Tabassum wins Mangaluru Press Club Award for service to HIV affected children

Bengaluru, Jan 17: Six persons, said to be supporters of Social Democratic Party of India, have been arrested in connection alleged attempt to murder a member of RSS in Bengaluru.

Varun Bhopala (34), a resident of Sarakki in JP Nagar, was attacked while he was on his way to his father's shop near JC Road after attending a pro-CAA event organised by the RSS and other Hindutva organisations on December 22, 2019.

Police commissioner Bhaskar Rao said the arrested are Irfan alias Mohammed Irfan (33), Syed Akbar alias Mechanic Akbar (46), Syed Siddiq Akbar (30), Akbar Basha (27), Sanaulla Sharif (28) and Sadiq UL Ameen (39) - all residents of KG Halli in East and North Bengaluru.

Rao said the arrested wanted to attack and kill the leaders who took part in the pro-CAA event. They initially pelted seven stones to scatter the crowd so that they can attack the leaders, but they failed. Later, they saw Varun walking out of the crowd wearing a saffron shirt. So the arrested followed him and attacked him with lethal weapons. Assuming he is dead, the gang fled on their bikes towards Bidadi.

''The SDPI activists were funded by their leaders to create a disturbance, kill Hindu organisation leaders,'' Rao said. "I have formed a special team to investigate in-depth about the SDPI activities and take necessary action,'' he added.

Bengaluru, April 5: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Sunday urged the people to follow the countrywide lockdown strictly amid the rise of COVID-19 cases on Sunday, and said that he has been receiving complaints of people violating the restrictions.

"Everyone knows the damage caused by the COVID- 19 infection around the world. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a nationwide lockdown till April 14 for the protection of people's lives. Even in our state, Bidar, Mysore, Mangalore, Bengaluru and Kalaburagi districts have witnessed a rise in the coronavirus cases day by day," Yediyurappa said.

"The government has taken a number of precautionary measures to control the spread of coronavirus including the closure of borders for public, restrictions on publicly trafficked areas and religious places. The people of the state have to strictly follow the lockdown mandate," he added.

"I have received a lot of complaints about lockdown not being followed effectively. Please remember that the key to ending the lockdown is in your hands. Only you can break the chain by strictly adhering to the restrictions," the CM tweeted.

Earlier on Saturday, 16 people tested positive for coronavirus in Karnataka, taking the total number of cases to 144 in the state.

The total number of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 3,374 in India on Sunday, as per the data provided the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Bengaluru, May 13: Former chief minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Wednesday called the measures announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as 'disastrous' and said it is 'non-existent' in terms of benefits to poor migrants, labourers, contract employees and farmers.

"The first set of measures announced by @FinMinIndia @nsitharaman, after 8 PM speech by @narendramodi, is disastrous & non-existent in terms of benefits to poor migrants, labourers, contract employees, farmers, etc," Siddaramaiah said in a tweet.

The Congress leader said most of the intended benefits may not reach the end recipient.

This comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a Rs 20 lakh crore special economic package to revive the COVID-19 hit economy.

"The contribution by the government for the schemes announced are mostly notional and less of actuals and the devil lies in the detail," the Congress leader said in another tweet.

After Sitharaman announced support measures for MSMEs, Siddaramaiah said, "The credit infusion to MSMEs may help them clear dues to vendors but it is doubtful if they shall utilise the credit available to pay their labourers & to prevent job cuts. @FinMinIndia should have taken measures to pay part of the salaries to the employees in MSMEs."

Further questioning the Centre on 'ignoring the spending for boosting consumption', Siddaramaiah said, "The government is interested in capital infusion in the form of credits but totally ignorant of the actual spending that needs to be done to boost consumption. How can credit be considered as government spending?"

Siddaramaiah said the next set of measures should benefit the marginalised sections.

"Will be looking forward to next set of measures & I hope it will be something to benefit the marginalised sections. Direct benefits to the poorest sections will help them survive this pandemic. COVID-19 fight should not be another perception battle but a real one," he added in another tweet.

Sitharaman earlier announced Rs 3 lakh crore collateral-free automatic loans for businesses, including MSMEs.

Besides this, she also stated that to provide stressed MSMEs with equity support, the government will facilitate the provision of Rs 20,000 crore as subordinate debt.