Mangaluru: Water crisis created by MCC to help sand mafia, says Palemar

[email protected] (CD Network)
May 12, 2016

Mangaluru, May 12: The severe water crisis in this coastal city is in fact an artificial creation by the Mangaluru City Corporation to help the mafia engaged in sand extraction in the Netravathi, according to BJP leader and former district-in-charge minister Krishna J Palemar.

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Addressing media persons here on Thursday the minister said: “Usually the MCC officials fix gates at the Thumbe vented dam, supplying water for both drinking and industries, during November-December. But this year the gates were installed during January-February, a delay by over a month in installing the gates to store water at the dam. It was specifically to help the mafia engaged in sand extraction in the river on the upstream of the dam.”

The minister alleged that if the dam was full it was difficult for mining. The corporation has succumbed to the pressure by sand mafia. He said if water would have been stored in the dam from November itself it would have helped in re-charging of ground water on the river bank and the storage would have lasted for more days thus helping the civic body to draw water for more days.

He alleged that the move to install gates late was also to ensure that the business of supplying water through tankers thrived. The former Minister in the BJP-led State government said that now the corporation and the district administration was “shedding crocodile tears” over the scarcity.

Mr. Palemar said that supplying water through tankers without checking the quality of water being drawn from wells was dangerous to health. “It might result the breaking of communicable diseases,” he said.

The former Mayor M. Shankar Bhat said here on Thursday that the corporation should first disconnect unauthorised pipelines from the two 18-MGD (million gallons a day) capacity main pipelines of the corporation supplying water from Thumbe dam to the city. Water was being stolen between Thumbe and Padil through unauthorised pipelines.

Addressing presspersons along with the former Minister J. Krishna Palemar, he claimed that when he was the Mayor he had disconnected 95 such unauthorised pipelines. As a result there was five per cent difference in the quantity of water being pumped at Thumbe and received in the city.

Now the difference was 35 per cent. It showed that there were many such illegal pipelines now, he said.

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Satyameva jayate
 - 
Friday, 13 May 2016

Opposition pagal hogayaa.... Dont know what to say.... New story....
Send all these people to modijis somalia.... People are waiting to eat them alive...... Ha hA

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News Network
August 9,2020

Bengaluru, Aug 9: Swollen rivers and flood-like situation continue to threaten lives and property in several parts of Karnataka that have been ravaged by torrential rains over the last few days.

Though there has been a respite from the downpour in some parts, rivers continue to flow above the danger mark, inundating low lying areas in several parts of Malnad, coastal and interior Karnataka.

There are also reports of continued landslides in hilly areas of Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru.

In Dakshina Kannada, heavy rains have submerged several areas in Bantwala and Belthangady, among others, with the Netravati river overflowing and also water being released from nearby dams.

Officials said incessant rains in Cauvery river catchment areas have led to increased inflow in the Krishna Raja Sagara dam in Mandya district. Water is being released from it and people living in low lying areas have been warned, they said.

There is also a flood-like situation in Najanagudu and nearby areas of Mysuru as the swollen Kapila river has inundated roads connecting Ooty in neighbouring Tamil Nadu, with water being released from Kabini dam.

There has been some respite from heavy rains in certain parts of Kodagu, which has been ravaged by floods and landslides. However, several areas of the district continue to be in deluge with the Cauvery and Lakshmana Tirtha rivers overflowing due to rains in the hilly areas.

There are also reports of landslides in some parts of the district.

Meanwhile, continuing rains are hampering the search operation by NDRF and authorities to locate five people, including the priest at Talacauvery, the origin of the river Cauvery, who had gone missing due to massive landslides at Bramhagiri hills on Wednesday night.

There are also reports of landslides at a few places in Charmadi ghat region of Chikkamagaluru and the road connecting to Dakshina Kannada has been closed temporarily.

Though Belagavi district has had some respite from the heavy rains, flood like situation continues to persist as the Krishna river and its tributaries are swollen due to continued inflows because of rains in neighbouring Maharashtra.

Inflow has also increased to the Tungabhadra dam of Ballari district due to rains in the catchment areas of Shivamogga and Chikkamagaluru.

Authorities have alerted people living in low lying areas about opening dam gates to release water anytime with rising inflow.

There is a similar flood like situation in parts of Yadgir, Raichur and Bagalkote districts with water being released from various dams.

The state government has released ₹ 50 crore for emergency relief and has announced ₹ 10,000 as immediate relief each to affected families.

An amount of ₹ 5 lakh has been announced for completely damaged houses, while in the case of partially damaged ones, relief will be distributed considering the extent of damage.

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News Network
May 23,2020

Bengaluru, May 23: SSLC and PUC students residing in containment zones will not be able to write the exams scheduled to be held in June and July, respectively, but will be given opportunity to write the supplementary examination and treated as fresh candidates.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar announced this at a press conference on Friday.

In turn, officials in the Department of Primary and Secondary Education will start collecting the list of students in containment zones. However, they are worried since the list of containment zones is dynamic and a particular locality can be declared a containment zone even the night before the examination.

“If any examination centre is located in the containment zone, then we can change the centre and move it to a non-containment zone. However, if a student resides in a zone that is declared containment zone just before the exam, there is no option but for the person to skip the exam,” an official said.

Officials of the department are worried about another scenario as well. “There is a chance that midway through the examination, an area is becomes a containment zone. Then some students may write a few papers and give the rest a miss. Implementation at the district- and block-levels will be a challenge,” said an official.

Sources said that the department is working out several situations that may arise and trying to work on providing practical solutions to the students.

Around 5.98 lakh students have registered for the second pre-university English examination that is scheduled to be held on June 18. As many as 8.48 lakh students have registered for the SSLC examination scheduled to be held between June 25 and 4 July. Currently, there are 261 containment zones in Karnataka that have 5.49 lakh people residing in these zones.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka Secondary Education and Examination Board has decided to ensure that only 18 students are seated in a classroom to write the SSLC examination. This is to ensure that social distancing is maintained in the exam hall.

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News Network
April 10,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 10: The Karnataka Education Board on Friday further postponed the annual examination for SSLC to May due to extension of lockdown to arrest spread of coronavirus which is spreading like wildfire in the state.

Minister for Primary and Higher Education S Suresh Kumar also announced that the PUC examination were also postponed to May.

"However, depending upon the situation we will announce the date in May and will inform the students one week earlier of the examination date to give time for preparation,"

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