Now devotees in Karnataka can meet their 'gods' online as govt mulls live streaming of pujas, sevas

Dubai, Apr 14: Around 2,500 Indians have approached Indian missions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) seeking help to be flown home during the ongoing coronavirus lockdown, top diplomats have said.

The Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Indian Consulate in Dubai together have received requests from "a little more than 1,000 individuals" while the latter has received an additional request from an employer who has laid-off around 1,000 Indian workers, reports Gulf News on Monday.

According to the Indian Ambassador to the UAE Pavan Kapoor, the missions have not been bombarded with mass requests from the people who wish to take an immediate flight home unlike widespread reports on social media.

Most of the individuals who have expressed their interest to return home are visitors and those who lost their jobs, he told Gulf News.

Consul General of India in Dubai, Vipul said his mission had received nearly 1000 requests via email and phone from people who want to return home.

"A majority of them are visit visa holders. On Sunday, we got information about another large group of around 1,000 Indian workers who have lost jobs. The employer has got in touch to know the options to send them back home as early as possible," he told Gulf News.

However, the diplomatic heads refuted unverified reports that claim tens of thousands of Indians were scrambling to fly home during the pandemic.

They added that the missions have been aiding hundreds of workers, who have been left in the lurch by their employers, with provisions.

The Indian government had said that flight services cannot be resumed during the lockdown period, which has now been extended till May 3.

Mangaluru, May 8: Migrant workers, stranded in Karnataka due to lockdown, staged a protest on Friday at the Central Railway Station here, demanding to be sent back to their respective native places.

The workers demanded the state government to take measures and send them back to their homes.

Maintaining social distancing and covering their faces with masks, the workers were holding placards which read -- "We want to go home Jharkhand, We want justice and we want to go home."

They appealed to the state government to arrange trains and buses to ferry them to their native places and threatened to walk home if denied transport.

Several protests have erupted in different parts of the country, such as Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, as stranded labourers took to the roads demanding to be sent back home.

The Ministry of Home Affairs on May 1 had issued an order to extend the ongoing lockdown by two more weeks from May 4 with some relaxations.

Bengaluru, Jul 7: Vasudeva Maiya, former CEO of Sri Guru Raghavendra Co-operative Bank, was found dead in his car in Bengaluru on July 6.

The Subramanyapura police have begun an investigation into Vasudeva Maiya's death.  Source said that he committed suicide. He was a native of Kota in Udupi district.

The car was found parked a little away from Maiya's house at around 6.30 pm on July 6.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had in January imposed restrictions on Sri Guru Raghavendra Co-operative Bank and limited withdrawals to Rs 35,000 by customers.

On June 18, Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) raided five offices of Sri Guru Raghavendra Co-operative Bank, in relation to alleged misappropriation of Rs 1,400 crore.

The RBI, Enforcement Directorate, Criminal Investigation Department, and Registrar of Cooperative Societies are looking into the financial irregularities at the lender.

The police also conducted searches at residences of Maiya and the bank's chairman K Ramakrishna in relation to the above mentioned case, sources said.