It’s a battle between Ugrappa and Shantha in Ballari

Tumakuru, Jan 8: RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat stoked controversy on Wednesday by stating that 'Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is full of traitors'.

He was addressing the media after taking part in a pro-CAA rally organised by National Citizens Forum near the office of the deputy commissioner of the district here.

Bhat said, “JNU is full of traitors. Congress and communist parties have been generating anti-nationals there. But there is no need to close the university down. Modi government will handle it.”

“Nationalism should be infused among the students there through love and trust. They should be made to realize what the truth is,” he said.

Alappuzha, Jan 9: The houseboat of Nobel Laureate Michael Levitt was blocked in the backwaters here for some time by trade union activists, who were on a nationwide strike against the Centre's "anti-labour" policies on Wednesday.

Michael Levitt, an American-British-Israeli biophysicist and a professor of structural biology at the Stanford University in the United States, said the incident sent a bad message to tourists.

Levitt, who was in Kerala as a state guest, also said he felt as if a bandit had stopped his wife and him at gunpoint. Police said Levitt, who received the 2013 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was in Alappuzha with his wife and they were stopped by the protesters near Kainakary.

"Being stopped by criminals on the backwaters sends a very bad message to tourists. It is as if a bandit stopped us at gunpoint and delayed us under the threat of force for one hour," Levitt wrote in an email to his tour agent at Kottayam.

In the email, which was later released to the media, he also said the person who blocked them "ignored all arguments that tourists were exempted" from the strike.

"This person, who did this, ignored all arguments that tourists were exempted and that I am a VIP guest of the Kerala government. He was obviously acting, knowing that he was safe from prosecution. Sadly, this makes me fear that India is sinking into lawlessness," Levitt wrote in the email.

The police registered a case after the houseboat owners filed a complaint in this regard.

Reacting to the incident, state Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran said the government would take strong action. "Strong action will be taken against those anti-social elements who stopped the boat. Levitt was here as a guest of the state government. The government had made it clear that the tourism industry was exempted from the strike," he said.

Trade union leaders had also announced that the strike would not affect the tourism industry.

Ten trade unions, including the INTUC, the AITUC and the CITU, had called for the nationwide strike to protest against the labour reforms, FDI, disinvestment, corporatisation and privatisation policies of the Centre and press for a 12-point demands of the working class, relating to minimum wage, among others.

Bengaluru, Mar 30: The coronavirus scare has taken a toll on the poultry industry in Karnataka with many poultry farm owners culling the birds, insiders in the poultry industry said.

At least one lakh birds have been culled in the last one week, the sources said.

Ever since the news spread about novel coronavirus spreading rapidly, the poultry industry started feeling the heat.

The lockdown spelt further trouble for the industry with reduced business compelling farm owners to go in for the culling.

According to Muddukrishna of C N Nischchith Enterprises, a live chicken dealer in Bengaluru, the culling had taken place in Shivamogga, Kolar and other places.

"There is a drastic decline in business. There are neither customers nor enough supply of birds for sale. We are badly hit. There are many poultry farm owners who have incurred tremendous loss due to the lockdown," Muddukrishna told news agency.

Another major poultry industry owner, having his farms in Channapatna, Ramanagar, Anekal and surrounding places, said he had to get rid of at least 4,000 birds in each of these farms.

"This is not restricted to me alone. There are about 64 major poultry industries who have gone for the drastic measure of culling," said the farm owner.

He said in the last one week, at least one lakh birds have been culled as it was hard for them to maintain them.

"Each bird needs at least a kilogram of grains in three days to eat whereas each kg of poultry food costs about Rs 32. We have about two lakh birds in our farm. How can we maintain if there is no business," rued the poultry farm owner.

The industry has suffered a double whammy.

People gave up eating chicken following rumours that the novel coronavirus COVID-19 is similar to SARS, another virus.

Further, the lockdown has blocked the transportation of these birds, he added.

According to the farm owner, in the last one month, he had suffered a loss of around Rs 15 lakh and if the situation continues for the next three months, his condition would be beyond imagination.

Muddukrishna said the poultry farm association had given a memorandum to the animal husbandry and fisheries department seeking direction on the transportation of these birds.

Accordingly, the secretary in the department of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries A B Ibrahim issued a circular to all the city police commissioners, deputy commissioners of the district, superintendent of police and the CEO of Zilla Panchayath on Friday that the animal husbandry services have been declared as essential services.

Ibrahim said in his circular that the production of chicken birds, sheep, goat, pigs, etc in the farm and their transportation, manufacturing feed, liquid nitrogen meant for veterinary use and other items related to the Animal Husbandry should be permitted.

"Despite the order, our vehicles are stopped and drivers are harassed," alleged Muddukrishna.