Forget rivers and dams; groundwater too reaching danger level in Mangaluru

Bengaluru, Jul 1: Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar on Wednesday played down reports about confusion regarding valuation of Second Pre- University and the Secondary School Leaving Certificate exam papers.

"Creating confusion has become a habit. There was confusion before the exam, during the exam and now confusion about the valuation of the exam papers," Kumar told reporters in Ramanagara when asked about the confusion over the valuation of answer sheets.

He had gone there to inspect a few centres where the SSLC or the 10th standard exams are underway.

The minister reminded people not to speak about the abilities of the students with contempt.

"Our students have toiled hard and are enthusiastically appearing for the examination. They are eligible for the marks they will score. So we should not speak about our children with disrespect," Kumar said.

The Education Minister said he had spoken to many leaders including former chief ministers Siddaramaiah and H D Kumaraswamy on conducting the examinations.

"Kumaraswamy had insisted on postponing the examination. I personally spoke to him and apprised him about the steps taken by us. I told him that we will work with more sincerity to ensure the safety of the children," Kumar said.

The SSLC exam was scheduled to take place from March 27 but due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, it was postponed.

While the CBSE and a few other states either decided to give marks based on the students' performance in the previous examinations such as quarterly and half-yearly exams or gave general promotion to the students, Karnataka went ahead to hold the exam.

According to Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board officials, around 8.5 lakh students have enrolled this year for the SSLC examination.

The exams are being held at 2,879 exam centres across the state.

Prior to the SSLC examination, the last exam of the Second PUC was also conducted on June 18, which was also put on hold due to the lockdown.

Mangaluru, Jan 21: Operations at Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) are normal, a day after security agencies detonated a bomb recovered from the airport in a controlled explosion, an official said on Tuesday.

"All operations are normal at Mangluru International Airport. Everything is normal," told the airport director V.V. Rao to IANS.

Rao said even on Monday, there was no interruption to the airport operations, except for that one recalled IndiGo flight to Bengaluru.

"As the explosive was isolated and taken away from the airport, there was no disturbance to flights, except one Bengaluru-bound IndiGo flight which suffered a few hours delay and took off later," said Rao.

Meanwhile, security has been tightened at the airport.

Mangluru north assistant commissioner of police Belliappa told media that the police are still on the hunt for the culprits who planted the bomb at the airport.

"We are trying to trace the culprits, we got the footage of the suspects," said Belliappa, highlighting that the police are yet to find the name, age and other details of the suspects.

At Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), the number of police personnel has been increased in a bid to tighten the security and 24 hour searching of vehicles is underway.

"We have set up two check posts on the way to the airport and randomly checking vehicles," told Devanahalli assistant commissioner of police Subramanya to media.

All Karnataka airports, including Hubballi and Belagavi, are on high alert.

Mangaluru, Feb 13: The Customs Officers of Airport Team-II at Mangalore International Airport (MIA) on Thursday intercepted a passenger who attempted to smuggle gold worth Rs 9.39 lakhs.

The team led by Rajesh Poojary nabbed the passenger who attempted to smuggle 233.18 grams of gold strips concealed inside a rechargeable emergency light and solar sensor wall light.

The officials said a passenger named Mohammed Mahir Patla (24) from Kasaragod, who arrived from Dubai yesterday evening by Air India flight number IX384 attempted to smuggle the gold.