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Efforts yield results; Govt approves operation of charter flights to repatriate Indians from Gulf, other regions

coastaldigest.com news network
May 22, 2020

Mangaluru, May 22: Following requests from Kannadiga entrepreneurs in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and persistant efforts of former deputy chairperson of the NRI Forum of Karnataka government Dr Arathi Krishna, the government of India has finally approved the repatriation of stranded Indian expatriate workers amidst prolonged covid-19 lockdown through chartered flights arranged by their employing companies particularly in Gulf region and elsewhere. 

The government has also issued a Standard Operation Protocol (SOP) to be followed to be followed by those who hire the flights. The government's nod will not only allow repatriation of larger number of citizens, who are on wait-lists, but also allows private airlines to get their aircraft, crew, and operational staff actively working again in preparation for resumption of scheduled flights. 

Zakaria Jokatte, CEO of Al-Muzain Est. and K S Sheik, Director of Operations at Expertise Contracting Co. Ltd - both Mangalurean entrepreneurs in Saudi Arabia - were among those who had sought permission to hire chartered flights for the immediate repatriation of their hundreds of employees. 

The NRI entrepreneurs in Gulf have thanked Dr Arathi Krishna for continuously persuading the authorities concerned to issue green signal for the operation of chartered flight at a time when there were only a few scheduled flights under Vande Bharat Mission. 

Welcoming the move Dr Arathi Krishna told coastaldigst.com that Indians stranded in any foreign country can utilize this facility. "Initially, I was approached by Mr Zakaria and Mr Sheik who wanted chartered flights to help their employees fly back to India. I asked them to write to the Indian Ambassador in Saudi Araia Mr Ausaf Sayeed. Then I requested the ambassador to forward the request to Joint Secretary Dr Nagendra Prasad, who is in charge of gulf division in the Ministry of External Affairs, and then to Secretary on charge of Gulf and then I requested Secretary of Economic Relations Mr T S Tirumurti who was also in charge of Gulf to follow this up," she said. 

"There were similar requests for chartered flights from African countries too. Then I persisted officers constantly to take it up to the Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and now all the people requesting this from Saudi Arabia have got confirmation from the ministry and communicated by embassy to those who had requested for the chartered flights," she said.

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News Network
January 21,2020

Mangaluru, Jan 21: Operations at Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) are normal, a day after security agencies detonated a bomb recovered from the airport in a controlled explosion, an official said on Tuesday.

"All operations are normal at Mangluru International Airport. Everything is normal," told the airport director V.V. Rao to IANS.

Rao said even on Monday, there was no interruption to the airport operations, except for that one recalled IndiGo flight to Bengaluru.

"As the explosive was isolated and taken away from the airport, there was no disturbance to flights, except one Bengaluru-bound IndiGo flight which suffered a few hours delay and took off later," said Rao.

Meanwhile, security has been tightened at the airport.

Mangluru north assistant commissioner of police Belliappa told media that the police are still on the hunt for the culprits who planted the bomb at the airport.

"We are trying to trace the culprits, we got the footage of the suspects," said Belliappa, highlighting that the police are yet to find the name, age and other details of the suspects.

At Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), the number of police personnel has been increased in a bid to tighten the security and 24 hour searching of vehicles is underway.

"We have set up two check posts on the way to the airport and randomly checking vehicles," told Devanahalli assistant commissioner of police Subramanya to media.

All Karnataka airports, including Hubballi and Belagavi, are on high alert.

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coastaldigest.com news network
August 3,2020

Bengaluru/ Mangaluru, Aug 3: For the first time in many days, if not weeks, the number of recoveries in Karnataka was higher than new covid-19 cases in the state raising hope of some relief against the virus.

Karnataka confirmed 4752 new covid- 19 cases while the number of recoveries stood at 4776 in the 24 hours until 5 pm on Monday. The state also recorded 98 deaths. 

Medical education minister K.Sudhakar said that the recovery rate in Karnataka is at around 42%

"Everyday there is increase in recovery rate which is higher by 9.17% in Bengaluru city. Overall recovery rate of the state by Sunday evening was 42.81 % and it is 35.14% in Bengaluru," the minister posted on Twitter.

The total number of cases in Bengaluru crossed the 60,000 mark including 1497 cases on Monday.

The total number of cases in Mysuru breached 5000 cases as 372 persons tested positive. The mineral-rich district of Ballari recorded 305 cases. Other parts of Karnataka has seen a surge in cases with 15 out of the 30 districts reporting at least a 100 cases.

Dakshina Kananda

Dakshina Kannada district alone has recorded 153 new cases and seven deaths. 
Among the 153 new cases, 119 are from Mangaluru, 11 from Bantwal, six from Beltangady, four from Puttur, one from Sullia, and 12 from other districts.

The total number of covid positive cases in the district mounted to 6,168. Out of these, 3,138 cases are currently active. As many as 2,854 persons have recovered and been discharged, and 176 deaths have occurred so far.

Udupi

Udupi reported 126 fresh cases past 24 hours, according to health bulletin released by the Udupi district administration. They include 58 from Udupi, 34 from Kundapur, 28 from Karkala, and six from other districts. 

A total of 34,500 samples have been collected so far. 29,174 have turned out to be negative. As many as 4,800 confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported so far in the district. 

As many as 2,812 patients have been discharged so far, and 1,952 cases are currently active. As per district bulletin, 36 deaths have occurred so far. One positive case has been transferred to Dakshina Kannada.

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Agencies
January 19,2020

New Delhi, Jan 19: Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Sunday asserted that every state assembly has the constitutional right to pass a resolution and seek the amended Citizenship Act's withdrawal, but if the law is declared constitutional by the Supreme Court then it will be problematic to oppose it.

His remarks came a day after he had said there is no way a state can deny the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) when it is already passed by the Parliament.

"I believe the CAA is unconstitutional. Every State Assembly has the constitutional right to pass a resolution and seek its withdrawal. When and if the law is declared to be constitutional by the Supreme Court then it will be problematic to oppose it. The fight must go on!" Sibal said in a tweet.

His remarks on the CAA at the Kerala Literature Festival (KLF) on Saturday had caused a flutter as several non-BJP governments, including Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Maharashtra, have voiced their disagreement with the CAA as well as National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR).

"If the CAA is passed no state can say 'I will not implement it'. It is not possible and is unconstitutional. You can oppose it, you can pass a resolution in the Assembly and ask the central government to withdraw it.

"But constitutionally saying that I won't implement, it is going to be problematic and going to create more difficulties," said the former minister of law and justice.

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