Three youngsters held for murder of rowdy sheeter Pavan Raj

Bengaluru, Apr 12: Former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy on Sunday appealed to the Central government to announce the rent rebate scheme for the benefit of tenants in the wake of economic activities coming to a grinding halt due to COVID-19 related lockdown.

In a series of tweets, Kumaraswamy said people are facing difficulty in paying rent as usual and hence the rent rebate scheme should be initiated.

"Many countries have already announced rent rebate scheme for tenants during COVID19 emergency. It is surprising that Indian Govt has not announced any such relief even to residential tenants. I urge the PM to immediately come to the rescue of everyone living in rented housing," Kumaraswamy tweeted.

He said a considerable workforce and students in metropolitan cities live in hostels and rented houses.

As all economic activity has come to a grinding halt, it is very difficult for them to pay the rent as usual.

The Prime Minister must announce rent rebate scheme, he added.

Highlighting the plight of the tenants, Kumaraswamy said, "If the landlords insist on rent, the tenants cannot even go searching for new accommodation due to the emergency. Hence the government intervention is essential. The PM must announce a comprehensive national rent rebate scheme for COVID-19 emergency."

New Delhi, Mar 21: The Indian Railways has cancelled all train services on Sunday in view of the Janata Curfew called by prime minister Narendra Modi. All mail and express trains will stop services from 4 am to 10 pm on Sunday while all suburban train services will be reduced to a bare minimum.

Around 1,300 long-distance, mail express services will also stand cancelled in light of the curfew to bat Covid-19. These long distance trains will remain cancelled between 4 am to 10 pm on Sunday.

All passenger trains originating between the midnight of Saturday-Sunday will not be run till 10 pm, Sunday, a railway ministry official said.

However, the passenger train services already on run at 7 am on the day will be allowed to run to the destinations, a railway ministry circular to zonal railways issued on Friday said.

The Indian Railways operates around 9,000 passenger trains and 3,500 mail express services each day.

“We have sent a directive to all zonal railways, and they will get back with the total number of train services affected, by Saturday afternoon,” an official ET spoke with, said.

In his address to the nation on Thursday, the Prime Minister called for a ‘janta curfew’ between 7 am to 9 pm on Sunday, in a social-distancing drive amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Passengers alighting at enroute stations from trains already on run, and desirous of staying at the station, may be accommodated in the waiting rooms at railway stations, without overcrowding them, the circular said.

The ministry has advised zonal railways to arrange for hassle-free refund to passengers affected because of cancelled trains, while regulating train services on Sunday.

Meanwhile, to contain the spread of Covid-19, all the food plazas, jan aahar stalls have been advised to be shut until further notice by IRCTC.

The on-board catering services in mail express trains are to be closed until further advice, while static units supplying meals to prepaid trains in operation, will continue to function.

Bengaluru, Feb 10: Senior Congress leader DK Shivakumar on Sunday hit out at the BJP and RSS for taking out a route march in Ramanagara against the controversial Jesus Christ statue.

“Just because the BJP won 25 seats in the Lok Sabha polls, Congress workers need not lose hope. If the Congress and JD(S) had worked out a better strategy, the BJP would not have won even 10 seats. We will correct our mistakes,” the former Congress minister said.

After the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP has failed to do well in assembly polls and has been losing power in many states. People are hitting the streets protesting against its policies such as CAA and NRC, he said.

Accusing the BJP and RSS of not being able to digest Congress’ victory in the Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha segment in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he said that the BJP is trying hard to make inroads into the constituency represented by his brother D K Suresh. “Let them take out route march, we don’t care,” he said.

“We all know what the BJP did during the Lok Sabha elections, and the media reported how much money they spent in the elections. What was the Election Commission doing? Was the Income Tax Department sitting with its eyes closed? Why did they conduct raids only in Hassan, Shivamogga and Mandya districts,” he asked.

He alleged that false cases were slapped when him and other leaders, including H D Kumaraswamy, Siddaramaiah, G Parameshwara and Dinesh Gundurao.