Woman crushed to death by bus in front of husband, kids

Mangaluru, June 14: Private schools under the aegis of Association of English Medium Schools in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi urged the State government to reimburse the arrears of the fee related to admission of students under the Right to Education (RTE) Act.

Speaking to newsmen here on Sunday association president Y. Mohammed Beary said the State government has not cleared the arrears for the last two years. “The 400 private schools in two districts have to get around Rs 2 crore,” he said and added that the overall arrears that the government has to pay to schools in the State are around Rs1,200 crore.

Mr. Beary said arrears have made the school managements like his, who collect annual fees of about Rs 20,000 from a student, hard to function. Due to lockdown from March the schools could not conduct annual examinations and hence they could not collect pending fees from parents.

Bengaluru, Jul 2: As many as 3,363 students from Covid-19 containment zones have appeared for SSLC examinations in different parts of Karnataka till yesterday. On the first day of exam, i.e., on June 25, only 998 students these zones had written the exam.

In the past few days the number of containment zones has increased across the state in general and Bengaluru in particular. In all, 32 students could not appear for the exam as they turned positive.

While on June 25, the number of students who were found unwell during the check up at exam centre was 201, it was 613 on Wednesday. Students who are sick and those from the containment zones take the exam in a different room.

The social science exam on Wednesday saw an attendance percentage of 97.96 (7.68 lakh). This was against 98.78% last year. There were 7.45 lakh fresh candidates, 20,000 private candidates and 593 from outside the state.

Five students in Yadgir district were given question papers based on the old syllabus for maths exam on June 27. Their answerscripts will be evaluated separately and action will be taken against the officials.

Malpractices assisted by schools by switching off CCTV cameras were reported in Ballari and Koppal. “We’ve completed all the core subjects. Now only languages are left. We’ll complete them too in a safe environment,” said S Suresh Kumar, primary and secondary education minister.

New Delhi, Mar 30: A Muslim woman from Jammu and Kashmir has donated her savings of Rs 5 lakh, meant for the Hajj pilgrimage, to the RSS-affiliated 'Sewa Bharati' after apparently being "impressed with the welfare work" done by the outfit amid the lockdown due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Khalida Begum, 87, who saved Rs 5 lakh for Hajj, was forced to defer her plans for the pilgrimage due to the lockdown.

Hajj is the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the holiest city of Muslims.

"Khalida Begum ji was impressed with the welfare work done by the Sewa Bharati in Jammu and Kashmir during the tough time the country is passing through due to sudden outbreak of COVID-19 and decided to donate Rs 5 lakh to the organisation," Arun Anand, head of RSS media wing Indraprastha Vishwa Samvad Kendra (IVSK), said.

The woman wants that this money should be used by the community service organisation Sewa Bharati for the poor and the needy in Jammu and Kashmir. She had saved this amount for performing Hajj, plans for which she deferred due to the present situation, Anand said.

"Khalida Begum ji was among the first few women in Jammu and Kashmir who got educated in a convent. She is the daughter-in-law of Colonel Peer Mohd Khan, who was president of the Jana Sangh," he said.

Jana Sangh was also an associate of RSS and later became the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Anand said despite her age, she had been very active in welfare works for the women and the downtrodden in Jammu and Kashmir. Her son, Farooq Khan, a retired IPS officer, is presently serving as an adviser to the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor.

Meanwhile, since the lockdown was announced, Sewa Bharati volunteers across the country have been providing food and other essential items to the needy. The Sangh-affiliate's volunteers were seen on Saturday managing crowd and providing food to them at the Anand Vihar bus terminal in Delhi.