Ramanath Rai was in BJP before joining Congress, claims former MLA

May 6: Congress general secretary KC Venugopal on Tuesday termed as "inhumane" the government's decision to "impose excessive costs" on NRIs and expatriates for bringing them into the country from COVID-19-affected nations.

He demanded that the central government fly in the poor and vulnerable free of cost while charge the others with normal fares instead of high costs.

"The central government's decision to impose excessive costs on NRIs flying in special flights from the Covid-affected countries is an inhumane act," he said in a statement.

Venugopal said it was due to protests by a large number of expatriates and their relatives as well as the general public over the past few days that the central government took the decision to bring back Indian citizens from abroad.

"However, it is cruel that the Central government has taken advantage of this plight of expatriates by increasing the price of air fares up to three times. This is inhumane," Venugopal said in his statement.

He urged the Centre to take urgent steps to provide free travel to the most vulnerable, unemployed, sick and pregnant women and to others on normal fare.

Air India will operate 64 repatriation flights for a week from May 7 while the Navy deployed two ships as India rolled out a massive evacuation plan on Tuesday to bring back thousands of its nationals stranded abroad due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

Those availing the repatriation flights will be charged, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told a virtual press conference in New Delhi. A passenger on a London-Delhi flight will be charged Rs 50,000 and on a Dhaka-Delhi flight Rs 12,000, he added.

From the Gulf countries to Malaysia and the UK to the US, the multi-agency operation christened 'Vande Bharat Mission' will see the state-owned airline operate the non-scheduled commercial flights till May 13 to ferry around 15,000 Indian nationals from 12 countries.

Bengaluru, Apr 27: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda on Monday demanded that the Karnataka government announce a special package for farmers who are on the verge of quitting agriculture as their profession following losses due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Please announce special package for the farmers to bail them out of the loss due to the lockdown.

Drop many of the schemes in the budget but don't leave the farmers in distress," Gowda said in his letter to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa.

The JD(S) supremo said the way relief has been announced for the milk producers by procuring the unsold milk and distributing it to the slum dwellers, the same assistance should be provided to the farmers of the state.

"If you don't come forward to assist the farmers, then they will be forced to sell their land," Gowda cautioned the Chief Minister.

The former prime minister said the farmers are on the verge of falling in the debt trap and may be compelled to take the extreme step of suicide due to the losses.

Gowda said the farmers are unable to sell their crop because they are not getting proper price for their produce and are selling their crop at a throwaway price to minimise their losses.

"In just one month farmers reached the brink of bankruptcy as they are unable to sell the standing crops in lakhs of acres of land," Gowda said.

The JD(S) supremo has been championing the cause of farmers in the state and highlighting their sufferings.

On April 3 Gowda has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to look into the plight of farmers, labourers and the middle class people due to the lockdown.

"In such times of crisis, we should see to it that there is no disruption in farming activities by ensuring proper marketing channels to agricultural produce, especially perishables.

Only then we can sustain our long battle against this pandemic," Gowda said in a tweet.

Bengaluru, Jul 9: The State Education Minister of Karnataka clarifies that 2nd PUC result 2020 to be declared around July 20. The Minister’s tweet signals that Karnataka Second Pre- University examinations result is not releasing today, and likely to be declared around July 20, 2020.

Taking on his tweeter account Karnataka Education Minister S Suresh Kumar on Thursday informed that the 2nd PUC results (Class 12th) would not be declared on Thursday, that is on July 9 and would be available around 20th July. Earlier students presuming the result on Thursday had been started asking Education Minister whether Karnataka 2nd PUC Results would be announced today or not.

Addressing the students quarries, on Thursday Education Minister S Suresh Kumar took to his tweeter account and tweeted, “2nd PUC results are not announcing today, the results would be released around July 20, 2020”, or the second last week of July. Education Minister took to his twitter account to console the students, he tweeted “Many students are calling me to know whether Second PUC results will be announced Today. I once again inform all that Second PUC results will come out around 20th July.

Many students are calling me to know whether Second PUC results will be announced Today.

I once again inform all that Second PUC results will come out around 20th July.

— S.Suresh Kumar, Minister - Govt of Karnataka (@nimmasuresh) July 9, 2020

Earlier, the education minister informed that Karnataka Secondary School Leaving Certificate Exam, SSLC Results 2020 would release most likely by August first week and Second Pre-University (2nd PUC) Results 2020 would be declared by last week of July.

Karnataka earlier decided to hold the Board exams in spite of the opposition faced due to health risks over Corona Virus. The remaining SSLC & 2nd PUC examinations in Karnataka took place with the strict precautionary measures. The Education Minister himself carried out the inspection of many exam centres during the exams, a report said.

Evaluating the answer copies of exams, now results are to be declared in the month of July and August 2020. To get the result updates students are advised to keep visiting the official website of Department of Pre-University Education, Karnataka.