Kusma bundh enters second day; no response in DK, Udupi

July 17, 2012

Mangalore, July 17: Even though the bundh of unaided schools entered a second day on Tuesday in different parts of the state, the call given by Karnataka Unaided School Management Association (Kusma) failed to evoke any response in twin coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi.

The Kusma had declared that it would shut down schools from July 16 to 22 protesting against the confusion in the Right to Education Act.

However, Deputy Director Public Instruction (DDPI) Moses Jayashekar said that all the schools in Dakshina Kannada district functioned on Monday.

The Associations of unaided and private schools in Dakshina Kannada district also have not responded to the protest call given by Kusma on Right to Education Act rules.

Dakshina Kannada and Udupi District English Medium Schools Association President Mohammad Beary, said that his also association is not supporting the Kusma.

“We welcomed the RTE Act and our protest will amount to contempt of court. The RTE Act has reserved 25 per cent seats for children from backward classes and weaker section of the society in private schools. Most of the minority status schools give preference to minority students during the admission process. At the same time, the government reimburses the fee of the students enrolled in private schools. In such a situation what is the point in making hue and cry over the Act.”

“We are only opposed to the income limit of 3.5 lakh. The income limits is that of upper middle class. The RTE Act speaks of 25 per cent reservation for poor and backward classes. What is the point for having such an income limit?” he asked.

“Closing down the schools is not an answer. Closure of schools will be a burden on the teachers, to cover the syllabus within a stipulated time.”

Dakshina Kannada and Udupi District English Medium Schools Association General Secretary and Karnataka State Private Schools Management Association Director Ravindra Shetty said “the income limit should be reduced to Rs one lakh. We are neither supporting nor opposing the call for the closure of schools. As many as 405 schools in DK and Udupi are registered with the Association.”

Dakshina Kannada District Unaided Schools Association president K M K Manjanady said the Association has not supported the protest call of KUSMA. All the schools coming under the Association functioned as usual.

In Udupi district too almost all the schools remained open. DDPI Nagendra Madhyastha said that the department has no information about any school being closed down owing to the protest call by Karnataka Unaided School Managements Association.

Udupi District Education Officer Ashok Kamath said that the functioning of unaided schools is not affected by the protest call.

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Man, identified as Nandlal, arrested for feeding cracker-laden dough to pregnant cow

coastaldigest.com web desk

June 7,2020

The Himachal Pradesh police have confirmed the arrested a man for injuring a pregnant cow by feeding her wheat flour ball laced with firecrackers.

The cow’s jaw was blown off-- reprising the tragic story of a pregnant elephant that lost its life after eating a pineapple stuffed with a firecracker in Kerala.

While the incident took place on May 26 in Jhandutta area of Himachal Pradesh’s Bilaspur district, it came to light only on Saturday, May 6, when the cow’s owner, Gurdayal Singh, uploaded a video of the injured animal on social media.

In the video, Gurdiyal Singh describes how the cow’s mouth had been injured after one Nandlal fed her explosives.

He confirmed that Nandlal works as a mechanic in Singh’s neighbourhood. Singh said that Nandlal has no remorse for his action. Nandlal has said that he is not scared of the repercussions and that he will continue to do whatever he deems fit. “Even the village sarpanch cannot harm me”, challenged Nandlal when confronted by Singh.

The cow has given birth to a healthy calf since but Singh said the animal is still not able to eat because of an injured jaw and is being administered Glucose.

The video went viral with people demanding strict action against the person who fed firecrackers to the animal.

The practice of studding dough balls with firecrackers isn’t uncommon in Himachal, and farmers resort to this to keep wild animals, especially boards, off their fields. In the Kerala incident too, the explosive-filled-fruit was meant for wild boars. In many parts of the country, including Himachal, the method is also used to hunt for bush meat -- an illegal practice.

Bilaspur superintendent of oolice (SP) Devakar Sharma confirmed the incident and said the cow was fed a highly explosive firecracker popularly called “aalu bomb”.

Aalu is Hindi for potato. He said a case under Section 286 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act has been registered and the role of the neighbours named by Singh is being investigated.

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Someone needs to educate these disgusting Indian pigs. Religious? After what they do to women and animals? They are less than animals. A disgrace to their God and the human race. Sadly, officials are corrupt and those that aren't are powerless.

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Tourism takes a hit in coffee land Kodagu

News Network

February 23,2020

Madikeri, Feb 23: Back-to-back floods and landslides in the last two years, has led to a fall in the number of tourists coming to the coffee-growing region of Kodagu, forcing the district administration to intervene and take confidence-building measures, telling tourists that Kodagu was safe to visit.

According to the statistics of the Karnataka State Tourism Department, Kodagu recorded a moderately good number of tourists in 2018 and 2019, the years that the district witnessed devastating floods and landslides.

The Department’s statistics reveal that 17 lakh tourists visited Kodagu in 2018 and 18 lakh in 2019. This means the flood-ravaged years did attract tourists contrary to what the stakeholders had claimed.

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Karnataka Cong demands judicial inquiry into 'medical procurement scam'

News Network

July 23,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 23: The opposition party Congress on Thursday demanded a judicial enquiry in the alleged scam in coronavirus related medical equipment procurement by Karnataka government.

However, Deputy chief minister Ashwathnarayan and Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai denied all the allegations.

Leader of Opposition (LoP) and former Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar addressed a press conference here and demanded a judiciary enquiry under a sitting High Court judge to investigate "BJP's Corona Scams."

"I made allegations on July 3. Nobody has denied it officially. On July 20, Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu and Deputy Chief Minister Ashwathnarayan in a press conference denied my allegations. Today, I furnished 14 documents. If you go through it, you will find corruption and misappropriation in medical equipment purchase," Siddaramaiah said.

"The documents are available with the government, how can they deny their own documents. They are telling that they have spent only Rs 324 crore but according to me the government has spent more than Rs 4,000 crore and nearly Rs 2,000 crore went in the minister and bureaucrats' pockets," he said.

He further said, "Centre has procured 50,000 ventilators under PM Cares at a cost of Rs 4, lakh per unit. Tamil Nadu has procured at Rs 4.78 lakh. But in our state, the price is between Rs 5.6 lakh to Rs 18.2 lakh. Is this not corruption?"

Siddaramaiah also dared the government to step up for an enquiry if they are "honest and transparent".

"I am demanding, constitute a judicial committee headed by sitting high court judge, let there be an enquiry in detail," he said.

DK Shivakumar said that his party has made the allegations based on government documents and media reports showing corruption.

"Karnataka government is purchasing equipment at high rates. We have exposed BJP's Rs 2,000 crore scams today. The government's main focus is to loot. They have paralysed the state administration," he said.
Denying the Congress' allegations, Deputy Chief Minister, Ashwathnarayan said that the government is ready to discuss this in the Assembly house.

"They have alleged Rs 700 crore misappropriation by health department but we have shown we have spent only Rs 290 crore," he said.

Giving details of the SDRF expenditure towards COVID-19 containment he said, "We have released Rs. 23,220.01 lakh in SDRF accounts and they have spent Rs Rs. 15, 918.99 lakh in various activities like migrant relief measures, measures for quarantine, sample collection, screening from March 14 to July 16."

Karnataka Home Minister, Basavaraj Bommai, said, "Karnataka government has spent Rs 506 crores for medical equipment and Rs 1,611 crores for other activities related to combatting COVID-19. So, we have spent Rs 2,117 crores as of now and there is no corruption in it."

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