Guj Congress dispatches 44 MLAs to Karnataka to avert poaching attempts

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July 29, 2017

Bengaluru, Jul 29: With three more of its MLAs resigning from the Gujarat assembly, and threat of more desertions looming large, a rattled Congress dispatched a plane-load of its MLAs to party-ruled Karnataka, to fend off more poaching attempts.Guj

Sources in Bengaluru said that 46 party MLAs landed at Kempegowda airport late on Friday evening and were spirited to a nearby resort by Karnataka minister D K Shiva Kumar who has handled similar situations for Congress in the past.

Party circles in Ahmedabad, however, put the number of MLAs ensconced in the Karnataka capital at 40.

The panic response was triggered by the resignations of three more party MLAs, taking the number of MLAs who have quit the party in the last 24 hours to six.

Sources said that more MLAs had seemed set to resign, setting off alarm bells and leading the party managers to herd them to Bengaluru. Sources said they will return to Gandhinagar only on the eve of polling on August 8. Sources indicated that senior MLAs like Shaktisinh Gohil and Shailesh Parmar stayed put in Ahmedabad.

The three who resigned on Friday are Chhanabhai Choudhary, Mansinh Chauhan and Ramsinh Parmar. Parmar is the chairman of Amul Dairy

Congress strength in Gujarat House drops from 57 to 51

Sources in Ahmedabad said that the three MLAs had planned to resign on Saturday, and more resignations would have followed, the daily routine of desertions jeopardising the chances of party nominee Ahmed Patel, Sonia Gandhi's political secretary, in the Rajya Sabha polls.

The battle had assumed importance because of Patel's proximity to the Congress chief and because a setback for him in the RS polls may not augur well for the morale of the party when it is heading for assembly elections due by year-end.

The party had 57 MLAs in the 182-man assembly till the exodus began on Thursday. A spate of resignations has reduced the strength to 51.

The mobile phones of at least a dozen party MLAs were switched off and attempts by the leadership to get in touch with them proved futile, leading the party managers to pen the stock.

If all the 182 MLAs (BJP has 121) were to vote in the Rajya Sabha elections, any candidate getting 46 votes stands to win. However, with the spate of resignations, this magical figure is likely to come down, creating an opening for BJP to bag the third seat too.

The party, after ensuring that the required number of votes are cast in favour of Amit Shah and Smriti Irani, can transfer surplus votes to its third nominee, Congress rebel Balwantsinh Rajput, besides giving him second-preference votes in ballots which are cast in favour of Shah and Irani.

Congress's hopes of the support of two NCP MLAs remain intact, but the lone JD (U) MLA, Chhotu Vasava, looks doubtful, given the sudden development in Bihar.

Jitters in Congress over the threat of defections led it to attack BJP in Parliament and outside. The Rajya Sabha witnessed an uproar as Congress MPs forced repeated adjournments of the House alleging that the Gujarat police had "abducted" an MLA in the state.

The House was adjourned four times in the morning session as Congress members trooped into the well, raising anti-government slogans and charging the BJP with "stealing" MLAs to help its candidates bag berths in the Upper House.

Crying foul, Congress leaders in Ahmedabad alleged that bribes of Rs 5 crore to Rs 10 crore were being offered to each MLA to cross over.

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coastaldigest.com news network
May 22,2020

Mangaluru, May 22: An elderly cardiac patient from Dakshina Kannada, who was stranded in Saudi Arabia due to covid-19 lock-down, has finally reached his homeland thanks to the timely intervention by Humanity Forum Jubail and Indian Social Forum.

The elderly man hailing from Kadaba area of Dakshina Kannada was admitted to a hospital in Madinah. However, his condition continued to worsen due to lack of proper treatment. The efforts by his family members to bring him back home had not yielded results.

Meanwhile, one of the relatives of the patient, Ansari Suratkal, who happens to be a DKSC activist, brought the issue to the notice of the Karnataka unit of the Indian Social Forum in Dammam. ISF contacted Humanity Forum president Zakariya Jokatte, who helped the patient to speak directly union minister D V Sadananda Gowda in a video conference organised by coastaldigest.com.

Humanity Forum also persuaded the Indian Embassy to allow the stranded cardiac patient to fly back to India through Dammam-Bengaluru repatriation flight on May 20. 

However, it was not easy for the patient to travel from Madinah to Dammam International Airport due to lock-down and curfew. ISF not only obtained travel permission for him but also arranged vehicle. Jeddah and Riyadh units of ISF helped in obtaining permission letter in their respective places in spite of travel ban imposed by the police. Madinah unit of ISF arranged vehicle for transportation. Zakariya Jokatte bore the air ticket and other expenses of the patient.

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coastaldigest.com news network
July 12,2020

Mangaluru/Udupi: A total 237 people tested positive for the novel coronavirus in Dakshina Kannada (DK) and Udupi on Sunday, a day that DK scaled yet another peak with 196 cases and Udupi tallied 41. 

The grim reaper came calling on patients with co-morbidities, harvesting five souls, to take the total tally of deaths in DK to 46. The spurt also saw DK’s tally of positive cases rise to 2,230 and Udupi’s to 1,608.

The 196 fresh cases in DK included 91 cases of influenza like illness (ILI), the cause of infection in 57 people is yet to be known, 20 are primary contacts, 16 are those with severe acute respiratory infection (SARI), 10 are those with international travel history and two are pre-surgery samples, said deputy commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh. The five deceased include three men and two women, the youngest victim being a 50-year-old man and oldest a 72-year-old man.

A total 94 patients were discharged from the designated Covid-19 and private hospitals in the city, taking the total number those discharged to 876, and paring down the number of active cases to 1,309. The commissioner of Mangaluru City Corporation, tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Sunda. Deputy Commissioner (revenue), MCC, a primary contact, has home quarantined himself in the wake of this development.

In neighbouring Udupi, the double-digit blip on the Covid-19 radar included 32 primary contacts, six with inter-district travel history, two with inter-state travel history and one patient with international travel history, said district health officer Sudhir Chandra Sooda. The fresh cases also included four children. The discharge of 28 patients took the total numbers of those discharged to 1,273, and there are 332 active cases now. The district has recorded three deaths due to the pandemic thus far. 

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January 21,2020

Yadgir, Jan 21: A bag was found abandoned at the Yadgir Bus Stand on Tuesday morning that left the commuters in panic.

After receiving the information, a police team, along with a sniffer dog, rushed to the spot. When the bag was checked, the police found clothes and cash in it.

It is stated that a passenger might have left the bag in a hurry to catch the bus.

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