Don't promise Congress tickets to anyone, high command tells Karnataka unit

DHNS
August 22, 2017

New Delhi, Aug 22: The Congress high command has instructed the Karnataka unit not to promise the party ticket to anyone, including the seven rebel MLAs of the JD(S), for the next year’s Assembly elections. The party is planning to field many new faces.

The MLAs met Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on August 16 and expressed their willingness to join the Congress. They claimed that the Congress high command had promised them party tickets, but a senior leader said no such assurance was given.

During their meeting with Rahul, where Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC president G Parameshwara were also present, the Gandhi scion said their “interests” would be protected. That does not mean they will get the party ticket, the leader said.

The Congress is wary of giving tickets to defectors from other parties as that could alienate its loyal workers. Many in the Congress are unhappy with the party for giving “too much importance” to newcomers. Promising tickets to the JD(S) defectors would upset the rank and file, the leader said.

As winning the Assembly elections has become a matter of prestige, the Congress will give the ticket purely on the basis of an aspirant’s winnability. It plans to conduct a survey in all constituencies to gauge the popularity of each aspirant.

Recently, some Congress leaders from Karnataka urged the high command against giving a “free hand” to the state unit in finalising the candidates. They want the selection of candidates to be a “broad-based” exercise to ensure adequate representation of different castes and regions. They expressed the apprehension that a few politicians in the state could “hijack” the selection process. They want wider consultation before the tickets are issued.

Their main worry is that many former JD(S) leaders, whom the chief minister welcomed into the Congress, would be favoured. They have been complaining to the high command for long that Siddaramaiah always gives importance to his erstwhile colleagues in the Janata Parivar.

Comments

Santhosh
 - 
Tuesday, 22 Aug 2017

Let siddaramiah dig his own grave by trying to move close to high command he is severing connection from his own party men who do not hesitate to desert him on the D day.

Nirmal
 - 
Tuesday, 22 Aug 2017

Hopeless CM in the history of KA

Vishal
 - 
Tuesday, 22 Aug 2017

IT ALL DEPENDS ON TRENDs... ELECTIONS ARE NOT TAKING PLACE NOW ONLY. NO USE OF COMMENTS AND BARKING like anything!!

Sridhara
 - 
Tuesday, 22 Aug 2017

Every now and then, if not constantly, the question as to what is the meaning of joining a political party and what it is to admit a person into the party, and what it is to get a party election ticket becomes important. A political party is generally understood to augment and provide a storehouse of fit persons to get elected and become members of government and legislatures, to undertake responsibility in policy making, #Laws, and #Governance, all with transparency and accountability. To sustain the systems and subsystems in various ways, mutually overlapping and independent ways.

Despite this broad theoretical intention/position, the foremost desire/intention on the part of members is to get into positions of power, to wield hegemonic power and be always in limelight,to perpetuate oneself indefinitely; and dispense favours and to bale out supporters in the event of infractions, crimes and misdemeanours, serious as well as otherwise. But considerations of real lasting public good are only held incidental;anyway, people are doing things to eke out their personal livelihood and general good may come out and of course the system is in place and is traditional and does not require de novo initiation. Despite ethical, moral, public good undertones built into the idea of membership of political parties, it has become largely a profession to garner wealth, and a niche for living, primarily for oneself and if possible for one's family and other legatees. Criteria for ticket distribution, or for its assurance or hope 

Anand
 - 
Tuesday, 22 Aug 2017

Good decision by Congress , lesson for Seven.... !

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News Network
April 11,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 11:  Amid nationwide lockdown in the wake of COVID-19, former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Saturday urged the state government to announce a relief package for farmers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday held a video conference with Chief Ministers.

Taking to Twitter, Kumaraswamy wrote, "As the lock down continues, what action plan does the government have to tackle the challenges of ensuring marketing channels for farm produce with timely transport and ensuring uninterrupted supply of essential groceries to towns and cities?"

He later asked the government to act "swiftly and effectively".

"On one hand we see farmers throwing their produce in despair and losing their livelihoods. On the other hand supplies to towns are depleting. This is threatening both lives and livelihoods. The government must act swiftly and effectively," Kumaraswamy tweeted.

"I urge the state government to immediately announce relief package to farmers by way of direct benefit transfer mechanism and purchase all the agricultural produce so as to avoid farmer suicides," he added.

With 40 deaths and 1,035 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, India on Saturday witnessed a sharpest ever increase in coronavirus cases, taking the tally of the infected people in the country to 7,447, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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News Network
April 28,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 28: Karnataka has found that the rapid antibody test kits for COVID-19 that the Centre supplied to the state have only 47% sensitivity. The state will be returning the kits to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Karnataka had received 11,400 rapid antibody test kits from the ICMR a few days back, out of which it had sent around 200 of them to NIMHANS for validation.

After the ICMR, on Monday, sent a circular to all states to return the test kits to the suppliers, Dr CN Manjunath, Director, Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, and nodal officer for lab testing in the state's COVID-19 task force, said, "We have cancelled the orders we placed to Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech and Zhuhai Livzon Diagnostics for one lakh rapid antibody test kits. Since the ICMR supplied us with 11,400 kits out of the 6.5 lakh kits it procured, we will be returning the kits to them."

Manjunath told said that the validation at NIMHANS revealed the kits to have only 47% sensitivity. Sensitivity is the ability of a test to identify the true-positives in a population, i.e., the actual number of people who've been infected with the disease. With the rapid antibody testing kits being shelved, the state's plan to randomly test high risk groups has taken a backseat. 

So far, the state has tested 43,791 samples. 

Karnataka now has 22 testing facilities -- 14 government and seven private labs. Many private labs have not tested any samples so far because of the lack of test kits (the state has made it clear that it will not provide test kits to private labs). So, getting an ICMR approval for testing has become a moot point.p

Agreeing to the setback the state's plans of ramping up testing has taken, Manjunath said, "It is true that RT-PCR test kits are in shortage. Even Pune's Mylabs had a shortage in supplying test kits. But we are relying on institutes like Kidwai, Narayana Health and Biocon's Syngene that have received approval for testing. They're big institutes and we hope that they will test a large number of samples."

On reports that the Centre has RT-PCR test kits that will last for only a week, he said, "We have test kits that will last for eight to 10 days. We have ordered for more. We are hoping to receive them before the current kits run out."

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News Network
March 4,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 4: With the number of Coronavirus positive cases in India increasing, health department officials in Karnataka are working round the clock to keep citizens safe.

But citizens are already panicking with 97 people in Bengaluru rushing to the government-run Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Chest Diseases (RGICD) on Tuesday with symptoms matching the coronavirus.

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has now appealed for calm saying there is no coronavirus in the state.

"There is a difference in what appears in the media and what is on the ground. No need to panic. PM Modi is also looking into this. My health minister addressed the media and no one needs to panic. We are ready to tackle the situation," he added.

Dr. Nagaraj, director of RGICD, said the screening process began at the hospital on January 22 and they would see some 15-20 patients and take 5-6 swabs.

"Because of apprehensions, we saw 978 patients and took 27 swabs. We have also admitted 4 patients in the isolation ward," he added.

As of today, there are 5 patients admitted in the isolation ward of RGICD. Two came in close contact with the infected techie in Telengana and three foreign nationals from Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran.

Tech parks on high alert

At the Manyata Tech Park in the city, a company sent out a circular regarding one of their associates who had travelled from a Level 3 country to India and had flu-like symptoms.

It says that the associate was advised to receive necessary screening and observation as mandated by the Karnataka State Health Department. The associate was screened by an authorized medical agency and determined to be asymptomatic.

As of Wednesday, the company located in the G3 campus of Manyata Tech Park has begun disinfecting and sanitizing the work location and all associates working out of this location have been advised to work from home until March 6.

A statement issued by Embassy spokesperson on March 4 to India Today TV indicated the authorities have activated their response plan.

"As of March 4, we are not aware of a single positive case for the virus in more than 2,00,000 people who work in our business parks. We do understand that one employee of a company at one of our parks who had travelled from a Level 3 country was screened in the last 36 hours and determined to be asymptomatic.

As a precaution, the premises are being disinfected and sanitized. The fact remains, we are not aware of a single confirmed case within over 15 business parks across India," the statement said.

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