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Monday, March 11, 2019

Bengaluru FC reaches second ISL final, fans rejoice

Sports
This comes after the Blues overturned a first leg deficit against North East United.
To the joy of its fans, Bengaluru FC reached the finals in the Indian Super League on Monday thanks to a patient and professional performance in its home turf against North East United FC. This is the second time that the team is reaching the finals. The team will play the final on March 17 against the winners of the other semi final between Mumbai and Goa. Currently the balance is hugely in favour of Goa with them leading 5-1 over their neighbours.  The second leg of the semi-finals were crucial with BFC trailing by a margin of 2-1 in the game held in Guwahati. Goals by captain Sunil Chhetri, Dimas Degado and Miku on Monday night in front of a 21,000 odd crowd resulted in a cake walk in the end for the Blues.  However, things were not as easy as the scoreline suggests with the game ending 0-0 at half time with striker Miku scrambling two good chances. With time running out and BFC needing a goal, tricky winger Udanta broke free on the right and crossed in for Miku to slide a smart finish in to the net. At 1-0 and with BFC defending a corner, it was Udanta who raced clear once again and when his chip hit the post, Dimas followed with the finish to make it 2-0, giving the home side the much needed insurance. NEUFC still needed only one goal to make it 2-1 and get back in the contest but when skipper Chhetri rounded the keeper and  finished to make it 3-0. Last season, Bengaluru FC had to settle as the second best team in the ISL after losing the finals to Chennai FC 2-3 in a closely contested match.
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CET in Karnataka postponed: Exams to be held from Apr 29

Education
The exams were pushed to a further date as it clashed with the Lok Sabha polling dates in Karnataka.
The Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) on Monday announced that the Common Entrance Test (CET) in the state has been postponed as the old dates clashed with the Lok Sabha elections. According to a notification issued by the KEA, the CET exams will now be held on April 29 and April 30 and the Kannada exam for students in Bengaluru would be held on May 1. The Biology and Mathematics papers will be held on April 29 while the Physics and Chemistry papers will be held on April 30. The Kannada paper (Bengaluru) will be held on May 1. The Election Commission of India on Sunday announced that Karnataka would go to polls on April 18 and April 23. The Biology and Mathematics papers for CET were scheduled on April 23, the Physics and Chemistry papers on April 24 and the Kannada paper was scheduled on April 25. “Teachers will be deployed for election duty. April 23 is polling day and also a holiday. Students who are of voting age will need the day to vote. There would be staff shortage due to election duty and availability of exam halls would have become a problem if the dates are not postponed,” said Girish, Executive Director of KEA. The KEA held a meeting with officials of the PU Board on Monday morning, where the decision was taken to push the exam dates. “We could have not changed exam dates for April 24 and 25 but even the teachers need a break after pulling in over 20 hours of election duty at a stretch,” an official with the KEA said. CET is the entrance exam which Class 12 and PUC II students must write to qualify for engineering, pharmacology and technical education courses in Karnataka. The IIT-JEE exam will be held on April 7 and April 20 according to the dates prescribed.  
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K’taka police investigate suspected rape and murder of minor girl near Manipal

Crime
The victim's body was discovered in a wooded area close to a railway track in Moodu Sagri village
Udupi police is investigating the gruesome death of a suspected minor girl who was found dead in a forest area near Manipal on Sunday.  Her body was discovered by Sumitra, a resident of Moodu Sagri village near Doddanagudde, in a wooded area close to a railway track on Sunday evening at 5 pm. She immediately informed the police about the incident.  Police officials arrived on the spot along with officials from the Forensic Medicine Department of Kasturba Hospital in Manipal to investigate the incident.  Nisha James, Superintendent of Police (SP), Udupi confirmed to TNM that it appears to be a case of rape and murder. "It appears to be a case of rape combined with murder but we are waiting for the forensic team to confirm the same. Our investigation is underway and four police inspectors are looking into the matter. We have also collected documents to verify her age," she said speaking to TNM.  Sources in the police department also confirmed that the clothes of the girl had been removed. "When the body was found, it was naked from the bottom half and her underwear was also removed which suggests that there was sexual intercourse. There were no defensive injuries found on her body", the source said. The source also added that the victim was not a local resident and had been working in Udupi. Officials of the Forensic Medicine Department of Kasturba Hospital conducted preliminary analysis of the body on Monday. "We have conducted preliminary tests and we will be informing the police  about our analysis later today," confirmed an official from the department.  The victim had gone missing on Saturday afternoon and the discovery of her body has come as a shock to residents of the area. A case of murder has been registered based on the complaint of Padmanatha, husband of Sumitra, who discovered the body, however, the police confirmed that they will add sections under the POCSO Act and charges of rape if the forensic tests confirm that the victim was raped.     
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B’luru water shortage pushing private tankers to drill in rural areas: Activists

Water shortage
Recently an activist alleged that more than 10 illegal borewells have been dug over the last week on the Muthanallur lakebed alone, which sustains a whole village.
As parts of Bengaluru face an acute water crisis and private water suppliers continue to take advantage of residents’ dependence on them, another problem has surfaced. Activists are claiming that the increasing demand on these water tank operators has lead to illegal borewells being dug in rural areas, sapping an important water source for surrounding villages. In areas along the IT corridor, such as Whitefield, Marathalli and Bellandur, the Cauvery Water supply has been scant and irregular in recent days. But activists pointed out on Monday that more than 10 illegal borewells have been dug in the past week in a lakebed in Anekal off Sarjapur Road. “In Muthanallur village in Anekal, we have a huge lake. And next to the lake, a lot of people are digging borewells in the buffer zone of the lake itself. They are even taking power connections under the non-commercial category but using it for commercial supply of water,” said Major Santosh, a former Army officer and an activist. According to Santosh, permission is required from the Deputy Commissioner (Bangalore) Urban, and the local panchayat is responsible for stopping illegal activities. “With this, the whole lake water will be pumped out through these tankers. A lot of villagers are dependent on the lake for agricultural and domestic use. They will be soon left without water if this continues. We have approached the local government offices but have not received any response. Tomorrow we will go to the tahsildar’s office asking him to visit the spot.” An official at the Bengaluru Urban’s DC office told TNM that the Anekal taluk tahsildar Mahadevapaiah is the concerned authority. Mahadevaiah or Manjunath, the Special Tahsildar, could not be reached for comment. Problem and the solution While there are specific laws and regulations put in place to check on borewell drilling in times of depleting groundwater tables, residents and activists allege there is hardly any coercive action against offenders aggravating the problem. A notification in December 2012, under the Karnataka Groundwater (Regulation and Control of Development and Management) Act, 2011 had made it mandatory for every borewell to be registered in the city. The same notification said that non-compliance will lead to a penalty of Rs 10,000 and/or imprisonment of three years. Official studies by the state Mines and Geology Department in 2015 estimated that the withdrawal of groundwater (341 millions liters per day or MLD) in the city is four times more than what is recharged (90 MLD). “Drilling water from a lakebed is nothing short of insane. This will reduce the water table in an area which is a prime recharge zone and it’s going to take that much extra amount of time to recharge and replenish the water table,” said Veena Srinivasan, programme leader for water, land and society at Centre for Environment and Development at ATREE Bengaluru. “Water tankers, to begin with, are not a smart way of dealing with water supply. Drilling at the bottom of the lakebed is problematic and illegal. How are these people doing it? In private land, the issue is less problematic as there is a limit to how much water can be extracted.” Veena suggested three ways of dealing with the present water crisis. “In our city, water efficiency is very bad. Lately, I visited many institutional campuses, there is a lot of artificial lawn spaces which require garden hoses. So increasing tree cover rather than ornamental plants can solve this problem. With indoor water usage, there has to be better efficiency and all the wastewater has to be dealt with. Right now, wastewater is going through the city and stinking up everything before foaming and frothing in Bellandur. With this scale of urbanisation and decreasing water tables, there has to be a sensible use of wastewater. The third step has to be moving to the culture of open wells given Bengaluru has an underlying hard rock aquifer, so groundwater storage is very small compared to gangetic plains.”
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Not afraid to contest against HD Deve Gowda, says BJP’s Sadananda Gowda

Lok Sabha 2019
In 2014, Sadananda Gowda had won by a comfortable margin of more than 2 lakh votes from the Bengaluru North seat.
PTI/ File image
Union Minister and former Chief Minister of Karnataka, DV Sadananda Gowda on Monday said that he will not shy away from contesting against former Prime Minister and JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda.  “I respect Deve Gowda but I am not afraid of him," the BJP leader told reporters as speciation is rife that the 93-year-old veteran is set to contest from Bengaluru North this time around.  "If my party decides that I must contest from Bengaluru North, then I will contest from there. Whatever it may be, BJP must win from the segment. I have great respect for Deve Gowda but I am not scared of him. It will be good if I contest against an elder in politics and if I win, that will be even better,” he added. With party president BS Yeddyurappa suggesting that all sitting BJP MPs will contest from their current constituencies, Bangalore North being home to a lot of Vokkaligas may very well see a battle royale between two tall leaders from the community. However, the Congress and JD(S) are yet to announce their final seat sharing arrangement nor has any major party in Karnataka made their candidate list public. In 2014, BJP had fielded ex-CM Sadananda Gowda, who hails from Puttur in coastal Karnataka, in north Bengaluru. And with the Modi wave in full swing then, he went on to defeat his nearest rival from the Congress— C Narayana Swamy by a margin of more than two lakh votes. Prior to this, the Minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation had his electoral success limited to coastal Karnataka. He won the Lok Sabha polls from Udupi-Chikmagalur in 2009, and from the Mangalore seat in 2004. Even the two times he was an MLA, he had won from Puttur.  Deve Gowda who is an MP in his stronghold of Hassan is vacating the seat for his grandson - Prajwal Revanna, son of PWD minister HD Revanna. While Mandya, another JD(S) stronghold in the Vokkaliga belt, was the initial choice this year for the six-time MP, it is learnt that he is leaving that also for his other grandson and film star Nikhil. Party insiders say Mandya will be a safe bet for political rookie Nikhil, who is the son of Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy.        
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Yakshagana artist Chandrahasa Hudugodu dies while performing on stage in Udupi

Death
The artist was performing the role of Salva in the 'Bheeshma Vijaya' sketch when he suddenly collapsed on stage due to a suspected cardiac arrest.
Chandrahasa Hudugodu, a Yakshagana artiste, passed away during a performance in Elajitha village near Byndoor in Udupi district on Sunday night. The 50-year-old Yakshagana artist was depicting the role of Salva in the 'Bheeshma Vijaya' sketch when he suddenly collapsed on stage due to a suspected cardiac arrest. He was immediately rushed to a hospital in Byndoor by his son Pradeep Gudaguru who was present in the audience, however, he was announced dead. Chandrahasa was famous for portraying the role of Salva and was locally known as 'Abhinaya Salva'. "He was a person dedicated to his craft. He could perform a variety of roles. He notably performed villainous roles like Keechaka, Kaurava, Dushtabuddhi and has also portrayed hero roles like Krishna. He was appreciated by everyone for his delivery of dialogues,” M Shantaram Kudva, a Yakshagana artist from Moodbidri, told TNM. The performance was being screened live on Facebook but it was stopped when the incident occurred, at around 11:30 pm. Chandrahasa was performing as part of the Jalavalli Yakshagana Mela, which is a touring troupe of Yakshagana artists. He was well versed in the Badaguthittu form of Yakshagana performed in Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts and often played the role of villains. In the Badaguthittu variety of Yakshagana, more emphasis is placed on facial expressions and dialogues. Earlier, he used to tour with the Saligrama Yakshagana troupe but he quit the group four years ago, to be involved in politics. Chandrahasa was also the president of the Hadinabalu Gram Panchayat which is near Honnavara in Uttara Kannada district. He would perform as a guest artist in various melas and events whenever he was invited, like the performance on Sunday night, which, however, proved to be his last. He leaves behind a legacy of Yakshagana performances.
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