Suspension of IAS officer for licence renewal of Zakir Naik's NGO draws flak

Shivamogga, May 21: An FIR has been registered against Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi in Sagar taluk of Shivamogga district of Karnataka over tweets on May 11 by the party's official handle about PM-CARES fund.

The FIR, registered under Sections 153 (wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), identifies Gandhi as the handler of the social media account.

The complaint by advocate Praveen KV alleged that the Congress party, through the tweets, has made rumourous statements against the Government of India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi and was trying to provoke the people against the government.

According to the FIR, the Congress party had on May 11, 2020, made false and baseless allegations, claimed misappropriation of PM-CARES Fund and cast aspersions on the Government of India through the tweets.

"A Twitter account handled by All India Congress Committee headed by Sonia Gandhi had on May 11, 2020, published tweets terming PM CARES Fund as PM CARES Fraud. They had claimed that the PM CARES fund is not being used for the public," Praveen KV told ANI on Thursday.

He said that he has collected all the details related to the tweets and account from the handle and filed a complaint in the matter, following which a preliminary enquiry was conducted and an FIR was registered in the matter.

"They had also said that the Prime Minister was enjoying and going to foreign trips with this fund. This is clearly rumourous news against the Government of India in this COVID-19 pandemic situation. In this regard, I had filed a complaint. After a primary enquiry, the Sagar Police has filed an FIR against Sonia Gandhi, who heads the INC Twitter account," Praveen KV said.

Bengaluru, Mar 19: To better enforce social distancing and prevent further spread of Covid-19, the Karnataka health and family welfare department on Wednesday said it will "stamp the back of the palm" of international passengers advised to be on home quarantine, along with the date they are allowed to get out of home. The stamping process began at 12am Thursday.

Pankaj Kumar Pandey, commissioner, health and family welfare, said: "It is noted that a few passengers under home quarantine are not following the instructions. Therefore, it has been decided to stamp the back of the palm of their left hand with a specially designed stamp which will indicate the last day of quarantine."

He said the special stamp will use an indelible ink and "airports in Karnataka have been instructed to follow this without fail". On average, about 3,000 people are arriving in Bengaluru on international flights every day.

The department said social distancing is the only known method of combating the spread of Covid-19 and added, "International passengers are segregated as symptomatic and asymptomatic."

High-risk flyers kept at mass quarantine unit

The symptomatic passengers (Group-A) are taken to designated hospitals; asymptomatic ones, depending on the port of origin, are taken to the quarantine centre or permitted to go on home quarantine.

At the mass quarantine centre, the asymptomatic passengers are divided into moderate-risk (Group-B) and high-risk (Group-C) categories.

“The high-risk passengers are kept at a mass quarantine centre for medical observation. The moderate-risk passengers are being sent for home quarantine where they need to spend 14 days,” the statement added.

Pandey said: “International passengers changing flights within the country cannot be stopped. Ideally, they should be stamped at the first port of entry when they arrive from a foreign country which is not happening.” He said this issue will be brought to the notice of the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation.

Bengaluru, Jun 12: All the four candidates, including former prime minister H D Deve Gowda (JDS), and senior Congress leader Mallikarjna Kharge, on Friday were declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.

Karnataka Assembly Secretary sources here said that all the four candidates, who were in the fray for as many berths, were elected after the last date of withdrawal of candidature ended on Friday.