Archives for September 2023

BENGALURU: The Bengaluru bandh on Tuesday was peaceful, barring a few stray incidents. An MLA and two MLCs from BJP and over 1,000 protesters were detained as a preventive measure, and were released later.

They were taken into custody near Town Hall as they tried to take out a march defying the orders of the police commissioner, who had on Monday denied permission to protesters. At Freedom Park, where the protest was held, one protester tried to hang himself with the shawl he was wearing. The policemen at the spot stopped him from taking the extreme step. As he was gasping for breath, he was given first-aid.
In the stone-throwing incident, the police arrested two persons in Jayanagar.

“The bandh was peaceful. No untoward incident was reported from any parts. Elaborate security arrangements had been made. At a few places, protesters were taken into preventive custody, while a few organisations were allowed to protest at Freedom Park,” said Police Commissioner B Dayananda.

BENGALURU/MYSURU: Amid protests against release of Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu, the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee (CWRC) on Tuesday directed Karnataka to release 3,000 cusecs of water to the lower riparian State for 18 days from September 28. 

The CWRC issued the directive on the day when the State capital witnessed a near total bandh in response to the call given by farmers and various organisations against releasing water to TN.

“The current order (on releasing 5,000 cusecs daily) will be applicable till September 27.

So, we will discuss the directive with the State’s legal team and take a decision on the action to be taken,” Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told reporters in Mysuru while responding to a question on the CWRC directive. At the CWRC meeting, Karnataka contended that it is not in a position to release water from its reservoirs to TN. 

DKS: Happy CWRC rejected TN’s plea for 12,500 cusecs

As per Karnataka’s submission before the CWRC, cumulative inflows into its four reservoirs up to September 25 is 53.04%. It mentioned that the State Government has declared 161 taluks as severely drought-hit and 34 taluks as moderately drought-hit. Of them, 32 severely drought-hit taluks and 15 moderately drought-hit taluks are in the Cauvery basin of Karnataka.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister and Water Resources Minister DK Shivakumar said he is happy that the CWRC rejected TN’s plea for release of 12,500 cusecs of water. “Our officials convinced the CWRC about the distress situation in the State. The CWRC directed us to release 3,000 cusecs of water. I am thankful to the committee members for understanding our situation” he said.

As such, 2,000 cusecs of water is flowing towards TN everyday from the command areas of our dams. “We need to release around 1,000 cusecs of water more. It has been raining in the Cauvery basin areas in the State for the last couple of days. We have good inflows now,” he said. Shivakumar said the officials will present the distress situation in the State at the Cauvery Water Management Authority (CWMA) meeting to be held soon.

“There is no need for another bandh on Friday,” he added. According to Shivakumar, the Mekedatu balancing reservoir project will be a solution to the Cauvery dispute between Karnataka and TN.

“Mekedatu reservoir is the solution. There is a need to convince the people of Karnataka as well as the Tamil Nadu Gover nment. Even the Supreme Court has mentioned that allowing Karnataka to construct dams should not be a problem as long as it releases 177 tmcft of water to TN,” he said.

This will also help Tamil Nadu as Karnataka will be able to release water in distress situations, he added.

BENGALURU:   Two days after the JDS officially agreed to join the NDA, the regional party is geared for action. But even as former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Kumaraswamy met senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader  BS Yediyurappa to seek his blessings, murmurs of dissent grew loud, and some leaders of the Janata Dal (Secular) (JDS) minority cell decided to quit the party. 

In fact, mass resignations are expected soon. JDS Vice-President Syed Shafiulla Saheb had sent his resignation letter to JDS President CM Ibrahim, who passed it on to party supremo and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda. Spokesperson UT Farzana Ashraf also resigned from the party membership. At a meeting of minority leaders on Sunday, more leaders decided to quit. Ibrahim, who has been mum, is likely to take a decision at the earliest. He had quit the Congress and joined JDS a few years ago. 

Meanwhile, Kumaraswamy continued to slam the state government for proposing to open bars in every village which has a population of over 3,000. In a series of posts on his social media account, Kumaraswamy said Karnataka is a prosperous state. “By providing liquor to every household, the government is giving liquor guarantee to increase its revenue,” he said. The government is making Karnataka into a drunkards’ adda,’’ he said. 

The government claimed to empower women with the Shakti scheme, but is destroying their families with liquor, he added. Housing Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan slammed Kumaraswamy, and challenged him to say whether he would win from Channapatna without Muslim votes. “Let HD Revanna, Turuvekere Krishnappa, Chikkanayakanahalli, Suresh Babu, Gurmitkal Nagangouda Kandakur, Deodurga Karemma and Chennarayapatna Balakrishna say Muslims need not vote for them,” he said. 

He said Kumaraswamy did not win by a big margin in Channapatna and had Muslims not supported him, he would have been defeated. On the other hand, BJP leaders too are unhappy with the alliance, as it may cost them their tickets in the Lok Sabha elections. 

“JDS does not have a presence in Karnataka, their number dropped to 19 in the assembly election, and many leaders joined the Congress. Their only Lok Sabha seat of Hassan is in dispute. We are not going to benefit,” said a BJP leader, on the condition of anonymity.

MANGALURU:  Stating that over 1,600 schools and PU colleges are operating illegally in the state, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa said the government is cautious in taking action against them in the interest of students who have taken admission in those institutes.

Addressing the media here on Sunday, Bangarappa said the managements that have availed permission to run these institutes and the ones that are actually running them are different, and the addresses that are mentioned are also different. In order to make them fall in line, he said the norms to avail permission have been made more strict from the next academic year.  

Referring to the matter of reducing weight of school bags, he said that his department has worked out a formula to reduce the same by 1/3rd compared to the present weight.  He justified the government’s decision to conduct Board exams for Classes 9 and 11, stating that it will help them prepare for the public exams in Classes 10 and 12.  

Stating that over 53,000 government school teacher posts remain vacant in the state, he said there will be marked improvement in this regard in a year. About 2,000 bi-lingual Karnataka Public Schools (KPS) will be opened, and there will be one KPS for every 2-3 gram panchayats.  

To a query, the minister stated that some PU colleges conducting classes for 12 hours a day is not acceptable, and called for a stop to such practices.