Shantha Kumar worked in the recruitment wing before he was transferred recently after an investigation was ordered into the PSI recruitment scam. (Representational)Karnataka, Bengaluru News: Karnataka’s Criminal Investigation Department detained deputy superintendent of police (DySP) Shantha Kumar, who previously worked with the police’s recruitment wing, on Thursday in connection with the sub-inspector recruitment scam. Kumar was recently transferred after allegations of malpractice in the sub-inspector recruitment examination cropped up. Suspected of playing a role in the tampering of the OMR and answer sheets of the exam held in October last year, he appeared before the investigation team on Thursday, according to police sources. According to a CID official, he served for nearly 12 years in the recruitment wing and was in charge of the strongroom where the answer sheets were stored.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday said all legal efforts are on to provide political reservation for the Backward Classes in local bodies, ahead of polls. The Chief Minister held a meeting today with Law Minister J C Madhuswamy, Advocate General and the senior officials to discuss the Supreme Court order on holding elections for local bodies. “The two orders of the Supreme Court on the issue are being studied. Also a Commission has been constituted to give political representation for the Backward Classes. The Leader of the Opposition has written a letter in this connection. All these aspects will be discussed with legal experts while taking the decision,” Bommai said.
The BJP government in Karnataka has decided to take the ordinance route to introduce the contentious anti-conversion law in the state. The anti-conversion bill, called the Karnataka Right to Freedom of Religion Bill 2021, was introduced in the state legislature in December 2021 and has not been tabled in the state legislative council yet even after passage by the Assembly. “The decision was taken because there is no clarity on when the legislative council will meet again. The ordinance will be in place until a bill is placed in the council whenever it meets again,” Law Minister J C Madhuswamy said following the Cabinet meeting.
Karnataka Cabinet on Thursday decided to provide free medicines to those suffering from haemophilia. "According to estimates, one in 5,000 boys have haemophilia, so estimating that there are 4,000-5,000 patients of this disease in the State and high cost of treatment, it has been decided to provide medicines free of cost under the State government and National Health Mission funds, and Rs 29 crore has been approved for drug purchase," Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy said.
Speaking to reporters after a Cabinet meeting here, he said Rs 15 crore has been approved for purchase of drugs for thalassemia and sickle cell anaemia.
Also, the Cabinet decided to authorise Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to decide as to who should be appointed as the next Chief Secretary of the State. "There are nine capable candidates in the list, it is left for the Chief Minister to decide," the Minister said. (PTI)
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday said all legal efforts are on to provide political reservation for the Backward Classes in local bodies, ahead of polls.
The Chief Minister held a meeting today with Law Minister J C Madhuswamy, Advocate General and the senior officials to discuss the Supreme Court order on holding elections for local bodies.
"The two orders of the Supreme Court on the issue are being studied. Also a Commission has been constituted to give political representation for the Backward Classes. The Leader of the Opposition has written a letter in this connection. All these aspects will be discussed with legal experts while taking the decision," Bommai said. (PTI)
Biennial elections to four Rajya Sabha seats from Karnataka and two graduates' and teachers' constituencies of the state Legislative Council will be held on June 10 and 13 respectively, the Election Commission of India said on Thursday.
The elections to four seats of Rajya Sabha is necessitated as the term of office of members - Nirmala Sitharaman (Union Finance Minister) and K C Ramamurthy of BJP, and Jairam Ramesh and late Oscar Fernandes of Congress is due to expire on June 30.
While the term of office of four sitting members of Karnataka Legislative Council from 2 graduates' and 2 teachers' Constituencies is expiring on July 4.
The four members are Nirani Hanamant Rudrappa of BJP from North-West Graduates' constituency, K T Srikantegowda of JD(S) South Graduates' constituency, Arun Shahapur of BJP from North-West Teachers' constituency and Basavaraj Shivalingappa Horatti of JD(S) from West Teachers' constituency. (PTI)
The results of a worldwide study on diabetes in which Hyderabad-based CSIR – Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB) was involved, paves the way towards development of ancestry-specific genetic risk score for risk prediction in different populations and has immense implications for Indians, where every sixth individual is a potential diabetic, the CCMB said Thursday.
The study of diverse populations has shed a new light on how genes contribute to Type-2 Diabetes. The study named DIAMANTE (DIAbetes Meta-Analysis of Trans-Ethnic association studies) co-led by Prof Andrew Morris at the University of Manchester is now published in Nature Genetics, CCMB said. Read more
Days after the withdrawal of the results of the Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) recruitment examination following allegations of malpractice, the Naija Horatagarara Vedhike (NHV), an NGO, on Thursday wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Governor of Karnataka Thawar Chand Gehlot and other ministers demanding a reversal of the cancellation notification.
In the letter, the NGO said there might be a few who have indulged in malpractices but withdrawing the entire results will be a social injustice.
In the letter M G Vasudevamurthy, the head of NHV stated, “The social and moral impact on the innocent candidates is difficult to explain and majority of the innocent candidates come from different social and economic strata and they are not in a position to accept the unjust action of the state government. Majority of the innocent candidates will have put forth strenuous exercise and academic studies to get selected on merit. Such candidates will be highly demoralised at the cost of miscreants who have abundant monetary resources and influence at high levels in and outside the government.” Read more
Following the release of the Karunegondu Savalu in December last year, Bengaluru-based transgender activist Akkai Padmashali launched the English version of the book titled ‘A Small Step in a Long Journey’ Thursday in Bengaluru. The memoir chronicles Padmashali’s early days of struggle with society as a sexual minority, the dark days of her life in Bengaluru and being a victim of sexual abuse, her fight for LGBTQ rights, her struggles with marriage and much more.
The book was launched by B T Venkatesh, former state public prosecutor, and actor Spoorthi Vishwas, amid the beating of the djembe and a folk song of North Karnataka. Read more
The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) has installed 213 of the 2,587 specially designed transformers, which are erected on single, spun poles and save public space. Some of the transformers installed on three-four poles will be replaced with the specially designed ones.
The work to replace the old transformers erected on drains and footpaths was started on April 20. In their joint inspection, officials of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike and Bescom felt the need to change 2,587 transformers that are old and obstruct the path of pedestrians in phase II. Read more
Hundreds of National Service Scheme volunteers, citizens and civil society organisations have started a campaign in Bengaluru to collect cigarette and beedi butts to highlight the rampant smoking in public places. They have urged the Union government to amend the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA).
The cigarette and beedi butt collection campaign is led by an NGO, the Consortium for Tobacco-Free Karnataka, and was flagged off on Thursday by former MP and retired IPS officer HT Sangliana, former Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun and Dr K Ravi, dean and director of the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute. Read more
“After I quit, ‘she duped the congress of 8 crores & ran away’ was planted in the news esp Kannada channels in an attempt to destroy my credibility. I didn’t run away. I resigned for personal reasons. I certainly did not dupe the party of 8 crores. My mistake was staying silent.” With this tweet on Thursday, former social media head of the Congress and actor Divya Spandana ‘Ramya’, who had disappeared from the political scene as fast as she had risen, was back in the headlines.
It all started with Spandana’s reaction to Congress state chief D K Shivakumar’s statement that Karnataka Higher Education Minister C N Ashwathnarayan had met Congress leader M B Patil, “seeking protection” from being questioned on public platforms in the Police Sub-Inspector recruitment scam. Read full Political Pulse here
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has conceptualised a twin aeronomy mission aimed at capturing latitudinal and longitudinal effects of space weather events on the Earth's upper atmosphere.
ISRO's Scientific Secretary Shantanu Bhatawdekar noted that 'Aeronomy' refers to the "physics and chemistry" of the Earth's upper atmosphere, which "directly feels the wrath of the space weather events".
In the near-Earth environment, the space weather is governed by the eruptive phenomena from the Sun, which affect the ionosphere-thermosphere system severely, and the perturbation percolates to the lower altitudes depending on the intensity of the solar events. (PTI)
The Karnataka cabinet on Thursday decided to promulgate an ordinance to give effect to the contentious law against religious conversions.
The Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill was passed by the Legislative Assembly in December last year. However, it is pending for passage in the Legislative Council, where the ruling BJP is one short of majority.
"We had passed the Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill (in the Legislative Assembly), due to certain reasons it was not passed in the Legislative Council. So the Cabinet today has decided to bring in an ordinance," Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy said. (PTI)
Two men, who sneaked into India in 2018 after their conviction in Bangladesh, were arrested by the Bengaluru Police Thursday on charges of stealing bikes. While eight bikes were recovered from them, the authorities have begun the process to deport the accused to Bangladesh.
According to an officer of the Kempegowda Nagar police station, “Several cases of bike theft were lodged with us and we were investigating them when the probe led us to the duo — Obimulla alias Bappi, 32, and Mahamad Nasir Shekh, 35. After their arrest, the duo told us they hailed from West Bengal but our investigation showed they are from Bangladesh.”
The officer added, “We shared the duo’s photographs and details with the Bangladesh authorities who in turn confirmed that the two were convicted to five years of imprisonment by a Bangladesh court in a case of assault.” Read more
The High Court of Karnataka has stayed a notification issued by the Union Ministry of Road Transportation and Highways increasing the fee and penalty on vehicles that are more than 15-years-old.
The enhanced fee came into effect from April one this year. The Ministry issued the notification on October 4 last year.
In 2017, the High Court had quashed a similar notification issued by the Union Government earlier. Read more
The Karnataka High Court on Thursday allowed Chinese mobile phone manufacturer Xiaomi Technology India Pvt Ltd to seek bank overdrafts to make payments for its operations – excluding a royalty of Rs 5,500 crore to foreign technology suppliers that was frozen by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) through an order issued on April 29, 2022.
A single judge of the Karnataka High Court issued the order after Xiaomi approached the court on Thursday for a clarification of its May 5 order. Xiaomi argued that the May 5 high court order had resulted in banks blocking all payments by the company, including daily payments for the purchase of ancillary items for manufacturing and other purposes. Read more
The High Court of Karnataka has stayed a notification issued by the Union Ministry of Road Transportation and Highways increasing the fee and penalty on vehicles that are more than 15-years-old. The enhanced fee came into effect from April one this year. The Ministry issued the notification on October 4 last year.
In 2017, the High Court had quashed a similar notification issued by the Union Government earlier. "Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the identical notification issued by the respondent No.1/Central is quashed by this court in WP No. 10499/2017," the HC noted and issued an emergent notice to the respondents in connection with the new notification. (PTI)
Residents of Rainbow Drive Layout at Sarjapur in Bengaluru, which has more than 35 houses, have written to Mahadevapura MLA Arvind Limbavali apprising him of the constant flooding in their area during rains. In an open letter, the MLA was alerted of the flooding on May 5 which reportedly left the residents stranded for more than 20 hours.
“This is to bring to your urgent notice about the plight of 1000+ people living in fear of rain, flooding, power outages and cut-off from emergency help and at Rainbow Drive Layout, Sarjapur Main Road. We had major flooding during pre-monsoon rain on 5th May 2022 and citizens were stranded for over 20 hours without any access to medical help or cut off from the outside world, with elderly people suffering the most,” the letter dated May 10 read. Read more
Bengaluru on Wednesday (May 11) recorded its lowest maximum temperature in May in the last ten years, at 24.3 degrees Celsius, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD). The department said the city had a departure of 9.5 degrees Celsius from the normal temperature.
The previous lowest maximum temperature recorded in the last ten years was 33.8 degrees Celsius, on May 2, 2015. The highest ever maximum temperature recorded for the month was on May 22, 1931 — 38.9 degrees Celsius. Officials from the Met department stated that the weather conditions in Bengaluru remain the same for the next few days and there will be no heatwave. Read more
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, who met top BJP leaders in the national capital Wednesday, said he has left the decision over the timing of the much-awaited expansion of his Cabinet on the party leadership. In the course of a wide-ranging interview with The Indian Express, Bommai denied that there was an atmosphere of fear or hate in the state, saying that his government has reined in “troublemakers” to uphold the rule of law and that good governance should be based on “equality, equal opportunities and fairness”. Liz Mathew interviews Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has responded positively regarding transfer of 700 acres of land in Belagavi, which is currently under the control of the latter's ministry. The state government needs this land for an IT park, which it intends to develop in Belagavi.
The issue was raised during the Chief Minister's meeting with the Defence Minister in New Delhi on Wednesday. "About 700 acres of grassland in Belagavi is under the control of the Defence ministry. It actually belongs to the state government. We have appealed to transfer the land to the state government. Rajnath Singh has responded positively to the request," Bommai said.
The state government needs this land for the IT park, he said, adding, "So, we have requested the Defence Ministry to hand over the land". The Union minister has stated that he would discuss the issue with officials concerned and take a decision," Bommai said. (PTI)
With the Karnataka government issuing a circular regarding use of loudspeakers following the azaan and Hanuman Chalisa row, state Home Minister Araga Jnanendra on Wednesday said its implementation will be strictly monitored and action will be taken as per law in case of any violations. He also said fair and transparent probe are on into the police sub-inspector recruitment scam and the alleged suicide of contractor Santosh Patil. Read more