According to this BJP leader, eating flattened rice could mean you are Bangladeshi

Bengaluru, Mar 11: Amid the prevailing political uncertainty in Madhya Pradesh with Jyotiraditya Scindia's exit, Congress leader DK Shivakumar on Wednesday asserted that "leaders may come and go but no one can destroy Congress."

"No one can destroy Congress. Leaders may come, leaders may go, that doesn't make any difference," said Shivakumar while speaking to news agency on the current political scenario for Congress in Madhya Pradesh.

Speaking about the Madhya Pradesh Congress MLAs, who are lodged in Bengaluru, he said: "All the Madhya Pradesh MLAs who are here do not want to lose their membership. I am sure they will understand, go back and save the government."

On Tuesday, Congress sent two of its leaders -- Sajjan Singh Verma and Govind Singh -- to Bengaluru in order to pacify some of the rebel MLAs who are lodged in a hotel there and who claimed to have resigned from the state Legislative Assembly.

After meeting with 19 party MLAs who have tendered their resignations, Congress leader Sajjan Singh Verma on Wednesday said they are neither willing to support Jyotiraditya Scindia nor in favour of joining BJP as they were "misled and taken to Bengaluru" in Karnataka.

"Nobody is ready to go with Scindia ji. They said they were misled and taken to Bengaluru, most of them said they are not ready to join BJP," Verma told ANI on being asked about the 19 MLAs.

"I just came from Bengaluru and now I am going to Jaipur. Besides 5-6 ministers and one MLA, we all are going to Jaipur. They (MLAs) have said they have the blood of Congress and they will remain in the party. Since Scindia was a senior party leader, all our MLAs followed his order as a courtesy," he said.

The Congress leader further claimed that BJP is using both "muscle and money power" to influence Congress MLAs.

He also claimed that he is strongly in contact with 7-8 BJP MLAs.

Most of the rebel MLAs are perceived close to Scindia and are apparently unhappy at Scindia being "ignored" in the party. The grand old party has been witnessing an internal turf war in Madhya Pradesh since the party formed the government in the state in 2018.

Scindia is likely to join BJP later today.

Bengaluru, May 30: People travelling to Bengaluru by flight or train must pay to get their Covid-19 tests done at designated private labs.

This is being done to improve the participation of private labs that have been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research to do testing. Many of these labs are running at sub-optimal levels.

The new rule will also help the special categories of passengers and their attendants to leave early for home quarantine after giving the sample once the swab collection centres are established at airports and railway stations. The nodal officers at these places will coordinate in establishing the swab collection centres.

Each test will cost Rs 650 per sample. XCyton Diagnostics will cater to air passengers. Rail passengers will be tested at Neuberg Anand Reference Laboratory, Cancyte Technologies Pvt Ltd, Aster Labs, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Vydehi Hospital and Syngene International Ltd.

Bengaluru, Jun 4: Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Siddaramaiah on Thursday said it was not appropriate to reopen schools for two more months, given the current rate at which coronavirus infection is spreading.

He also advised Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and Primary and Secondary Education Minister Suresh Kumar not to take any hasty decisions in this regard.

"As corona infection is spreading in the state beyond limits, it is not appropriate to open schools for at least two more months. Chief Minister and Suresh Kumar should not make any hasty decisions," Siddaramaiah tweeted.

Stating that Suresh Kumar has placed a proposal to reopen schools in July, he said the chief minister has to take note of worried parents opposing this proposal.

"There are reports about students getting infected by coronavirus after reopening of schools in countries like Britain, France and Italy. It is appropriate to think about reopening schools on analysing the situation after two months," he said in another tweet.

The state government has sought an opinion from parents and stakeholders regarding reopening of schools in the state, with the easing of the COVID-19 lockdown norms.

Amidst worries and concerns expressed by parents across the state, the Education Minister on Wednesday had assured that the government would not take any hasty decisions regarding reopening of schools.

The Union government, in its recent guidelines, had asked state governments to hold consultation at school, college, training and coaching institutions-level with parents and other stakeholders, and based on the feedback, a decision on reopening them would be taken.