Rahim Uchil files plaint against Ramanath Rai for mispronouncing ‘Sulibele’

Jun 4: Mahatma Gandhi’s statue outside the Indian Embassy in Washington DC was vandalised with graffiti and spray painting by unknown persons allegedly involved in the ongoing protests in the US against the custodial killing of African-American George Floyd.

This has prompted the mission officials to register a complaint with the local law enforcement agencies.

The incident is reported to have taken place on the intervening night of June 2 and 3 in Washington DC.

The Indian embassy has informed the State Department and registered a complaint with local law enforcement agencies, which are now conducting an investigation into the incident.

On Wednesday, a team of officials from Metropolitan Police in consultation with the Diplomatic Security Service and National Park Police visited the site and are conducting inquiries.

Efforts are on to clean up the site at the earliest.

Vandalism of the statue of the apostle of peace comes during the week of nationwide protests against the custodial killing of African-American George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25.

Several of these protests have turned violent which many times has resulted in damage of some of the most prestigious and sacred American monuments.

In Washington DC, protestors this week burnt a historic church and damaged some of the prime properties and historic places like the national monument and Lincoln Memorial.

One of the few statues of a foreign leader on a federal land in Washington DC, the statue of Mahatma Gandhi was dedicated by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in the presence of the then US president Bill Clinton on September 16, 2000, during his state visit to the US.

In October 1998, the US Congress had authorised the government of India to establish and maintain a memorial “to honour Mahatma Gandhi on Federal land in the District of Columbia."

According to the Indian Embassy website, the sculpture of Mahatma Gandhi is cast in bronze as a statue to a height of 8 feet 8 inches. It shows Gandhi in stride, as a leader and man of action evoking memories of his 1930 protest march against salt-tax, and the many padyatras (long marches) he undertook throughout the length and breadth of the Indian sub-continent.

The statue, the design of which was created by Gautam Pal, is a gift from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). The pedestal for the statue of Mahatma Gandhi is a block of new Imperial Red also known as Ruby Red a block originally weighing 25 tonnes reduced to a size of 9'x7'x3'4". It now weighs 16 tonnes.

Bengaluru, Jun 24: The Karnataka government on Tuesday announced that fever clinics would be established at all district-level and taluk-level hospitals, wherein fever cases would be screened in a separate area.

"Fever clinics to be established at all district hospitals/district-level hospitals and taluk-level hospitals, wherein all fever cases should be screened 24x7 in a separate area and for Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) cases to be subjected for swab testing," read a circular from the Department of Health and Family Welfare dated June 22.

The circular said that private institutions in the corporation areas should also be designated as fever clinics.

"100 per cent of Community Health Centres (CHC), 50 per cent of Primary Health Centres and Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHC) to be converted as exclusive fever clinics to screen ILI/SARI during working hours. The remaining PHC/UPHC to cater to non-COVID-19 cases. All health institutions need to have a separate entry for COVID and non-COVID services," the circular further said.

Karnataka on Tuesday reported 322 fresh COVID-19 positive cases and eight deaths.
According to the state health department, the total number of positive cases has mounted to 9,721 and 150 deaths. So far, 6,004 people have been discharged.

Bengaluru, Jan 21: A massive protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC), and National Population Register (NPR) was witnessed at Shivajinagar's Chandni Chowk area on Tuesday.

Scores of people came together carrying national flags and placards to register their protest in the city.

Speaking to ANI, a protester said, "People of all religious community have assembled here in Chandni Chowk to protest against CAA, NRC, and NPR. We the people of India are against this law."

Terming the law as anti-constitutional, he said that we support all the states who oppose the CAA. We demand the revocation of CAA and the government should remove conditions in NPR which lead to NRC.

CAA grants citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Parsi, Buddhist and Christian communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and who came to India on or before December 31, 2014.