SDPI activist murder: UTK demands probe into links between accused and Kalladka Bhat

Mangaluru, June 11: The private flight chartered by Saudi Arabia's SAQCO Contracting Company to repatriate coastal Kannadigas stranded in the kingdom landed at Mangaluru International Airport at 1:15 am on Wednesday.

The flight with 175 passengers took off from the Dammam International Airport around 6 pm (KSA time).

SAQCO’s Directors Althaf Ullal and Basheer Sagar said that all the legal procedures were carried out smoothly before the flight took off from Dammam for Mangaluru.

The duo also informed that no staff or official of SAQCO were traveling on the chartered flight and that it was arranged only for the stranded Kannadigas. The cost of traveling, institutional quarantine, and COVID-19 tests will be borne by the SAQCO Company.

SAQCO had established a desk to finalize the list of passengers who will be traveling on the flight to Mangaluru on Wednesday. The company added priority was given to pregnant women, the senior citizens who had come to the kingdom on visit visas, people with medical emergencies, people who had lost jobs, and those who had reported deaths in their families.

Bengaluru, Mar 23: The Karnataka government on Monday decided to purchase 1,000 ventilators from medical devices company Skanray Technologies and five lakh Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), amid rising COVID-19 cases.

Health Minister B Sriramulu convened a meeting with officials to review the situation in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, and with the Mysuru-based firm through a video conference.

"In the meeting, it was decided to buy 1,000 ventilators immediately", the Minister tweeted.

He said the government has already taken steps to buy ten lakh masks, and decided to purchase five lakh PPE.

"The Health Department has been working on a war- footing to halt the spread of the (COVID-19) infections", Sriramulu tweeted.

The Minister appealed to the citizens to strictly follow social distancing.

Six new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Karnataka on Sunday, taking the total number of infections to the respiratory disease to 26 -- the highest number of positive cases in a single day in the State.

The Karnataka government has announced shutdown of all commercial activities barring essential services in nine districts, where COVID-19 cases have been reported, till March 31.

They are: Bengaluru city, Bengaluru Rural, Mangaluru, Mysuru, Kalaburagi, Dharwad, Chikkaballapura, Kodagu and Belagavi, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.

Bengaluru, Jan 9: Some BJP workers created a ruckus on Wednesday at a college here while seeking support for the amended Citizenship Act by raising slogans like 'Go back to Pakistan' outside the campus on Wednesday, as girl students opposed a pro-CAA banner on the wall of their institution.

A video of the incident went viral on social media.

A group of BJP workers, supporters of local party leader M M Govindaraj, had put up a poster "India Supports CAA" on the wall of Jyothi Nivas College near Koramangala.

This was opposed by girl students, who said they would not allow any such poster to be put up on the college property.

The BJP workers then tried to shout down the students.

"You are not concerned about citizenship, you are concerned about yourself. You should be concerned about India first. You are not an Indian then," a BJP worker is heard screaming at the girls in the video.

They also questioned the students if they had valid reasons to oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act and sought to know whether they wanted an argument or a debate.

The BJP workers purportedly told the girls that they were only the students of the college and not the owner.

"What's your problem madam with the CAA? Are you the owner of the college?" they asked.

Amid the heated argument, the BJP workers resorted to sloganeering like 'We want CAA' and "Go back to Pakistan', as seen in another video shot by the students.

BTM Layout Congress MLA Ramalinga Reddy visited the college on Thursday after learning about the incident and spoke to its management.

Later, he told reporters that the campus should not be allowed for any political activities.

"Any signature campaign whether in favor or against it (CAA) should be done outside the campus," Reddy said.

He cautioned the pro-CAA protesters he will not let any violent incidents like the one at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi happen at the city college.

Reddy's daughter Sowmya Reddy, who is the Jayanagar MLA, tweeted, "A few videos & photos of outside #JyotiNivascollege are being circulated on social media."

"MLA Ramalinga Reddy & I have spoken to cops and the Prinicipal about this incident. Spoke to DCP South East Bengaluru and she said that Koramangala cops went there immediately & they are picketing even now," she added.