WGSHA students win country-wide hotel management competition

Udupi, Jan 9: State Revenue Minister R Ashoka said on Wednesday that the state government is embarking on a novel method to ensure that social security schemes were available to the beneficiaries at their doorsteps.

Speaking after inaugurating the Mini Vidhana Soudha here, he said government will look into the Aadhaar number and income certificates to decide the eligibility of the beneficiaries. The initiative will help the poor to access welfare schemes without any hassles.

The initiative will be launched as a pilot project in Udupi district. Later, the project will extend to other districts in a phased manner. In Udupi district, 30,000 beneficiaries have been identified. The government has set aside nearly Rs 7,000 crore for social security schemes. The initiative will not only eliminate middlemen menace but will help the government save Rs 1,000 crore.

Bengaluru, May 25: Helpless dairy farmers in a village in Bangaluru Rural district have dumped around 4,000 litres of milk into drains and on anthills.

The shocking incident took place at Chikka Korati near Hoskote yesterday after the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) refused to collect the milk because a pregnant woman in the village had tested positive for Covid-19.

The village was sealed off three days ago and three of the woman’s family was sent to institutional quarantine. The incident is an embarrassment since the government has been urging people not to stigmatise patients or their contacts.

“In Hoskote taluk, we lead in milk production,” Guru Korati, a villager, said. “There are around 130 families in the village, but we have two milk producers’ cooperative societies (MPCSs) – Chikka Korati MPCS and Dinne Korati MPCS. Our village produces more than 4,000 litres per day. The KMF refused to collect milk from both societies after they learnt about the positive case. Frustrated, we poured the milk down the drain.”

Guru wanted the government to address the village’s problems. “We are not only struggling to sell milk, but we also cannot transport vegetables which we cultivate,” he said.

Veerabhadrappa, from Chikka Korati in Bayala Narasapura gram panchayat, said: “Several families have cows enough to yield more than 50 litres of milk. What will they do with such a huge quantity of milk?”

Mehaboob Sab, panchayat development officer (PDO) of Bayala Narasapura GP, said, “We aren’t sure how the woman contracted Covid-19. A family member had visited Tamil Nadu and the woman also frequently visited a hospital in Kolar for checkups. We are still tracing her contacts.” 

New Delhi, Feb 1: An extremist today fired shots at anti-CAA protesters at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi, just three days after another extremist fired at protesters at nearby Jamia Millia University. This is the second daylight shooting in which the police caught the man only after the shots were fired.

The man, apparently a fan of BJP leaders including Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, shouted "Jai Sri Ram" as he fired shots standing near police barricades put up at the south Delhi locality where hundreds of women and children have sat on the road in protest for more than a month. He was caught by the police. No one was injured. 

The shooter was also heard saying: "Humare desh mein sirf Hinduon ki chalegi aur kisi ki nahi (in our country only Hindus will prevail)." He had allegedly come to the area in an auto.

A witness said the man fired two-three times, standing right next to the police, not at the spot of the protest but close enough to a large crowd of unarmed men, women and children. 

"We suddenly heard gunshots. This person was shouting Jai Shri Ram. He had a semi-automatic pistol and he fired two rounds. The police were standing just behind him," said the witness, a volunteer at the protest.

"When his gun jammed, he ran. He tried to fire again, then tossed the gun into the bushes and tried to escape. Some of us and the police caught him, the police dragged him away," he added. Protesters questioned whether the police were more focused on keeping an eye on them rather than tackling crimes like this.

Police officer Chinmay Biswal said the man had fired shots in the air. "The man had resorted to aerial firing. Police immediately overpowered and caught him," he said.

This incident - the second shooting in Delhi at an anti-CAA protest -- has chilling similarities to the one that took place just two km away at Jamia university on Thursday, when a 17-year-old Class 12 boy from Uttar Pradesh fired a crude pistol at unarmed protesters with dozens of policemen behind him, watching. The teen, who left home claiming he was going to school, took a bus to Delhi intending to target Shaheen Bagh but landed at Jamia next-door after an auto-driver dropped him off there to avoid the traffic chaos.

The shootings have taken place in quick succession after controversial slogans of "Goli Maaro Sa***n Ko (shoot the traitors)" were chanted on Monday at a Delhi campaign rally of Anurag Thakur, the Union Minister of State for Finance, who was part of the team involved in Budget 2020 announced today.

Mr Thakur was banned from campaigning in Delhi for three days for egging on BJP workers to shout the "Goli Maaro" slogan.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal slammed Home Minister Amit Shah, to whose ministry the Delhi Police reports to, over the two shooting incidents. "What have you done to our Delhi, Amit Shah ji? Bullets are being fired in broad daylight... Law and order is being criticised constantly. Elections will come and go, politics will keep happening, but for the sake of the people of Delhi, please focus on fixing law and order," he tweeted.

The Shaheen Bagh protest has attracted attention from across the country in the protests against the CAA or the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which makes religion a criterion for citizenship. Critics say the law discriminates against Muslims as only non-Muslims from neighbouring Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh can become Indian citizens if they fled religious persecution and entered India before 2015.

Of late, critics of the Shaheen Bagh protests, mainly pro-CAA activists, have attacked the month-long sit-in on a key road in Delhi connecting to Noida. They say the protest has become a traffic nightmare for commuters.