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: Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa on Tuesday shuffled the portfolios of six newly inducted ministers after they expressed unhappiness about the departments allocated to them barely 24 hours ago.
Three ministers — BC Patil, Anand Singh and K Gopalaiah — received new responsibilities and as many — Shivaram Hebbar, Srimanth Patil and Byrathi Basavaraj — have been saddled with more.
Sources said the six ministers met the CM late Monday night and said they were not happy with the portfolios handed to them. They reportedly threatened not to assume office until their demands were met, forcing the CM to effect the changes early Tuesday.
BC Patil is now vested with agriculture (he had been given forest), Anand Singh forest, environment and ecology (earlier food and civil supplies) and Gopalaiah food and civil supplies (instead of small-scale industries). BC Patil said, “I’m happy I can now be with farmers.” Shivaram Hebbar has been given the additional responsibility of sugar along with labour allocated to him on Monday.
Allocation of the forest portfolio to Anand Singh has raised eyebrows as the Vijayanagara MLA had been arrested in 2013 and 2015 in cases of illegal mining and illegal transportation of mining ore. Singh owned SB Mineral in Ballari and the Lokayukta had charged him with transporting 17,086 tonnes of iron ore without permission or valid licence. He was acquitted in a Belikeri iron ore export case due to lack of evidence.
Byrathi Basvaraj, who has been given the urban development ministry, will also handle Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board and Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation.
Srimanth Patil has received minority welfare department apart from textile.
The exercise of portfolio shuffling is likely to continue with minister K Sudhakar reportedly unhappy with medical education.
In another embarrassment to the CM, Mahesh Kumathalli on Tuesday refused to take over as chairman of the Mysore Sales International Ltd, saying he wants to be a minister. BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal urged Yediyurappa to induct Kumathalli into the cabinet in line with the promise made to him when he joined the BJP before bypolls. “The CM must keep his word,” he said.
Shivamogga, May 21: A quarantine facility at Bapuji Nagar in Shivamogga on Wednesday evening was vandalised, by a group of people. leading to chaos.
The police had to resort to baton-charge to control the situation.
Locals were opposing the facility, which is being used to isolate travellers from different states in the view of coronavirus.
Deputy Commissioner KB Sivakumar said that the police department will investigate and book a case against the protesters.
Newsroom, Apr 22: Dozens of Tablighi Jamaat members from across the country who have been successfully recovered and have now tested negative for the novel coronavirus have come forward and donate their plasma for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.
The Tablighis from Tamil Nadu were the first to take this decision. According to them, apart from helping the critically ill patients to recover from COVID-19, was to counter the ‘baseless accusations’ that Tablighis were responsible for the spread of the virus following the religious congregation of the sect held at Delhi’s Nizamuddin area last month.
Mohammad Abbas, a thirty-eight year old businessman from Tiruppur was on Sunday discharged from Coimbatore’s ESI hospital. “As soon as I got discharged, I met the district administration officials and the dean of the hospital and told them that they may contact me anytime if they needed me to donate my plasma,” Abbas was quoted as saying by an English daily.
“It has only been one day since I was discharged but I’ve already spoken to others (from the Jamaat) who have recovered and they were all ready to donate,” he added.
Leader's call
Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, a prominent leader of Tablighi Jamaat, who has been booked by the Delhi Police for holding a religious congregation, too has appealed to coronavirus survivors to donate blood plasma for infected people.
In a letter issued on Tuesday, Saad said most of the members who were quarantined did not have any infection and they tested negative for COVID-19.
"Even from amongst the ones who tested positive for the disease, a majority of them have now undergone treatment and are now cured while I and a few others are still under quarantine.
"It is required that such people who are now cured of this disease should donate blood plasma to others who are still fighting the disease and are under treatment," he said.
He also has urged the followers of the organisation to pray at home in the month of Ramadan instead of going to mosques.
Plasma therapy
Convalescent Plasma Therapy is an experimental procedure for COVID-19 patients.
In this therapy, the antibodies of a person who has recovered from the virus are taken and transfused into a sick person (having the virus) to help boost the person’s immune system.
The recovered COVID-19 patient’s blood develops antibodies to battle against COVID-19.
Once the blood of the first patient is infused to the second patient, those antibodies will start fighting against the coronavirus in the second person.
The process for donating plasma is similar to donating blood and takes about an hour.
Several countries around the world including the United Kingdom and the United States have also started plasma therapy trials.
In India, several states like Kerala, Gujarat and Punjab have already started using Plasma Therapy for the corona-infected patients.
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CONGRATULATIONS AND ALL THE BEST ON THE OCCASSION OF ELECTED KARNATAKA SPEAKER.
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