Mangaluru journalist Dr Sadananda Perla conferred with Arasu award

Bengaluru/Kodagu, Feb 24: Three days after the sloganeering by 19-year-old college student Amulya Leona Norohna at an anti-CAA rally and her subsequent arrest on charges of sedition kicked up a storm, Karnataka minister BC Patil on Sunday advocated central legislation that enables authorities “to shoot at sight” those chanting pro-Pakistan slogans.

Responding to reporters’ queries on the ongoing fracas over the chants, Patil said he would appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring in a law so that anti-national elements are “killed on the spot”.

“The Centre must promulgate a law that enables authorities to shoot those who do anything that is seen as anti-national and chant pro-Pakistan slogans,” Patil said. “These elements must be killed on the spot. I am appealing to the PM, through the media now, to bring in such a law. I will also write to the PM.”

In Kodagu, Union minister for chemicals and fertilizer, DV Sadananda Gowda, echoed state home minister home minister Basavaraj Bommai’s line that stringent action will be taken against those indulging in anti-national activity, saying there will be “no mercy” for those taking a pro-Pakistan stance.

“The Union government will assist in the police investigation in Amulya,” he said. Gowda went on to claim that many anti-national organizations have been using CAA protests for political gain.

“We will curb such incidents forever. We will not allow such incidents to happen in future. Organisers of such rallies should be thoroughly questioned,” Gowda said.

Bommai on Saturday had also claimed the government will initiate action against educational institutions and hostels it they fail to act against students indulging in such activity.

“The government will discuss ways to prevent such incidents in colleges and hostels. We will instruct heads of educational institutions and hostel wardens to initiate action against such students. If they fail, the government will take action against them,” Bommai said, without defining what constitutes anti-national activity.

However, despite Congress saying there is no room for anti-national activity and stringent action must be taken against those indulging in such activity, former minister and senior functionary DK Shivakumar suggested he found nothing in Amulya’s background to suggest she is anti-national.

“Let me make it absolutely clear that the Congress party will not support any person or persons who hail another country and bring shame to India,” Shivakumar said. “However, I have seen the girl’s [Amulya’s] previous posts on social media and read her statements on various forums. She has been making statements on an ideological ground. Let us not jump the gun, but investigate exactly what she meant to say.”

Bengaluru, July 14: Ahead of the week-long lockdown in Bengaluru starting from Tuesday night, around 35,000 people have left the city and grocery stores and liquor shops are witnessing a rush with customers thronging to stock up on for the shutdown.

According to transport department officials, labourers from other parts of the state migrated in good numbers from Bengaluru ahead of the lockdown fearing that they would have to face similar challenges as they had to confront during the previous shuttering. 

"Yesterday 35,000 passengers left Bengaluru. The number is big given the fact that we are allowing a limited number of passengers in the buses to maintain social distancing," a KSRTC official said.

Tipplers made a beeline for liquor shops and a senior State Excise official said liquor worth Rs 230 crore was sold on Monday alone.

"There was apparently a mad rush yesterday.India Made Foreign Liquor worth Rs 215.55 crore and 14.83 crore worth beer was sold...," the officer said.

In view of the rising coronavirus cases in the city at an alarming proportion, the government decided to impose lockdown from Tuesday 8 pm till 5 am on July 22.

Later, Dharwad and Dakshina Kannada districts too decided to impose a lockdown for nine days and seven days respectively from Wednesday.

"For the past two days there is an unusual rush of customers in our store," an executive of the Metro Cash and Carry said.

According to him, people are buying grocery items and vegetables with long shelf life such as onion, potato, radish, carrot and beetroot.

A salesperson at the Star Bazaar too said people were thronging the store for the past two to three days.

During the Sunday curfew, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the week-long lockdown will be stringent one and government has made all arrangements to address all concerns ahead of the shutdown.

As many as 19,702 people in Bengaluru have tested positive, of which there are 15,052 active cases, while 4,328 have been discharged.

The number of fatalities as of Monday is 321.

Across Karnataka, 41,581 people have tested positive for coronavirus including 24,572 active cases, 16,248 discharges and 757 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic in the state.
 

Bengaluru, Feb 5: The Karnataka government on Tuesday launched the Janasevaka scheme in a few municipal corporation wards to ensure home delivery of various services like ration cards, senior citizen identity and health cards.

The scheme, which was launched by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, will pertain to 53 services involving 11 departments.

"Janasevaka under the Sakala scheme is a programme to avail the benefits of government schemes at the doorstep. Our objective is to make the lives of the citizens of Karnataka easy by launching this scheme," the Chief Minister said. Sakala aims to ensure in-time delivery of government services to citizens by practising innovative and efficient management systems through capacity building in government and empowering citizens to exercise their right to service.

Minister for Sakala and Primary and Secondary Education S Suresh Kumar said: "The scheme that was implemented in Dasarahalli area on a pilot basis will now be extended to Mahadevapura, Bommanahalli and Rajajinagar areas."

He added that it will benefit the senior citizens of the city.

If the scheme works well, it will be implemented across Bengaluru in all the 27 assembly segments, Kumar said, adding that based on the experiment in Bengaluru, it will be extended to Mysuru, Mangaluru and Hubballi-Dharwad.

Under the scheme, there will be one volunteer in each ward. These volunteers have been outsourced. A toll-free helpline has been set up for this scheme which will work from 8 am to 8 pm.

A sum of Rs 115 will be charged to provide the home delivery services.

In addition to it, the Karnataka government has also decided to seek information under the RTI Act easy by making it online.

People can apply from home by paying the fee online. This will make the process hassle-free, the Chief Minister said.