BJP candidate Tejasvi Surya gets court order to gag media

Bengaluru, Mar 3: Bengaluru mayor Gautam Kumar on Tuesday said that the decision to ban protests in front of Town Hall was made by the council and not only by him.

"The decision to ban the protest in front of the Town Hall was made by the entire council and not only my decision. Also, the things which are approved by the councillor are also read by the ruling party leaders," Bengaluru mayor told media.

"Still it is the discretion of the Commissioner to take a call after the council also. As of now, we have banned any protests in front of Town Hall," he added.

Meanwhile, Congress leaders staged a protest against Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Mayor Gautam Kumar and BJP at Council BBMP building against the decision.

"If people will start protesting, it will badly affect the traffic of the city," said Kumar, while commenting on the protest. If they want to talk about the matter, let us have a healthy discussion. I don't have a problem with and I don't think the ruling party has a problem too," he added.

On Sunday, pro-Kannada activist and former MLA Vatal Nagraj staged a protest in front of Sir KP Puttanna Chetty Town Hall (Bangalore Town Hall) against the decision taken by Bengaluru mayor.

Talking to reporters, Nagraj had said: "He does not know the history of the Town Hall. It is a historic building and protests can be staged there."

"Mayor's decision is against Bengaluru's tradition and culture, that's why we are condemning it and are protesting against this decision. We will not allow Mayor's programs in Bengaluru and he will be shown black flags", he added.

Bengaluru, Jul 24: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) commissioner on Thursday issued a public apology after "local staff" sealed the doors of two apartments with metal sheets in a building where a positive case of COVID-19 was reported in Dommalur.

Earlier on Thursday, BBMP sealed doors of two flats near Dommalur, in a building wherein a COVID-19 case was reported. A woman with two children, along with an elderly couple stayed in those flats. After the woman tweeted about the incident, BBMP officials removed steel sheets from doors.

Taking the matter into consideration, BBMP Commissioner N Manjunatha Prasad, took to Twitter to express an apology for "over-enthusiasm" of his officials.

He tweeted, "We are committed to address any issues that result in stigma. Apologies for the over enthusiasm of the local staff."

He also said the BBMP is committed to treating all citizens with dignity. "I have ensured removing of these barricades immediately. We are committed to treat all persons with dignity.

The purpose of containment is to protect the infected and to ensure uninfected are safe," he tweeted.

Bengaluru, Apr 14: The Congress in Karnataka on Tuesday welcomed the extention of the COVID-19 lockdown till May 3, though it flayed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for not announcing any programme to support the slowed down economy.

Reacting to the lockdown extension, Congress president D K Shivakumar said it was much needed to control the virus but expressed his displeasure for not offering any relief measure to uplift the economy which is witnessing slump.

"We had expectation that some package would be offered but that was not done. The manufacturing sector, service sector, agriculture sector and even the medical sector was looking for some relief but that was not the talking point of the Prime Minister," Shivakumar told reporters.

However, he maintained that the party would cooperate with the Centre in its fight against COVID-19.

Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah said he was "disappointed" that there was no programme announced to improve the economy, which is at the lowest level in 30 years.

"The economy has collapsed. Never ever in 30 years it had witnessed such a downfall. Industries are closing down.

Agriculture in bad shape. poeple have no money. Villages are in distress," the former chief minister said.

He opined that Modi should have make some announcement with regard to economic programmes and assistance to the weaker section.

"Labourers today are on the streets. Their programmes do not touch them. People had lots of expectations which are now meaningless," Siddaramaiah said.

However, he underlined that he does not oppose the lockdown and appealed to the people to support it wholeheartedly.