Chikkaballapura, Oct 28: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Dr Ashwath Narayana on Monday ruled out the possibilities of celebrating the birth anniversary of erstwhile Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan by the state government.
Speaking to media here, the senior BJP leader said that those who want to celebrate Tipu Sultan Jayanti are free to do so but the state government will not as the Mysore ruler had unleashed terror against a particular community.
The decision of the Indian government to ease the coronavirus-linked global travel restrictions imposed on those having OCI cards has given a big relief to many stranded overseas citizens of India across the world.
OCI card is issued to people of Indian origin globally which gives them almost all the privileges of an Indian national except for the right to vote, government service and buying agricultural land. The OCI card gives them a visa-free travel to India.
On Friday, the central government allowed certain categories of OCI card holders, who are stranded abroad, to come to the country. Earlier, according to the regulations issued by the Indian government in April, visas of foreign nationals and OCI cards were suspended as part of the new international travel restrictions following the COVID-19 pandemic.
This privilege of visa free travel to India was causing distress among a large number of people of Indian-origin and Indian citizens in countries like the US whose children were OCI card holders as they were born in this country.
Many Indian parents, several of whom lost their jobs as a result of the economic crisis due to coronavirus pandemic, but were not allowed to take the special evacuation flights of Air India from various US cities, took to social media and urged the Indian leaders to allow them to travel to India.
“This is a big relief for the OCI card holders. It was a humanitarian crisis in the making. I am pleased that the Indian Government listened to their voices,” said social activist Prem Bhandari, chairman of Jaipur Foot USA, who has been taking up the cause of the OCI card holders.
Dr Arathi Krishna, former deputy chairperson of NRI Forum of Karnataka government, who had been demanding this relaxation, many of the thousands of stranded OCI card holders in defferent parts of the world were in pursuading her to exert pressure on the authorities concerned for this much needed relaxation.
The restrictions on traveling of OCI card holders to India was issued by govt of India on March 13 in the wake of global outbreak of coronavirus pandemic.
She said: "Many parents who are Indian nationals could not travel for emergency purpose to India after repatriation flights started due to their minor children being OCI card holders. Many children who were OCI card holders could not travel to India to perform last rites when there was death in their family due to these restrictions"
"I was constantly pressurising and bringing these issues to the attention of ministry officials in External Affairs and Home Affairs departments. I was following up with Mr Dammu Ravi who is heading the COVID task force task firce in the ministry of overseas Indian affairs who took interest in solving this problem through his consistent efforts with MHA. Iam thankful to Fireign Secretary too for his efforts and concern and to MHA for making it easier now for OCI card holders to travel in repatriation flights with emergency reasons," she said.
Bengaluru, Jul 28: After the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) reduced the syllabi for Classes 9 to 12 due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Karnataka government has followed the suit. The Department of Public Instruction has omitted the chapters on legendary south Indian rulers Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan from the textbooks of Class 7 in their attempt to reduce syllabus for state board schools by 30 per cent.
The department, however, has decided to retain similar chapters on Tipu Sultan in 6th and 10th Classes, though the syllabus in text books for all classes from 1 to 10th has been trimmed.
The trimmed textbooks uploaded on the website of the Department of State Education Research and Training (DSERT) by Karnataka state Textbook Society revealed removal of chapters on Tipu Sultan for the seventh grade.
Justifying the decision, officials said, "students study similar chapters in Class 6 and more in the 10th grade." Yet another senior official from the Text Book Society said, "Trimming does not mean we have removed half of the syllabus from textbooks. It is only keeping in mind the repetition we have condensed the chapters. In case students study about a particular dynasty in higher grades, then the same had been removed from lower grades."
A few months ago, there was an uproar over dropping of content on Tipu Sultan and MLAs from the ruling BJP also demanded the same and petitioned to the Chief Minister. Even an expert committee led by Prof Baraguru Ramachandrappa suggested to not drop any content on the historic figure. However, the department still decided to drop lessons from one of the classes while keeping the syllabus short for the next 120 active academic days.
Earlier this month, a controversy had erupted over the CBSE's decision to omit topics like federalism, secularism, citizenship, etc while reducing the syllabus for Classes 9 to 12. The education board had issued a detailed clarification later, stating that topics claimed to be dropped "are either being covered by the rationalised syllabus or in the Alternative Academic Calendar of NCERT".
"The rationalisation of syllabus up to 30 per cent has been undertaken by the Board for nearly 190 subjects of class 9 to 12 for the academic session 2020-21 as a one-time measure only. The objective is to reduce the exam stress of students due to the prevailing health emergency situation and prevent learning gaps," it said.
Last week, the Congress in Uttar Pradesh expressed its concern over 'deliberate and systematic' deletions of chapters related to the freedom struggle and the party's role in it from the Class 10-12 syllabi of the Secondary Education Board.
Bengaluru, May 6: More than a month after international flights have been barred, Karnataka government is preparing to quarantine all 10,823 of the state''s people poised to return home from overseas amid the Covid pandemic, an official said on Tuesday.
"The state has planned to quarantine all 10,823 passengers coming back to Karnataka. The quarantine guidelines framed as below would be applicable," said Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey in a statement.
According to the Government of India, 10,823 Karnataka residents have been stranded abroad by April 30, comprising 4,408 tourists, 3,074 students, 2,784 migrants and professionals and 557 ship crew.
Out of the 10,823 people, the state government is expecting 6,100 to return early as the government has decided to allow Indians stuck abroad to return.
"All the passengers arriving at points of entry (airports and seaports) will be compulsorily screened for symptoms of Covid-19," said Pandey.
Point of entry screening will include self-reporting form verification, thermal screening, pulse oximeter reading, briefing with instructions, categorisation, stamping for some and downloading of Aarogya Setu, Quarantine Watch and Apthamitra apps.
Arriving passengers are also required to declare existing comorbidities such hypertension, diabetes, asthma or any lung disease, organ transplantations, cancer, tuberculosis and other ailments.
Passengers will be categorised into three groups: Category A (symptomatic on arrival), Category B (asymptomatic with co-morbidity or aged above 60 years) and Category C (rest of asymptomatic passengers).
Depending on the category into which the people fall, their quarantine place and time will be determined.
Category A arrivals will be subjected to institutional quarantine for a fortnight, Category B one week quarantine at a hotel or hostel, followed by another week at home, and Category C home quarantine for a fortnight.
Karnataka government is making elaborate arrangements and logistical means, deploying healthcare, police and several other departments into action to handle the huge influx of Kannadigas and state residents.
Pandey has issued a 21-page elaborate standard operating procedure (SOP) guidelines on how to face the international returnees.
Comments
Tippu sultan was the great warrior and patroit, he fought man to man and died in battle field...as a king you will get only few ruler who fought without surrender in the history of mankind, even british people admire him.
Lets come to the point, BJP and hindutva people follow savarkar idology... who is the biggest maron of 19th century and he begged for mercy 4 times and said i will lick your boot and please free me...such a third rated man he was....we all know RSS, BJP & Hindutva are marons of india...they dont have courage to stand and fight only attack poor people and there food...
we indian must bring back our lost glory...we all indian must be tippu sultan for the marons of india(RSS).
jai Hind
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