Construction labour died in bangalore on Wednesday after he was trapped in a mudslide at a construction site at Bhavya Layout on Jakkur Main Road, in the city’s northern fringes. Another worker suffered grievous injuries and three others have been sent to the hospital for treatment for minor injuries.

The deceased has been identified as Madhusudhan, who is a native of Shidlaghatta. The incident took place at 12 pm on Wednesday. According to reports, the police have stated that the accident took place at a construction site in Navya Nagar in Jakkur, where the man was working at the construction site of a house. The workers had been standing in a pit which they had dug for the purpose of building pillars, when the pile of mud which had been dug out fell back into the pit, burying them. While three men survived with injuries, Madhusudhan died from the impact as he was buried deep under the mud.

The Karnataka Fire and Emergency Department officials responded to the call after an alarm was raised by labourers present at the spot. They were joined by police officials from Amruthahalli Police Station.

Jayananda, SI told media, “One person who was digging for the purpose of laying the foundation was killed after mud fell on top of him. We immediately reached the spot to help others who were stuck.”

Police have booked the house owner, Chandrasekhar Reddy, on charges of negligence.

In February, in a similar incident, three construction workers died in Bengaluru as an under-construction building collapsed in Kasavanahalli. As many as 15 persons were buried under the debris at the construction site. The building had been under construction for six years and the construction work had been stopped for two years due to reasons unknown.

The Supreme Court appointed third judge, Justice M. Sathyanarayanan of the Madras High Court, on Thursday upheld the Tamil Nadu Assembly Speaker’s decision disqualifying 18 AIADMK legislators in 2017.

Pronouncing his decision in the split verdict that had previously been delivered, Sathyanarayanan upheld Speaker P. Dhanapal’s disqualification order.

With this, the ban on holding of by-polls for the 18 seats has been lifted.

The disqualified legislators are with sidelined party leader T.T.V. Dhinakaran, now an Independent legislator in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

Reacting to the judgement, Dhinakaran told reporters: “We will discuss with the 18 legislators and decide on the future course of action.” He said it was “an experience for us”.

“If the 18 disqualified legislators decide to go on appeal against the decision then we will go for an appeal,” Dhinakaran said.

The apex court had appointed Sathyanarayanan, replacing Justice Vimala who was originally appointed by the high court as the third judge following a split verdict in the case in June.

While Chief Justice Indrani Banerjee, heading the two-judge bench, declined to interfere with Dhanapal’s decision taken in September 2017, Justice M. Sundar set aside the Speaker’s order on the ground that it was hit by “perversity, non-compliance with the principles of natural justice, mala fides and a violation of the constitutional mandate”.

The judges said since there was disagreement between them, the case should be transferred to a third judge.

Maintaining the status quo, the court also said till the case was finally decided the interim order issued earlier that barred holding of by-elections and the floor test in the Assembly would continue.

In the 296-page judgement, Justice Banerjee said that in her opinion the view taken by the Speaker was possible, if not plausible, and “I am unable to hold that the said decision is any way unreasonable, irrational or perverse”.

“It is well-settled that when two views are possible, the High Court does not in exercise of its power of judicial review conferred under Article 226 of the Constitution of India interfere with the decision just because it prefers the other view.

“No interference is, therefore, warranted with the impugned order passed by the Speaker,” she said, dismissing the petitions by the disqualified MLAs.

In his order differing with the Chief Justice, Justice Sundar said: “sum totality of discussion leads this court to inevitably conclude that the impugned order of the Speaker disqualifying 18 writ petitioners herein deserves to be set aside.”

In case the court had upheld the disqualification, then there would have been by-elections in 18 constituencies, exposing the ruling party to vulnerabilities of electoral politics.

On other hand, if the court had quashed the Speaker’s disqualification order, the government may have to face an opposition-sponsored no-confidence motion, which it would find difficult to survive.

In the 235-member Assembly, the AIADMK has 115 members followed by the DMK with 88, Congress eight, one of the IUML, one Independent, the Speaker and 20 vacant seats (18 disqualified and two dead). Besides, there is a nominated member.

Three legislators though belonging to three different parties won their seats under the AIADMK’s two leaves symbol. Of that, one legislator Karunas is openly supporting Dhinakaran.

The case pertains from the time when O. Panneerselvam (now Deputy Chief Minister) had rebelled against the party led by jailed leader V.K. Sasikala.

Later, he merged his group with the faction led by Chief Minister K. Palaniswami, who sidelined Sasikala and her nephew Dinakaran.

In 2017, a group of 19 lawmakers met then Governor C.Vidyasagar Rao and gave a memorandum expressing loss of confidence in Palaniswami and requested him to appoint a new Chief Minister.

The Speaker then issued notice to the lawmakers asking them why they should not be disqualified under the anti-defection law.

Subsequently, one of legislators, S.T.K. Jakkaiyan, switched over to the Palaniswami side and the others were disqualified.

A day after Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan slammed the Pandalam royal family for claiming rights and powers over the Lord Ayyappa shrine, the latter hit back on Wednesday, saying the family has carried out what it is entitled to.

Vijayan has said the Sabarimala temple is the property of the Travancore Devasom Board (TDB) and that none else has any rights over it. He said on Tuesday that according to the 1949 covenant, the Sabarimala temple ownership was handed over to the TDB after the royal family had serious financial crisis.

But spokesperson for the family, Sreekumar Varma, told the media that the TDB has only administrative control over the temple.

“The real owners of the temple are the devotees and the TDB has only administrative control. The relation that the family has with the Sabarimala temple does not change every five years,” said Varma, obliquely criticising Vijayan’s remarks.

Varma’s statement was meant to emphasise that whenever the Left government comes to power — with opposition UDF and LDF taking turns to rule the state — it takes position contrary to the Congress-led UDF’s, which has maintained that it’s the ‘tantri’ and the Pandalam royal family whose views matter about Sabarimala.

“The events that occurred at the temple since it opened on October 16 and closed on Monday appear to have gone according to a perfectly written script by vested interests. What happened at the temple town was something avoidable. The temple turned into a conflict zone. We are deeply pained at the manner in which Vijayan spoke with absolute contempt,” said Varma.

“We wish to make it very clear: we are not at all interested in the wealth of the temple and maybe there will be some, who have an eye on its wealth and we have to find out who they are. We have not asked for a single rupee from the TDB . Our only concern and worry is that there should be no breach of traditions,” added Varma.

Leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala said in the state capital on Wednesday that Vijayan had only complicated the situation by his outburst.

“Vijayan has declared a war on the devotees. His outburst against the Pandalam royal family and ‘tantri’ does not suit the post that Vijayan holds. The current impasse will end when Vijayan sheds his arrogance,” said Chennithala.

IANS

Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy told the Energy Department officials to increase power generation from other sources of energy such as Solar and Hydel.

A week after Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy appealed to Union Minister for Railways and Coal Piyush Goyal to ensure a steady supply of coal to the state, he asked Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation not to resort to load shedding just yet. The CM on Tuesday insisted that the state had been writing to the Centre for the last two months on the issue.

Kumaraswamy on Wednesday told Energy Department officials to increase power generation from other sources of energy such as Solar and Hydel. It was earlier reported how Raichur Thermal Power Station (RTPS), which has a capacity of 1720 MW, was running out of coal due to low supply from the centre. The RTPS is one of three thermal power stations in the state alongside the Ballari Thermal Power Station (BTPS) in Ballari and the Yermarus Thermal Power Station (YTPS) in Raichur. Officials of the RTPS could not be reached for a comment.

As things stand on Wednesday, there is no threat to the regular supply of power, officials claimed. “Right now we have enough generation capacity available. The situation will deteriorate if the Centre does not supply enough coal for a longer time. Right now, there is a shortage of supply but there is no power shortage. If the government of India restores the supply of coal, there would not be any problem,” P Ravi Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary to Karnataka Government Energy Department, told media.

Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (Bescom) said that till now they have not been asked to undergo load-shedding by the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited. “As of now, there is no load-shedding. The power interruption in Bengaluru is due to various reasons related to regular maintenance,” Jayanthi N, General Manager of Bescom, told media.

On Tuesday, Bescom registered a total of 6,314 complaints of power cuts. On Wednesday, too, places like Masjid Road, Govindapura Main Road, Kaggadasapura, Srinivasa Nagar, Banaswadi and Vidyanagar suffered power interruptions.

TNM

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on October 23 hit out at Narendra Modi’s government at the Centre, alleging that the government has been destroying institutions, referring to the ongoing saga at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

“Today we have seen (how) they are messing with CBI,” Naidu said on sidelines of a public event in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday. “Democracy is at stake, secularism in danger, economy collapsed, institutions are destroyed , Centre-state relations have deteriorated,” he alleged.

India’s premier investigation agency is currently grappling with the worst-ever credibility crisis due to an internal feud between two high-ranking officials — special director Rakesh Asthana and director Alok Verma, who are slamming each other over graft.

Naidu said that 44 of his Telugu Desam Party (TDP) members were raided for seeking special category status for the state.