BS Yediyurappa may drop some Lingayat ministers for caste balance

News Network
December 28, 2019

Bengaluru, Dec 28: Chief minister BS Yediyurappa is reportedly looking to rebalance caste equations in his cabinet by dropping some ministers, mostly from the Lingayat community, and bringing in new ones. The changes will be made when he expands his cabinet in January.

The move will help him give proportionate representation to different castes and regions, and also accommodate Congress-JD(S) turncoats who contested the recent bypolls on BJP tickets and won. The latter must be rewarded as they essentially paved the way for BJP to form the government.

There’s no official word on who may be asked to vacate cabinet spots, but some senior BJP functionaries said the names of deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi, home minister Basavaraj Bommai, mines & geology minister CC Patil and women & child welfare minister Shashikala Jolle were being discussed.

Yediyurappa is reportedly also persuading the party bosses in Delhi to consider industries minister and former CM Jagadish Shettar for the governor’s role. About 12 states, including Karnataka, are due to get new governors.

Yediyurappa’s cabinet currently has 18 members. The sanctioned strength, including the chief minister, is 34. There is a crowded field of those looking to get in. These include the newly elected legislators. Disqualified MLA R Shankar is also eyeing a place, though he lost in the byelections.

With eight ministers, Lingayats are well represented in the cabinet. There are concerns that the community might get outsized representation if more members are inducted. If hopefuls Srimanth Patil, Mahesh Kumathalli, BC Patil and Umesh Katti are sworn in, the number will rise to 12. The BJP functionaries said Yediyurappa was seriously considering dropping at least two existing Lingayat ministers to make room for others.

“This possibility [12 Lingayat ministers] will create a caste imbalance and upset ministerial aspirants. Then there’s the issue of regions. Belagavi will have six ministers if Katti is inducted and Haveri will have three if Shankar is inducted without dropping anybody,” a senior BJP politician said. “The only way to ensure balance is to drop a few ministers.”

Jolle might get to stay on as she is the only female in the cabinet. Savadi, too, could escape unscathed as he is the party high command’s pick. There are some differences: CM wants to induct 11 new MLAs and Shankar, but the party wants to accommodate eight new legislators and give other spots to BJP loyalists.

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News Network
May 11,2020

Mangaluru, May 11: Hundreds of migrant labourers today gathered at a service bus stand in Mangaluru to return to Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.

They were working in different parts of Dakshina Kannada and remained stranded without a job after the announcement of lockdown.

Labourers said that they have not registered with Seva Sindhu portal to avail pass for travelling outside the state.

Though all the people who gathered wore a mask, the physical distancing norm was not followed.

Already three Shramik trains from Mangaluru had left for Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar with nearly 3,500 stranded labourers in the last two days.

The gathered labourers are anticipating that they would be allowed to travel to their destinations in the Shramik trains that will leave in the evening from Mangaluru.

The doctors and paramedical staff who have arrived the spot are checking the health of the labourers before allowing them to travel to the railway station.

The cost of a ticket to Uttar Pradesh is Rs 1,040 per person (which includes bus fare from service bus stand to railway station, food and water bottle).

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News Network
March 24,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 24: Underlining the seriousness of the coronavirus, which is spreading like wildfire in Karnataka, renowned Heart Surgeon and founder of Narayana Hrudayalaya Dr Devi Shetty on Tuesday predicted that Karnataka alone will have more than 80,000 people affected with the dreaded killer disease COVID-19 if people fail to protect themselves.

He urged the people to cooperate with the Government in preventing its further spread and immediately treat those who are affected.

Dr Shetty, urging the people to remain indoors and not to venture out, said those who are affected should not come out and remain in isolation even in their houses and take all precautions advised by doctors.

He said if 80,000 people in the state were affected, more than 20,000 need to be admitted to Hospital for treatment.

"More than 2000 affected need to be kept under ventilation and it requires more infrastructure in the hospitals," he said.

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News Network
June 12,2020

Hubli, Jun 12: An inspector of Hubli Rural police station on Friday was suspended for delaying the submission of a charge sheet in the matter relating to sedition charges against three Kashmiri students for making a video with pro-Pakistan slogan.

A second Joint Magistrate First Class (JMFC) court in February sent the three students, identified as Basit Ashik Sophi (19), Talib Majid (19) and Amir Mohiuddin (23), to police custody till February 28.

The Kashmiri students are under judicial custody since February 17 following their arrest for raising pro-Pakistan slogans and posting a video of the same on social media on the night of February 16.

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