Mangalore braced for bundh amid fears of chaotic disruptions, Schools likely to reamin shut

[email protected] (CD Network)
July 4, 2010

petrol

Mangalore, July 4: Normal life across Karnataka's coastal districts is expected to come to a standstill on Monday as parties opposed to the Congress-led government at the Centre have joined hands to enforce a nationwide bundh in protest against the rise in fuel prices.

Most of the schools and colleges in the twin districts are expected to be closed, as the principals and head of the institutions have been given authority by the education department to take decision about declaring holiday. Many schools and colleges have announced that they will remain closed on the bundh day.

The bundh is also expected to hit the public transport system in the district. Karumbayya, a senior official at the KSRTC Mangalore division said that if there was any real risk of violence, the movement of buses will be stopped, otherwise transportation will remain as usual.

However private bus operators in the district are yet to come out of their dilemma over the bundh. Though they are not openly supportive of the bundh, they have decided to keep their buses off the roads fearing stone pelting by miscreants during the day.

Rajawarma Ballal, the State President of Canara Bus Owners Association said, he neither supported, nor opposed the bundh. “We oppose fuel price hike, but at the same time we don't want to disturb the public by observing a bundh. A bundh only can create harm to the public and will not serve any purpose. But we are not ready to challenge the bundh,” he said.

Krishna Anchan, President of City Bus Owners Association of Udupi, however, backed the bundh and said that none of the city buses in the district will operate during bundh hours.

The Federation of Karnataka Auto-rickshaw Drivers Union, DK District Committee has also expressed its support for the bundh. All the auto-rickshaws in Dakshina Kannada will remain off roads from 6: 00am to 6:00pm on Monday, said Sunil Kumar Bajal, District committee President of the Federation.

Meanwhile, Mangalore police have geared up to tackle any untoward incident during the shutdown. “We have taken all security measures to ensure no untoward incident takes place. Anyone who takes law into their hands and attempts to paralyse the city shall be dealt with strict action,” warned Seemanth Kumar Singh, Mangalore City Police Commissioner.

“Besides City Police force, additional forces such as KSRP will also be present on the street to maintain vigil,” he told Coastal Digest. “Additional personnel will be posted for patrolling in the areas like bus stands, railway stations and airport” he said adding that 15 extra jeeps too will be pressed for patrolling duties.

A Subrahmanyeshwara Rao, Superintendent of Police, DK appealed people to maintain peace and contact police if there is any incident of violence. He said 12 extra armed vehicles will be available for patrolling in addition to the existing 22 vehicles in rural areas of the districts which remained under his jurisdiction after the establishment of the Mangalore Police Commissionerate.

United opposition:

In a rare moment of unity, the Left and Right parties, are separately backing the day-long strike seeking a rollback of the fuel prices.

As expected Congress leaders see a “political game” behind the protest and several MLAs of the party justify the hike as “an inevitable move”. However, BJP and CPI (M) leaders are determined to cash in on the public outrage and make maximum of the growing discontent among the “aam aadmi”.

On the other hand both Left and Right parties are trying to maintain their existing ideological distance during the bundh, despite their so called “unity of purpose”.

Nalin Kumar Kateel, Mangalore MP and BJP leader, urged people to cooperate for a 'peaceful' bundh and maintained that BJP was joining hands with the Left parties only for a 'just' cause.

Muneer Katipalla, President of DYFI DK district unit said they do not bother about the participation of Right parties in the bundh, as their aim is nothing but exerting pressure on central government to rollback fuel price hike. “We are going for a bundh because our leaders have called for it. We are not ready to forge any bond with BJP leaders even at the local level”, he maintained.

UT Khader, MLA for Mangalore North, justifying the 'inevitable' fuel price hike by the union government led by Congress party, termed the impending bundh as a 'mere political drama' by non-Congress parties. He said that Union government was helpless in this regard, as the decision on fixing the price of petroleum products, had been taken at the international level.

“Our intention is not to deceive the common people. Being citizens of India we have to think about the future of our nation too along with our personal life. If we pay a couple of rupees extra for a litre of petrol as per the need of time, the government will get more money for its development programmes, especially for boosting infrastructure”, Mr Khader said accusing the state government of misleading the general public in order to hide its blunders.

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News Network
April 30,2020

Bengaluru, Apr 30: Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, has directed the Bengaluru City Police to return all the vehicles, which were seized during the Coronavirus Lockdown period, for having flouted rules.

The City Police Commissioner, Bhaskar Rao, informed that it was decided to return the seized vehicles to the owners, after verifying documents.

He said that the vehicles had been seized while enforcing strict guidelines, issued to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, in the city.

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News Network
May 28,2020

Bengaluru, May 28: In a first of its kind initiative, the Karnataka government will soon launch 'Statewide Health Register', a project to maintain the health database of all its citizens, announced Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar on Wednesday.

The project will kick start from Chikkaballapura and Dakshina Kannada districts.

"With a vision to efficiently deliver quality healthcare to every citizen, Karnataka will soon have a Statewide Health Register. The pilot project will be implemented in Chikkaballapura & Dakshina Kannada dist shortly and completed in 3-4 months. @CMofKarnataka @PMOIndia @JPNadda," tweeted the Minister.

The government plans to get the data collected with the help of a team of Primary Health Centre (PHC) officials, revenue officials, Education Department staff and ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers.

"They will visit each household and collect health data of all the members of the family. This will not just help the government to provide better health care facilities, but also build an efficient resource allocation, management and better implementation of various citizen-centric schemes in the state," the minister added.

Sudhakar also said that the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the necessity of having a robust, real-time public health system.

"Very few countries in the world have taken such an initiative. It is a futuristic project which will include 50 per cent partnership of private hospitals. It would be a cumbersome process but if we do this and digitise it, the data could be used for multiple purposes. The data would help us prioritise healthcare based on geography, demography, and other targeted measures. It would also help medical professionals and scientists for innumerable studies," he said.

"We have consulted all specialists from 18 different departments, and taken their advice into account," said the minister.

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News Network
April 11,2020

Dubai, Apr 11: An Indian expat in the UAE is facing police action for allegedly insulting Islam on social media in response to a Facebook post on the coronavirus, according to a media report.

Rakesh B Kitturmath, who worked as a team leader at Emrill Services, an integrated facilities management (FM) headquartered in Dubai, was sacked on Thursday after his post sparked outrage on social media, the Gulf News reported.

“Kitturmath’s employment stands terminated with immediate effect. He will be handed over to Dubai Police. We have a zero-tolerance policy towards such hate crimes,” said Stuart Harrison, CEO of Emrill Services.

"As an organisation, we have worked hard over the years to embrace diversity and create a culture of inclusion, where every nationality, religion and background is welcomed and celebrated. We have a strict social media policy for our employees to ensure they respect our values, both inside and outside of work," the newspaper quoted Harrison as saying.

Harrison said they are trying to find out if Kitturmath was still in the UAE, according to the report.

“We have over 8,500 employees so this may take a while. That said, we have fired him. If he’s still in the country, he will be handed over to Dubai Police,” he said.

For latest updates on coronavirus outbreak, click  here

Originally from Ranebennuri, Karnataka, Kitturmath joins an ever-growing list of Indian ex-pats who have landed in trouble for alleged Islamophobic messages in recent days.

Earlier this week, Abu Dhabi resident Mitesh Udeshi was sacked for posting a cartoon mocking Islam on his Facebook page while a police complaint was filed against Sameer Bhandari of Future Vision Events & Weddings’ in Dubai after he asked a Muslim job seeker from India to go back to Pakistan.

The UAE outlaws all religious or racial discrimination under a legislation passed in 2015.

The anti-discrimination/anti-hatred law prohibits all acts “that stoke religious hatred and/or which insult religion through any form of expression, be it speech or the written word, books, pamphlets or via online media.”

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