Upalokayukta unearths Rs 22-cr fodder scam in Tumakuru goshalas

Bengaluru, Jul 10: Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Thursday condemned the decision of the HRD Ministry to drop chapters on citizenship, secularism and federalism from Class 11 political science syllabus, stating that this will "deprive a generation of students from understanding the important pillars of Indian democracy".

"I strongly condemn the decision of @HRDMinistry to drop chapters on citizenship, secularism and federalism. This will deprive a generation of students from understanding the important pillars of Indian democracy. #Stop Saffronisation Of Education," Siddaramaiah tweeted.

The Congress leader further alleged that BJP does not believe in the principles of citizenship, secularism and federalism.

"Chapters on citizenship, secularism and federalism are dropped from Class 11 Pol Science. syllabus. Does this explain something? Yes, it explains that @BJP4India doesn't believe in these principles and validates its past behaviour," he said in another tweet.

Earlier in the day, Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank rejected criticism over alleged conspiracy in CBSE's decision to reduce the syllabus of schools due to COVID-19 outbreak and urged the critics to "leave politics out of education".

"There has been a lot of uninformed commentary on the exclusion of some topics from #CBSESyllabus. The problem with these comments is that they resort to sensationalism by connecting topics selectively to portray a false narrative," the Union Minister tweeted.

"It is our humble request:#Education is our sacred duty towards our children. Let us leave politics out of education and make our politics more educated," he added.

The CBSE has revised the syllabus for the classes IX to XII during the academic session 2020-21 in the wake of the situation created by COVID-19.

In a circular issued to all the heads of the institutions affiliated to it, the CBSE had said that the revision of syllabi has been done due to the extraordinary situation prevailing in the country and different parts of the world.

Bengaluru, Apr 8: The Karnataka government is in favour of lifting the coronavirus lockdown in districts which remained free of the virus infection, subject to approval from the Centre, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said on Wednesday.

In an interview to, he also said the state intended to relax liquor sales, stopped since the 21-day lockdown was imposed to contain the spread of COVID-19, after April 14 in a bid to increase state revenues.

The chief minister said the state's legislators would take a 30 per cent salary cut.

According to officials, there were no COVID-19 cases in 12 districts of the total 30 districts in the state.

As on Wednesday, there were 181 COVID-19 cases in the state, including 5 deaths and 28 discharges.

"If the Prime Minister suggests to states to take decision (on lock-down) based on the situation in their respective states, my position is to take a call (on roll-back) in districts free from COVID-19", Yediyurappa said.

This is to allow people to go about their business and move about within the district and not from one district to another, after April 14, after taking the approval of the Prime Minister, he said.

Mangaluru, May 6: Amidst preparation for the paid evacuation of Indians stuck in Gulf countries amidst coronavirus lockdown, the central government has announced that it would only do a medical screening of the passengers before the flight and only asymptomatic persons would be allowed to travel.

Each passenger will have to fill a self-reporting form to be presented at the health and immigration counter at their destination.

The passengers are required to state whether they are suffering from fever, cough, diabetes or any respiratory disease. This form is similar to the one filled by passengers landing in India during the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak.

As per the announcement by the government, returnees would undergo COVID-19 once they complete 14-day quarantine in a hospital or government –arranged institution on a payment basis.

However, the form asks the applicants to keep themselves isolated at home for 28 days unless they develop any symptoms such as fever and cough.

During the journey, they will have to follow the protocols such as those issued by the Health Ministry and the Civil Aviation Ministry. Applicants from the UAE are yet to receive instructions on these.

On reaching the destination, passengers will have to register on the Arogya Setu app, India’s mobile application for COVID-19 surveillance.

No physical distancing!

Air India Express (AIE) which is set to operate the first two flights to Kerala on Thursday will operate its Boeing 737-800 flights, with a seating capacity of 186 economy class seats.

With nine seats reserved for isolation, only 177 passengers would be flown, sources said.

While most of the UAE flights in the first week will be operated by the AIE, Air India will operate two of its Dreamliner aircraft with a seating capacity of 256 seats. These flights would also reserve some seats for isolation.

However, the plan has made it clear that the Indian government will not be following the rules of physical distancing to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the repatriation flights.

Several people, including the Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan, expressed concern over flying passengers, who will not be tested for COVID-19, without observing physical distancing.