Belagavi, Dec 12: Senior Legislator K Pratapchandra Shetty of Congress was unanimously elected as Karnataka Legislative Council Chairman here on Wednesday during the ongoing Winter Session at Suvarna Vikas Soudha.
Mr Shetty was the lone candidate who had filed his nomination papers yesterday. The senior leader from Udupi has been a four-time MLA and three time MLC.
Senior member of the house and former Minister S R Patil and Allam Veerbhadrappa, both from Congress proposed Mr Shetty's name.
Bengaluru, Jun 27: Marijuana or ganja as it is known locally, has emerged as the most peddled and seized drug in Karnataka in the first six months of 2020, a police officer has said, commemorating the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
"As many as 510 ganja cases have been registered, leading to the seizure of 312 kg of ganja in 2020," Central Crime Branch (CCB) Deputy Commissioner of Police Kuldeep Jain told media perrsons on Friday.
Cases and seizures of other drugs paled in comparison to Marijuana. Only one case each has been registered on Brown Sugar, Opium and other drug forms.
Hashish was the only other seized narcotic which weighed more than a kg at 17 kg, rest all were under a kg.
Other banned substances included charas, cocaine and MDMA.
Police also seized 91 papers of LSD and 550 tablets belonging to the Yaba, Restyl, Anxit and Nitrosun category of drugs.
Similarly, 781 Indians and 14 foreigners have been arrested in the drugs cases.
Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Director General of Police Praveen Sood and Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao were among the officials who commemorated the event which recognised police staff who cracked drug cases.
"Bommai reaffirmed the pledge to fight against drugs and continue the policy of zero tolerance (of drug abuse)," Joint Commissioner of Police Sandeep Patil said.
Police showcased the seized haul of drugs to Bommai in the past one year, and the minister later rewarded the policemen involved in cracking the drugs cases in Karnataka.
Bommai and the police officials took a pledge to fight drugs on the occasion.
"The Karnataka police has been taking strict action against the drug peddlers while at the same time creating awareness among youth," added JCP Sandeep Patil.
Police also roped in celebrities such as Milana Nagaraj, Darling Krishna and former cricketer Anil Kumble to send across a social message to give up drugs.
Bengaluru, Apr 24: The Karnataka Health Department is likely to shift the 119 accused in Padarayanapura violence to Bengaluru's Haj Bhavan from Ramnagar Jail.
This comes after two accused out of 121, who were shifted to Ramnagar jail, tested positive for coronavirus. They have been shifted to Victoria Hospital.
A ruckus erupted in Padarayanapura on Sunday allegedly over the shifting of 15 secondary contacts of corona positive patients to a quarantine facility by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials.
Padarayanapura is recognised as a 'red zone'. When BBMP officials went to shift the suspected COVID-19 patients, some people created a ruckus, broke a barricade and removed the police post in the area.
Mangaluru, Jan 1: Led by two local MLAs belonging to Bharatiya Janata Party, dozens of people today forcibly stopped toll fee collection at Talapady toll gate on the outskirts of the city allowing vehicles plying between Karnataka and Kerala on the national highway 66 to travel without paying any fee for some time.
Mangaluru City South MLA D Vedavyasa Kamath and Mangaluru City North MLA Y Bharat Shetty, who led the workers, said that the Navayuga Udupi Tollway Pvt. Ltd. (NUTPL), the concessionaire of the about 90-km-long highway widening project between Talapady and Kundapura in Karnataka, had failed to complete the project since over a decade.
The service roads and two flyovers under the project remained uncompleted. Hence motorists were facing a hardship. Notwithstanding Nalin Kumar Kateel, Dakshina Kannada MP, arranging ₹56 crore loan to the NUTPL through Axis Bank to complete the prominent Pumpwell flyover in the city, the company had failed to complete it.
The MLAs said that they stopped the toll collection as a symbolic protest to bring pressure on the company to complete the project within this month.
The BJP workers who gathered near the toll gate around 7.30 a.m. forcibly removed the barricades and made the vehicles ply without paying the fee. The workers of the company managing the toll booth did not resist.
The BJP workers said that vehicles would ply without paying toll till about 6 p.m. If the company resumed the collection during the day on Wednesday, the party workers would again forcibly stop it on Thursday, they said.
Shivaprasad Rai, in-charge of toll collection of the company at Talapady, Hejmady and Sasthana on the same highway told The Hindu that the NUTPL collected about ₹7 lakh as toll fee daily at Talapady from over 12,000 vehicles. The loss on Wednesday could be about ₹4 lakh.
The project is being implemented under build, operate and transfer basis.
Comments
CONGRATULATIONS AND ALL THE BEST ON THE OCCASSION OF ELECTED KARNATAKA SPEAKER.
Add new comment