Karnataka: in fresh problem for Congress, loyalists demand cabinet berths

TNN
May 29, 2019

Bengaluru, May 29: Efforts by Congress leaders to mollify rebels with the offer of cabinet berths has created a new problem for the party, with some party loyalists questioning the decision which they say is “unfair and unjust”. Some loyalists even threw their hats in the ring for ministerial berths on Tuesday, questioning why they shouldn’t be made ministers if rebels were being rewarded.

MLAs Ajay Singh, V Muniyappa and even H Nagesh, the independent MLA from Mulbagal, made no bones about their desire to become ministers. Singh even questioned the decision of party bosses to reward rebels with cabinet berths.

“The party should consider rewarding loyal MLAs. But unfortunately rebels are being rewarded,” he said while speaking to reporters in Kalaburagi. He also claimed that he was contacted by BJP leaders to switch sides, but being a loyal Congressman he will not leave the party.

Muniyappa and Nagesh met chief minister HD Kumaraswamy in Bengaluru with a request to make them ministers. Nagesh was accompanied by water resources minister DK Shivakumar, who returned from his Australia tour late on Monday night.

“As Gandhi said not to speak, listen and hear bad things, I have decided not to speak anything on the ongoing political developments,” Shivakumar told reporters when asked about dissidence within the party. Incidentally, Shivakumar had triggered some of the problems for the coalition government by interfering in Belagavi district politics. This had caused Ramesh Jarkiholi to rebel.

Besides Ajay, Muniyappa and Nagesh, Jarkiholi, BC Patil, B Nagendra and Bheema Naik are also in the race to become ministers.

Meanwhile, Kumaraswamy reached out to two Congress MLAs from Bengaluru, ST Somashekhar and Byrathi Basavaraj, assuring them that he would fulfil their demands. The CM is said to have agreed to the demand of Somashekhar, who is chairman of the Bengaluru Development Authority, to replace the commissioner Rakesh Singh at the development authority. Somashekhar, the Yeshwantpur MLA, is involved in a running feud with the commissioner. The CM also reportedly sanctioned Rs 10 crore to KR Puram, Byrathi Basavaraj’s constituency.

The CM’s gesture comes in the wake of complaints by many Congress legislators that Kumaraswamy is inaccessible to them.

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News Network
March 26,2020

Mau/ Kalaburagi, Mar 26: Uttar Pradesh Police on Wednesday asked lockdown violators in Mau to do push-ups and squats as a punishment.
In Karnataka's Kalaburagi, police personnel punished the violators of the lockdown.
In his address to the nation on Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown in the entire country effective from midnight to deal with the spread of coronavirus, saying that "social distancing" is the only option to deal with the disease, which spreads rapidly.
According to the Health Ministry, the total number of positive COVID-19 cases in India reached 606, including 43 foreign nationals.

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News Network
February 2,2020

Newsroom, Feb 2: American business magnate Bill Gates has congratulated her daughter Jennifer Gates after she announced her engagement to her Muslim boyfriend Nayel Nassar.

“I am completely thrilled! Congratulations, @jenniferkgates and @nayelnassar”, commented the Microsoft boss to her daughter’s surprise Instagram story.

The proposal took place on a ski getaway. "Nayel Nassar, you are one of a kind. Absolutely swept me off my feet this past weekend, surprising me in the most meaningful location over one of our many shared passions," she wrote on Instagram. The pair does have one very significant shared passion - horses.

Nassar, 29, is a showjumper. Gates, 23, has famously grown up an equestrian, and has even competed against Steve Jobs' daughter.

In October, Nassar helped Egypt qualify for Tokyo 2020 - Egypt's first Olympic equestrian qualification in 60 years. He has been jumping since he was 10 years old and has the accolades to show for it - he has taken first place in a number of notable competitions, including the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup.

Nassar was born in Chicago to Egyptian parents and spent many of his formative years in Kuwait, where his well-to-do parents run an architecture and design firm, according to People. He is fluent in English, Arabic, and French.

He moved back to the US in 2009 and graduated from Stanford with an economics degree in 2013 - later, he supported Gates at her own Stanford graduation in 2018.

The couple received well wishes from many notable personalities on each of their Instagram posts, including comments from Bill and Melinda Gates, Georgina Bloomberg, and Eve Jobs.

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News Network
May 4,2020

Bengaluru, May 4: Booze lovers ushered in the resumption of liquor sales in a spirited fashion in Karnataka onMonday thronging stores hours before shutters went up at severalplaces and made no secret of their celebratory mood.

At some places, they flocked liquor shops even before day-break and performed "special prayers" with flowers, coconuts,incense sticks, camphor and crackers in front of the stores.

Liquor outlets had been shut in the State from March 25 following the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Excise revenue loss during the period was about Rs 2,500 crore, according to government sources.

About 4,500 standalone liquor outlets (CL-2 and CL- 11licence holders), which comprise wine stores and those owned bystate-run Mysore Sales International Limited, outside containmentzones were allowed to be opened from Monday from 9 am to 7 pm withsome restrictions.

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These include customers compulsorily wearing of facemasks andmaintaining social distancing with not more than five people inside liquor shops.

Many customers were indeed well-prepared.

At many places, they came with umbrella, raincoat, newspapers and books and queued up as early as 3 am.

At a liquor shop in Salegame Road in Hassan, the tipplers lit the traditional lamp and incense sticks, performed 'aarati'with camphor and decorated the store with the garland of flowers.

With folded hands, they all performed 'special prayers'.

In Mandya, the tipplers queued up before Martaanda liquor shop before dawn.

An hour before the sales were to resume, a few people burst crackers in celebration.

Some tipplers in Belagavi were more "enterprising."

They wentto a liquor store on Sunday night itself, performed special prayersand placed their "representatives" in the form of slippers, bags and stones in the "social distancing boxes" they themselves had drawn sothat they don't have to stand in queue in the morning.

An elderly woman Dakamma was the centre of attraction in Shivamogga.

The bent body did not bend the determination of this spirited lady, claimed to be 96-year-old, who was heard saying "liquor is goodfor health."

At the taluk headquarters town of Brahmavara in the coastal Udupi district, the queue of the booze lovers was reported to be almost half-a-kilometre.

Long queues were seen at liquor stores at Mariyappana Palya and K R Puram, among others, in Bengaluru.

The store managers too were no less cautious while dealing with customers in the COVID era.

They let the customers enter after spraying sanitisers in their hands, and allowed only those who hadworn masks and maintained social distancing.

To maintain law and order, authorities had deployed policemen in good numbers at these stores and they were seen on duty ensuring  that customers maintained social distancing.

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