Young cop shoots himself dead with rifle

Mangaluru, May 8: After continuous pressure on Union government from Karnataka NRI Forum- UAE, the first special flight carrying 180 Kannadigas who stranded at UAE due to Covid-19 pandemic will fly from Dubai to Mangaluru on May 14.

The special flight will take off from Dubai at 4.10 p.m. UAE time to reach Mangaluru at 9.10 pm IST on May 14. Earlier it was reported that the flight will operate on May 12. However, sources of Mangaluru International Airport and Air India today confirmed that first flight will be on May 14.

The state government has directed Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts authority to quarantine all passengers once they reach.  

All Kannadigas will be given permission to travel back home only after they test negative in Covid test at Dubai airport.

In fact, Karnataka was missing in the list of states to receive special flights when Ministry of External Affairs arranged them to bring stranded Indians at UAE. Special flights were arranged only to Kerala and Tamil Nadu people stranded at UAE in the first stage.

Thanks to Karnataka NRI Forum of UAE which opened helpline (https://uaekannadahelpline.club) to seek assistance to Kannadigas, nearly 2000 Kannadigas have registered for assistance in which 127 pregnant women, 27 senior citizens, 700 people who have lost jobs aftermath of coronavirus sought assistance from NRI forum.

After providing food and shelter to Kannadigas who lost jobs at UAE since March 2020, NRI forum put pressure on both state and Centre to arrange special flights to send them to home. 

The NRI Forum has approached Indian Consulate at UAE and chief minister BS Yediyurappa to evacuate Kannadigas, but got no response. Following this, Karnataka NRI Forum President Praveen Shetty approached Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers DV Sadananda Gowda for help. Gowda immediately responded the call and he spoke to MEE to arrange special flight for Kannadigas as well.

Indian government has promised to arrange special flight to Mangaluru or Bengaluru by next week to bring Kannadigas.

Comparing to other Indian States, Karnataka has the highest number of its people working in UAE. Around 1.25 lakhs Kannadigas are working in UAE in which majority are working classes. Due to Covid-19 pandemic thousands of workers have lost jobs, Mr. Shetty explained.

"Indian government had arranged special flights from US, UK, Singapur and other countries to bring back Indians, but excluded UAE in the list. Actually, lakhs of Indians are working in UAE as labourers and in odd jobs, the government should have given first priority to bring labourers rather rich one", he opined.

"BJP has 27 MPs from Karnataka. We continuously requested all BJP MPs and state government but none of them came to our help. Thanks to Mr Gowda for his timely intervention to bring stranded Kannadigas", Mr Shetty said. 

Mangaluru, Feb 19: The Plenary Assembly of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) of the Latin Church elected Bishop Peter Paul Saldanha, Bishop of Mangalore, Karnataka, as the new Chairman of the CCBI Commission for Liturgy.

The Conference also elected 26 Bishops of the CCBI to participate in the three-week Golden Jubilee Conference of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) to be held in November 2020 at Bangkok in Thailand. The one day meeting of the CCBI discussed various matters affecting the Latin Catholic Church in India, which consists of 132 dioceses and 190 Bishops.

The CCBI animates the Church in India through its 16 Commissions and 4 Departments. Its main Secretariat is in Bangalore with extensions in Goa, Delhi and Pachmarhi (MP).

The Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI) which is the Canonical National Episcopal Conference is the largest in Asia and the fourth largest in the world.

Belagavi,  Jul 19: In a heart-wrenching incident, a woman used a pushcart to take the body of her dead husband to the crematorium after she allegedly did not receive any help from relatives who suspected him to have died of Covid.

The woman and her son were seen pushing the body in the Athani thaluk of Belagavi.

The man had died two days ago at his residence and no family member apart from the close members attended the last rites due to the fear that he was COVID-19 positive.

It was later found that the deceased person was COVID-19 negative.

A total of 3,693 new COVID-19 positive cases and 115 deaths were reported in Karnataka on Friday, said the state health department.

The total number of COVID-19 cases in the state is presently at 55,115, including 33,205 active cases. While there are 20,757 recoveries, the death toll stands at 1,147.