Mother and son kidnapped in broad daylight in Kasaragod

Bengaluru, Feb 11: Onion price dropped to Rs 25-30 per kg on Monday, down from the dizzying Rs 200/kg in December and January. The price had spiked because of excess rain, which ruined the crop in several parts of the country.

With supply stabilising, especially from Maharashtra and northern Karnataka, and exports banned, the rate is now easing, officials said.

Consumers may be smiling but farmers are worried as they are not able to make more than Rs 17/kg as against the expected Rs 40.

"We get onions from Nasik and Sholapur in Maharashtra. Nasik onions used to be exported but since that is currently banned, they are landing in Bengaluru, leaving the market here with a surplus," said K Lokesh, president, Karnataka State Onion Merchants Association.

A farmer from Sholapur wh o was part of a onion growers' delegation which met traders in Bengaluru, said, "The cost of everything has gone up. Labour charges and fuel prices are draining us. How can we survive? How can I pay for my children's education?"

Another Sholapur farmer rued: "My daughter's wedding is in March. How am I going to meet all the expenses? I have to pay for labour, transportation, gunny bags and when everything adds up, I don't get to save more than Rs 30,000 in a month."

Bengaluru, Jun 9: Two grassroots level workers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday filed their nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka, Chief Minister and senior BJP leader BS Yediyurappa said.

"Eranna Kadadi and Ashok Gasti have filed nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka. It is only in BJP that grassroots level workers are given recognition," Yediyurappa told reporters here.

The elections to fill the vacant 18 Rajya Sabha seats from seven states are scheduled to be held on June 19. Elections to four Rajya Sabha seats will be held in Karnataka.

"The core committee of the party had recommended a few names. Afterwards, the party's all-India president consulted with me. Finally, these two names were finalised," Yediyurappa said.

The nominations will be scrutinised on Wednesday and the last date for withdrawal of nomination is June 12.

Notably, the Janata Dal (Secular) on Monday announced that party supremo and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda has decided to contest the forthcoming Rajya Sabha elections.

Bengaluru, May 20: An Air India flight from Dammam in Saudi Arabia landed here with 161 passengers, including 85 for Karnataka and 76 to Hyderabad, an official said on Wednesday. Among Karnataka passengers there were both Bengalureans and Mangalureans.

"AIC-1910 (Airbus A321-211) landed at the city airport at 8.45 p.m. and 85 passengers, including 9 women and one infant alighted here, while 76 will fly to Hyderabad," the airline official said. 

The flight was 45 minutes behind schedule to Bengaluru.

The airline staff and the state government officials received the returnees in the arrival terminal and gave them masks to wear and sanitizer to wash hands.

All the passengers would be screened with thermal device to read their body temperature though only asymptomatic were flown back.

After completing formalities, including immigration check and filling the self-declaration form, the returnees were taken in state-run buses in batches for 14-day institutional quarantine in hotels and resorts across the city.

Passengers have to download the mandatory Quarantine app on their mobile phone before leaving the airport for contact tracing later.

Another evacuation flight from Kuala Lampur in Malaysia to Bengaluru has been cancelled due to Amphan cyclone over the Bay of Bengal that hit the Odisha and West Bengal on the east coast.

The service was the fourth to the southern state in the second phase of Vande Bharat Mission, the national carrier and its Express arm are operating to repatriate thousands of Indians, including distressed workers, migrants, students, senior citizens and tourists, stranded overseas since the government suspended international flights on March 23 and enforced an extended lockdown on March 25 to combat Covid-19 spread.

The first flight in the second phase landed on Monday night at Mangaluru on the state's west coast, with 177 passengers from Dubai in the UAE.

The second flight to the southern state from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia landed here (Bengaluru) on Tuesday evening, with 94 passengers.

The third flight from Muscat in Oman landed here at 6.31 p.m. on Wednesday evening and at Mangaluru on the state's west coast at 8.01 p.m.

The remaining flights to Karnataka will land in Bengaluru and Mangaluru over the next 13 days till June 3 from 12 more destinations the world over.

In the first phase of the mission from May 7-17, the airline and its arm flew 6 flights to the state from May 11-15, bringing in 800 passengers, including 623 to Bengaluru and 177 to Mangaluru from London, Singapore, San Francisco and Dubai.