Vishwavallabha Theertha Swamiji honoured with Tuluabhara

Mangaluru: The Karnataka-Kerala border closure at Talapady amidst nationwide Covid-19 lockdown has not only prevented the movement of vehicles and people from Kasaragod to Mangaluru but also stopped the supply of life-saving drugs from Karnataka’s medical hub to its bordering district.

Hundreds of people from Kasaragod and Kannur districts who were treated in hospitals of Mangaluru for past several years are still dependent on some of the medicines that are available only in Mangaluru. Such medicines have become inaccessible for Keralites following the border closure. Every day, a number of people from Kerala call their acquaintances in Mangaluru to see if there is a way to get medicine.

In fact, Karnataka government has blocked all 23 roads that connect the state with Kerala. The reason given was, Kasaragod is the hotbed of coronavirus and allowing traffic even in emergency cases might lead to spread of Covid-19 in border districts of Dakshina Kannada, Kodagu and Mysuru. The attitude has resulted in the death of around a dozen people in Kasaragod district in last couple of weeks.

Even after the intervention of the Supreme Court a few days ago, the authorities in Karnataka are facing the allegation of being hostile either by blocking the way ahead or turning a deaf ear to the patients reaching their border. 

At this juncture, three Good Samaritans – P K G Anoop Kumar of Canara Engineering College, Mangaluru, Satheesh Shetty of Kasaragod Patla and P Jayaprakash of Ponnangala – have come to the aid of the Malayalee patients who are dependent on medicines from Mangaluru. 

The three activists who are currently staying (in fact stranded amidst lockdown) in Mangaluru, are delivering life-saving medicines to patients in Kerala through Kerala fire servicemen and policemen posted at the Talapady border. 

Anoop Kumar says that took the initiative after a woman, Maria Augustine from Chemberi (Taliparamba) Nellikkutty, contacted him for a medicine. He managed to buy it from a medical store in the port city and handed it over to a Kerala fire serviceman at Talapady border. 

All three are activists of Communist Party of India (Marxist). After moving to Mangaluru, they set up ‘We Donate Charitable Society’ to donate blood. The activists say that they are ready to dispatch medicines from Mangaluru to any person in Kerala. Those Keralites who are in need of medicines from may contact: 888471344 - Anoop, 9895135881 - Jayaprakash

Udupi, Apr 25: Senior RSS leader H Somashekhar Bhatt received a call from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday enquiring about his health.

Bhatt got emotional hearing the Prime Minister's voice at the other end, family sources said.

The Prime Minister called at 8.30 AM and began the conversation with 'Somashekharji' and spoke for about six minutes.

The 85-year-old veteran recalled how the Jana Sangh came to power in Udupi municipality under the leadership of V S Acharya in 1968 and about his association with the Sangh Parivar through the decades and his imprisonment during the Emergency.

Bhatt, former Udupi municipality president, later said it was a rare honour for him.

"I am very glad that PM Modi called and spoke to me. I shared the experience of meeting him at the Jaipur session.

Asked to take care of health and expressed concern," he said.

The Prime Minister has been calling senior functionaries of the party who worked for the Sangh Parivar in the time of adversities to build up the BJP in its present form and seeking advice from them.

He had also called in recent days former MLA Ram Bhat who was elected from Puttur in Dakshina Kannada and D H Shankar Murthy, who was former chairman of the state legislative council, BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel tweeted.

Srinagar, Jan 14: Davinder Singh, deputy superintendent of police, who was arrested on Saturday along with two Hizb terrorists and a Hizb overground worker in Kulgam, has confessed to his interrogators that he had received Rs 12 lakh from the terrorists to ferry them to Jammu and then Chandigarh for their onward journey to New Delhi, IG (Kashmir) Vijay Kumar told the media here on Monday.

Intelligence sources said the terrorists planned to carry out attacks on Republic Day.

The DSP was suspended on Monday and is likely to be stripped of all his awards, including the President’s Police Medal for anti-militancy operations.

Davinder, who was interrogated by various intelligence agencies, including IB, military intelligence and RAW, besides the police, has disclosed that he had put up the terrorists at his Indira Nagar house in Srinagar, right next to the Army’s 15 Corps HQ, and thereafter accompanied them to Jammu in a Maruti car driven by the Hizb overground worker, intelligence sources claimed.

Meanwhile, sources said the Union home ministry may hand over the case to the NIA to find the real motive of the terrorists, Davinder’s links to terrorism and whether he had helped terrorists in the past as well.

The two Hizb terrorists arrested with Davinder are Naveed Babu alias Babar Azam, a resident of Nazneenpora in south Kashmir’s Shopian district, and his associate Rafi Ahmad Rather. The Hizb overground worker, identified as Irfan Shafi Mir, was driving the vehicle when it was intercepted by the police on Saturday. Irfan Shafi Mir has travelled to Pakistan five times on his passport.

Davinder, interestingly, was on duty ensuring security cover for the envoys of 15 countries who visited Srinagar at the Union government’s invitation last week.