111-year-old Shivakumara Swamiji hospitalised

Bengaluru, Feb 4: The CBI has booked Karnataka cadre senior IPS officers Hemant Nimbalkar and Ajay Hilori along with eight others in connection with Rs 4,000-crore I-Monetary Advisory (IMA) scam in which gullible investors were allegedly cheated in the name of Islamic banking, officials said on Tuesday.

The move came after the CBI received an approval from the Karnataka government to proceed with investigation into alleged role of 1998-batch IPS officer Nimbalkar and 2008-batch IPS officer Hilori, they said.

Along with the two officers, the agency has also named the company IMA, its founder Mansoor Khan and others in the case.

The CBI had approached the state government seeking permission to proceed against the two officers who are in senior positions in the Karnataka Police and allegedly helped IMA founder Masoor Khan, they said.

Bengaluru, Apr. 10: Karnataka Congress leader DK Shivakumar on Thursday appealed to party workers to save the lives of people of the state and show solidarity with the people in need amid the coronavirus lockdown.

"Humble appeal to Congress party workers that the time has come to do our best to save the lives of people of Karnataka. Hospitals across Karnataka are running short of blood. This is a call for able-bodied to volunteer & donate blood. Let us show solidarity with people in need," Shivakumar tweeted.

With 16 fresh COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, the total number of confirmed cases in Karnataka reached 197 on Thursday, according to the state's Health Department.

India's total COVID-19 cases rose to 5,865 on Thursday, with 591 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Tumakuru, Jan 3: Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, who has drawn flak for the Centre releasing “inadequate” flood relief to the State, on Thursday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for additional relief during his speech at a farmers’ convention in Tumakuru.

The Chief Minister even said, “I have brought this to the notice of the Prime Minister three or four times, but till now no additional relief has been sanctioned. I request him with folded hands to release it soon,” in Kannada. The Prime Minister, who spoke later at the event, however, did not respond to the Chief Minister’s request in his speech.

Mr. Yediyurappa said the State had witnessed losses to the tune of over ₹30,000 crore because of floods.

‘Stress on irrigation’

Addressing farmers at one of his main support bases of Tumakuru, the Lingayat strongman advised the Prime Minister that his dream of doubling farmers’ income by 2023 could become a reality only if he focused on “providing scientific price to farm produce, bringing water to farms through irrigation, and by interlinking rivers”.

Mr. Yediyurappa’s remarks made at a programme to release the fourth instalment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Yojana, a farm subsidy cash transfer scheme of the Union government, have raised eyebrows.

Stressing on the key role of irrigation schemes in farmers’ welfare, he sought a special package of ₹50,000 crore for completion of long-pending projects in Karnataka.

The five-minute-long speech is being seen as an attempt by the Chief Minister to assert himself within the party by publicly putting even the Prime Minister on the mat. This comes in the wake of the BJP suffering defeats in multiple States and the party’s victory in the recent bypolls in the State under Mr. Yediyurappa’s leadership, both of which have only strengthened the Chief Minister, sources in the party said. “We are curious as to how the party high command will now deal with this public assertion in front of the Prime Minister,” a senior party leader said.

The Chief Minister has been reportedly “deeply unhappy” over the delay in the flood relief by the Union government and also the “inadequate” amount released. The Opposition has attacked him over lack of adequate Central relief, which was interpreted as the BJP central leadership’s reported unhappiness with him. The Chief Minister had then said he was doing a “tightrope walk”.

After a delay of over two months, the Centre released ₹1,200 crore as flood relief in October 2019.