Muslim Committee drops Jan 4 anti-CAA protest plan as cops refuse permission

Bengaluru, Apr 8: Heavy rain lashed Belthangady taluk in Dakshina Kannada district and parts of Udupi district on Tuesday providing much-needed relief to the people from the sultry heat.

Belthangady, Guruvayanakere, Madantyaru, Venoor, Naravi and surrounding areas received rain coupled with lightning and thunder. 

Rain also lashed Karkala, Kundapura, Kollur, Siddapura, Gangolli, Hemmady, Uppunda, Shiroor, Hebri and surrounding areas in Udupi district.

Parts of Malnad --- Koppa, Balehonnur and NR Pura taluks in the neighbouring Chikkamagaluru district --- received good rainfall coupled with lightning and thunder.

The rain has brought a smile on the face of coffee growers as it will help in the blossoming of the flowers in coffee plants.

In Kodagu district, heavy rain lashed Madikeri, Hudikeri, Ponnampet, Srimangala, Siddapura, Galiubeedu, Bapoklu, Talacauvery and Bhagamandala.

Parts of Mysuru city and district, Chamarajanagar, and Hassan received a good spell of rain on Monday night, bringing down the mercury levels.

Heavy rain lashed T Narasipur taluk in Mysuru district and the Kothegala Gram panchayat limits received 7 cm rainfall. Karya village in Nanjangud taluk received 5 cm rainfall.

Male Mahadeshwara Hills in Chamarajanagar district received good rain in the evening. 

Meanwhile, the Agriculture Research Station at Naganahalli has predicted thunderstorms, on April 7 and 8 in the region. The research centre recorded 12 mm rain on Sunday night and 22.5 mm on Monday midnight. 

Moderate to heavy rain, accompanied by strong wind and lightning, lashed some parts of Shivamogga district, including Ripponpet, Sorab, Bhadravathi, Thirthahalli, Sagar
and Shikariput. 

Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada district received heavy rain from 4 to 7 pm. The town had also received the rain for about half-an-hour in the morning.

Hosapete town and the surrounding villages also received the rain. At some places, the rain brought down the branches of the trees. The rain has cooled the mercury level at Hosur, Nagenahalli, Basavadurga, Kamalapur, Hampi and other villages in Hosapete taluk. 

Rain also lashed several places in Ballari district, including the Ballari city. Rain, accompanied by hailstones, brought cheers to the people at Kottur. 

Meanwhile, rain and hailstones have destroyed the standing paddy crop in hundreds of acres of land at Maraladinni, Katagal, Uskihal, Belladamaradi and other villages in Maski taluk of Raichur. The farmers are waiting to harvest the crop.

With the steep hike in excise duty in the past couple of months, an average consumer of petrol now pays over 275% in taxes to centre and states on a litre of the fuel.  The base price of petrol is just about Rs 18. The taxes are close to Rs 50 and the pump price is over Rs 72.

India imports 85% of all its crude oil demand.  After a steep hike in excise duty in the past two months despite a hold on daily price revisions by the oil public sector undertakings (PSUs), Indian consumers now pay 275% collectively in excise duty to state and centre. 

The central government hiked excise on petrol and diesel by Rs 10 and Rs 13 respectively last month. The excise duty on petrol is taxed around Rs 33-a-litre while the same on diesel it is Rs 32.

The Value-Added Tax (VAT) on both petrol and diesel is Rs 16.44 and Rs 16.26 respectively. Both the taxes together are around Rs 49 while it is sold at petrol pumps at 73-per-litre.

These two taxes cumulatively account for 69% of tax which is higher than anywhere else in the world. The same is taxed at 19% in the US, 47% in Japan, UK 62% and 63% in France. The government does not pass on the benefit of lower crude oil prices to the customer.

It is to be noted that Indian consumers continued to pay Rs 70-a-litre even when crude oil prices hit a paltry US $ 20-a-barrel on April 12.

Former finance minister and Congress leader recently took a jab at the Centre over rising prices stating, “Fuel selling prices raised twice in two days, following tax hikes two weeks ago. This time to benefit oil companies. Government is poor, it needs more taxes. Oil companies are poor, they need better prices. Only the poor and middle class are not poor, so they will pay”.

Mangaluru, May 6: A day after a wild bison dies lost its life hours after being tranquilized in Mangaluru, another wild bison appeared in the Ashok Nagar area of the coastal city today.

In fact, two bison were spotted in Mangaluru yesterday. The two were reportedly wandering together early in the morning. Later one was spotted in Mannagudda and the other in Hathill area.

While one of them was tranquillized by an official of a Pilikula Biological Park and captured, another bison had gone missing.

The captured animal, however, died later in the day due to cardiac arrest.

According to official, it is common for herbivores, which are sedated to ensure their safe capture, to suffer cardiac arrest.

Meanwhile, Forest department officials have launched an operation to capture the second bison. It is believed that it is the same bison which went missing yesterday.

Also Read: Wild bison intrudes into Mangaluru city amidst lockdown; captured