Mangaluru, May 15: Mohammed Kana, son of late Ismail Kana and grandson of late Dr M S Bapanad Mulki passed away in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia due to heart attack on Thursday. He was 57.
Hailing from Mangaluru, Mohammed Kana was working in Saudi Arabia for past 30 years. He is survived by his wife, son and a daughter.
He was involved in various social and welfare activities in India and Saudi Arabia. His tragic demise has left huge vacuum in his family and community at large.
New Delhi, Mar 6: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea seeking framing of a proper mechanism to deal with alleged misuse of the sedition law by the government machinery. A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar dismissed the plea filed by a social activist and said it was open for the petitioner to approach the appropriate authority.
At the outset, the apex court told advocate Utsav Singh Bains, appearing for the petitioner, that he could not seek quashing of an FIR in a sedition case filed against the management of a Karnataka school for allegedly allowing students to stage an anti-CAA and anti-NRC drama.
Bains told the bench that he was not just pressing for a prayer to quash the FIR but the petitioner has also sought a direction for framing of a proper mechanism to deal with the alleged misuse of the sedition law.
"Let the affected party come and we will hear them. Why it should be done at your instance," the bench said, refusing to entertain the petition.
The petition had sought quashing of the FIR against the principal and other staff of the Shaheen School at Bidar who have been booked under sections 124A (sedition) and 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) of the Indian Penal Code.
The plea had also sought an apex court direction for a proper mechanism to deal with alleged government misuse of the sedition law.
Section 124A of the IPC says that "whoever brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards... the Government shall be punished with imprisonment for life...".
The plea had sought a direction to the Centre and the Karnataka government "to quash the FIR registered in connection of seditious charges against the school management, teacher and a widowed parent of a student for staging a play criticising CAA, NRC and NPR."
The petition had claimed that the police "also questioned students, and videos and screenshots of CCTV footage showing them speaking to the students were shared widely on social media, prompting criticism."
The drama was staged on January 21 by students of the fourth, the fifth and the sixth standard.
The sedition case was filed based on a complaint by social worker Neelesh Rakshyal on 26 January.
The complainant alleged that the school authorities "used" the students to perform a drama where they "abused" Modi in the context of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens.
Bengaluru, Feb 5: Despite installing a BJP government in Karnataka through disguised operation Kamala, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led union government has continued its step motherly attitude towards this south Indian state.
Under the new formula adopted to share central taxes among states Karnataka will be the worst-affected. Though the 15th Finance Commission has recommended a special grant of Rs 5,495 crore for the state for 2020-21, the Centre appears reluctant to pay up and instead has asked for the proposal to be reviewed.
During the Union budget, the report of the 14th Finance Commission headed by NK Singh for 2020-21 was tabled in Lok Sabha. It shows besides Karnataka, Telangana, Mizoram and Kerala saw their central tax share decrease, while Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra were top gainers.
Karnataka's share has decreased from 4.7% provided by the previous finance commission, to 3.6%. Acknowledging there is a steep decline in Karnataka's share from 2019-20, the finance commission has recommended a special grant of Rs 5,495 crore for the state.
Its share in 2019-20 was Rs 36,675 crore, but under the new formula, Karnataka will get only Rs 31,180 crore in 2020-21 from the divisible pool of Rs 8.5 lakh crore - a decline of 22.5%.
Also, the decrease for Karnataka comes on the back of a shortfall in 2019-20. While the state was entitled to Rs 39,806 crore from the divisible pool, it got only Rs 36,675 crore as the Centre suffered a tax revenue shortfall of Rs 1.5 lakh crore.
What is more disheartening though is the Centre's refusal to pay the special grant. Instead, the Union finance ministry has asked the finance commission to reconsider the recommendation. This has prompted the state to take up the issue with the Centre.
"The decline in central taxes devolution comes at a time when the state is going through a tough financial situation. Steps are being taken to ensure Karnataka gets justice," said chief secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar.
Officials said besides corrective measures for 2020-21, the focus will be on ensuring a fair share in subsequent years. However, Karnataka has little chance of getting its dues as the Centre is known to be prudent when distributing tax proceeds among states.
"The Centre has certain views on devolution. We have done our duty by submitting the interim report. It's up to the states to convince the Centre," said Ravi Kota, joint secretary of 15th Finance Commission.
Under the new formula, the commission changed the weightage for some of the six criteria it considers - population, area, forest cover, income distance, demographic performance and tax effort.
Bengaluru, May 16: At least 23 new COVID-19 positive cases have emerged in the past 19 hours, raising Karnataka''s tally to 1,079, a health official said on Saturday.
"New cases reported from Friday 5 p.m. to Saturday noon are 23," said the official.
Among the 1,079 cases, 548 are active and isolated in designated hospitals across the state, 494 patients got discharged and 36 died of the virus.
In the past 19 hours, cases spiked in Benglaluru Urban, the place hosting the highest number of coronavirus cases in the state.
Of the new cases, Bengaluru Urban reported 14 cases, followed by 3 in Hassan and Mandya, Ballari, Bagalkote, Davangere, Dharwad and Udupi, 1 each.
All the 14 cases, men, from Bengaluru Urban were secondary contacts of positive case 653.
All Hassan, Dharwad and Bagalkote cases had a history of inter-state travel to Mumbai, Maharashtra, India''s largest sufferer of Covid.
A 46-year-old man from Ballari had a travel history to Ahmedabad in Gujarat, another major COVID-19 hotspot state in India.
A 40-year-old man from Mandya had inter-district travel history to Kolar and Bengaluru.
A 1-year-old infant girl from Udupi had international travel history to Dubai.
Among the new cases, 15 are contacts of earlier cases.
Of the all cases, 20 are men and three women.
Only four of the 23 cases are above 50 and 18 below 40.
Of the 1,079 cases, 12 per cent patients were senior citizens, 66 per cent men and 34 per cent women with a discharge rate of 44 per cent.
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