Gill wins Rally of Arunachal; Mangalureans Dean Mascarenhas, Ashwin Naik finish second, third

Bengaluru, Jun 19: The Karnataka government has been advised by its Educational Advisor to cancel holidays observed in educational institutions on the occasion of various Jayantis (birth annivesaries).

Advisor to Karnataka government on Education, Professor MR Doreswamy, has recommended cancellation of holidays on Jayanti and celebrate the day with more meaningful programmes remembering the great personalities.

The state government has declared public holidays on Valmiki Jayanti, Basava Jayanti, Kanaka Jayanti, Mahavir Jayanti, Ambedkar Jayanti and Gandhi Jayanti.

On Thursday, Doreswamy submitted a report containing seven key suggestions including cancelling holidays, to Deputy Chief Minister CN Aswath Narayan, who holds higher education portfolio.

Doreswamy in his report suggested to hold thematic workshops, lectures, conferences and other such activities to celebrate the life and works of the great personalities, instead of declaring holidays.

"It would not only educate our youth about the significance of the great personalities to our culture and society and also reinvents the tradition of paying tributes to their contributions to our civil society,'' he said.

Dr Narayan said that the decision on cancelling holidays on Jayanti's has to be taken by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa.

Moreover, to bring education back on track during the present COVID-19 pandemic situation, Doreswamy made a few suggestions to complete exams of final semester engineering and graduate students. He also said that it was a challenge for the education sector to overcome the pandemic crisis and structure the next academic year 2021-22.

He also advised implementation of a mentoring system in all higher education institutions in Karnataka and empowering specially-abled students.

Bengaluru, Jan 17: Six persons, said to be supporters of Social Democratic Party of India, have been arrested in connection alleged attempt to murder a member of RSS in Bengaluru.

Varun Bhopala (34), a resident of Sarakki in JP Nagar, was attacked while he was on his way to his father's shop near JC Road after attending a pro-CAA event organised by the RSS and other Hindutva organisations on December 22, 2019.

Police commissioner Bhaskar Rao said the arrested are Irfan alias Mohammed Irfan (33), Syed Akbar alias Mechanic Akbar (46), Syed Siddiq Akbar (30), Akbar Basha (27), Sanaulla Sharif (28) and Sadiq UL Ameen (39) - all residents of KG Halli in East and North Bengaluru.

Rao said the arrested wanted to attack and kill the leaders who took part in the pro-CAA event. They initially pelted seven stones to scatter the crowd so that they can attack the leaders, but they failed. Later, they saw Varun walking out of the crowd wearing a saffron shirt. So the arrested followed him and attacked him with lethal weapons. Assuming he is dead, the gang fled on their bikes towards Bidadi.

''The SDPI activists were funded by their leaders to create a disturbance, kill Hindu organisation leaders,'' Rao said. "I have formed a special team to investigate in-depth about the SDPI activities and take necessary action,'' he added.

Belgaum, Feb 24: Around 20 people entered a boys' hostel premises in Karnataka's Belgaum with rods and bats and destroyed properties allegedly over ragging of a girl by two hostel residents.

The incident took place on February 23 and was captured in the CCTV camera.

According to Belgaum Police, a gang of 20 people entered Dr BR Ambedkar post metric hostel premises in Belgaum with rods and bats. The group destroyed the properties of hostel, bikes, and scooters.

Police said this is an issue of ragging and during the incident, no students were injured.

Further, the investigation is underway.