PORN-GATE: Palemar, Savadi, Patil quit over blue film row

[email protected] (CD Network)
February 8, 2012

Thrimurti


Mangalore, February 8: In an unprecedented development in Karnataka politics three prominent ministers in chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda led cabinet on Wednesday have quit over watching 'blue film' clippings on a cell phone during assembly proceedings in Legislative Assembly.

Yielding to the mounting pressure from within and outside the party Minister for Ecology, Environment and Dakshina Kannada district in-charge Minister Krishna J Palemar, Minister for Cooperation Laxman Savadi and Women and Child Welfare Minister C C Patil on Wednesday morning sent their resignation letters to the Chief Minister.


The three ministers formally announced after a meeting with top leaders that they have decided to quit. “We don't want the party and the government to face further embarrassment. All of us have decided to resign from the Ministry”, Mr. Savadi told reporters outside the BJP office.

Mr. Savadi and Mr. Patil demanded that the Speaker of the State Assembly K.G. Bopaiah institute a probe into the issue of watching the porno video footage and expressed confidence that “they would come clean from the allegations”.

Mr. Palemar said he was contemplating legal course over the issue.

Under the directions of BJP National President Nitin Gadkari, Mr. Gowda today held a meeting with the state unit Party President K.S. Eswarappa, former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, senior Ministers Jagadish Shettar and Govind Karjol in the party office and decided to ask the three ministers to put in their papers.

Speaking to the media persons, the Chief Minister said that all the three ministers had already sent their resignations to him. He had accepted their letters and forwarding them to Governor Bharadwaj to complete the formalities, he added.

Mr Gowda said that the ministers had maintained that they were innocent but quit on their own to avoid any further embarrassment to the party. An independent probe would bring out the truth, he added.

Mr Savadi was 'caught' by television cameras on Tuesday watching sexually explicit video on a cellphone inside the Assembly.

The footage showing Mr. Savadi watching the footage was shot by TV cameramen perched behind in the elevated media gallery. Mr. Savadi was sitting in the front row of the House. Less than an hour after the session concluded, TV channels beamed the uncensored visuals, each claiming the footage to be “exclusive.”

The channels also showed Minister for Ecology, Environment and Ports J. Krishna Palemar as well as Women and Child Welfare Minister C.C. Patil peeping into Mr. Savadi's phone and gesturing mirthfully.

Mr Savadi later revealed that the mobile on which he watched the sex video indeed belonged to Mr Palema. He also said that Mr. Palemar was showing him a video wherein a woman was gang-raped in a western country.


Speaking on behalf of the party, Yeddyurappa said the ministers have voluntarily tendered resignation on moral grounds and none of the party leaders including Nitin Gadkari had any role to play. "Inquiry will be conducted and soon truth will be out," Yeddyurappa said. Sources said that the party had decided last night itself to take their resignation, but was awaiting for Yeddyurappa to come back from tour of Bidar. All the three ministers are staunch followers of Yeddyurappa and were pitching for his comeback as the chief minister.

Opposition leader Siddaramaiah not only sought his resignation, but also urged the Speaker not to allow Savdi, Patil and Palemar to attend the assembly. Speaker K G Bopaiah has convened an emergency meeting of business advisory committee (BAC) involving leaders of ruling and opposition to discuss the conduct of the members.

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News Network
February 7,2020

Maddur, Feb 7: Two daily wage workers were buried alive after a heap of mud collapsed on them near the Agriculture Department office on the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway, in Maddur of Mandya district on Thursday night, police said on Friday.

Police said that the deceased, Kashinath (37), and Rajgandh (30), were working at a site of the ongoing Bengaluru-mysuru highway development project.

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News Network
July 12,2020

Bosnia, Jul 12: Bosnians commemorated on Saturday the massacre of about 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica, marking the 25th anniversary of killings that shocked the world and have stood out as Europe's only atrocity since World War Two constituting genocide.

Nine newly identified victims were buried at a flower-shaped cemetery near the town, where tall white tombstones mark the graves of 6,643 other victims.

"After 25 years we succeeded in finding his mortal remains, so they can be laid to their final rest," said Fikret Pezic, who buried his father Hasan.

The remains of some 1,000 victims of the massacre in the eastern town during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war are still missing.

Ifeta Hasanovic decided to bury incomplete remains of her husband, saying: "We were aware they cannot be complete after 25 years, at least there are some, I did not want to make any new delays."

World leaders addressed the ceremony by video link, unable to attend because of coronavirus epidemic. Instead of the tens of thousands visitors who typically attend the commemoration each year, only a few thousand came after organisers banned organised visits.

During the Bosnian war, Bosnian Serb forces pushed non-Serbs out of territories they sought for their Serb statelet. Fleeing Muslims took shelter in several eastern towns, including Srebrenica, that were designated as United Nations "safe zones".

On July 11, 1995, the Serb forces commanded by General Ratko Mladic overran Srebrenica, which was protected by lightly armed Dutch peacekeepers.

They sent women and children away and captured and executed the men and boys they found. The bodies were dumped into mass graves and later exhumed by U.N. investigators and used as evidence in war crimes trials of Bosnian Serb leaders.

"We grieve with the families that tirelessly seek justice for the 8,000 innocent lives lost, all these years later," said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Washington brokered Bosnia's peace deal months after the massacre.

Most people at the commemoration were Muslim Bosniaks, reflecting conflicting narratives about the bloodshed - which hinders reconciliation nearly 25 years after the end of war in which about 100,000 people were killed.

The U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia convicted Mladic and his political chief Radovan Karadzic over Srebrenica genocide but they remained heroes for Serbs, many of whom deny that genocide happened.

On Saturday, the Serbs in the nearby town of Bratunac organised an event marking July 11 as the "Srebrenica Liberation Day".

Sefik Dzaferovic, the Bosniak chairman of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, called for legislation that would ban denial of genocide.

"There can be no trust as long as we witness attacks on the truth, denial of genocide and glorification and celebration of executors," Dzaferovic told the commemoration gathering.

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News Network
May 30,2020

Bengaluru, May 30: The Karnataka government will soon launch a project to maintain the health database of all its citizens, said Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar on Friday.

A first of its kind initiative, the "State Health Register" will be a robust and standardised health repository of all the citizens, as per an official release.

Sudhakar said that the project will be implemented first in Chikkaballapur district on an experimental basis. "Enhanced focus on healthcare has become imperative and our government is committed to providing world-class healthcare to all citizens," he added.

While speaking to media, the minister said that COVID-19 experience has demonstrated the necessity of having robust, real-time public health data and, therefore, there is a need to maintain a repository of health data of each and every citizen.

He said that the government will be undertaking a survey of all 6.5 crore people in the state, by using a team of Primary Health Centre officials, revenue officials, education department staff and ASHA karyakartas.

"They will visit each household and collect health data of all the members of the family. This will not only help the government to provide better healthcare but will also help efficient resource allocation, management and better implementation of various citizen-centric schemes in the state," Sudhakar stated.

"Public-Private Partnership -- It's our vision to provide world-class healthcare to all citizens in the state and we need accurate data to make our vision a reality. The health register is a futuristic project which is taken up in the interest of the people. The project will include 50 per cent partnership of private hospitals. The data collected will help us to prioritise healthcare based on geography, demography and other targetted measures," read the release.

Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has assured all support for the project and a detailed discussion will be undertaken in the upcoming cabinet meeting, said Dr Sudhakar.

The minister also assured that he is committed to ensuring that all citizens of the state have access to world-class healthcare.

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