In Gujarat, 95% of those seeking to convert are Hindus; govt tries to prevent

Bengaluru, Feb 22: Karnataka legislative assembly speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri has issued a notification banning entry of journalists in the Legislators House.

"Electronic media and print media cannot enter the Legislators House any time," the notification issued by the Speaker's office read.

The notification which was issued on February 18 said, "The legislators come to Legislators House from their constituencies during the assembly session. It is their private time when they stay there. When journalists come to Legislators House to meet them, it's an invasion of their privacy."

"Arrangements will be made for journalists to speak to MLAs outside the gate. No journalist or camera person will be allowed inside the gate," the notification added.

The Legislators House is located near the Vidhan Soudha, the state legislative assembly.

Mysuru, Jan 20: Fears over CAA and proposed NRC have affected the ongoing 7th economic census. Following complaints of violence against enumerators and registration of FIR with people declining to give information, the state government has asked deputy commissioners and superintendents of police to hold awareness programmes about it.

The planning, programme monitoring & statistics department has requested the home department to provide cooperation at the police station level while additional chief secretary P Ravi Kumar, in his letter to all DCs, has asked them to create awareness. According to sources, enumerators in T Narasipura town of Mysuru district faced resistance as some residents misunderstood the reason for this census.

A senior officer of the directorate of economics and statistics said that additional chief secretary (ACS- Planning, Programme Monitoring & Statistics Department) Shalini Rajneesh has written to the home department and superintendents of police of all districts seeking their help to create awareness about the economic census.

According to sources in the directorate, in many places, people are refusing to share information under the misconception that it is related to CAA/ NRC. “Many are mistaken about the economic census. As a precaution, police help has been sought,” an officer said.

Authorities in Mysuru said the 7th economic census began on December 20 and will conclude on March 30.

“In Mysuru city alone, we need to cover a population of 11 lakh. In T Narasipura, we faced problems due to misconceptions about Census and CAA. We reported the incident which happened in an area where minorities reside in large numbers,” he explained. Mysuru SP CB Rishyanth said his office has not received any direction in this matter.

Mangaluru, June 1: The private bus services resumed services in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts today with 15 per cent hike in the fares. For 70 days these buses were stayed off the roads as lockdown was imposed in the region on March 22 in the wake of covid-19 outbreak.

Buses were sanitised in the morning. The bus operators have decided to operate only a few of the buses initially.

Of the about 2,000 service buses (inter-district buses and long-route buses within the district) of private operators in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi, only 25% resumed services. Only 135 out of 320 city buses in Mangaluru resumed services.

The number of passengers on board the buses were also very less in the morning. A few buses had arranged sanitisers for passengers, drivers and conductors.