Sabarimala row: 4 RSS workers booked for hurling bombs at police station

Bengaluru, May 21: Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa today slammed Law Minister JC Madhuswamy for yelling at a woman farmer in Kolar, an incident that attracted widespread criticism. 

The incident happened on Wednesday when Madhuswamy, who is also the minor irrigation minister, was inspecting the Koramangala-Challaghatta (KC) Valley project, under which Bengaluru’s sewage is treated and pumped into lakes in Kolar. 

During his visit, farmer Nalini Gowda questioned Madhuswamy on the encroachment of the 1,022-acre S Agrahara lake. At one point, Madhuswamy lost his cool and yelled, “Aye! Shut your mouth, rascal,” and asked the police to take her away. Before this, Madhuswamy told her, “Make a request. I’m a very bad man. You can only air your grievance. Don’t command us.” 

A video of this exchange was aired by news channels. 

“What (Madhuswamy) said is not right. I have warned him. None can forgive such an explicit manner of talking with a woman. That, too, behaving like that being a minister doesn’t bode well. I will talk to that woman also and I’ll ensure this doesn’t happen again,” Yediyurappa told reporters.

The incident has come as a shot in the arm to the Opposition Congress, which is already attacking the Yediyurappa administration on the COVID-19 crisis. Condemning Madhuswamy’s behaviour, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah demanded an apology and asked Yediyurappa to sack him from the Cabinet. 

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D K Shivakumar said it was unbecoming of Madhuswamy to behave like that being a senior minister. “People will ask us questions and express their problems, naturally. What’s important is how we handle ourselves. Be it a woman or anyone, they come to us because we’re into public service. Calling them ‘rascal’ and things is not right. Maybe there was some irritation, but I agree with (Siddaramaiah) that he should be dropped from the Cabinet,” he said.

On his part, Madhuswamy said he felt intimidated. “If I have hurt the feelings of any woman, I will certainly apologise,” he said. “But citizens should realise, we go to their villages to ask about their problems. If they start abusing us publicly, how can we work? My secretary and I heard her for five minutes and then told her that we know our responsibility. We asked her to close the issue. She didn’t stop and I got tempted (sic),” the minister said.

Mangaluru, Feb 10: Sandeep Malani has been of lately winning back to back awards at various events and film festivals. Being an actor, he has won 3 Best Actor awards (2 for his gripping performance in the Kannada feature film, Mookavismitha, directed by Gurudutt Sreekanth and one award for his multi faceted performance in the short film, Nishyabda Nishi directed by his son Silver). These awards were honored at the Indian Cine Film Festival in Mumbai and Karunadu Kannada Rathna Award in Bengaluru.

He also won an award for his woman empowerment film, Sulige Sikkidaaga in Pune, while his musical documentary on Sridevi titled SrideviBaaz won him two awards at Pune and Kolhapur International film festivals. His other short film on transgender Mamta (Maternal Love) won the Audience Awards in USA.

Very recently he was honored by the Filmaholic Foundation in Bengaluru for being a successful short film maker with two Kannada films Jo Jo Laali and Sulige Sikkidaaga, both featuring award winning actress Kalpana Pandit, winning multiple awards and making news at International Film Festivals. This honor was given at the Karnataka Youth International Short Film Festival.

With donning so many feathers of awards in his hat, he recently bagged the most prestigious one; that being receiving the Award for Best Feature Film shot on Mobile for his film ‘Maa – Yeh CineMaa Hai’ shot on iPhone at the 1st ever IMFF India (International Mobile Film Festival India 2020) held at World Trade Center, Mumbai on 8th February.

With a whole lot short films in the category and barely few feature films in the Feature Film Category, Malani verged out to be the winner as his Hindi film was a complete family entertainer that of 5 songs, sentiment value, and a wholesome entertainer with 100 artists working in the film that consists of stage and television actors, newcomers, models and common people. The film starred Sandeep’s family members playing important roles. His mother, Meena Malani (playing the title role), wife Reshma Malani (playing one of the lead actress) and son Silver Malani (playing an important character). The cast includes Mahesh Dulam, Anita Dulam, Ranjeet Jha, Bharath Lakshmikanth, Mahendra Pandey, Vishal Digani, Akash Hora, Shuba Raksha, Sanjukta Ghosh, Sharanya Kaur, Varsha Acharya, Kkewal Sharma, Anant Joshi, Vivek Punjabi, Valerian Menezes, Nigel Pereira. Veteran actresses Sarojini Shetty, Deepali Khambadkone, Vinny Fernandes also features in the film while Kalpana Pandit, Sudha Chandran, Sonal Monteiro, Adaa Khan and others give a social message on mother, womanhood and empowerment.  The film has been jointly produced by RKJ Film Productions, The Studio Agency and Malani Talkies.

Bengaluru, May 27: Aimed at giving a boost to affordable housing, the Karnataka government on Tuesday decided to slash the stamp duty on new apartments costing up to ₹35 lakh.

The decision was taken during a meeting chaired by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa to review the progress of the Stamps & Registration department.

The Chief Minister directed that the stamp duty be cut from the existing five per cent to two per cent on apartments costing less than ₹20 lakh, getting registered for the first time, his office said in a statement.

Further, the stamp duty on apartments costing between ₹21 lakh - ₹35 lakh will be down from five per cent to three per cent, it said. It is estimated that in 2020-21 due to COVID-19 induced lockdown, Stamps and Registration department might fall short of its revenue target by ₹3,524 crore. The revenue target for 2020-21 is ₹12,655 crore.