Mahasabha firm on Veerashaiva-Lingayat dharma

New Delhi, Jan 17: The Supreme Court on Friday closed the monitoring of the killing of rationalist M M Kalburgi in 2015 in Dharwad.

A bench of Justices R F Nariman and S Ravindra Bhat noted that the charge sheet has already been filed and the matter was assigned to the sessions court. The court, however, noted two accused had absconded and could not be arrested till date, according to reports.

Senior advocate Devadatt Kamat, appearing for the Karnataka government, submitted that the High Court had also stopped monitoring of the matter.

The top court had in early last year directed that the Karnataka High Court's Dharwad bench to monitor the probe. The Karnataka police SIT, which investigated Gauri Lankesh case and filed the charge sheet, was allowed to take over the Kalburgi case.

Umadevi, in her 2017 plea, drew a parallel between Kalburgi's murder and killings of Narendra Dabholkar and Comrade Govind Pansare in Maharashtra and sought an SIT probe by a retired Supreme Court or a High Court judge. She urged the top court to monitor the probe till it reached its logical conclusion as there was no progress in the investigation conducted so far by the Karnataka police.

The court had earlier sought to know if there was a "common thread" in murder cases of Communist leader Pansare and rationalist Dabholkar in Maharashtra, and Kannada writer Kalburgi and journalist-activist Gauri Lankesh in Karnataka.

Bengaluru, May 30: Health Minister B Sriramulu banned the consumption of chewing tobacco in public places on Saturday, which is marked as World Tobacco Day. The ban would include chewing paan masala and spitting in public places.

In June 2013, the state banned the manufacture, storage, sale, or distribution of gutka and paan masala containing tobacco or nicotine as ingredients to reduce the prevalence of tobacco use. On October 26, 2016, the state proscribed all kinds of chewing tobacco, containing tobacco or nicotine or both in accordance with the Supreme Court order.

Karnataka is the second state in India to ban e-cigarettes. The state also prohibited single cigarettes. Until September 2019, the state counselled 15,698 patients in tobacco cessation centres set up in private dental colleges.

Mangaluru, Jun 6: As buses in Karnataka are operating following precautionary measures issued by the government to combat COVID-19, a few bus conductors were seen working wearing protective gears resembling personal protective equipment (PPE) on Saturday.

The Karnataka government had allowed resumption of bus services in the state during the fourth phase of COVID-19 lockdown, which ended on May 31.

The private buses were also equipped with hand sanitiser for the passengers. All the passengers were seen wearing face masks and maintaining distance from each other.

One of the bus conductors, en route State bank to Shaktinagar in Mangaluru was, was seen fully covered with protective suit.  

Sudarshan, a private bus conductor, also covered his face with a face shield. "PPE kit is for our protection and it is a must to keep ourselves and our passengers safe from COVID-19. All necessary equipment, including sanitisers and masks to fight COVID-19 have been provided by our bus owner to us," Sudarshan said.