JD(S)-BJP likely to forge alliance for zilla, taluk panchayats

Bengaluru, Jul 5: Archbishop Emeritus of Bangalore Bernard Moras has been diagnosed with mild symptoms of Covid-19 and his condition now is said to be stable.

"Most Reverend Bernard Moras, Archbishop Emeritus of Bangalore, had gone to St. John's Medical College for a routine check-up on July 2 as he was not well. Yesterday (July 3), it was confirmed that he has mild symptoms of Covid-19 and the doctors have stated that his condition at present is stable," Archbishop of Bangalore Peter Machado said in a message.

"We assure our beloved Archbishop Emeritus of the prayers of all the faithful in the Archdiocese and wish him a speedy recovery, he said.

The Archbishop Emeritus is aged about 78. 

Bengaluru, Feb 6: Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa inducted 10 BJP MLAs to his Cabinet here on Thursday. They are among the 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs who defected last year.

The much-delayed expansion came almost two-months after the MLAs won the bypolls held in December. During the period, the defectors camp exerted pressure on Yediyurappa to expand the Cabinet and include all the MLAs who contested the bypolls.

The new ministers sworn in are S T Somashekar, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Byrati Basavaraj, K Gopalaiah, B C Patil, Dr K Sudhakar, Shivaram Hebbar, Anand Singh, Narayana Gowda and Shrimanth Patil.

One of the 11 MLAs from the defectors camp, Mahesh Kumathalli was not inducted as he hailed from the same constituency as Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi. Three others, MTB Nagaraj, H Vishwanath and R Shankar are likely to be inducted in June.

Governor Vajubhai Bala administered oaths to the new ministers at Raj Bhavan, where hundreds of supporters came to witness the event. Authorities had also beefed up security arrangements outside Raj Bhavan for the ceremony.

Earlier, Yediyurappa was to induct 10 newly-elected MLAs and three old-timer BJP MLAs. But on Wednesday evening, the BJP's central leadership stepped in to decide that only 10 newly-elected MLAs should be inducted after disgruntlement surfaced among BJP MLAs over former minister C P Yogeeshwar's induction.

Several MLAs led by chief minister's political secretary MP Renukacharya had raised a hue and cry over allotting berths to those who lost Assembly polls. A group of 13 to 15 MLAs had also demanded adequate representation to Kalyana Karnataka region, alleging that the new Cabinet had excess representation from few districts of Karnataka, such as Bengaluru Urban and Belagavi.

Bengaluru, Feb 9: Six persons, including three Nigerian nationals, have been arrested for their involvement in a fake kidney racket, through which they duped over 300 people, police said on Sunday.

The case was cracked by a Special Investigating Team (SIT) headed by Banasawadi, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Raviprasad. These people had duped scores of people, by misusing the name of a well known hospital located in Bengaluru.