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Archives for July 2023

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah gets boost after CLP meeting

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BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah got a shot in the arm after convening the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting as he created an opportunity to establish himself as the top leader with his supporters backing him fully. Also, the MLAs, led by Aland legislator BR Patil — who had written to the chief minister urging him to hold the CLP, apologised to him for writing the letter. 

“The chief minister told them it was not proper to write the letter as it looked like a signature campaign and he would have responded to their request even if they had asked him orally. He told them that the practice of writing letters should stop. Telling him that they did not want to launch a signature campaign, they apologised to both the chief minister and KPCC president DK Shivakumar,” Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara told reporters in Tumakuru on Friday. 

Siddaramaiah, during his earlier tenure During between 2013 and 2018 too, had resorted to a similar strategy to sort out the differences among MLAs and consolidated his position, political analysts said. This time, too, he has responded quickly to address MLAs’ concerns that ministers were letting them down, they added.

Interestingly, both Patil and former minister Basavaraja Rayareddy, who had signed the letter, are followers of Siddaramaiah. They both joined Congress from other parties. 

On Friday morning, former deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi met Siddaramaiah. Meanwhile, PWD Minister Satish Jarkiholi, a staunch supporter of Siddaramaiah, issued a statement that he is not in the race for the chief minister’s post in the present tenure, indicating that he will back Siddaramaiah as chief minister.

At a time Deputy CM DK Shivakumar said there was a conspiracy to destabilise the government from Singapore, the CLP meeting boosted the morale of Congress leaders and Siddaramaiah, said a senior Congress leader. Siddaramaiah is starting visits to districts from Monday to review the progress, and he is already in Haveri district. His aim is to take control of the bureaucracy amid a cash-for-transfer controversy, as alleged by opposition parties, especially JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy.

Telangana rains: Eight persons swept away in flood waters, relief operations continue

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About 3,500 people have been evacuated from areas situated on the banks of Godavari river in the district as a precautionary measure, police said.

An aerial view of an area submerged in the floodwaters of the swollen Godavari River, in Bhupalpally district. (Photo | PTI)

HYDERABAD: Eight persons were swept away in the flood waters of a rivulet in Mulugu district of Telangana following heavy rains and their bodies were recovered on Friday, even as relief operations continued at several places in the state.

Telangana DGP Anjani Kumar said that with the help of respective district administrations, around 19,000 people have been shifted to safer places in many districts, according to an official release.

In Mulugu district, 12 members of a remote village were swept away in flood waters when they were moving towards a safer place on Thursday, but four of them managed to save themselves, police said.

The bodies of the eight persons who went missing were found today.

Around 60 people in the habitation, which was cut off from other places due to the collapse of a bridge on the rivulet, stood on the top of a Gram Panchayat building and were clinging on with the hope of getting rescued, they said.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel, who could not reach the habitation on Thursday due to the force of flood waters in the rivulet, rescued the stranded people on Friday.

About 80-100 people, including those who required medical help, were rescued including in boats, police said.

Food packets were provided to some who took shelter at the high ground in the district by choppers and boats.

About 3,500 people have been evacuated from areas situated on the banks of Godavari river in the district as a precautionary measure, police said.

The heavy rains lashing Telangana during the last several days led to inundation of low-lying areas and damage to roads at many places in the state.

Panchayat Raj Minister Errabelli Dayakar Rao visited the rain-hit areas in Warangal on Friday.

Observing that rains caused extensive damage in the undivided Warangal district, he said officials and the relief personnel should continue their efforts till normalcy is restored.

In the temple town of Bhadrachalam, the water level in Godavari River stood at 52.80 feet at 8 pm and the second flood warning was in force (third and final warning level is 53 ft).

Chief Secretary A Santhi Kumari directed the district collectors to take effective measures to prevent the spread of infectious diseases in flood-affected areas as the heavy rains that lashed the state for the past few days have started subsiding.

The Chief Secretary, who held a teleconference with district collectors, appreciated that loss of life and property has been reduced so far due to the collective efforts of the district administrative machinery and police officers, an official release said.

She said similar relief measures should be carried out for another 24 hours.

As the flood caused by the rains has receded, the collectors were told to carry out sanitation measures vigorously to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

Proper care should be taken in providing adequate food and fresh water to the victims of downpours and flooding who are already staying in the relief camps, she said.

Out of 10 NDRF teams, two teams are in Bhadrachalam and Nirmal, while one team each is stationed in Kothagudem, Mulugu, Warangal, Khammam, Bhupalapally and Hyderabad.

DGP Kumar, who attended the teleconference, also said special control rooms have been set up in several districts with senior police officers deputed to monitor the situation, release said.

In its daily weather report of Telangana (at 0830 hours on July 28), the IMD here said exceptionally heavy rainfall occurred at isolated places in Nizamabad and Nirmal districts of Telangana.

Khanpur in Nirmal district received 27 centimetres of rainfall, followed by Navipet (25 cms) in Nizamabad district and Kathlapur (18 cms) in Jagtial district, it said.

Rain occurred at most places over Telangana, the report said.

In a press release, the IMD’s Met Centre forecast that light to moderate rain or thundershowers are very likely to occur at a few places over Telangana on July 29.

Telangana has been receiving heavy rains for the past several days, resulting in the inundation of low-lying areas and disruption of road links.

The Met Centre on Thursday said Chityal in Jayashankar Bhupalpally district received a record 62 cm rainfall during 24 hours till 08.30 am on Thursday.

Eight persons have died in various rain-related incidents since July 22, official sources had said on Thursday.

Elon Musk wants to turn tweets into ‘X’s’. But changing language is not quite so simple

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Twitter logo

SAN FRANCISCO: Elon Musk may want to send “tweet” back to the birds, but the ubiquitous term for posting on the site he now calls X is here to stay — at least for now.

For one, the word is still plastered all over the site formerly known as Twitter. Write a post, you still need to press a blue button that says “tweet” to publish it. To repost it, you still tap “retweet.”

With “tweets,” Twitter accomplished in just a few years something few companies have done in a lifetime: It became a verb and implanted itself into the lexicon of America and the world. Upending that takes more than a top-down declaration, even if it is from the owner of Twitter-turned-X, who also happens to be one of the world’s richest men.

“Language has always come from the people that use it on a day-to-day basis. And it can’t be controlled, it can’t be created, it can’t be morphed. You don’t get to decide it,” said Nick Bilton, the author of “Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal” about Twitter’s origins.

Twitter didn’t start out as Twitter. It was “twttr” — without vowels, which was the trend in 2006 when the platform launched and SMS texting was wildly popular. The iPhone only came out in 2007.

Twitter co-founder Evan Williams “went one day and purchased the vowels, two vowels for essentially $7,500 each,” when he bought the URL for twitter.com from a bird enthusiast, Bilton said.

At the beginning, people didn’t “tweet” — it was “I’m going to twitter this,” Bilton recalled. But “twittered” doesn’t roll off the tongue and “tweet” soon took over, first in the Twitter office, then San Francisco, then everywhere.

We’ve been tweeting for well over a decade. World leaders, celebrities and athletes, dissidents in repressive regimes, propaganda trolls, sex workers and religious icons, meme queens and actual queens. Former president Donald Trump’s incendiary use of the bird app quickly punted “tweet” into near-constant headlines during his presidency. People who never signed up for Twitter knew what the word meant.

For now, we still tweet, retweet and quote tweet, and sometimes — perhaps not often enough — delete tweets. News sites embed tweets in their stories and TV programs scroll them. No other social network has a word for posting that’s entered the vernacular like “tweet” — though Google did the same for “googling.”

The Oxford English Dictionary added “tweet” in 2011. Merriam-Webster followed in 2013. The Associated Press Stylebook entered it in 2010.

“Getting into the dictionary is an indication that people are already using it,” said Jack Lynch, a Rutgers University English professor who studies the history of language. “Dictionaries are usually pretty tentative or cautious about letting new words in, especially for new phenomena, because they don’t want things to be just a flash in the pan.”

As Twitter grew into a global communications platform and struggled with misinformation, trolls and hate speech, its friendly brand image remained. The bluebird icon evokes a smile, like the Amazon up-turned-arrow smile — in contrast to the X that Musk has imposed.

Martin Grasser was two years out of art school when Twitter hired him for the logo redesign in 2011. His wasn’t the first bird logo for Twitter, but it would be the most enduring.

“They knew they wanted a bird. So we weren’t starting completely over, but they wanted it to be on par with Apple and Nike. That was really brief,” he said.

Twitter launched Grasser’s design in May 2012; the company went public on Wall Street later that year.

One early in-house design shown to Grasser looked like “a flying goose with a tail. It looked kind of like a dragon. It was crazy,” he said. Jack Dorsey, another co-founder (and twice-CEO) wanted something simpler.

The bird represented a vision of Twitter as a friendly place “where everyone can weigh in and chat,” Grasser said.

“The round form evokes a sense of optimism, the bird even being sort of turned upward, as corny as that sounds, I think is different than a bird flying down or flat,” he said. “We wanted to give it this idea of like soaring.″

The word “Twitter” itself is playful, as is “tweet.” This was no accident, Bilton said.

Other names that floated as the platform started out included “Status” and “Friend Stalker.”

It was Noah Glass, another co-founder who never quite got the credit he deserved for his role in hatching Twitter, who had the winning idea.

Glass, Bilton said, “had been thinking about like heartbeats and emotions. He was going through a divorce and he literally went through the dictionary word by word until he came across the word twitter. And he just knew instantly that was it.”

“He was one of the four founders who had the emotional intelligence to be able to understand that this was about connecting with humans,” Bilton said. “It was inviting, it was emotional. It was about connecting with humans and your friends and your loved ones.”

Musk began his quest erasing Twitter’s corporate culture and image in favor of his own vision as soon as he took over the company in October 2022. He lost three-quarters of the company’s staff through firings, layoffs and voluntary departures, auctioned off furniture and décor, and upended policies on hate speech and misinformation. The rebranding to X was no surprise.

Twitter’s rebranding is rooted in ambition that Musk began to pursue nearly a quarter century ago after he sold his first startup, Zip2, to Compaq Computer. He set out to create a one-stop digital shop for finance called X.com — an “everything” service that would provide bank accounts, process payments, make loans and handle investments.

He has not given up on the dream. Twitter is now X, falling in line with Musk’s other X-named brands, SpaceX and Tesla’s Model X. Not to mention his young son, whom he calls “X.”

His goal for X is to turn it into an “everything” app — for video, photos, messaging, payments and other services, although he has given few details. For now, X.com is still, essentially Twitter.com, even as the bluebird and other playful tidbits start to disappear.

“There used to be a saying inside Twitter that Twitter was the company that couldn’t kill itself. I think that still rings true, whether it’s called Twitter or X,” Bilton said.

“I think that it’s kind of become a fabric of society. And even Elon Musk may not be able to break it.”

Indian men’s and women’s football teams cleared to play at Asian Games

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Indian men's football team. (Photo | Twitter)

CHENNAI:  The sports ministry on Wednesday cleared both India’s men’s and women’s football teams for the Asian Games. There were needless controversies running up to the decision of the sports ministry. The sports ministry through a tweet announced that keeping in mind its recent performances the ministry has relaxed norms and cleared the team.

Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur tweeted: “Good news for Indian football lovers! Our national football teams, both Men’s and Women’s, are set to participate in the upcoming Asian Games. The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, has decided to relax the rules to facilitate the participation of both teams, which were not qualifying as per the existing criterion. Keeping in mind their latest performances in recent times, the Ministry decided to grant the relaxation. I am sure they will put their best foot forward in the Asian Games and make our country proud.”

The IOA recently said that they would prefer sending teams that qualify and meet sports ministry criteria – top eight in Asia. The Indian men’s football team is ranked 18th.  The sports ministry finally sanctioned almost all team sports except four which include water polo, handball men, basketball 5×5 men and softball.

The prospects of teams that looked bleak like volleyball have been cleared. According to a circular from the sports ministry, 15 teams have been sanctioned at a cost to the government.

Karnataka floods: CM to visit districts from next week to review situation

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BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will start his tour of districts on Monday to review the flood situation and agricultural activities.

“Most probably, I will start my tour on Monday to Mangaluru, Udupi, Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru districts,” he told reporters after holding a video conference on Wednesday with deputy commissioners and chief executive officers (CEOs) of zilla panchayats on the flood and drought situation in the state.

“Sixty-four people died between January 1 and July 25. These deaths, due to disasters, could have been avoided if the district administrations had been alert,” he said during the five-hour meeting.

He directed the officials of agriculture, rural development, revenue, police and other departments to work in tandem. He asked the DCs to spend grants available with them on emergency works.

Siddaramaiah said district-level officials should stay put in their headquarters and monitor the rain and flood situation. “Don’t wait for the disasters to happen to shift people to safe places,” he added. He took the officials to task for not taking steps to repair anganwadi centres, school and hospital buildings 
that are in a dilapidated state despite the government releasing funds for the same. “Such indifference and neglect will not be tolerated,” he warned them.

“There are many complaints from people that the houses built by the previous BJP government are not fit for occupation. Hence, precautionary measures should be taken,” he told the officials. Siddaramaiah lauded the Udupi district in-charge minister when she stated that the opening of war rooms in the district some time ago had helped in taking steps to tackle flash floods.

The CM said that a separate meeting on sea erosion will be held soon. A permanent solution has to be found to prevent sea erosion, he added. Referring to 12 bridges that have been submerged in Belgaum district, the CM said people living in flood-hit villages should be shifted to rehabilitation centres. There is no restriction on payment for work under SDRF and NDRF and also on taking up new works immediately, Siddaramaiah said. He directed the police to ensure that money lenders did not harass farmers.

Stating that sowing is now picking up with most districts receiving good rainfall, he asked the Agriculture Department to ensure adequate seeds, fertilizers and pesticides.

Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah on Tuesday night said that all efforts are being taken to ensure that problems stemming from the rains would be tackled. “To ensure safety, Deputy Commissioners have declared holidays for schools and colleges in the vulnerable regions and it is advised for all citizens to adhere to the instructions of local administration,” he said.

Speaking to The New Indian Express, School Education Commissioner Cauvery BB said that the decision to declare a holiday to educational institutions is being made on the basis of rain severity in districts.

UCC unnecessary row created by Centre: CM:Siddaramaiah

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Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. (Photo | Nagaraja Gadekal, EPS)

BENGALURU: The State Government will not compromise on protecting the rights of Adivasis, tribals and minorities as prescribed in the Constitution. The CM made this assurance to a delegation of the Muslim Personal Law Board who met him on Wednesday and expressed apprehension over the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

The delegation claimed that UCC is a threat to Adivasis, tribals and minorities. They said the previous Law Commission had rejected the Union Government’s proposal, saying UCC was not feasible in a country 
as diverse as India.

Responding to the delegation, Siddaramaiah said the Karnataka government will not allow suppression of the rights of the Minorities. “The Union Government is creating unnecessary controversy ahead of the Lok Sabha elections,” the CM added.

The delegation also requested the State Government to protect waqf properties and clear encroachments. 
The delegation included former Rajya Sabha member K Rehman Khan, Housing and Minority Welfare Minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan, Legislative Council Chief Whip Saleem Ahmed, MLA Rizwan Arshad, Political Secretary to Chief Minister Nazir Ahmed, Maulana Syed Mustafa Rafai Nadvi, Maulana Syed Muhammad Tanveer Hashmi, Maulana Shabir Ahmad Hussaini Nadvi, Mufti Iftikhar, Ahmed Qasmi, among others.

Oppn likely to boycott RS Business Advisory Committee meeting to press for PM statement on Manipur

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NEW DELHI: Opposition alliance INDIA is likely to boycott a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of Rajya Sabha to be held on Thursday morning to protest against the prime minister not making a statement on Manipur violence in Parliament, a senior leader said.

The Rajya Sabha BAC has 11 members including the Vice President as its ex-officio chairman.

Sources said the parties may send someone who is not a member as an “observer” to the meeting.

However, it is not clear if such an “observer” will be allowed to attend the meeting.

On July 20, several opposition leaders had walked out of a BAC meeting to protest against Modi not making a statement on the Manipur issue in Parliament and the Centre bringing a bill to replace an ordinance on the control of services in Delhi despite it being sub-judice.

Leaders of the Congress and other opposition parties including the Left, TMC, DMK, RJD, NCP and AAP walked out of the meeting as their protest in writing was not lodged by the chairman.

On Wednesday, the Congress moved a no-confidence motion against the government in Lok Sabha on behalf of the INDIA bloc to press Modi to speak on the months-long ethnic violence in Manipur in which over 160 people have been killed.

Cops arrive at Twitter’s San Francisco HQ after work on sign removal starts

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A day after Elon Musk rebranded Twitter as ‘X’, cops were briefly called to Twitter’s San Francisco HQ after a worker began tearing down letters from the building’s iconic sign.

According to MailOnline, police responded to a ‘possible unpermitted street closure’ outside the building on Monday afternoon after a man on a cherry picker was seen removing pieces of the company’s sign – but later said no crime had been committed.

San Francisco Police Department officers suggested the work had been authorized by Twitter but not been properly communicated with building security. Police told DailyMail.com in a statement that it was not a police matter and directed any further questions to Twitter. 

The report said that crowds gathered and took photos of the sign’s dismantlement, which may mark the elimination of an internet brand that for nearly a decade and a half changed the way people around the world communicated. 

The Daily Mail added that inside the building, Musk also started renaming conference rooms to incorporate the letter X, using names such as ‘eXposure,’ ‘eXult’ and ‘s3Xy,.

No entry for bikes, autos, tractors on Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway from August 1

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BENGALURU: From August 1, two-wheelers, three-wheelers, tractors and other agricultural vehicles will not be allowed to enter the Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway. 

A notification was issued on July 12 and will come into effect from August 1, a top official from National Highways Authority of India told The New Indian Express. 

While there were demands before NHAI to allow two-wheelers with high cubic capacity (indicating power output of the engine) to be allowed, with the toll fee, all requests were declined and a blanket ban was imposed on all kinds of two-wheelers. 


The 6-lane expressway, which reduces travel time between Bengaluru and Mysuru, was officially inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March, but was opened to traffic months earlier. Ever since, it has been in the news for one or other reason, including fatal accidents, controversy over the toll fee, and lack of a continuous service road. 

Home Minister G Parameshwara had stated that the e-way lacks scientific planning and the police department, led by Additional Director General of Police (Traffic and Road Safety) Alok Kumar inspected the stretch in June and started penalising overspeeding vehicles. Of the 296 accidents on the e-way since January, 132 were fatal. The maximum speed limit allowed on the e-way is 100 km/hour.

After being heavily criticised for the increasing number of accidents, NHAI set up a three-member committee to inspect the stretch and is expected to submit a report by this month-end.

Additional Director-General of Police (Traffic and Road Safety) Alok Kumar inspected the Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway on Tuesday along with Ramanagara SP Karthik Reddy and IGP (Central Range) BR Ravikanthe Gowda. Alok Kumar examined the safety measures taken to curb the increasing accidents on the expressway.

Congress MLAs unhappy? Karnataka CM downplays such claims

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Siddaramaiah

BENGALURU/HUBBALLI : Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday downplayed claims that some Congress MLAs are unhappy with his cabinet ministers for not providing adequate funds for development works in their constituencies. Addressing reporters at Hubballi, Siddaramaiah said if Congress MLAs have problems, they could discuss them at the legislative party meeting to be held on Thursday.

While a fake letter on Congress MLA BR Patil’s letterhead, which stated that many MLAs are unhappy with the ministers for not providing funds for various development works, created a flutter in political circles, nearly 30 MLAs have written to the CM urging him to convene a meeting of CLP.

Siddaramaiah said the MLAs requested him to hold a meeting, but it was deferred in the wake of the proposed meeting of former AICC president Rahul Gandhi with them. However, it did not happen. Debunking claims, the CM said, “No MLA has complained against any minister

Meanwhile, Patil said the alleged letter is fake and he would ask the police to take action against those responsible for it.

Koppal MLA Basavaraj Rayareddy said that they have written to the CM to hold a meeting of CLP to discuss the need for better coordination between MLAs and ministers. Rayareddy, however, said they have nothing to do with the fake letter. 

Meanwhile, the BJP tweeted, “Angered by the transfer racket and frequent interference in administration, 30 Congress MLAs have turned against 20 ministers and filed a complaint seeking CM’s intervention. Within two months of coming to power, the Siddaramaiah government is facing a no-confidence motion from their legislators.”

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