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Mangaluru, May 22: An elderly cardiac patient from Dakshina Kannada, who was stranded in Saudi Arabia due to covid-19 lock-down, has finally reached his homeland thanks to the timely intervention by Humanity Forum Jubail and Indian Social Forum.

The elderly man hailing from Kadaba area of Dakshina Kannada was admitted to a hospital in Madinah. However, his condition continued to worsen due to lack of proper treatment. The efforts by his family members to bring him back home had not yielded results.

Meanwhile, one of the relatives of the patient, Ansari Suratkal, who happens to be a DKSC activist, brought the issue to the notice of the Karnataka unit of the Indian Social Forum in Dammam. ISF contacted Humanity Forum president Zakariya Jokatte, who helped the patient to speak directly union minister D V Sadananda Gowda in a video conference organised by coastaldigest.com.

Humanity Forum also persuaded the Indian Embassy to allow the stranded cardiac patient to fly back to India through Dammam-Bengaluru repatriation flight on May 20. 

However, it was not easy for the patient to travel from Madinah to Dammam International Airport due to lock-down and curfew. ISF not only obtained travel permission for him but also arranged vehicle. Jeddah and Riyadh units of ISF helped in obtaining permission letter in their respective places in spite of travel ban imposed by the police. Madinah unit of ISF arranged vehicle for transportation. Zakariya Jokatte bore the air ticket and other expenses of the patient.

Bengaluru, Jan 8: The all-India shutdown by trade unions and other organisations began with little impact in the tech city as normal life continued on a working day, an official said.

"No effect of shutdown in the city though banking operations are affected as bank staff are supporting the trade unions," a state official said here.

However, thousands of workers participated in other parts of Karnataka in the nation-wide shutdown call given by trade unions, protesting central government's anti-labour laws and privatisation policies.

Protesters were seen carrying the red trade union flags at several places such as Hassan, Chamarajanagar, Tumakuru, Mysuru, Bengaluru and others.

Massive protests were seen in Peenya, and Neelmangla areas of Bengaluru.

In Madikeri, stones were pelted at a bus and some protesters were detained in Kolar.

The trade unions are against the privatisation of railways and corporatisation of 49 defence production units.

Merging 44 labour laws into four code is also one of the demands of the protesting trade unions.

The protesters are demanding raising the minimum wage in the range of ₹21,000 - 24,000 per month.

The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), Indian National Trade Union Congress and Labour Progressive Federation (LPF) have given an all-India shutdown (Bharat Bandh) call on Wednesday.

Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa instructed the intelligence chief and additional director general of police Kamal Pant to maintain law and order in view of the Bharat bandh when he apprised him of the situation.

Police tightened security across the city by deploying 11 deputy commissioners of police (DCPs), 23 assistant commissioners of police (ACP), 111 inspectors, 316 sub-inspectors, 476 assistant sub-inspectors, 4,547 constables along with 82 platoons of Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP).

In Bengaluru city, Metro services were not affected by the nationwide strike. In view of the shutdown, security was beefed at the Metro stations.

Bengaluru, Feb 6: Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa inducted 10 BJP MLAs to his Cabinet here on Thursday. They are among the 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs who defected last year.

The much-delayed expansion came almost two-months after the MLAs won the bypolls held in December. During the period, the defectors camp exerted pressure on Yediyurappa to expand the Cabinet and include all the MLAs who contested the bypolls.

The new ministers sworn in are S T Somashekar, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Byrati Basavaraj, K Gopalaiah, B C Patil, Dr K Sudhakar, Shivaram Hebbar, Anand Singh, Narayana Gowda and Shrimanth Patil.

One of the 11 MLAs from the defectors camp, Mahesh Kumathalli was not inducted as he hailed from the same constituency as Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi. Three others, MTB Nagaraj, H Vishwanath and R Shankar are likely to be inducted in June.

Governor Vajubhai Bala administered oaths to the new ministers at Raj Bhavan, where hundreds of supporters came to witness the event. Authorities had also beefed up security arrangements outside Raj Bhavan for the ceremony.

Earlier, Yediyurappa was to induct 10 newly-elected MLAs and three old-timer BJP MLAs. But on Wednesday evening, the BJP's central leadership stepped in to decide that only 10 newly-elected MLAs should be inducted after disgruntlement surfaced among BJP MLAs over former minister C P Yogeeshwar's induction.

Several MLAs led by chief minister's political secretary MP Renukacharya had raised a hue and cry over allotting berths to those who lost Assembly polls. A group of 13 to 15 MLAs had also demanded adequate representation to Kalyana Karnataka region, alleging that the new Cabinet had excess representation from few districts of Karnataka, such as Bengaluru Urban and Belagavi.