'Paid news' claim lands Udayavani in a fix, Congress complains to EC

March 15, 2012
Udupi, March 15: The Congress has submitted a complaint with the election officer here against Udayavani for carrying out 'paid news' in favour of BJP in the run up to the March 18 byelection to the Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha constituency.

Vijay Hegde, an advocate and the election agent of the Congress candidate K. Jayaprakash Hegde on Wednesday met the deputy commissioner Dr. R Reju, who is also the election officer, and handed over the written complaint.

The Coastal Karnataka's popular Kannada daily has been publishing a series of pro-BJP reports for the last couple of weeks. These pro-BJP advertisements have been camouflaged into news stories and lakhs of rupees have been paid to the paper's owners, the complaint said.

It was said that Mr. Hegde was not keen on taking on one of the mightiest newspapers of the coastal Karnataka, but since the one-sided publicity continued unabated, the Congress candidate had to petition the election officer.

Mr. Hegde was initially apprehensive that if he went against the paper, his pictures and news would be blacked out. But the Congress leaders, including Pramod Madhwaraj, had made public their resentment about the 'paid news' without naming any newspaper.

In the March 14 edition, the Udayavani had carried a 'news story' titled 'State Government's bumper offer for fishermen', which hailed the contribution of the State Government to the fishermen without going into any analysis.

The 'report' also quoted presidents of government-appointed bodies of fishermen, who are also active in BJP. For the last few days, Udayavani has been publishing such pro-BJP special stories on page 12 evoking criticism from its readers and non-BJP party workers.

Speaking to presspersons in Udupi on Wednesday, Mr. Madhwaraj hit out at BJP for misleading people throw 'paid news' and taking the credit for the welfare schemes implemented by the Central Government for fishermen. "The Union Government has implemented several schemes for the fishermen, but the BJP is indulging in cheap politics by taking the credit," he said.

"Doctor Acharya Abhivruddi Kodugegale BJPige Srirakshe," "Sri Kshetra Kachchurina Abhivriddi: Rajya Sarakaradinda eradu Koti Rupaigu mikki anudana," are some of the headlines given to the alleged 'paid news' items. Interestingly, most of these items do not have a dateline, which is a clear deviation from the Udayavani's stylesheet.


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News Network
June 18,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 18: Two employees at a plant of Toyota Kirloskar Motor in Karnataka's Bidadi have tested positive for COVID-19, the automobile company said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the auto major, the two employees had attended work on June 7 and 16 respectively.

"As a first step and through appropriate contact tracing, TKM has started identifying all those employees who may have had primary or secondary contact with the infected employees for necessary treatment and quarantine wherever necessary and is in contact with the local government authorities," the statement said.

Toyota Kirloskar Motors had restarted operations after weeks of nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus on May 26. It said that all necessary precautions were to maintain social distancing and all Central and state government directives were being followed.

"However, despite all such measures, two employees at TKM's Bidadi plant tested positive for COVID-19 on June 16th, 2020. Operations at TKM plant has already been temporarily suspended so that required disinfection can be carried out at the plant," the statement said.

"TKM has extended all necessary support to the infected employees for medical treatment as well as quarantine procedures. The company is in touch with the families of the infected employees so as to support them to handle this situation carefully without further complications," it added.

 

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News Network
May 9,2020

Bengaluru, May 9: Karnataka government in its latest order has allowed restaurants, pubs and bars to sell liquor at retail prices from May 9 till May 17. The third phase of coronavirus lockdown is slated to end on May 17.

"Karnataka government has allowed restaurants, pubs and bars to sell liquor at retail prices from tomorrow till May 17. However, they can be sold only in take away form," read an order issued by the state government.

Earlier, the government had allowed the opening of liquor shops in order to mobilise revenue. However, bars, pubs, restaurants were ordered to remain close amid the COVID-19 lockdown.

As per the latest update by the State Health Department, the total number of coronavirus cases in the state is 753. "Of 753 cases, 346 are active cases. 376 persons were discharged after treatment while 30 people have succumbed to the coronavirus," the Health Department said in a release. 

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News Network
February 24,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 24: Fugitive underworld don Ravi Poojary, with more than 90 criminal charges pending against him, was brought to the city in the wee hours of Monday after he was arrested from Senegal in South Africa.

Police said that he was wanted in more than 92 criminal cases. In Bengaluru alone, he was involved in more than 39 cases, including double murder of Ravi and Shobana in 2007, an attempt to murder attack on Mantri developers 2009, extortion and other crimes etc. He had committed crimes in various parts of the state including Myusuru, Hubballi, he had involved in extortion, threatening builders, politicians, etc.

"Though Senegal police had nabbed him about six months back to get him to India it took more than six months since there was no agreement to deport criminals from that state to us. However, now all legal hurdles have been removed and we have succeeded in bringing him", a top police official told media.

A team of Bengaluru Police headed by Additional Director General of Police Amar Kumar Pandey, Joint Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil reached Senegal on Saturday and brought him to the city by Air France flight.

Ravi Poojari was wanted in cases of extortion and murder and was active in the Mumbai underworld. He was part of the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's gang and later is said to have worked with 'Chota Rajan' for some time. Claiming to be an enemy of Dawood, Poojari reportedly finished off all his associates and anti-India elements in the country. His men were involved in a shootout on the Shabanam Developers office in Bengaluru in which a woman staffer was killed.

He is also said have been involved in the shootout case of Shahid Azmi, an advocate from Mumbai. There are cases against him in Kerala, Gujarat, and Maharashtra.

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