IAF’s air strike inside Pakistan triggers ‘nationalistic fervour’ in Mangaluru

Assan, Feb 9: Coming down heavily on Amit Shah, JDS supremo HD Deve Gowda said that the Union Home Minister is dreaming of a Hindu nation. Addressing the crowd at an anti-CAA/NRC rally in Hassan, he said that the Home Minister has forgotten that India is a secular, multi-lingual country.

“Shah cannot make India into a Hindu nation. People should come forward and oppose the Acts in the interest of peace and welfare of the nation,” the former PM said, urging secular leaders to unite and fight against the undemocratic policies put forth by the Centre.

“Only secular forces can protect minorities by taking to the streets,” he said. Talking about the controversy around former Union minister Anant Kumar Hegde’s statements, Gowda said BJP leaders are airing anti-national comments, which is disturbing peace. “Muslims, Christians and Hindus should unite to fight against the BJP’s unilateral decisions.”

Bengaluru, Apr 21: The Karnataka Government may spare its employees from salary cuts this month despite severe resources crunch it faces following steep fall in revenue collection due to the ongoing lockdown to fight the coronavirus, official sources said on Tuesday.

As of now, there is no problem with April salary and we can manage. But if May also turns out to be a wash-out (in terms of revenue collection), then the situation is going to be very tough, a senior Minister said.

Ministers and members of Karnataka Legislature are taking a 30 per cent pay-cut for a year from April 1 this year. Opposition Congress in the state has vehemently opposed any possible move to cut salaries of government employees.

You just cant even imagine, the Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had told news agency in an interview earlier this month on the economic impact of the lock-down on the state's finances. Yediyurappa had also said that the government is now not in a position to implement Budget proposals, barring important ones, with all kinds of revenue collections having completely stopped following the lockdown.

The government recently said it proposes to regularise unauthorised properties in the state by imposing penalty, and also auction more than 12,000 corner sites belonging to the Bengaluru Development Authority, as part of resource mobilisation drive.

Mangaluru, Jun 3: Cyclone Nisarga did not land in Karnataka and has passed its border with heavy rains and strong winds, said an official on Wednesday.

However rains continued to lash parts of coastal Karnataka. There was no report of any casualty, the official added.

"It has already passed. We have not got any reports of fatalities. A heavy rain was expected and the deputy commissioners were alerted. Fishermen too were warned," said Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) Principal Secretary T K Anil Kumar.

Kumar said Nisarga's actual landing is in Maharashtra and the warning was given for that state and Gujarat.

"In the fringe proportion (of Karnataka), high winds were expected and fishermen were warned not to venture into the sea," he said.

Kumar said the department interacted with the deputy commissioners of Belagavi, Uttara Kannada, Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, Chikkamagaluru and Shivamogga and alerted them about heavy rains.

Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre Director Srinivas Reddy said the department has kept four National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF) teams on standby in Mangaluru and Kodagu for any eventuality.

The teams have been mobilized from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh.

"More rain is predicted in coastal districts. Wind speed too will be more in coastal areas," said Reddy.

According to a Met Department official, the track of Nisarga is expected to be 200-400km off Karnataka coast.

"Sudden wind speed had been reported along the coast. We had issued port warnings," said the official.