Outsiders in Karnataka should learn Kannada: Siddaramaiah

Benagluru, Feb 27: The sudden hike in bus fares by the state-run transport corporation has triggered a public outrage and protests by the opposition Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) in Karnataka.

Terming the hike as anti-people and inflationary, the Congress urged the ruling BJP to withdraw it forthwith and spare the commuters from the additional burden.

"KSRTC and its affiliates should not further burden the people when the cost of living has gone up and its bus service is used by the majority in the absence of trains in many regions of the state," said Ravi Gowda of the Congress.

In a surprise announcement on Tuesday night, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and its two affiliates -- North Eastern Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NEKSRTC )and North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKSRTC) -- increased bus fares by 12% with effect from Wednesday, drawing the ire of commuters and opposition parties alike.

Condemning the fare hike, JD(S) leader and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy urged the KSRTC to roll back the revised fares and give relief to the common man reeling under price rise due to CGST, SGST and food inflation.

"The BJP government has deliberately increased the bus fare ahead of the state budget for 2020-21 fiscal on March 2, catching people unawares. Though student passes have been spared from the hike, regular passengers are forced to pay Rs 5-32 more instead of getting better efficiency, management and productivity," Kumaraswamy said in a statement in Bengaluru.

It's an additional burden on us, said Bengaluru resident K. Venkatesh, while adding,

"The 12 percent hike in bus fares by the KSRTC and its north-east and north-west affiliates from Wednesday will hit passengers hard and make commuting costly.”

"The fare hike will negate the state government's efforts to encourage public transport service and force passengers to travel on the train, which is cheaper, faster and safer," asserted Venugopal Gupta, a cloth merchant in the city.

Justifying the hike, KSRTC Managing Director Shivayogi Kalasad told media that the hike was inevitable due to the steady increase in diesel price, dearness allowance in staff salary and overall cost of operations.

"Since the last fare revision came in May 2014, the operational cost has gone up substantially due to Rs 11.27 per litre hike in diesel price, increase in DA to employees and repairing, maintenance and fleet management costs," Kalasad said.

The financial burden due to fuel price hike is Rs 261 crore, DA Rs 341 crore and operational cost Rs 601 crore per annum for KSRTC alone, he said.

"For the benefit of rural passengers, fares have been reduced to Rs 5 from Rs 7 for the first 3 km. There is no increase in fares for the first 12 km and up to first 6 km in express service," Kalasad added.

Udupi, Jan 17: In a unique philanthropic initiative, two US based NRI children have established the first unit of Keithan & Keisha Skill Development Centre at SVS English Medium School, Katapady in Udupi district.

The centre was inaugurated by Dr. Ranjan B. Kini, Professor of Management - Information Systems of Indiana University Northwest (UCN), USA on Saturday, January 11, 2020.

The centre will provide exposure to rural high school students in technical skills in emerging technological domains, soft skills and life skills through online training and video conferencing during weekend seminars. The centre is established by Keithan and Keisha with the help of their parents. They are the children of Katapady Krishna Mohan Pai, CEO of Invenger Technologies Inc., USA. One 55 inch LCD TV, two computers and one laptop were donated as part of the initiation package.

Dr. Srikanth Prabhu, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering, MIT, Manipal will be anchoring the training sessions which will cover emerging fields like Robotics, its impact and the opportunities in the future. The training will include international online programmes and video conferencing.

“In today’s competitive world, students need technical knowledge to keep pace with the changing scenarios. Along with technical exposure, they should also be equipped with soft skills, communication skills and organizing abilities,” said Dr. Ranjan B. Kini after inaugurating the first unit at SVS English Medium School, Katapady.

Dr. Srikanth Prabhu informed the gathering about the idea behind the project, explained its features and programmes. “If good awareness is given to students at a young age regarding latest developments in technical fields and if they are trained in soft skills and other complementary skills, they will be able to face the future with confidence and attain the heights of success even if beginning from zero,” he said.

Presiding over the function K. Sathyendra Pai, Director of Invenger Technologies said, “This is the first centre to be set up under our initiative to train rural children in add-on skills and help them to gain parity with better educated students.”  More such centres will be set up in other schools soon, he added.

Katapady Krishna Mohan Pai, CEO of Invenger Technologies Inc., Amith Nayak of Archana Developers, Umesh Rao, President of Rotary Club Katapady, Savitha Manjunath, PWD Officer of Udupi, technical experts Nidhi Manjunath and Mitesh Singh were the guests of honour. Directors of the company B. C. Pai, Srinivas Vasudev Kini and Venkatramana Bhat were present.

School Headmaster Devendra Nayak welcomed the gathering. Megha gave a vote of thanks. School teachers Uma and Chaitra along with other teachers coordinated the event. Student leaders Dhanush and Jessel Vinola Quadros compered the programme.

Chennai, July 25: A widow living alone in her apartment in Chennai city suburbs has filed a police complaint against ABVP national president Dr Subbiah Shanmugam, accusing him of harassment, including urinating and throwing used surgical masks at her doorstep.

Shockingly, no action has been taken so far by the police, even though the complaint against Dr Shanmugam, who is in government service, was filed on July 11 at the Adambakkam Police Station here by the widow’s relative Balaji Vijayaraghavan. 

Dr Shanmugam and the 62-year-old widow were living in the same apartment complex in Nanganallur and an argument broke between them over a parking slot. “He wanted to use our parking lot. We agreed but demanded a nominal charge for using it. He was outraged by our demand and even broke our signboard at the parking lot,” Vijayaraghavan wrote in his complaint.

He also alleged that Dr Shanmugam began harassing her by throwing “pieces of chicken” outside her apartment despite knowing she is a vegetarian. Vijayaraghavan also alleged in his two-page written complaint that the ABVP National President had urinated outside the woman’s apartment gate and had been throwing garbage and used masks at her gate.

The 62-year-old woman has been living alone in her apartment for the last year following her husband’s death. In his complaint, Vijayaraghavan also said the family was “concerned about her safety”, while asking police to take action against Dr Shanmugam, who he says, “has a bad track record in maintaining rapport with neighbours.”

CCTV footage corroborates with the allegations of urinating outside the residence of the widow. However, the ABVP claimed the incident as a “malicious and derogatory propaganda” by the Congress’ student wing of NSUI.

Also Read: Finally FIR registered against ABVP national president for allegedly harassing widow