Drunk passenger urinates on-board Air India flight, pays heavy fine

Bengaluru, Jan 3: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Friday clarified that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured him to consider all the demands made by his government.

"Prime Minister spoke to me personally and assured me of all help and suggested that I visit New Delhi and meet the concerned Ministers and apprise them about the state's problems and pending projects. He also directed me to prepare a detail report on this matter," Yediyurappa said in a statement.

He claimed that a section of media has misinterpreted his speech which was plain and honest towards the development of the state.

"A section of media has attached motive to my speech which was plain and honest in its content. Being in federal set up, there is nothing wrong with placing the facts before the Prime Minister and making submissions," the Chief Minister said.

"As a Chief Minister, I placed our state's problems and need for more funds for developmental activities. I pleaded before the Prime Minister for more funds to the relief work, the scientific and remunerative price for the farm produces, and special fund of Rs 50,000 crore for speeding up of on-going irrigation work. As it was farmers' meet, I felt it worthy and timely to plead the Prime Minister for more funds for all the developmental activities in the state," he said.

Asserting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a great visionary and his concern for the poor and farmers is unquestionable, he said: "When the whole world is appreciating his statesmanship and visionary zeal, it is in very bad taste for the media to attribute motives to my speech and relate it to the Prime Minister."

Yediyurappa requested media to show support to his government in the interest of the development of the state.

"I humbly request the electronic and print media not to misinterpret but support the government in the interest of the development of the state and interests of the people. I hope the media will respond to my request," he said.

Mangaluru, May 25: D V Sadananda Gowda, Union Minister for Chemical and Fertilizer, has once again written to the Ministry of External Affairs urging to take steps to operate more repatriation flights from Gulf countries to Karnataka. 

In his second letter in 10 days addressed to Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Union Minister for External Affairs, expressed regret over not giving due priority for the repatriation of Kannadigas in the middle east during the extended second phase of Vande Bharat Mission. 

"I shall be grateful if you could personally intervene and instuct the concerned in arranging flights to Mangaluru and Bengaluru from Gulf countries in existing schedule itself," Mr Gowda urged Mr Jayashankar. 

Mangaluru, Jun 21: The first flight chartered by Karnataka Sports and Cultural Club (KSCC) to repatriate stranded UAE Kannadigas today reached Mangaluru from Sharjah.

The Air Arabia flight with 173 passengers took off from Sharjah international airport around 6:00 am (UAE Time) and landed at Mangaluru International Airport at around 11.00 am (IST) on Sunday. 

The flight had 29 pregnant women, 16 children, 5 infants, senior citizens, people with medical emergencies and those who have lost jobs among others.
 
KSCC Manager Mr Shafi said that all the legal procedures were carried out smoothly. Charter flight was arranged only for the stranded Kannadigas.
 
KSCC had set up help desk to finalize list of passengers, given discounted ticket fare for needy passengers who cannot afford the full repatriation cost. Free PPE kits were distributed to all passengers along with snacks.

Meanwhile rapid tests for Covid-19 was conducted before departure and mandatory quarantine for all the passengers was arranged accordingly in 3 hotels in Mangaluru for a period of seven days.
 
KSCC office bearers Shafi, Althaf, Javed, Naseer and volunteers were present at airport during the flight departure. KSCC has expressed gratitude to Consulate General, DC of DK District, Umar U H and Ataullah Jokkate for their support.