Retired IAS officer, NASA scientist, aeronautical engineer among AAP candidates for Karnataka polls

coastaldigest.com news network
December 22, 2017

Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party which had contested from Karnataka in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and lost deposits, is reportedly planning to field a few highly qualified candidates in 2018 Karnataka legislative assembly.

According to sources, the party is keen on breaking ice in all 28 Assembly segments in Bengaluru. This is where the party plans to field former NASA scientist and urbanist Ashwin Mahesh, who had unsuccessfully contested from Bommanahalli as a Loksatta candidate. While BJP's Satish Reddy won with over 86,000 votes, Mahesh finished third with about 11,900 votes.

Santosh Nargund (41), an aeronautical engineer and alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru, will be the AAP candidate taking on BJP leader and former chief minister Jagadish Shettar from the Hubli-Dharwad (central) constituency. This will be his maiden electoral plunge.

"I decided to contest as an independent candidate, but AAP reached out to me and gave me a platform," said Nargund, who worked on the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, during his stint at the Aeronautical Development Agency.

 "Two years ago, I resigned from my professional job and went back to Hubballi-Dharwad, which is my native. Shettar has been the MLA there for the past 28 years, and there's only dust and bad governance. I hope to change this," he said.

1971-batch IAS officer Renuka Viswanathan, who worked in the Planning Commission and Finance Ministry before her retirement in 2008, is also on the AAP's list of candidates.

The party plans to field corporate leader Lingaraj Urs to take on Congress’ B A Basavaraj (Byrathi) in the KR Puram constituency. In fact, Urs became a gram panchayat member in 2015, after he won from ward 4 of the Kannamangala village in the Whitefield area. AAP Karnataka incharge Pankaj Gupta said the party had received "a huge response" in at least 20 districts.

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News Network
January 12,2020

 Bengaluru, Jan 12: Two pilgrims from Bengaluru, who were siblings, drowned in sea off Auro Beach in Puducherry today.

The deceased have been identified as V Gauthman, 22, and his brother Vivek, 20.

Gauthman and Vivek were among a group of around 150 devotees from Bengaluru to the Adhiparasakhi temple at Melmaruvathur in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu. They started their journey from Bengaluru in three buses on Friday.

After offering special puja at Adhiparasakthi temple and worshipping at a few other temples, they reached Auro Beach on Sunday afternoon. 

While they were having lunch on the beach, Gauthman entered the sea. He was caught in a huge wave.

Vivek, who tried to rescue his brother, too was caught in the wave.

Other pilgrims and fishermen began to search for them in fishing boats.

After an hour, their bodies were washed ashore, around two km from the spot.

The Auroville police retrieved the bodies and sent them for postmortem.

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News Network
March 11,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 11: Jyotiraditya Scindia has not betrayed the Congress, but he has been betrayed by the Congress and Kamal Nath, said on Wednesday Madhya Pradesh Congress MLAs who are camping here after tendering the resignations.

"It is not Jyotraditya Scindia who has betrayed. Instead, he has been betrayed by the Congress and Kamal Nath. Despite the fact that it was his hard work that enabled Congress to form the government in MP after 15 years, yet he was being sidelined. His people were sidelined," Mahendra Singh Sisodia was heard saying in a video.

Taking a veiled jibe at Chief Minister Nath, Sisodia said: "On one hand, you claim that treasury is empty and on the other, works worth Rs 12,000 crore is done in Chhindwara constituency. Are the rest of MLAs and ministers just killing time?"

He also warned other Congress MLAs that the party would be decimated in the state in the future.

"Did not the Congress trick people in MP? What happened to the farm loan waiver announced? When we go to our region, people ask us what happened to loan-waiver.
What happened to curb corruption, Vyapam? Whichever party Scindia joins, we will go with him," he said.

Former MP Minister Imarti Devi said that all 22 MLAs are in Bengaluru out of their own choice.

"All 22 MLAs are here (in Bengaluru) on their own will. We are happy Scindiaji has taken this decision. I will always stay with him even if I had to jump in a well. Kamal Nathji never heard us," she said.

Another leader dismissed talks of being in touch with anyone and said that they are happy with the decision of Scindia, who joined the BJP earlier today. He had resigned from the Congress on Tuesday.

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coastaldigest.com web desk
May 12,2020

Mangaluru, May 12: The first repatriation flight to Mangaluru from Dubai with nearly 180 passengers landed at the international airport here. 

The total passengers, including 88 men, 84 women, five children and two infants arrived by the Air India Express flight IX 384 late Tuesday night, airport sources said.

There were 12 medical emergency cases and 38 pregnant women among them, they said. The district administration had made arrangements for receiving the passengers, who were provided with sanitizers and masks. They were advised to maintain social distancing as per the health protocol.

All the foreign returnees were screened as per the standard operating procedure to ensure that they were asymptomatic.

The passengers were taken to their chosen place of accommodation in KSRTC buses. They will be undergoing a 14-day quarantine in the places, which will be monitored by doctors assigned by the health department. More than 17 hotels and 12 hostels have been arranged for the accommodation of the returnees.

Passengers were also asked to download the mandatory 'Aroygya Sethu' app for contact tracing. Rahul Shinde IAS who is in charge of arranging quarantine facilities, airport director V V Rao and district health officer Ramachandra Bairy were present at the airport.

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