Mangaluru journalist Dr Sadananda Perla conferred with Arasu award

Bhopal, Mar 10: Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on Tuesday parried questions on the exact number of MLAs supporting the party in Madhya Pradesh amid a political crisis triggered by the resignation of Jyotiraditya Scindia and 14 MLAs loyal to him.

Repeating his allegation that the BJP was trying to destabilise the Congress-led government, Singh told reporters that the BJP had arranged three chartered planes for Bengaluru on Monday to fly out some MLAs loyal to Scindia.

"We want to know why Bengaluru is used every time to destabilise governments?" he questioned.

When asked about the number of MLAs supporting the Congress in the current political scenario, Singh only said, "Just wait".

He said an atmosphere of uneasiness has been prevailing in the BJP since the Kamal Nath government started cracking a whip on various mafias.

"We (the state government) are exposing Vyapam scam, e-tendering scam, Madhyam scam. In the honey-trap case, BJP men were found to be involved. This will be exposed," he said.

The political crisis in Madhya Pradesh precipitated with the resignation of Jyotiraditya Scindia over his apparent marginalisation in the state politics. Following Scindia's suit, 14 legislators loyal to him have sent their resignation letters via e-mail to Madhya Pradesh Raj Bhavan.

Scindia was subsequently expelled from the Congress by party president Sonia Gandhi.

Speculation that the Guna royal might join the BJP gained ground after he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi this morning.

Bengaluru, Jun 12: The Central government has identified Karnataka's Udupi and Yadgir among the "emerging districts of concern" for COVID-19 in the country. Confirming the development, a top official of the state health department said, "they (centre) had reviewed these two districts a few days back...there was a sudden spurt of cases due to Maharashtra returnees turning positive." Sources said union cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba, during a recent video conference with state chief secretaries and health secretaries, had shared his thoughts on the issue.

According to the information shared, districts with more than 400 cases, half of which was reported post-May 18 lockdown relaxation, have been identified as "emerging districts of concern." They are concentrated in the seven states/union territories of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana. "Udupi and Yadgir from Karnataka, along with Gurugram in Haryana and Kolhapur in Maharashtra have 90 per cent of the cases recorded after May 18," they said.

As on June 11 evening, Udupi had a total of 969 positive cases, out of which 619 are active, while 735 positive cases have been reported in Yadgir, out of which 626 are active. The two districts had reported a total of only 11 cases each as on May 18. While Udupi till last evening had seen 349 discharges, it was 108 in Yadgir.

Both districts have reported one COVID related fatality so far. As of June 11 evening, cumulatively 6,245 COVID-19 positive cases were confirmed in the state, which included 72 deaths and 2,976 discharges.

Mangaluru, Jan 8: The Muslim Central Committee of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi, has finally received green signal from the city police to hold an awareness meet against CAA, NRC and NPR on January 15, but on the outskirts of the city.

The Committee, which is a kind of umbrella body of Muslim organisations of the two coastal districts, had twice cancelled its planned protest against the same at Nehru Maidan, in the heart of the city due to permission denial by the city police. 

Addressing a press conference here today, Committee chairman, KS Mohammed Masood said that event will be held at Shaha Garden near Central Juma Masjid at Adyar Kannur.

He said that the representatives from the 28 different organisations unanimously finalised the date and venue after a consultations as the police refused to grant permission to hold the event at Nehru Maidan or Town Hall.

Representatives of various organisations including S M Rasheed Haji, Ibrahim Kodichal, B M Mumtaz Ali, Rafeeuddin Kudroli and Abdul Rasheed Zaini were present at the press meet.