Dhanyashree suicide case: Police targeting innocents, says BJP MP Shobha

Bengaluru, Mar 30: Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Sunday convened an all-party meeting and apprised the Opposition leaders about the measures taken by the government to contain the coronavirus in the state.

"I have been regularly holding meeting since March 13 regarding the measures taken to contain the transmission of COVID-19," the chief minister said at the meeting at the Vidhana Soudha.

Health Minister B Sriramulu, Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar, IT-BT Minister C N Aswath Narayan, Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi, former chief minister and Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah, Opposition MLAs H D Revanna, D K Shivakumar and former speaker K R Ramesh Kumar attended the meeting.

The chief minister said a task force comprising ministers and officials has been formed to oversee the implementation of the government orders.

Yediyurappa highlighted the prevailing situation across the globe saying that normal life had been paralysed everywhere.

The chief minister also apprised them about the number of clinics all over the state, availability of medicines and protection gear for the doctors and quarantine rooms in the state.

Kalaburagi, May 16: Former Karnataka Minister Dr Sharanprakash Patil, who was booked for violating COVID-19 imposed lockdown guidelines said on Friday that it was "politically motivated".

"It's politically motivated, the officer who filed the case was forced by MLA or some other people. As elected representatives, we're going in the constituencies, listening to people as they're apprehensive about the return of migrants. We had not conducted any meeting. Wherever we have gone we have followed social distancing," Patil said.

Patil said, "When I had gone there people came to discuss about a local problem and I was talking to an official concerned. In the meantime, some officer gave a complaint that we have violated the lockdown or something."

"They are trying to curb the voice of opposition because there are a lot of lacunae. We hear complaints about quarantine centres that there is no proper facility for food, or stay, or bathrooms," the Congress leader said.

The FIR was registered on Thursday against 23 persons, including the former MLA and 21 local Congress leaders, under Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Congress leader Patil and his followers had conducted a meeting at a convention hall in Sulpeth town on May 13, following which sectoral magistrate Muneer Ahmed lodged a complaint.

Bengaluru, Jun 3: Former Union minister and senior Congress leader K H Muniyappa on Wednesday extended his support to former Prime minister and JD(S) National president H D Deve Gowda in the Rajya Sabha polls.

In a statement issued here here, Mr Muniyappa said that party which had an electoral understanding in the Lok Sabha elections, may extend support to Gowda in the June-19 Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka.

It may be recalled that the Election Commission of India, is conducting elections to Rajya Sabya to fill four vacancies from the Karnataka Assembly, in which the ruling BJP may bag two seats, while the remaining may be won by the Congress and the JD(S).