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Jaffer Sharief, the man behind golden era in Railways sector

Vijesh Kamath for Deccan Herald
November 26, 2018

Bengaluru, Nov 26: Former union minister and senior Congress leader C K Jaffer Sharief, best known for ushering in a golden era in the railways sector in Karnataka, passed away in Bengaluru on Sunday. He was 85.

Sharief suffered a major cardiac arrest at home and was rushed to a private hospital. He breathed his last at 12.30 pm. He will be laid to rest at Jayamahal burial grounds on Millers Road following namaz at Khadria mosque on Monday afternoon.

Born on November 3, 1933, in Chitradurga, Sharief started his political career driving the car of his political mentor and former chief minister S Nijalingappa in the late 1960s.

He was loyal to the Congress, but at times caused embarrassment to the party by making caustic remarks against the leadership.

Sharief was best known for his tenure as railway minister (1991-95) in the P V Narasimha Rao Cabinet. He brought several railway projects to Bengaluru and is credited with the task of broad gauge conversion across the country.

Sharief’s tenure at the helm of the Railways is known as the golden period for the state. He sanctioned 1,000 km of gauge conversion works out of the 6,000 km sanctioned to the entire country. This included conversion of section like Bengaluru-Guntakal, Bengaluru-Mysuru.

He also secured several new lines including Chitradurga- Rayadurga and Mangaluru-Roha. He was instrumental in getting the Wheel and Axle plant to Bengaluru. He played a pivotal role in the establishment of the South Western Railways and securing the Inland Container Depot and Railway Recruitment Board to the state.

It was during Sharief’s time that services like Shatabdi and Rajdhani were introduced from Karnataka and several rail over bridge and rail under bridges built. A seven-term Lok Sabha member, he represented Bengaluru North constituency without a break between 1977-96. He was denied a ticket in 1996 following his initials figuring in the infamous Jain diaries. However, he came back with a bang, winning the seat in 1998.

In 1969, Sharief took sides and joined the Indira Gandhi faction when the Congress split. It is said it was Sharief who sounded Indira Gandhi that senior Congress leaders were planning to expel her from the party for indiscipline.

This earned a reward for Sharief who was inducted into the cabinet as minister of state for railways by Indira Gandhi in 1980. He also served as the minister of state for coal in the Rajiv Gandhi government.

Popularly called “Jaffer bhai” in political circles, Sharief many a time wanted to enter state politics and even cherished the dream of becoming chief minister. However, that was not to be. The last time he contested elections was in 2009 from Bengaluru North constituency and was defeated by D B Chandre Gowda of the BJP.

In the last few years, Sharief fell out with the Congress leadership as he felt he was being sidelined. On several occasions, he threatened to quit the party, sulking for being denied a ticket to him or his family members. Sharief lost two of his sons in 1996 and 2008. He is survived by two daughters.

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Sruti Kotian
 - 
Monday, 26 Nov 2018

True.. such a good man

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News Network
April 7,2020

Mangaluru, Apr 7: The virology lab set up in Wenlock Hospital here to test COVID-19 samples will start functioning from Tuesday, Karnataka District in-charge Minister Kota Srinivas Poojary said.

In his tweeter Mr Poojary said “After receiving approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV), the Virology Research and Diagnostic Laboratory set up at district Wenlock will start operating from April 7. The samples for COVID-19 will be tested in the district itself. I thank the state government for helping us set up the lab.”

The new Lab becomes the 10th government lab for testing COVID-19 samples in the state.

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News Network
January 25,2020

Udupi, Jan 25: Mangalore International Airport (MIA) culprit Aditya Rao has revealed that after placing the explosive device he went to Malpe and made threat call of placing bomb in the Indigo flight.

Rao, who is in police custody, on Saturday, was brought to Malpe under tight security by the investigating officer ACP Belliyappa for spot investigation. On January 20, Aditya had come to the Mangaluru airport and planted an explosive device before going to Malpe and made a threat call about placing a bomb in the Indigo flight. He was just a couple of kilometers away from the Malpe police station while making the call.

Sitting outside an egg selling shop which opens only after 6:00 pm, Aditya had called the Airport and informed that a bomb was placed in the Indigo flight. Later he destroyed the sim card and left to Bengaluru to surrender.

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News Network
August 6,2020

Chennai, Aug 5: Karnataka on Wednesday crossed the 1.5 lakh mark in respect of COVID-19 cases and Kerala was on the verge of 30,000 while Andhra Pradesh witnessed a five- digit daily caseload after a lull. 

Tamil Nadu saw a small jump in its daily cases as compared to Tuesday while Telangana and union territory Puducherry reported their respective record single-day spikes. 

The five states and the union territory reported a combined 24,415 fresh confirmed coronavirus cases and 316 fatalities on Wednesday. 

A Puducherry Minister tested positive for the deadly virus while an opposition AINRC legislator who contracted the coronavirus earlier was discharged after being cured of it. 

In Karnataka, the coronavirus cases stood at 1,51,449 with the addition of 5,619 fresh cases while 100 deaths were reported, pushing the total fatalities to 2,804, the health department said.

According to a health bulletin, 74,679 persons have been discharged so far, leaving 73,958 active cases. Andhra Pradesh''s COVID-19 surge continued on Wednesday too, with 10,128 cases reported afresh after easing a little in the last four days. 

The overall tally rose to 1,86,461 on Wednesday. The state had last reported its five-figure daily tally on July 31 when it was 10,376. 

The state also saw a record number of 77 coronavirus deaths in a day, pushing the toll to 1,681, the latest bulletin said. 

In the last 24 hours, 8,729 patients had also recovered from the infection and there were 80,426 active cases. 

As many as 1,04,354 patients have been cured and discharged so far. Kerala was on the verge of 30,000 cases, as its tally stood at 29,145 with the addition of 1,195 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.

The toll from the virus so far climbed to 94 with seven more deaths. Thiruvananthapuram continued to top the districts in infections with 274 cases on Wednesday, of whom 248 had been infected through contact. 

Malappuram (167), Kasaragod (128), Ernakulam (120) and Alappuzha (108) reported over 100 cases. As many as 112 patients died of COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu, the highest reported in a single day so far, taking the toll to 4,461 on Wednesday while 5,175 more people tested positive, propelling the case count to 2.73 lakh.

Recoveries outnumbered fresh cases with 6,031 people getting discharged from various hospitals, taking the total cured to 2,14,815 as the active cases dropped to 54,184, a government bulletin said. 

In Telangana, 2,012 new cases emerged while 13 related fatalities were reported, taking the total infection tally in the state to 70,958. Out of the new cases, 532 were from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), followed by Medchal-Malkajgiri 198 and Rangareddy 188, a state government bulletin said on Wednesday, providing data as of 8 PM on August 4. 

The total number of people who recovered from the infectious disease touched 50,814, while 19,568 were under treatment.

The COVID-19 fatality rate in the state was 0.81 per cent, while it was 2.10 per cent at the national level, it said. The recovery rate was 71.6 per cent in the state, while it was 66.31 per cent in the country, it added. 

Puducherry clocked its worst single-day spike of 286 infections, recording seven deaths, even as the overall tally of cases went up to 4,432. 

The deaths during the 24 hours in the Union Territory took the toll to 65 so far since the outbreak of the virus, Health Minister Malladi Krishna Rao told a virtual press conference. 

His cabinet colleague M Kandasamy and his son reported positive for the virus and were admitted to JIPMER.

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