NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to accord urgent hearing on the pleas challenging the Karnataka High Court verdict which dismissed the petitions seeking permission to wear hijab inside the classroom and stated that the headscarf is not a part of the essential religious practice in Islam.

A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justice Krishna Murari denied the request of senior advocate Devadatt Kamat who mentioned the matter seeking urgent listing saying that examinations are going on.

“Exams have nothing to do with the issue,” the bench said.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that they are repeatedly mentioning the matter.

“Mr SG, can you wait,” the apex court said, while asking Kamat not to sensitise the issue.

“These are girls, the exams are from 28th. They are being prevented from entering the schools. One year will go,” Kamat said.

The apex court, however, did not accede to the request.

On March 16, the apex court had agreed to list for hearing after Holi vacation the pleas challenging the Karnataka High Court verdict which dismissed the petitions seeking permission to wear hijab inside the classroom saying it is not a part of the essential religious practice in the Islamic faith.

It had taken note of the submissions of senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for some students, that urgent hearing was needed keeping in mind the upcoming examinations.

Some petitions have been filed against the full bench high court verdict which held that wearing hijab is not a part of essential religious practice in the Islamic faith under Article 25 of the Constitution.

The high court had dismissed the petitions filed by a section of Muslim students from the Government Pre-University Girls College in Udupi, seeking permission to wear hijab inside the classroom.

The prescription of school uniform is only a reasonable restriction, constitutionally permissible which the students cannot object to, the high court had said.

Nasheman news

The Aam Aadmi Party state president Prithvi Reddy inaugurated the party’s state wide membership drive on Wednesday. The membership drive was inaugurated by inducting a peanut wendor in cubbon park, an auto rikshaw driver, a practicing Doctor, a lawyer, a journalist and many others joined the party.

Speaking after the inauguration, Prithvi Reddy said, “The Aam Aadmi Party has got the recognition as the fastest growing party in the country. We have come to power in two states even before the party completes 10 years. We are getting good response in Karnataka as well. We have started the membership drive in the state with the intent of building the party into a huge force.”

“We have the target of inducting 50 lakh members in a month. We are keeping in touch with the people through our pro-people demonstrations, house visits and with the help of technology. People are getting attracted to the achievements of Delhi C M Kejriwal’s government and the ideology of the Aam Aadmi Party. This membership drive will give a huge boost to the party building in the state,” Prithvi Reddy said.

“Kannadigas have always admired the Aam Aadmi Party looking at Delhi C M Kejriwal’s transparent and pro- people administration. Now the admiration has grown two fold as the party has come to power in Punjab with a good majority. Looking at all these, it is clear that our membership drive will be successful beyond expectations,” Prithvi Reddy opined.

A A P leaders such as Mohan Dasari, Nanjappa Kalegowda, Kushala Swamy, Jagadish V Sadam, Fariduddin Sheriff, Chennappa Gowda Nellooru, Usha Mohan, Vijay Shastrimath, Manjunatha Swamy, Mukund and others were present in the event.

By David Bodapati

Bengaluru: Karnataka is one of the States in India with a good TB response with all the 31 districts aggressively working towards the National goal of Universal Access and Zero TB deaths as a part of End TB Strategy but certain challenges in notifying cases from the private sector and structural barriers for the vulnerable communities to access free treatment and care, means a lot more push is needed to integrate the response from all stakeholders.

The theme of World TB Day 2022 on March 24, ‘Invest to End TB. Save Lives’ conveys the urgent need to invest resources for both prevention and cure, to ramp up the fight against TB. Working closely with the Indian government’s ambitious National TB Elimination Programme (NTEP), Breaking the Barriers (BTB) project, uses community engagement as a central ploy in accelerating TB elimination.

There are about 90,000 cases on treatment every year in Karnataka with active disease and the total lost to follow up rate which was 10 per cent in 2009 is reduced to 2 per cent in 2021. The success rates of TB treatment, too, have improved from 76.9 per cent to 81.5 per cent (2018 to 2021). However, stigma and discrimination, socio-cultural barriers for vulnerable communities like people living with HIV, persons with TB staying alone, old patients above the age of 60 and people who are exposed to dust and other habits like use of tobacco and alcohol complicate things for the public health programme, which has roped in NGOs and civil society organisations for creating awareness and other support systems. People with co-morbidities and who are diagnosed with Drug Resistant TB also fall into these vulnerable groups.

KHPT’s Breaking the Barriers is a project that has created a strong impact in its short existence as it was built on the learnings from an earlier TB project called THALI, where the differential care model was a big success. The project focuses on the social side of the impact with a unique care model for the affected and vulnerable groups and involves a community engagement initiative to accelerate TB elimination in India. Armed with KHPT’s experience of two decades of evidence-based work involving grass-root communities with a scientific approach to public health innovations, the TB project involves community structures like ASHAs, Anganwadi workers, SHG members, civil society organisations, faith leaders and works with the district TB centres.

With staff working along the government district teams, BTB project is run in 87 TB treatment units in 15 districts reaching out to a vulnerable population of over 10 lakh in Assam and Bihar and over 34 lakh in Karnataka and Telangana. In Karnataka the project caters to 31 of the 272 TB treatment Units in five districts, with each TU reaching out to 2.5 lakh population. The five districts include Bengaluru Urban and four in the highly-vulnerable North Karnataka namely Bagalkot, Belgaum, Koppal and Bellary, the district with the highest prevalence in the State. The project reaches out to over 14,04,330 population where 1226 sites were mapped with clustered vulnerable populations.

The project seeks to fill the critical gap in addressing TB among the target population. The strategy is to innovate, test and demonstrate a set of pilots that address specific barriers to health in the contexts unique to each of these at-risk groups. A visit to some of these sites in Sangareddy, Warangal in Telangana State and, Ballari and Koppal in Karnataka revealed a human side to the challenge. Many innovations like starters kit, healthy buddy, phone a friend, TB mukt certificate and health auto help the communities over come stigma and access-related issues in a patriarchal society. Let us see how some of these innovations are helping the community on the road to end-TB.

Shankar (name changed) works in the mines in the industrial belt of Sangareddy district of Telangana. He could not take medicines openly in front of his fellow workers during his shift hours for fear of losing his job. He became irregular in consuming his TB medicines and soon fell sick and lost his job. But ahead of the World TB day Shankar is back to work, thanks to the TB mukt certificate.

“At KHPT, through the BTB project in four states, we have found that investing in vulnerable communities and building their capacities has empowered them to create a safe environment that enables recovery for persons with TB. Community engagement and partnerships between the health system and community leaders and structures are essential to sustain TB control efforts at the grassroots,  and our interventions are designed to build and sustain such partnerships for TB elimination,” Mohan HL, CEO, KHPT.

The KHPT project staff encourage active community involvement and through patient support group meetings improve the coverage of vulnerable populations like tribals, migrants, and mine workers. The approach has been a tremendous success in supporting increased case notification and improved successful treatment for both drug-sensitive and resistant TB.

“The support from the counsellor helped me discover and speak to a TB survivor when I was down. He encouraged me and supported me to complete the treatment through a Starter Kit, which was very useful,” said Shankar from Sangareddy industrial belt. Armed with a TB Mukt certificate, he was able to convince his supervisor and got his job back. 

The expected project outcomes are to develop and scale up effective behaviour change operational models that improve coverage of vulnerable populations and to log increased case notification, and improved successful treatment outcomes in DR TB.

Minister B C Nagesh

Bengaluru: Ruling out holding re-exams for those who skipped them on account of the hijab row, Karnataka Minister for Primary and Secondary Education B C Nagesh on Monday said there is no such system for absentees.

He said exams are competitive in nature and there cannot be humanitarian consideration for absentees.

“Whatever the Court has said, we will abide by it. Being absent from exams will only be the prime factor and not the reason, whether it may be because of hijab row or ill-health or inability to attend or for not having studied. In the final exam- absent means absent- repeat exams cannot be held,” Nagesh said in response to a question.

Speaking to reporters here, he said only those who have failed in the exam will have an opportunity to take up the supplementary exams.

“There cannot be new precedent, from the time the board exams are being held, there is no such system to hold re-exam for absentees,” he added.

Following the Karnataka High Court’s interim order in February restraining all the students from wearing saffron shawls, scarves, hijab and any religious flag within the classroom, several Muslim girl students had boycotted classes and had skipped the practical exams.

The Court in its final order on March 15 had dismissed petitions filed by a section of Muslim girl students, seeking permission to wear the headscarf inside the classroom.

With the High Court order now being challenged in the Supreme Court, several Muslim girls continue to boycott classes and have indicated about skipping second PUC (class 12) board exams in April, with some of them making it clear that they would not return to classrooms without their hijab.

Stating that there cannot be humanitarian consideration while holding exams or in the education system, the Minister said, exams are competitive and it should be held in an uniform way, in which rank or first class or others is to be scored.

“If we consider humanitarian grounds, tomorrow people will come with varied reasons for not attending exams and seek re-exam.. it cannot happen. There is no such system of holding re-exam for absentees,” he said.

Noting that the interim order and thereafter the final order on the hijab row had come much before the exams, Nagesh said, “I can’t believe the PU students who have gone to Supreme Court, would not have gone through the interim and final order. They are clever, some of them have decided to be absent, after going through it.” 

Parmesh S Jain

A 15-year-old girl was killed while a biker and another woman pedestrian were escaped narrowly with injured after a speeding BBMP garbage truck knocked them down in front of Hebbal police station on Monday afternoon.

The deceased has been identified as Akshaya, 9th standard student and daughter of Narasimha Murthy and Geetha.

The family hail from Kolar and residing in Vishwanatha Nagenahalli.Murthy,who works as a conductor in BMTC.

DCP, Traffic North,Ms.Savitha who visited the spot and after collecting information she said,The incident occurred around 12.45pm and the girl who was in uniform was crossing the road opposite Hebbal under pass and returning home. She was returning home after writing her last exam.

Meanwhile the driver of BBMP truck heading towards Airport road hit the girl and crashed into a bike and car which were ahead.

The bike rider,a private company employee escaped with injuries while Akshaya died on the spot as she came under the rear wheel.

Another woman pedestrian identified as Soumya, (40), was also injured and the duo were shifted to a private hospital in Hebbal and they are recovering.

The truck also collided with a cab before coming to the halt the driver soon escaped leaving the truck behind and later arrested by RT Nagar traffic police.

Based on a complaint by girl’ father Murthy a case has been registered in RT Nagar traffic police station .

Murthy alleged that there was water logging in the under pass due to heavy rain on Sunday evening and pedestrians not able to use the underpass.

Thus my daughter along with two women tried to cross the main road and driver who was overspeeding the truck lost control and hit my daughter and two other vehicle.

Another police officer from Hebbal police station said that staff had complained to the BBMP control room about the water logging at the underpass at the early morning but no one came to clear the water.

The police are contemplating booking case against BBMP officials concerned for their negligence .

The RT Nagar traffic police arrested the driver, Manjunath,35,on the charges of reckless driving and death due to negligence,for further investigations she added.

Parmesh S Jain

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai today announced his approval for opening of 340 new libraries and the necessary orders in this regard would be issued immediately,he declared.

The Chief Minister was speaking after inaugurating ‘Grama DG Vikasana-2022’ organised by Shikshana Foundation, Dell International Services and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department.

Gram Panchayats need to be formed in the new Taluks.They would be started in the current year itself. Digitisation of 3409 libraries too need to be completed this year itself, he said.

Personality development through Knowledge

There is digital reluctance among the people at lower strata of the society.Digital knowledge has improved with the usage of mobile phones.

Gram Panchayat libraries have been digitised to enable personality development of the people through knowledge, Bommai said.

He appreciated ‘Grama DG Vikasana’ as a commendable programme to spread digitisation in rural areas.

The National Education Policy has been implemented in the State.The ‘Mukhyamantri Margadarshini’ programme to guide the students to prepare for competitive exams would be started,he said and appealed to the rural masses to make good use of the ‘Grama DG Vikasana’ programme in this regard.

Parmesh S Jain

Multipurpose women’s cooperative societies with 90% share capital from the State government would be started in every taluk,Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.

The Chief Minister was speaking at a function to present the ‘Sahakara Ratna’ award organised by Karnataka State Cooperative Federation Limited, Karnataka State Housing Cooperative Society and the Cooperation Department.

Ksheera Samridhi Bank

Milk Cooperative Societies in the State have an annual revenue of Rs.36000 cr.The State government has decided to establish a Milk Producers Bank with an intention to ensure that the profit goes to milk producers.

An allocation of Rs.100 cr has been made in the budget to establish this Ksheera Samridhi Bank. Orders in this regard would be issued soon, Bommai said.

Yeshasvini programme has been reintrouduced for the farmers, State government is bearing Rs12,000 cr power bill of farmers pumpsets which is a result of our senior leader BS Yediyurappa’s far sighted vision for farmers’ welfare,under the Prime Minister’s ‘Krishi Samman Yojana’ the State and Union governments are paying Rs2800 cr annually for 45 lakh farmers in the State, Bommai said.

The cooperatives should not become bosses. They should make way for others on completion of their term.