‘Udupi Helpline’ to transport excess food from wedding halls to the needy

Bengaluru, Jul 23: The Siddi community in Karnataka got its first lawmaker as Governor Vajubhai Vala nominated five persons, including Shantharama Budna Siddi, to the Karnataka Legislative Council on Wednesday.

Shantharama Siddi had been working as a social worker and was a post holder at the Vanavasi Kalyan Prakalpa, a tribal welfare initiative of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The Siddis, an ethnic group in India, are said to have descended from the people of the East African region. They are included in the list of Scheduled Tribes (ST) in Karnataka.

Apart from the Shantharama, the inclusion of CP Yogishwar, who had left Congress to join BJP in 2017 but failed to retain his seat in the 2018 Assembly polls, is also considered as a big decision.

Adagur H Vishwanath, another former JDS leader, who had quit his party and joined BJP but failed to retain his seat has also caught the attention of the people.

Further, Governor Vala has nominated Talwar Sabanna and Bharathi Shetty to the Upper House in the state.

Bengaluru, Feb 14: Raja and Rani got married on Valentine's Day at Cubbon Park here.

The bride and the groom were decked up in bridal finery were heralded with traditional wedding music with nadaswaram and thavil (percussion) . The catch was that the married couple were horses.

Pro-Kannada activist and Kannada Vatal Party chairman Vatal Nagaraj performed the marriage ceremony of the two horses.

Nagaraj gave a dhoti and shirt to Raja (male horse) and a saree along with a taali (mangal sutra) to Rani (female horse).

Nagaraj has been conducting such ceremonies in the past too. Last year he had married off two sheep- Jacob and Carolyn in a similar ceremony.

The activist says he is all for love and urged anti-Valentine's Day supporters not to oppose lovers and their Valentine's Day celebration.

He also urged the Central government and the Karnataka state governments to give Rs 1 lakh and RS 50,000 respectively to the "lovers to support their love" by helping them get married.

Meanwhile, sweets were distributed to all the guests who had participated in the Valentine's Day marriage ceremony today.

Mangaluru, May 12: The first repatriation flight to Mangaluru from Dubai with nearly 180 passengers landed at the international airport here. 

The total passengers, including 88 men, 84 women, five children and two infants arrived by the Air India Express flight IX 384 late Tuesday night, airport sources said.

There were 12 medical emergency cases and 38 pregnant women among them, they said. The district administration had made arrangements for receiving the passengers, who were provided with sanitizers and masks. They were advised to maintain social distancing as per the health protocol.

All the foreign returnees were screened as per the standard operating procedure to ensure that they were asymptomatic.

The passengers were taken to their chosen place of accommodation in KSRTC buses. They will be undergoing a 14-day quarantine in the places, which will be monitored by doctors assigned by the health department. More than 17 hotels and 12 hostels have been arranged for the accommodation of the returnees.

Passengers were also asked to download the mandatory 'Aroygya Sethu' app for contact tracing. Rahul Shinde IAS who is in charge of arranging quarantine facilities, airport director V V Rao and district health officer Ramachandra Bairy were present at the airport.