Souza; CPI (M) leader G.V. Srirama Reddy; CPI leader Siddanagouda Patil; Democratic Youth Federation of India State committee president Muneer Katipalla, some zilla panchayat members of the Congress, and Congress councillors participated in the walk.

More than 1,000 police personnel had been deployed to ensure peaceful conduct of the padayatra. A KSRTC bus was reportedly stoned near Farangipet during the walk.

Mr. Rai had planned the walk in September following communal violence at Kalladka and B.C. Road which claimed two lives in June–July. The government had not allowed the event then.

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Abdul Ghanim
 - 
Wednesday, 13 Dec 2017

EXCEPT VOTING , WHAT OTHER  STARTEGY CONGRESS HAVE ON GROUND TO DEFEAT RSS/bjp???  but the irony is that, Puttur MLA Shakuntala Shetty once said Hindus should keep talwar, and gun to kill muslims! how can you achive social harmony when you have bunch of RSS Workers under congress name!???

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News Network
June 23,2020

Bengaluru, June 23: Karnataka Congress chief D K Shivakumar has urged his party colleagues to be active on social media to counter the propaganda of Bharatiya Janata Party.

Speaking to media persons, the KPCC president said that no more than 20 out of the 68 Congress MLAs are active on social media.

“All those MLAs who are doing well need to be projected. We want leaders, not mere followers. They all should be the face of Congress in Karnataka. Party should not depend on just my face or Siddaramaiah’s,” he said.

Shivakumar’s diktat has resulted in the party’s social media unit scrambling to get leaders to create their accounts.

“We’re pressuring all the party MLAs and leaders. We’re asking their personal assistants or gunmen to operate their accounts if they are not savvy with social media,” KPCC social media chief A N Nataraj Gowda said.

He pointed out that the 20 MLAs who are active on social media include U T Khader, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Priyank Kharge, Krishna Byre Gowda among others.

“We’re also trying to get the accounts verified of those who are beginning to get active. For example, it was only recently that we got the accounts of S R Patil and Vijay Singh verified,” Gowda said.

Tapping the full potential of social media is crucial for the Congress because the BJP has found much success in reaching out to voters through various online platforms.

In fact, ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections, the Congress found that there were 10 ministers and some 40 MLAs who had turned a blind eye towards social media.

Shivakumar said he was also working on putting in place a system in the party under which all developments related to the state and country will be communicated to all party leaders at 10 am every day.

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News Network
April 4,2020

Mangaluru, Apr 4: No positive case of coronavirus has been detected in Dakshina Kannada district as per the latest update released by the district administration on Friday.

Test results of throat swab samples of 16 people with suspected symptoms were received today and all of them were negative.

A total of 38,518 people have been screened for coronavirus in Dakshina Kannada district till date with 72 people being screened today.

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News Network
May 29,2020

Bengaluru, May 29: Seven out of ten (72 per cent) workers in Karnataka reported having lost their employment during the COVID-19-induced lockdown, according to findings of a survey by Azim Premji University, in collaboration with ten civil society organisations.

The university said in a statement it conducted "a detailed" phone survey of 5,000 workers across 12 states in the country, to gauge the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on employment, livelihoods, and access to government relief schemes.

The survey covered self-employed, casual, and regular wage and salaried workers and it released the findings for Karnataka on Thursday.

Seventy-six per cent of urban workers and 66 per cent of rural workers lost their employment, the survey findings said.

For non-agricultural self-employed workers and wage workers, who were still employed, average weekly earnings fell by two-third.

More than four in ten salaried workers (44 per cent) saw either a reduction in their salary or received no salary during the lockdown.

Six out of ten households reported that they did not have enough money to buy even a weeks worth of essential items, according to the survey.

Eight out ten households reported a reduction in food intake, while less than three in ten vulnerable households (27 per cent) in urban Karnataka received any form of cash transfer from the government, it said.

In summary, the disruption in the Karnatakas economy and labour markets is enormous. Livelihoods have been devastated at unprecedented levels during the lockdown.

The recovery from this could be slow and very painful, the statement said.

As a response to the findings of this survey, the team which has conducted the survey suggested a universalisation of the PDS to expand its reach and implementation of expanded rations for at least the next six months.

It suggested cash transfers equal to at least Rs.7000 per month for two months, and proactive steps like expansion of MGNREGA, introduction of urban employment guarantee, and investment in universal basic services, among others.

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