Rumors are rife that PM Modi may contest from Bengaluru South too

Feb 26: The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday claimed that it prevented Karnataka from discussing the contentious Mekedatu reservoir issue at the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) meeting held in New Delhi.

Besides the representatives of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka at the fifth meeting of CWMA, presided over by Central Water Commission Chairman R K Jain, officials of Kerala and Puducherry also participated.

CWMA member and TN PWD Secretary K Manivasan told reporters after the meeting that the state government prevented Karnataka from discussing the dam issue by pointing out the pending petitions in the Supreme Court against the project filed by the E Palaniswami government.

"We have told participants of the meeting that Mekedatu reservoir will be against the interests of Tamil Nadu and its farmers. Our consistent stand is that it should not be built at any cost. Finally the issue was not discussed in the meeting," Manivasan said.

The Mekedatu reservoir is proposed to be constructed by Karnataka across Cauvery river near Mekedatu, about 110 km from Bengaluru, in Kanakapura taluk.

It was first proposed along with Shivanasamudra hydro power project at Shimsa in 2003 with an intention to use the water for a hydro power station and supply drinking water to Bengaluru city. It was designed to store 67 tmc feet of water.

While Tamil Nadu is claiming that the construction of a balancing reservoir will disturb Cauvery water flow to the state affecting irrigation, Karnataka says the project is basically designed to take care of the drinking water needs of Bengaluru after releasing water to Tamil Nadu as per the quantum specified by the Cauvery water disputes tribunal.

Jan 29: Karnataka Tourism Minister, CT Ravi came up in support of BJP leader Anurag Thakur, and made a controversial statement in the process.

Ravi recently took to Twitter to express his views on Thakur facing probe for allegedly making provocative statements. In his tweet, Ravi said that "anti-nationals should get bullet not biryani".

"Those attacking Union MoS @ianuragthakur for his statement against traitors are the ones who - opposed death to terrorirts Ajmal Kasab and Yakub Memon, supported tukde tukde gang, spread lies against CAA. Anti-nationals should get bullet not biryani," Ravi tweeted.

 @ianuragthakur

 #CAA

#IStandWithAnuragThakur

 January 28, 2020

Earlier, Thakur had allegedly made slogans like "Desh ke gaddaro ko, goli maaro saalo ko (shoot the traitors)" multiple times during a public meeting in Delhi. He had also faced a show-cause notice from the Electon Commission, asking a response from him on January 30.

Kasaragod, Apr 2: Kerala reported 21 new cases of coronavirus with eight from the worst affected Kasaragod district, taking the tally of active patients to 256, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Thursday.

Besides, Kasaragod, five positive cases have been detected from Idukki, two from Kollam and one each from Thiruvananthapuram, Pathnamthitta, Thrissur, Malappuram, Kozhikode and Kannur, he told reporters here.

At least 1.65 lakh people are under survillence in the state, 643 in various hospitals.

Presently, 256 people are under treatment for the virus in the state where two fatalities have occurred, Vijayan said.