Lokayukta complaint against CM?over appointment of KSPCB?chief

May 6, 2016

Bengaluru, May 6: A complaint has been filed with the Lokayukta against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over the appointment of real estate businessman Lakshmana as the chairperson of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB).

siddaT Narasimha Murthy, the complainant, said that the appointment was in violation of the provisions under The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act and that it was the chief minister who chose Lakshmana, though it was not recommended by the search committee.

The complaint said that Lakshmana is a civil engineer and has no past experience relating to environment protection.

The process to choose the chairperson for the KSPCB started in August 2015 when Madan Gopal, the then Additional Chief Secretary Forest, Ecology and Environment Department, recommended the constitution of the search committee headed by the then Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee.

Other members of the committee constituted were Prof Ravindranath of IISc and Capt Raja Rao, former member of KSPCB and Madan Gopal (member-secretary). The committee shortlisted five names among those who applied for the post. The names were Prof E T Puttaiah, G T Chandrashekharappa, Dr J R Mudkavi, Dr B S Jai Prakash and Prof B B Hosetti.

“As per the documents, the list finalised by the search committee did not have the name of Lakshmana till December 12, 2015. However, on December 10, Minister for Forests, Ecology and Environment Ramanath Rai inserted the name of Lakshmana stating “done as per the discussion with the chief minister,” the complainant said.

Less than 10 days after inserting Lakshmana's name, the chief minister passed an order recommending the appointment.

Required qualifications

The qualifications and experience prescribed for the post are: Masters degree in science or equivalent B Tech in discipline relating to environment, 10 years experience in government departments, institutions, central public sector undertakings, universities, recognised research institutions, autonomous or semi-government or statutory organisations or NGOs at managerial levels, with practical experience in matters relating to environmental protection.

The complaint said that Lakshmana is a civil engineer with no experience in environmental protection.

Narasimha Murthy submitted the complaint to Upalokayukta Justice N Ananda. The complaint has been filed against Siddaramaiah, Minister Ramanath Rai, Chief Secretary Aravind Jadhav, Madan Gopal and Lakshmana.

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News Network
July 5,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 5: A 50-year-old woman with breathing difficulties died on Saturday after a shortage of beds forced 12 hospitals to refuse admission.

Her husband Babu said the family had approached 12 hospitals in three days, including Victoria Hospital and other private facilities, who all slammed their doors on them, citing a shortage of beds. The woman died on Saturday, a few minutes into her admission at KC General Hospital.

Second death 

A 35-year-old man, Manjunath, also died on Saturday after enduring fever for three days and being refused admission at several hospitals due to a shortage of beds.

As his condition worsened, his wife admitted him to a private hospital on Saturday after hours of ordeal. But the man died less than 15 minutes after getting admitted. Hospital authorities took swab samples from the deceased and said the body would be handed over after the test results.

BBMP personnel also failed to shift the body of a Covid-19 patient in Kalasipalya almost a day after the death.

Despite civic workers disinfecting the place, the neighbours were in a state of panic after the body was kept at home.

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News Network
January 5,2020

Mangaluru, Jan 5: Against the backdrop of Mangalore violence of December 19, Additional Director General of Police of Karnataka Amar Kumar Pandey visited the city and held a meeting with senior police officers.

According to senior police officials here on Sunday, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi District Muslim Central Committee had planned to hold a protest against CAA at Nehru Maidan while the SKSSF had called for anti-CAA protest at State Bank area.

Though both the protests had been called off, there was an apprehension of a repeat incident of December 19 violence and hence the ADGP visited the city at the behest of state government and monitored the situation here for the entire day on Saturday.

The ADGP was unhappy that despite initial inputs and the imposition of Section 144 in the city, the situation on that day escalated to a level where police had to resort to firing only in this city.

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News Network
July 22,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 22: On Wednesday morning starlet and Bigg Boss 3 contestant Jayashree Ramaiah sent social media into a tizzy with an update that read, “I quit. Goodbye to this f*****g world and depression.” Friends and acquaintances immediately began reaching out to the actor asking her to return their concerned calls and desist from taking any extreme steps.

“Jayashree has been battling depression for a while now. She had family issues and was also concerned about the lack of work,” shares actor Ashvithi Shetty. The Ramachari twins were in touch with Jayashree since they met at a celebrity cricket match four years ago. “She has shared several times about how low she’s been and I would try to cheer her up. But the problem was that she’d keep changing her phone number so often that it became difficult to keep track of how she was doing,” states Ashvithi.

Around four months ago, Jayashree moved into her own home and mentioned to her that she was happy with this new development in her life. “But she went retreated again and a few days ago, I messaged her on social media and she said she was doing fine. So I was shocked to see this update on Wednesday morning,” avers the actor. Repeated calls finally elicited a message from Jayashree that she was getting admitted to the hospital. “But I also got contradictory information that she had been discharged and had been taken to the hospital again but she was refusing to go inside. I am awaiting more clarity on the issue,” sums up Ashvithi.

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