Karnataka Polls 2018: Here’s the BJP’s second list of 82 candidates

Bengaluru, May 26: Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa has been urged to cancel the proposed SSLC examinations in Karnataka and allow “mass-pass” for every student in the wake of covid-19 crisis. A group of intellectuals and educationists have put forth this demand.

In the letter released by educationist VP Niranjan Aradhya, said that they were listing the scientific reasons to the CM for cancellation of exams which are slated to be held from June 25 to July 4th.

In the letter, the intellectuals have elucidated a number of reasons for cancelling the upcoming exams. “There are close to 8.5 lakh students and 2.5 lakh staff involved. If we include parents who would drop their kids at the exam centre, around 30 lakh people will be involved in the process, making it a risky affair. Though the government has said that it will separate the students with fever or other ailments, will students admit to having fever? What if they consume paracetamol and come to write exams?” asks the letter. 

Added to this, the question papers have to be sent from the district and taluk centres and there may be chances of transmission.

“Even if we conduct exams, then what about the students who have failed? Every year, around 2.5 lakh students fail in the exam. Will the government conduct the supplementary exams again? The whole process of conducting exams comes at a huge cost of Rs 20 cr to Rs 25 crore. Hence, we are suggesting that the government cancels the exams and pass the entire group of student en masse,” said the letter.

Newsroom, Jun 2: The government of India has announced operation of another 20 special flights to repatriate stranded NRIs from Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under Vande Bharat Mission.

All the repatriation flights will take off from three major airports – Dammam, Riyadh and Jeddah – between June 10 and June 16. Most of the flights will land in Kerala.

The first flight from Saudi Arabia to Karnataka in the new schedule will be operated on June 11. It will take off from Jeddah with passengers from both Kerala and Karnataka. After landing in Kozhikode it will continue its journey to Bengaluru. 

The next three flights  –  Dammam to Bengaluru on June 12, Jeddah to Bengaluru on June 13 and Riyadh to Bengaluru on June 15 – will directly fly to Karnataka. 

Even though thousands of Mangalureans are stranded in Saudi Arabian cities due to lockdown, the government has not announced any flight to Mangaluru International Airport.

The following are the newly announced flights from Saudi Arabia to India:

Bengaluru, Jan 19: The long-awaited discussions on cabinet expansion finally took place between BJP national president Amit Shah and the state party unit on Saturday, but they produced no result.

Latest indications are that new members will be appointed only after CM BS Yediyurappa returns from Davos, Switzerland, on January 25.

The party held a close-door party meeting at a top hotel in Hubballi. The subject of expanding the cabinet, which currently has 16 vacancies, featured in the talks.

Earlier, Yediyurappa reportedly had a one-on-one with Shah during their 45-minute flight from Bengaluru to Hubballi. He is said to have insisted on accommodating all 11 newly MLAs in the cabinet. These legislators were earlier a part of Congress and JD(S); they contested the December byelections on BJP tickets and won.

This apart, BJP sources said, Yediyurappa and Shah had a brief chat at a private event at Palace Grounds . Separately, Shah, who is the Union home minister, held meetings with Jagadish Shettar, Laxman Savadi and Prahlad Joshi, seeking their views on cabinet expansion.

Shah also wanted to get an idea of what people think about the Yediyurappa government’s performance.

Newly elected MLAs Ramesh Jarkiholi, BC Patil and Srimanth Patil greeted Shah. “We only met him to wish him; we didn’t discuss the cabinet issue. That’s something state BJP members will do,” said Hirekerur legislator BC Patil.

Saturday’s deliberations fail to break the stalemate over the cabinet appointments. There are clear differences in the camp about whether all Congress-JD(S) defectors should be made cabinet members, according to a senior minister attended one such meeting.

Shah reportedly wants only seven to eight newly elected MLAs to be made ministers; the rest of the spots should go to BJP loyalists. Yediyurappa disagrees with this position as he had promised all 13 turncoats places in the cabinet. Two lost in the bypolls.

Shah has now asked Yediyurappa to visit Delhi after returning from Davos to finalise the composition of the cabinet, according to the sources.

Yediyurappa will leave for Davos early on Sunday, while Shah will fly directly to Delhi from Hubballi.