Archives for 2022

Parmesh S Jain

The Banaswadi police arrested a Kerala based peddler and recovered MDMA Crystal powder worth Rs.35 lakh from him.

The accused identified as,Munafis KP alias tony,native of kerala.

Senior officer told reporters,the Banaswadi police Sub-inspector received a tip off that a person near BBMP Park in HRBR layout is in possession of some narcotics substance and is waiting to deliver the same to his contacts.

Based on tip off a team of police headed by PSI,Nagaraj and his crime staff swung into action and rushed to the spot and kept a close watch on his movements without giving any hint the team after getting confirmation the team approached him by surrounding the area and when they questioned him for whom he was waiting.

His body language and behaviour while questioning was not convinced by the team later the team intercepted him and found drugs substance in his possession the team apprehended him and took to station for further investigation.

During investigation the accused confessed the crime and revealed that he was arrested by Dubai police on similar offense and after spending there years in prison,he returned to Bengaluru and continue to peddle drugs.

The drug peddler had come from Dubai and settled in a rented house in HSR layout in Bengaluru to peddle drugs.

A detailed investigation by the team it has revealed that his clinets are students and IT professionals who used to approach him through WhatsApp calls to avoid undue attention.

The accused would send his location on WhatsApp based on requirements and supply drugs.

With his arrest the team recovered 700 grams of MDMA Crystal powder and cocaine worth of Rs.35 lakhs from him.

The Banaswadi police have booked him under NDPS act and taken into custody to ascertain his network and further investigation is on.

Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,C H Pratap Reddy has appreciated Addl CP East,Dr A subramanyeshwara Rao,DCP East,Dr Bheemashankar S Guled,ACP,NB Sakkari,PI,L Santhosh Kumar,PSIs,as Nagaraj Nedalgi,Ansar Khan,and crime staff as,Mohammad Rafi,Murali Krishna,Annappa,Ramakrishna,Nandish,Suresh, Basavaraju and others has been appreciated for the exemplary and meticulous investigation done by them in nabbing the Notorious habitual drug peddler who returned from Dubai to peddle drugs and make easy money is now again cooling his heels in jail a suitable reward will be given to whole team he added.

Parmesh S Jain

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai termed 40 per cent commission charges as ‘politically motivated’since it has been made without evidences.

Asked by reporters in Vidhana Soudha here on Thursday about Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah’s demand for an inquiry into 40 per cent commission charges,he said charges must be specific and accompanied with evidences. Without this only baseless press statements are made.

Approach Lokayukta

Bommai said there is an autonomous institution called Lokayukta to probe such cases.Recently, as per directions from the Karnataka High Court the powers of Anti-corruption Bureau had been given to Lokayukta.

Everyone has power to give complaint against anybody in that institution.But,politically motivated statements are issued.

Kempanna’s Contractors’s Association was not alone as there are Associations’ of Contractors who are executing the works of BBMP,PWD and other organisations.

But everybody have understood the motive of the media statements after meeting Siddaramaiah.

They say MLAs of all parties are involved in corruption.If this scandal had prevailed in the previous government why it did not come to light, he questioned.

Total transparency

He said a total transparency and seniority are strictly observed by clearing the pending bills. There are number of Contractors Association and strict instruction is given of not giving more than five per cent contract to any Association.

The bills of small contractors are cleared.The government has brought in transparency and seniority while cleaning the bills.

Their demands of small packages have been agreed and issued order.Despite doing all these things still they are making charges,what does it mean?

“Let them disclose the name officer who is not following rules.Why they did not reveal the names? Yesterday they have disclosed the name.

Already,Minister Munirathna has said that he will file a defamation suit and also file a complaint. So,action will be initiated”,he said.

Give evidence

Reacting to Congress leaders statements,the CM shot back,did they get all the cases probed while the Congress Party was in power? Are they Sathya Harishchandras?.

This is a clear cut case of politically motivated statements.Without any basis the Contractors are working like politicians.

I told the same thing to Kempanna when he met me.He was asked to give evidences.All their demands are met.

Our government issued order when they said tender must not be over Rs One crore and taluk level as it will be very big and increase in estimate too.

To check this tense scrutiny committee headed by a retired judge has been constituted.The tender document will be fully scrutinised before preparing estimate.

The committee will also vet tender rules.An utmost translation followed and contractors must make use of the same”.

On a question about revival of the Madrassas by Primary Education Minister B.C.Nagesh,the CM said the demand for the reforms of Madrassas has come from them and based on which the minister has convened a meeting.

Parmesh S Jain

The State Cabinet meeting held on Thursday has taken a decision to extend Vidyanidhi scheme to the children of agricultural labourers,said Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.

Speaking after inaugurating a slew of developmental workers and laying foundation stones for new pronects in Ranebennur Assembly Constituency,he said 4,000 angawadi centres are established specially to provide nutritious food for the kids of agricultural labourers.

Besides, Rs 50,000 scheme has been formulated for the rural artisans.

Fulfilling promises

The CM said the BJP government in the state was working as promised during election.As promised, 24*7 drinking water has been supplied to the people of Ranebennur.

Works have stated for 2 Medleri and Holeanaveri Irrigation schemes and already sanctioned Rs. 206 crore.

Ranebennur has been given Rs.45 crore under Nagarotthana scheme which was hughes.Apart from this,a special grant of Rs.75 to Rs.100 crore has been sanctioned.

A textile park is coming in up as promised in State budget.It will provide employment to around 5000 persons and this park will start functioning from this year.

He said special programs will be formulated for handloom and power looms of this region.The government has sanctioned a sericulture market to be established at a cost of Rs.30 crore.

The CM said Rs.400 crore was sanctioned to establish a medical college in Haveri which has started functioning from January this year.

Irrigation facility is provided for one lakh acres of land in Haveri,Ranebennur and Hangal and it shows the committment of the government. Several lift irrigation schemes will be dedicated to people soon,he added.

Parmesh S Jain

Government is committed to ensuring safety to doctors,strict measures will be taken against those who assault doctors:Karnataka Health Minister.

I encourage more and more youngsters to come into politics:Health Minister Sudhakar.

“The Karnataka government is committed to ensuring safety to doctors.Strict measures were taken against those who abuse or assault doctors.

Because of this,in recent years,the number of such incidents have gone down and awareness is increasing,”said Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar while interacting with medical students at BMCRI on Thursday,August 25.

The interaction event was dubbed the ‘Yuva Samvada’ which translates to ‘Interaction with Youth.’

During the event the Health and Medical Education Minister tried to have a free interaction with the students to try and understand the aspirations and concerns faced by medical students.

The Medical Education Minister went so far as to ask all the faculty except the Dean and Principal to leave the auditorium to make the students comfortable interacting with him.

During the interaction,Minister Sudhakar answered several questions and also provided assurance that all measures will be taken to address their concerns.

Replying to a question about attacks on doctors by a student named Akash Gangadhar,the Minister responded that he as the minister has taken a lot of measures to prevent attacks on doctors.

The issue is that some families feel that the doctor was responsible in case the patient dies. But the reality is that each doctor tries his best to save the patient.

The law allows very strict action to be taken against those who assault doctors and the government too has ensured that strict action has been taken against such people.

Attackers can be jailed for many years and a fine can also be imposed on them.The punishments must be publicised on social media to curb such behavior.The government will always stand by the doctors,Minister Sudhakar said.

The current batch which has worked during the pandemic has gained immense experience to handle such huge massive health crisis,Minister Sudhakar said.

Answering another question where a student asked,won’t increasing the number of medical colleges,more than engineering colleges,reduce the demand for doctors and end up causing unemployment,“Minister sudhakar stated,earlier, there used to be one doctor for every 2,300 people and now the number has improved to one doctor for every 900 people.

If we include Ayush doctors,the number stands at one doctor for 700 people.We have a population of 130 crore in our country and this indeed needs many more medical colleges.Also,medical tourism is growing in India.

Each college costs on an average Rs 750 crore and we are constructing the colleges through the PPP model to reduce the financial burden.

Till now,9 districts in Karnataka still don’t have medical colleges.We are trying to open colleges in Davanagere,Udupi,Kolar and Bengaluru Rural districts.

However, there won’t be a reduction of job opportunities in the medical field like engineering. More and more opportunities are coming up for doctors now.Never will doctors face unemployment,Minister Sudhakar said.

Answering a question by a student,Manikanthan on how to bring more students to politics, Minister Sudhakar asked people to take him as an example and enter politics.

All laws are formulated by representatives elected by people.If educated people who are willing to serve society dont come into politics it will cause huge problems.

It is true that coming to politics is a very laborious process.However, take an example of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji who was once a tea seller and has now risen up to the level of the Prime Minister.

This is the beauty of democracy.More youngsters need to enter politics to create a better society, Minister Sudhakar said.

One student suggested that the college fees must be reduced and they also suggested that uniformity must be brought in the stipends.

To this,Minister Sudhakar responded saying,Our govt increased the stipend by 30% to 60%, despite the revenue crunch during pandemic, which was never revised in the past eight years by previous governments.That shows our commitment.

Parmesh S Jain

BBMP, in association with Partnership for Healthy Cities,an initiative by Vital Strategies,with the intention to intensify its enforcement of tobacco
control laws,launched a campaign,“Be Smart – Don’t Start”, where it plans to engage students to help report violations of tobacco control laws,
especially around education institutions.

Launching this initiative,Dr Thrilok Chandra K V, Special Commissioner Health,BBMP,said Our team is constantly enforcing the tobacco control
laws,and there is a need to tackle repeat offenders,especially around educational institutions.

To address this issue,we have started this
initiative where children can voluntarily register and get educated about the harms of tobacco and also tobacco control laws.

Dr Balasundar A.S.CHO BBMP,said “We believe that this initiative would engage students of BBMP and private education institution to raise
awareness and also this gives an opportunity for the students who are interested in volunteering to interact with BBMP Health officials”Dr Kumar M V,Program officer Tobacco Control said,We will involve the health officials of all the eight BBMP zones to ensure that we can engage many students as possible.

Posters with the links to register will be
displayed in the schools and colleges.

Interested students once registered,will be trained to report violations.We also intend to train selected students to become student counselors.

Dr Thriveni B S,Project Director,Partnership for Healthy Cities,said we are happy to collaborate with BBMP for this campaign and we hope this
initiative will lead to a stronger association between education institutions and health department for effective reporting and enforcement of tobacco control laws through the involvement of students.

We observe many vendors are targeting students by violating some of the smoke-free laws around the education institutions which would be addressed by this campaign.

Parmesh S Jain

On 16 August,a Chinese naval vessel made a port call at Hambantota.The docking of this hi-tech ship in southern Sri Lanka has caused considerable apprehension in India.

Although the Chinese government insists the ship sailed in solely for refuelling,the Indian government is discomposed as they believe the vessel is part of a reconnaissance mission that will obtain intelligence on Indian maritime defence fleets.

After extensive consultation and dialogue with all relevant national regulatory bodies,Sri Lanka granted entry, provided security clearance,and issued a No Objection Letter.

However,the entry was contingent on their concession to keep the ship’s Automatic Identification System (AIS) accessible and running to monitor its position and activity within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

Indian concerns mounted when the ship overstayed its docking period and departed on 22 August instead of the scheduled 19 August.

No personnel rotations or research activities were detected.

Hambantota Port occupies a strategic position in the Indian Ocean,being at the crossroads of international shipping routes to Europe,America, and South Asia.

Sri Lanka offered India the opportunity to construct this port, but India passed on it. Therefore, China seized the opportunity.

India has reservations about Yuan Wang’s stationing at Hambantota as its powerful naval technology includes satellite and ballistic missile trackers and a marine radar with a range of 750 km.From its location, it can observe Indian nuclear stations at Kalpakkam and Koodankulam as well as six Indian ports.

Aggravating the tension is the fact that this is the second time in the decade that Sri Lanka allowed Chinese seacraft into their ports. In 2014, Colombo Port accommodated a nuclear submarine and warship despite India’s objections.

Ranil Wickremesinghe,the President of Sri Lanka, initially prorogued the docking permission but eventually yielded to mounting criticism that suggested he was caving under pressure from India.

Sri Lanka is in a quandary as it needs to maintain a delicate balance in diplomatic relations between India and China now more than ever.

Given its current economic crisis —characterised by soaring inflation, food scarcity, debt distress, and high unemployment — the island nation is keeping itself afloat through investments and credit lines from its neighbours.

Sri Lanka’s decision on Yuan Wang 5 has more to do with consolidating its own stability and national interests than disregarding Indian maritime security concerns.

In a brittle economic situation, they cannot adjudicate disputes or address unresolved tensions between India and China.

As of August 2022,Sri Lanka is $51B in international debt, owing $6.5 billion to China.

They resorted to payment-in-kind in 2018,ceding Hambantota Port to Beijing,when they defaulted on their repayments to China.

As of July 2022, India intends to offer Sri Lanka $3.8 billion in humanitarian aid. Notably,foreign donations and loans are equally strategic and humanitarian.

Sri Lanka can only clear its debts if the new administration can implement policies and practices to revitalise the economy, thereby normalising tax and interest rates and restructuring its debt plan.

If a country cannot make good on its debts, its creditors cannot repossess sovereign assets.

However,to save face and avert further disgrace on the international stage, they can relinquish assets or control,as Sri Lanka did with Hambantota Port, leasing it for 99 years.

To expand and strengthen its power and maritime ambition in the Indian Ocean,China has invested in Sri Lanka’s politics,infrastructure,and economy.

In terms of political investments, they have the upper hand over India.China has provided monetary and military support during anti-LTTE campaigns.

Where infrastructure is concerned, China constructed Hambantota Port and undertook real estate development on the outskirts of Colombo.

On an economic front,China is keeping Sri Lanka’s head above water after unsuccessful bailout package negotiations with the IMF.

By managing 10% of Sri Lanka’s debt, China is keeping the island country from slipping into the murky waters of bankruptcy.

Indian companies are also combatting crises on Sri Lankan soil.Lanka Indian Oil Corporation is set to open and operate 50 new fuel stations across Sri Lanka to mitigate the fuel shortage.

Naturally,there is an unspoken rivalry between Indian and Chinese efforts in Sri Lanka.Given the complicated history of Indo-Chinese relations, both will strive to equal and surpass the other’s contributions in a geolocation of shared interest.

Harin Fernando,the Sri Lankan Minister of Tourism, hopes diplomatic relations between India and Sri Lanka will not curdle because of Sri Lanka’s admittance of Yuan Wang 5.

India has reservations because the ship could survey its naval assets in the Indian Ocean. Moreover, considering China’s stakes in Sri Lanka’s precarious economy,the possibility of establishing a Chinese military base is not too remote. India likely shares the American concern that the People’s Liberation Army is commanding the ship in an effort to accrue information on satellites and missiles.

India has been a member of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD) —along with the US, Japan, and Australia—since its inception in 2007.

This alliance aimed to forestall China’s attempted hegemony over the Indo-Pacific in general and the South China Sea in particular.

Inspired by the vision of a Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP),they proposed orders and strategies for countries with interests in the Indo-Pacific to play fair,with the US formalising the document in 2019.

Further,India and China are UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) signatories.

Although the framework is legally binding, each country interprets the UNCLOS laws subjectively and according to its own geopolitical stakes and national interests.

As Sri Lanka’s government did not observe any suspicious activity or experience nonadherence from Yuan Wang 5’s crew in the EEZ, there was no breach of laws.

Suspicions and speculations, however compelling,cannot escalate into real security concerns without concrete proof.

However, India’s protests against Yuan Wang 5 may not be completely unreasonable and one-sided.

If Sri Lanka falls into a debt trap,interest/exchange rates and domestic stock prices will be affected, resulting in social and economic disruptions within the country.

As India is a major investor in Sri Lankan projects, business will suffer.

Maritime legal frameworks desperately require crisis management protocols to nurture international cooperation and respect,deescalate conflict,and avoid goading.

Parmesh S Jain

The west division police on Tuesday night conducted special drive to carry on surprise checks on the houses of rowdies and habitual offenders.

Senior officer told reporters,a team under the supervision of DCP, West division,Lakshman B Nimbargi,said that several teams have been formed to conduct checks on the 166 houses situated across the west division and questioned 100 rowdies.

As many as 32 rowdies who were out of view and nor appearing regularly at the station to mark their attendance,have been taken into custody and cases be booked against them.

The police during the search at the house of a rowdy,recovered a dagger and arrested him under arms act.

The accused identified as jibran @chaina @ Abdul Khader,having a total 15 cases pending against him was was in jail under Goonda act and was released few days back.

He will be booked under arm act and send back to the prison,a police officer,said.

Finally Bengaluru Police Commissioner,C H Pratap Reddy has appreciated Addl CP West, Sandeep Patil,DCP West,Laxman B Nimbargi ACPs,as,KC Giri, Kodandarama T,P Ravi,with around more than 150-200 cops of all ranks officers and staff were part of massive raid on Rowdy sheeter across West Division.