Mangaluru: Muslim Educational Institutions Federation (MEIF) is not just providing excellent education, it is also spreading social harmony, Umar Teekay, Honorary President of MEIF and Chairman of Teekays Group, said.

He was addressing the educational conference organized by the Dakshina Kannada and Udupi Districts Muslim Educational Institutions Federation at the Town Hall in the city on Monday.

“Former minister BA Moideen had dreamt of integrating all Muslim educational institutions. MEIF is a step towards bringing that dream to life,” he said.

“Solving a problem is important, but it should not become the priority. The priority should always be of preventing problems,” Teekay advised.

Citing the instance of the recent hijab controversy, he said, “We handled the situation carefully while facing opposition from all ends and ensured that Muslim girls were not deprived of a chance to take the examinations. This was possible through the joint efforts of the members of MEIF.”

Dr. N Vinay Hegde, Chancellor of NITTE Deemed to be University inaugurated the educational conference.

Umar Teekay presided over the conference while Syed Mohamed Beary, Honorary Advisor of MEIF and Chairman of Bearys Group of Institutions, delivered the introductory address.

Yenepoya Deemed to be University Chancellor Dr. Y Abdulla Kunhi, national-level trainer Rajendra Bhat, resource persons Mahesh Masal from Dharwad and Syed Sulthan Ahmed from Bengaluru, MEIF vice-presidents B M Mumtaz Ali, K M Mustafa Sullia, Shabi Ahmed Qazi and B A Nazeer were among those present on the dais.

CHIKKAMAGALURU:  Revenue Minister R Ashoka said 40,000 acres of encroached land will be leased out in the district and a circular in this regard has been published in the state gazette.  At a felicitation accorded to him by the Karnataka Growers’ Federation, Karnataka Planters’ Association and UPASEE at the AIT College amphi theatre here, he said provision for lending of loans on the leased encroached lands by banks will be brought under the frame of law. 

Tenders has been invited for demarcating the border between the forest and revenue lands identified by a drone survey at a cost of Rs 280 crore. On an experimental basis, four to five districts have been selected. 

In Chikkamagaluru district, 2,688 growers have encroached up to 10 acres, followed by 554 persons up to 10 to 15 acres, 861 persons up to 15 to 20 acres and 989 planters who have encroached up to 20 to 25 acres. Law has been framed to lease the encroached land according to the conscience, the minister said. 

Extent of deemed forest is 9 lakh hectares and after meeting with the forest minister, 6 lakh hectares of land has been taken back by the revenue department.  Details on survey numbers of respective lands have been already sent to the deputy commissioners. Lands will be transferred to the owners who are cultivating in the said lands, he said.

BENGALURU:  Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate to the nation the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) new greenfield helicopter factory at Bidarehallakaval at Nittur near Tumakuru in Karnataka at 3.30 pm on Monday. He had laid the foundation stone for the project in 2016. But there will be no fly-past at the event as certain parameters are yet to be met, sources said.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, it is yet another step towards Atma Nirbharta in the defence sector which will enhance capacity and ecosystem to build helicopters at Asia’s largest helicopter manufacturing facility. Initially, the unit will manufacture the Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), which is an indigenously designed and developed 3-tonne class, single-engine, multipurpose utility helicopter with unique features of high manoeu-vrability. 

PM to lay foundation stones for Jal Jeevan projects

The factory, spread across 615 acres, will be expanded to manufacture other choppers, like the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) and Indian Multirole Helicopter (IMRH). The facility will also be used for repair and overhaul of LCH, LUH, Civil ALH and IMRH in the future.

The factory has the potential to export Civil LUHs in years to come. The new facility can meet the country’s entire requirement of helicopters, and will attain the distinction of enabling self-reliance in helicopter design, development and manufacture in the country. The factory will have a manufacturing setup of Industry 4.0 standards.

Over the next 20 years, HAL is planning to produce more than 1,000 helicopters in 3-15 tonne class here, generating employment for around 6,000 people. On the occasion, Modi will lay the foundation stone for the Tumakuru Industrial Township under the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme, spread across 8,484 acres to be implemented in three phases as part of the Chennai-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor.

The foundation stones will also be laid for two Jal Jeevan Mission projects at Tiptur and Chikkanayakanahalli as part of Multi-Village Drinking Water Supply Project, to be built at a cost of Rs 430 crore and Rs 115 crore, respectively.

Modi at India Energy Week 2023

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the India Energy Week 2023 at BIEC in Bengaluru at 11.30 am on Monday. Unleashing the ethanol blending roadmap, he will launch E20 fuel and flag off a Green Mobility Rally to create awareness for green fuels. He will also launch the uniforms under the ‘unbottled’ initiative of Indian Oil.

Union Minister for Home and Co-operation Amit Shah

Puttur: Union Minister for Home and Co-operation Amit Shah will be visiting Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district to participate in a co-operative convention on February 11.

The convention is being held at Puttur in connection with the golden jubilee celebrations of the central arecanut and cocoa marketing and processing co-operative limited (CAMPCO).

The event will be held at the Vivekananda educational institution at Tenkila at 3 PM, CAMPCO sources said. He will also be visiting CAMPCO’s chocolate factory in Puttur.

This is the first visit of Shah to Dakshina Kannada ahead of the Assembly elections in the state. BJP Sankalpa Abhiyan campaign is presently going on in Puttur taluk. The BJP leader is also expected to take part in the convention at Puttur as part of the campaign, party sources said.

BJP had won seven of the eight Assembly seats in Dakshina Kannada district in the 2018 elections.

BELAGAVI: Former BJP minister and Gokak MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi, who resigned from the Yediyurappa ministry over a CD sex scandal, made grave allegations against KPCC president DK Shivakumar, terming him the “CD gang captain”.

Releasing an 18-second audio clip, said to be of Shivakumar speaking on the phone, Jarkiholi claimed the while the conversation was one-sided, it was all about raiding houses and finding Rs 40-45 crore in cash, and having houses in Mumbai, Delhi and abroad.

At his first press conference at a private hotel in Belagavi on Monday, Jarkiholi alleged, “Shivakumar is not eligible to be a politician. He has attempted to assassinate my character by using a woman. He should not have made such a dirty conspiracy… I have a lot of evidence which I will present before the competent authority.”

He wanted the police to arrest the six people involved in the CD, including the girl, and named two youths, Shravan and Harish. He also recollected old memories of his friendship with the Congress leader.

Shivakumar and his wife Usha had urged me not to quit the Congress,” he said. “My political relations in the district were damaged by MLA Laxmi Hebbalkar. She has joined hands with Shivakumar to turn black money white. CBI, Income Tax and ED officials should investigate,” Jarkiholi said. He claimed that politicians and IAS officers will become victims of this menace soon.

Hitting back, Hebbalkar’s younger brother and Congress MLC Channaraj Hattiholi claimed that Jarkiholi was a “liar”. At an emergency press conference, he condemned Jarkiholi and said he is making baseless allegations to undermine MLA Hebbalkar’s dominance in Belagavi.

“The people will teach him a lesson. Recently, he had announced that he would give Rs 6,000 for each vote in Sulebhavi village and all media houses telecast it. He had taken a big loan to start an ethanol unit in Soubhagyalaxmi sugar factory, but neither did he start the unit, nor did he repay the loan. The factory has gone bankrupt,” he alleged.

“Jarkiholi had invited us to join BJP. But we declined and advised him not to leave the party and damage the coalition government. Ever since, he has been making allegations against us,” Hattiholi said.
KPCC working president Satish Jarkiholi told the media that the two leaders had been trading personal allegations for a long time. Satish, who was in Yamakanmardi, said the respective parties cannot speak about the charges. There is no need to link the charges to the party, he said.

CHIKMAGALUR: Slamming the Congress on Tuesday, BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel said that without power, the Grand Old Party is indulging in “political hypocrisy”. Addressing reporters here, he said that he was emphatic when he stated that the BJP is ready to face Assembly polls in April or May. But the Congress, which is lagging behind in organisational matters, is busy levelling baseless charges against his party. After completing the boothlevel victory campaign, which succeeded in eliciting voters’ opinion, the BJP has launched ‘Vijaya Sankalpa Abhiyan’.

Accordingly, teams led by BJP national president J P Nadda, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and former CM B S Yediyurappa will inform people about the achievements and schemes of the state and Union governments led by his party. “Our aim is to enrol one crore members and distribute one crore pamphlets. Unable to digest this, the Congress is indulging in political hypocrisy. It is misleading the people by making false promises,” Kateel alleged.

He said the Congress is facing a shortage of party activists for campaigns. Moreover, it is also facing internal bickering, with CLP leader Siddaramaiah himself looking for a safe constituency. There is confusion over a CM candidate in the Congress, which is scared that the BJP will capture 150 seats in the polls. Referring to corruption charges levelled against the BJP government, Kateel sought to know why the Siddaramaiah government dismantled the office of the Lokayukta.

Stating that three cases have been filed against Siddaramaiah with the Lokayukta, Kateel said no cases have been filed against any BJP leader. The KPCC chief has gone to jail on charges of corruption and most of the Congress leaders are out on bail, he charged. On the allegations of Yediyurappa being sidelined in the BJP, Kateel said the former is the party’s supreme leader and the allegation is baseless.

BELAGAVI: Hitting the road in poll-bound Karnataka, the Congress on Wednesday began its statewide bus tour called ‘Praja Dhwani Yatre‘, jointly led by party state unit President D K Shivakumar and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah.

The tour kickstarted at ‘Veer Soudha‘, a memorial where Mahatma Gandhi had presided over the Congress session in 1924, after paying tributes to the father of the nation.

AICC General Secretary In-charge of State Randeep Surjewala, and senior leaders including campaign committee chief M B Patil, were among others present.

The tour covering 21 districts will see the party sharing its ideas with the people and assuring all-round development of the state while attacking the BJP government with a “charge sheet” it has prepared, Congress leaders said.

As part of the bus yatra, both Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah, who are nursing chief ministerial ambitions in the event of the Congress coming to power, will travel in the same vehicle until January 29.

Thereafter, in the second week of February, two separate teams would be formed, with one headed by Siddaramaiah set to tour Assembly constituencies in the north Karnataka region, while Shivakumar will be leading the way in southern districts.

Congress leaders symbolically swept the street with a broom and said they will “wipe out the corrupt” BJP government from the state, where elections are due by May.

Siddaramaiah said the Congress is beginning the yatre from Belagavi to “wipe out the BJP government’s corruption and its misrule” from the state.

“Our intention is to place before the people a charge sheet against the BJP government in the state because the entire government is submerged in corruption, there is growing misrule, and they are indulging in a politics of hate. If anyone questions, they are being intimidated with false cases and arrests,” he said, adding that “corruption is rampant and people are fed up.”

Shivakumar said the BJP government has been a “curse” for this state as “scandals are coming out every day”, and to wipe it out, Congress is taking up this yatre.

“The BJP has made Karnataka the capital of corruption, this has to be ended and people need to be given a good administration, they should have confidence towards the government, so we are taking up this yatre with a promise of good governance,” he said.

Listing out “various corruption and scandals” in the state and accusing the government of giving a clean chit to those involved by filing a b-report in such cases, he alleged, “estimates have been doubled in PWD and irrigation contracts, everything will be looked into, all scandals and B report will be inquired into on Congress coming to power.”

Bhatkal: The two-day Millennial celebrations of Jamatul Muslimeen Bhatkal kicked off with a massive traditional rally in the town on Tuesday.

The rally was organised to give a traditional fervour to the celebrations, with people wearing traditional local costumes as a mark of respect to their culture and traditions.

Local sports clubs joined together and presented tableau of traditional wedding and other significant events of the Nawayath history.

The locals also wore the traditional Lungi as their outfit during the rally.

The two-day event will see a massive event to celebrate the 1000 years of the organisation on the first day while on the second day a get together with local non-Muslims and their leaders will also be organised on Thursday.

Jamatul Muslimeen Bhatkal has been preparing in full swing for over three months for the event and has called on people to attend the celebrations in numbers to make it a grand success.

Mysuru: Six people sustained injuries with two of them said to be in a critical condition after a cylinder exploded here in the city on Wednesday morning. The incident took place at the Fire Brigade’s quarters on Mysuru-Bengaluru road here.

According to the reports, Mahadev, a serviceman in the Fire Brigade department, and his wife have sustained critical injuries and are said to be in critical state. The gas cylinder exploded at Mahadev’s house. Along with Mahadev and his wife, their daughter and three of the neighbours have also sustained injuries.

The injured victims were rushed to a private hospital in the city where they are being treated.

Local Police have registered a case in this regard.

Bengaluru: Congress leaders on Tuesday demanded the arrest of Karnataka BJP MLA Arvind Limbavali and five others named in the FIR in connection with the alleged suicide of a businessman, and urged the state government to ensure justice to his family.

Siddaramaiah, who is Leader of Opposition in Karnataka Assembly and Randeep Surjewala, who is Congress general secretary in-charge of the State, along with KPCC working president Ramalinga Reddy, met Pradeep’s family at their residence here.

Pradeep (47) was found dead in his car at Nettigere near here on Sunday. He had allegedly shot himself in the head inside his car.

The deceased had purportedly left behind an eight-page death note that named Mahadevapura MLA Aravind Limbavali and five others, following which an FIR was registered by the police against them.

“This is an unfortunate incident linked to a financial deal, it should not have happened. Pradeep’s wife Namita with sorrow said her husband should get justice and that he had invested Rs 1.5 crore into a financial deal, out of which there was no profit of even a paisa so far. The family wants that money back,” Siddaramaiah said.

Speaking to reporters after meeting the family, he said, as MLA of the locality, Arvind Limbavali is said to have tried to settle things.

“Namita is not alleging anything, she is only saying that she wants justice and was not angry with anyone, but when the inference is drawn, six names are mentioned in the death note, which also includes the name of Limbavali. If his name is taken, he is in some way responsible for the death, or else why he would write,” he added.

Noting that the FIR has been registered against Limbavali and five others, the Congress legislature party leader said police should immediately ensure the financial issue is settled and the family gets the money that was invested by Pradeep.

“Also, immediately everyone should be arrested and action should be taken in accordance with law against those responsible for the death. Arrest should happen and criminal trial should follow, and police should ensure that the culprits are punished whether it is a MLA or anyone else. Mistake is a mistake, whoever it may be, they should be punished as per law,” he said.

Suggesting that if not arrested, he claimed evidence may be destroyed by the accused. “Family even alleged that the police took the mobile phone late at night. Police trying to link different angles to the case now is not correct,” he said.

Referring to a similar case against then Minister K S Eshwarappa in connection with the death of a contractor, who made bribery charges against him, Siddaramaiah said the case was closed and demanded that the government should not interfere in the process of law.

“Many incidents of such suicides, mercy petitions are cropping up recently, it is because of corruption and inaction against the corrupt,” he alleged.

Limbavali on his part has said that he had only tried to help Pradeep, and was ready for any inquiry. “In fact, I demand for an inquiry, for the truth to come out.”

The legislator said he doesn’t know as to what was the motive behind mentioning his name in the death note, and ruled out the possibility of any conspiracy against him.

Surjewala said Pradeep was a victim of the “dubious corrupt practices” in the state, and demanded that all perpetrators of this “murder” have to be arrested, whether they are a MLA or a senior BJP leader or somebody else, and the government must ensure every penny is returned to the family.

“In this hour of grief and with a heavy heart, I have to say that the dubious deal and 40 per cent commission is now claiming life after life in Karnataka,” he said, pointing at the recent deaths of contractors – Santosh Patil and Suresh – stating that they committed suicide because of the financial problems and that they couldn’t pay commission.

Questioning as to why should a legislator or a BJP leader be negotiating financial settlements as a judge and jury, Surjewala asked, why should BJP leaders meddle into financial affairs of people.

“Driving a 47-year-old happy man with a happy family to suicide is nothing but a murder, it is not abetment to murder, it is plain and simple murder,” he said, asking can the Chief Minister and BJP leaders wipe the tears of the family.

Congress will see to it that justice is done with regard to Pradeep’s suicide note and what happened with Santosh Patil suicide case don’t repeat, Surjewala said.

“We want to remind Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai the raja dharma and his duty towards the people of Karnataka, which is above any BJP leader,” he said.

Santosh Patil case, which both leaders repeatedly referred to was regarding the Belagavi-based contractor who was found dead at a hotel in Udupi in April last year, weeks after accusing then Minister Eshwarappa, who is also a senior BJP leader, of corruption.