Mangaluru: Three youngsters held for demanding hafta

Bengaluru, Jun 12: The Karnataka government is mulling to issue caste and income certificates to Brahmins though they are in a minority, accounting a mere three per cent of the southern state''s seven crore population, an official said on Thursday.

"Though Brahmins are in a ''minority'' in terms of their population across the state, they need caste and income certificates to benefit from the welfare schemes as in the case of the SC, ST and OBC groups," an official said here.

The Karnataka State Brahmin Development Board was set up in March 2019 as a state-run company with Rs five crore authorized capital and Rs five crore equity and is registered with the Registrar of Companies.

"The Board has petitioned the state government to implement the 10 per cent quota for the economically weaker sections, as its benefit is being given by the central government jobs and in admissions to the national educational institutions," said its chairman H.S. Sachidananda Murthy.

Responding to the demand, state Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa said the state government would consider issuing caste certificates to the Brahmins so that they too can benefit from the state''s various welfare schemes.

"Though Brahmins belong to the forward community, they are economically weaker and need financial support," said Yediyurappa on Wednesday after unveiling the Board''s official website for all its stakeholders here.

Brahmins whose gross annual family income is less than Rs eight lakh per annum will be eligible for the benefit schemes.

"The Board will soon be authorised to issue caste and income certificates to the members of the Brahmin community so that they can also benefit from the schemes," said the chief minister on the occasion.

Noting that every community has people who are forward and backward economically for various, including historical reasons, Yediyurappa said the Board would be empowered to serve the Brahmins.

"The Board also proposes to provide interest-free loans to the financially weaker sections of the people in the Brahmin community," added Murthy.

The community members urged the Chief Minister to provide 10 per cent of the state government jobs and seats in state-run educational institutions, including professional collages.

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 4: Depressed over the communal and racist policies of union government, a 67-year-old retired school headmaster committed suicide allegedly after losing matriculation certificates and documents related to his father.

The victim was identified as Mohammed Ali a resident of Narikunni in Kozhikode district in north Kerala.

On finding Ali missing from home on Friday morning, his family members conducted a search in the nearby areas. His body was later found in a well located in one of his relative’s compound nearby.

A suicide note recovered, suspected to have been written by the victim read, “I have lost all my important certificates. Matriculation certificates of me and my wife. Old documents of my father are also missing. I think all these documents were given away along with the waste recently. None should be held responsible for my foolish act. You may get into trouble.”

According to relatives, Ali was under severe stress after regularly watching programmes related to CAA. He was also actively involved in anti CAA campaign.

“He was worried about the documents and had serious apprehensions about future,” said his younger brother Abdul Nasser.

“After attending an anti CAA meeting in Kozhikode he had shared his apprehensions. He used to frequently discuss the topic with others ,” recollected Jaffer a local resident.

Ali also had health complications. Meanwhile, the local police said that preliminary investigations suggested that the man could have taken the extreme step after losing documents. However, the reason behind the suicide could be said conclusively after detailed probe.

Bengaluru, Apr 19:  Karnataka's Technical Education department following Union Home Ministry’s guidelines, on Sunday directed all its colleges not to use the Zoom application to conduct online classes during the ongoing lockdown period.

Considering Union Home Ministry's advisory that Zoom app is not safe, the department has taken the decision and issued a circular asking all government, aided and unaided engineering, polytechnic (Diploma) colleges to stop using the app immediately.

The department recommended the use of a free app developed by TCS: "TCS iON Digital class room" or any other App recommended by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to conduct the online classes.