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People panic over dumping of waste at Mangalore by MRPL

[email protected] (The Hindu)
December 8, 2012

People_Panic

Mangalore, December 8: The discovery of several truckloads of waste from crude oil refinery processes being dumped close to a stream outside Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical Limited (MRPL) on Thursday triggered fear and panic among people of Modapadavu on the outskirts of Mangalore.

Irate people of the village blocked two trucks, each of which dumped 9.83 tonnes of ball-shaped and rod-shaped chemical catalysts, demanding that MRPL sterilise the area.

One of the drivers said at least 25 truckloads of chemicals from the storage department of MRPL had been dumped and covered with mud in the past three days on the site where the company was developing a playground for children.

“We saw trucks proceeding to the site carrying waste. A black liquid was leaking from the truck. We followed it, and saw them dumping it close to the stream,” said Ramesh Poojary, a farmer. He alerted the people of Modapadavu and Kuthetoor, where more than 20 households border an iron-coloured stream that follows from the hills surrounding MRPL. The discovery triggered fears in the villages, where in the past there have been instances of underground oil leakage from the refinery making its way to the stream. People of the villages, and gram and taluk panchayat officials gathered at the site demanding that MRPL remove the waste. “There is something nefarious in this. Why would they do this kind of operation covertly, and then cover it up with mud?” Thomas Fernandes, former president of Kuthetoor panchayat, said.

A team from the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board took samples from the site, while police officials directed MRPL authorities to remove the waste. Surprisingly, MRPL security personnel, who rushed to the spot after people refused to let the trucks leave, said they were unaware of the dumping.

Officials from MRPL technical division claimed that the inert alumina ceramic balls were “non-hazardous. The material do not pose any harm, and is being dumped in our land. It is being used as filler while levelling playgrounds or tarring roads,” said an official.

However, a worker at the refinery, said during the refining process of the oil, the ceramic balls get coated with a toxic chemicals and carbon.



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News Network
August 6,2020

Bengaluru, Aug 5: Touted as a first of its kind in the nation, a mobile Covid-19 lab was inaugurated on Wednesday by the Karnataka Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar.

The lab, approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) can do 9,000 RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) tests per month, an official press release said here. "This is a unique lab having all safety features and capable of producing 100% accurate results within four hours," Dr Sudhakar was quoted as saying in the press release.

The Indian Institute of Science (IISC) had developed the lab and handed it over to the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS).

The mobile lab can also be used for molecular diagnostic-testing and can be deployed in coronavirus hot spots quickly, the release said adding, apart from Covid-19, the lab can be utilised for testing H1N1, HCV, TB, HPV and HIV among others.

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News Network
May 20,2020

Bengaluru, May 20: An owner of a hair cutting training salon in the city has given shelter to the jobless IT professionals and migrant workers hailing from north-eastern states and Nepal, in his salon.

Rahul Rai, the owner said, "The moment the lockdown started then I received many complaints from different corners that several persons became jobless and they were thrown out of their rented accommodations."

"They are from different states of the North-east and some of them are from Nepal also. I converted my hair-cutting training salon into a shelter home for them," he added.

A person who got shelter at the salon said, "I lost my job after the lockdown started. I was facing a lot of issues after my landlord had evicted me from my rented accommodation. I spent about a week nearby a lake. I managed to contact Rahul Rai through Facebook and he rescued me along with many others."

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News Network
June 23,2020

Bengaluru, June 23: Karnataka Congress chief D K Shivakumar has urged his party colleagues to be active on social media to counter the propaganda of Bharatiya Janata Party.

Speaking to media persons, the KPCC president said that no more than 20 out of the 68 Congress MLAs are active on social media.

“All those MLAs who are doing well need to be projected. We want leaders, not mere followers. They all should be the face of Congress in Karnataka. Party should not depend on just my face or Siddaramaiah’s,” he said.

Shivakumar’s diktat has resulted in the party’s social media unit scrambling to get leaders to create their accounts.

“We’re pressuring all the party MLAs and leaders. We’re asking their personal assistants or gunmen to operate their accounts if they are not savvy with social media,” KPCC social media chief A N Nataraj Gowda said.

He pointed out that the 20 MLAs who are active on social media include U T Khader, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Priyank Kharge, Krishna Byre Gowda among others.

“We’re also trying to get the accounts verified of those who are beginning to get active. For example, it was only recently that we got the accounts of S R Patil and Vijay Singh verified,” Gowda said.

Tapping the full potential of social media is crucial for the Congress because the BJP has found much success in reaching out to voters through various online platforms.

In fact, ahead of the 2018 Assembly elections, the Congress found that there were 10 ministers and some 40 MLAs who had turned a blind eye towards social media.

Shivakumar said he was also working on putting in place a system in the party under which all developments related to the state and country will be communicated to all party leaders at 10 am every day.

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