Udupi: Girl child found murdered a day after she was allegedly kidnapped

Mangaluru, May 15: The second evacuation flight from Dubai to Mangaluru is expected to bring nearly 180 stranded UAE Kannadigas on May 18.

Air India Express B737-800NG aircraft will take off from terminal 2 of Dubai International Airport at 1.30 pm UAE time and land in Mangaluru International Airport at 6.30 pm local time, sources said.

Mangaluru Airport had witnessed chaos when the first repatriation flight arrived on May 12. Now many passengers of the first flight tested positive for the covid-19.

Mangaluru, May 26: In the wake of mounting case of covid-19 in the coastal Karnataka, the police department has decided to sanitise the police stations in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.

The superintendents of police in both the districts have been instructed to take necessary steps for sanitisation of stations in a phased manner, according to Devajyoti Ray, inspector-general of police (Western Range).

Meanwhile, the top cops of Uttara Kannada and Chikkamagaluru that forms part of the Western Range have been asked to take a call on doing so. “Hebri police station in Udupi was sanitised as part of this process and not because of any positive case emerging from staff there,” he said.

Allaying fears over stations being sealed down over positive case among station staff, Karnataka police chief Praveen Sood said this is a temporary measure and stations do not become non-functional.

“It is just that, for a mandated period police station will function from different premise when the station is being sanitised,” he said.

Noting that policemen are quarantined as precautionary measure, he said additional staff can be drafted from other stations or districts if need for it arises.

Bengaluru, Jun 18: Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah has accused the BJP-led government of not passing the benefit of the low price of crude to the common man and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take steps to bring down prices of petroleum products.

Hitting out at the BJP-led government, he termed it as "opportunistic" and said the price of petroleum products were being increased when people were facing difficulties due to COVID-19.

"It is very disheartening to witness and unprecedented opportunistic government which is trying to extract every pound and flesh from the common man, that too when the whole country is suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic. This is in the backdrop of the continuous price hike in the last 10 days," said the letter was written on Wednesday.

The Congress leader said that the policy decisions taken by the government "with respect to managing fuel sources are inconsistent with the prudent measures generally adopted".

"When the price of crude oil was remarkably low in March, April and May 2020, your government was very reluctant to pass on the benefits to the people by reducing the fuel prices proportionately, but, instead, your government continued to capitalise by increasing the excise duty," he said.

He said the government had also "failed" in the last six years to increase the oil storage capacity which could have been used for the country's advantage when the international crude oil price fell really low.

He said the government should roll back the excise duty and help in the reduction of fuel prices.

"The reduced burden will help the common man to have additional money in hand that will be spent on essential goods and services which will ultimately help them tide over these difficult times," he said.