Officials worried about the challenge of replacing Trump’s top health appointees.
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Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Bengaluru MLA NA Harris, 4 others injured in minor explosion at private event
The police have told TNM that it was a firecracker that exploded at the event, injuring the people on the stage.
Bengaluru MLA NA Harris has been injured in his leg after a minor explosion at a private event in the city’s Shantinagar area. The incident took place around 8.30 pm on Wednesday, January 22. Four others have also been injured, and all of them have been admitted to Philomena Hospital in Bengaluru. According to some reports, the 53-year-old MLA was on stage attending the event, when something fell near him on the stage and exploded. The police have told TNM that it is believed to be a firecracker, and that further investigations are underway. “There was a cracker show,” Bengaluru Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao told TNM, “Immediately after the cracker show, there was a minor blast. Our officials including the ACP and DCP have reached the spot. Everyone has confirmed it was a cracker blast. The area has been sanitised.” Police sources also said that forensic experts were on the spot to inspect the nature of explosion. However, the MLA’s son, Mohammed Nalapad, has said that something was placed under his father’s chair. "There was something under the chair that my father sat on. It exploded. My father has injuries on his leg, his friend hurt his hand. We're shocked something like this has happened in our constituency. Don't know who did it,” Nalapad told a news channel. Haris is a three-time MLA from Shantinagar constituency in Bengaluru, having been first voted to power in 2008. Haris served briefly as Chairman of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation following the 2018 Assembly Elections. The incident comes nearly two months after Congress MLA Tanveer Sait was injured after an assailant stabbed him with a machete at a wedding function in Mysuru in November.
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Trump: Chinese coronavirus 'totally under control'
The CDC anticipates more cases in the U.S., but officials believe the risk to the American public at large is low.
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Demolition drive sparks new push by Bengaluru police to find Bangladeshi immigrants
This comes days after around 100 huts were demolished by the BBMP over allegations that Bangladeshi immigrants were living there, though the action was unauthorised.
The police in Bengaluru have renewed their efforts to identify and detain illegal immigrants in the city, prompted by news reports which stated that illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were staying in migrant settlements in the city, particularly in Whitefield and Bellandur. This comes days after around 100 huts were demolished by the BBMP over allegations that Bangladeshi immigrants were living there, though the action was unauthorised. "Now, people want data on how many Bangladeshi immigrants are staying in Bengaluru so we will be filing FIRs and registering cases under the Foreigners Act," DCP Whitefield, MN Anuchet told TNM. On Tuesday, police officials from Marathahalli police station arrested three people belonging to a family in Munnekolala village in Whitefield alleging that they are illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. In addition, Marathahalli police also detained four other Bengali-speaking migrants and later released them after questioning. Police in the Whitefield division stated that they have identified four migrant settlements — Munnekolala, Kariyammana Agrahara, Thubarahalli and Devarabeesanahalli — where illegal Bangladeshi immigrants are staying. In all four places, clusters of tin-and-tarpaulin sheds are seen in which migrants from across India have been staying for over a decade. Thousands of Bengali-speaking migrants, including a large number of Muslims, stay in these settlements and are employed in informal sectors of waste recycling and construction work in the city. On Tuesday, police officials at Marathahalli police station, acting on a tip-off from informants, arrested Mohammed Lokman, 55, his wife Jasmin Begun, 35, and their son Raseel, 22. According to the police, the family arrived in Bengaluru eight months ago from Pirojpur district of Barisal division in Bangladesh. The trio was charged under section 14 of the Foreigners Act and police stated that they admitted to travelling from Bangladesh to India. "One of them has a national identity card from Bangladesh and others have birth certificates which show they are from Bangladesh. They were produced before a magistrate and will be sent to judicial custody if they are not given bail. If they are given bail, they could be kept in a detention centre," Whitefield DCP MN Anuchet told TNM. The arrested family may also be taken to men, women and child welfare hostels in Bengaluru on the basis of an order issued by the court. ‘Police asked migrants to sing national anthem’ In addition to the three arrests, Marathahalli police detained four more Bengali speaking migrants from Munnekolala on Monday. They were identified as Azizul Mondal, Tanzil SK, Saheb and his son, Bappan. Azizul and Tanzil are involved in waste recycling work while Saheb and Bappan manage a small shop that sells clothes in Munnekolala. Migrant settlement in Munnekolala, Whitefield, Bengaluru "We had voter IDs proving that we are from Nadia district of West Bengal but we were taken to the police station and questioned for hours," says Tanzil. Basawa Prasad, an advocate working with Alternative Law Forum (ALF) in Bengaluru, who accompanied the four detained migrants, stated that the police officials in the station asked the migrants to sing the national anthem. "We tried to explain that singing the national anthem is not a criterion to decide one’s identity," Basawa said. The four migrants were released around 8 pm on Tuesday night. Migrant settlement in Munnekolala, Whitefield, Bengaluru Distinguishing Bangladeshi immigrants Distinguishing Bangladeshi immigrants is proving a task for police officials in the city. "Through informants, we are identifying suspected Bangladeshi immigrants. We will search for documents which show they are from Bangladesh. But we won't detain people who have identity cards showing they are Indian," Whitefield DCP MN Anuchet said. "Also, we won't detain people who don't have identity cards because we have also found many Indian migrant workers that do not have identity cards," MN Anuchet added. However, police say that several illegal Bangladeshi immigrants who enter India destroy identity cards that may show that they are from Bangladesh. The arrests this week come three months after suspected Bangladeshi immigrants were detained in Ramamurthy Nagar, Bellandur and Marathahalli police station limits in October 2019. 60 Bengali-speaking migrants were identified as Bangladeshi immigrants and were detained in hostels in Bengaluru and subsequently taken to the Indo-Bangladesh border via train to be 'pushed back' into Bangladesh. The Karnataka government has also told the Karnataka High Court that it plans to open 35 detention centres across the state to detain illegal immigrants. One such detention centre has been constructed in Nelamangala, 40 km outside Bengaluru. In the October 2019 case, the accused persons were not sent to judicial custody since they were considered victims of human trafficking, Basawa Prasad stated. BBMP's demolition drive The arrests and detentions in Munnekolala also come just days after the BBMP ordered a demolition drive in a migrant settlement in Kariyammana Agrahara and Devarabeesanahalli on the suspicion that illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were sheltered there. Demolitions were carried out on Saturday and Sunday, and hundreds were rendered homeless. However, it emerged that those affected by the demolitions were from different states in India including Assam, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and even from Karnataka. The BBMP Commissioner Anil Kumar admitted that the demolition was unauthorised and was conducted on private land without permission from higher authorities in the civic body. An Assistant Executive Engineer, who carried out the demolition after complaints were raised by residents of nearby apartments, was relieved by the BBMP after an inquiry into the incident. Read: Demolition in Bengaluru migrant colony over ‘Bangladeshi’ fears unauthorised, says BBMP In the week prior to the demolition drive, a video reportedly taken in Bellandur, had been shared widely on WhatsApp and was even shared on Twitter by Mahadevapura's BJP MLA Arvind Limbavali. In the video, it was claimed that Bangladeshi immigrants were illegally staying in Bellandur. A news report by Suvarna News in the previous week had also claimed the presence of Bangladeshi immigrants staying in the area. Read: After video claims 'Bangladeshi immigrant' settlement in Bengaluru, BBMP razes 100 huts
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‘Yediyurappa betrayed farmers’: Siddaramaiah on state govt’s move to recover farm loans
In 2016, then CM Siddaramaiah had issued specific instructions to KASCARD Banks to not recover loans from farmers in drought-hit areas.
Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday lashed out at the BJP government for rolling back its earlier instructions given to the Karnataka State Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development (KASCARD) Bank to not recover loans from farmers in 110 drought-hit taluks. “Our government had notified the banks not to forcibly recover the loans from farmers in drought-hit areas. This has been revoked by BS Yediyurappa’s government by allowing banks to recover bad loans. By doing this, Yediyurappa and the government have betrayed our farmers,” Siddaramaiah said. He also questioned the state government as to why the promised compensation for crop losses to flood-hit farmers have not been issued. “Farmers from 55 taluks of 15 districts have already lost their crop yield due to the floods. They are still waiting for the rightful compensation from the government. But instead, the government is gearing up to forcibly recover loans and has been treating them badly,” he said. What the government order states On December 27, 2019, Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RCS) issued a notification asking KASCARD Banks to begin the process of recovery of farm loans from 110 taluks in the state that were earlier declared drought-hit in 2016-17 fiscal year. According to the government order issued, the RCS recalled the earlier order, where specific instructions were given by the then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, to KASCARD Banks to not recover loans from farmers in drought-hit areas. The RCS also cited a clarification issued by the Finance Department earlier in December 2019, stating that the department concerned had not given any official communication regarding the Chief Minister’s instructions. In its letter clarifying this, the Finance Department said, “The circular of October 10, 2016, issued by the Register of Co-operative Societies, had instructions given by the then Honourable Chief Minister with respect to recovery of loans due to the severe drought in that particular year. Finance Department has not given any concurrence for the same. The KSCARD Bank’s decision to not recover the loans, quoting the 2016 circular, is not a valid justification.” The RCS’s order directs KASCARD Banks to begin the process of recovery of loans in these 110 taluks.
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Relief for migrants in Bengaluru: Karnataka HC orders interim stay on demolition drive
The High Court has directed BBMP and the Bengaluru police to submit a detailed report explaining the grounds and rules under which the demolition drive was carried out.
The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday ordered an interim stay on the demolition drive which left hundreds of migrant workers homeless in Bengaluru’s Bellandur. The High Court bench presided by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Hemant Chandangoudar also directed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Bengaluru police to submit a detailed report explaining the grounds and the rules under which the demolition drive was carried out over the weekend. The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) challenging the BBMP’s eviction-demolition drive over the weekend in migrant settlements located at Kariyammana Agrahara, Kundalahalli and Devarabeesanahalli in Bellandur. In particular, the High Court questioned the seemingly 'invisible source' of the order to carry out the demolition after the BBMP and the police refused to take responsibility for the incident in court. The counsel appearing for the BBMP initially said that the demolitions were not carried out by the civic body but later stated that a detailed report will be submitted next week. The court also directed the Bengaluru Police Commissioner to conduct an inquiry into the demolition. The BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar has earlier stated that the demolition drive was unauthorised and was carried out by an Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) without permission from higher officials in the civic body. The AEE of the BBMP’s Marathahalli subdivision, Narayan Swamy, had written to Marathahalli police station seeking police protection to carry out the demolition. In the letter, the official said that "Bangladeshi nationals have built illegal sheds and the residents here have converted this into a slum area". The High Court also asked for the source of the claim that illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were staying in Bellandur. PUCL in its PIL contested this presumption. "After studying the documents of the people residing in the settlement, it was found that many of the residents were from north Karnataka, and many others were also from Assam, Tripura, West Bengal, and Bihar," Vinay Sreenivasa, an advocate with Alternative Law Forum (ALF) in Bengaluru told TNM. The case will be heard again on January 29.
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Karnataka mulling hiring private school teachers to manage shortages in govt schools
As of Wednesday, the number of vacancies in teaching staff positions in government primary schools (class 1 to 8) is almost 22,000.
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The Karnataka government is mulling over a novel scheme to address the perpetual issue of shortage of teachers in state government-run schools. The Department of Primary and Secondary Education wants to give honorariums to private school teachers to take classes in government schools as a stop-gap measure. State Education Minister Suresh Kumar’s office confirmed that the modalities are being worked out within the Primary Education Department, and once that’s is done, it will be proposed in the cabinet meeting by the Education Minister. The move will be rolled out once this proposal gets a nod from the cabinet. A source in the Education Department revealed that as of Wednesday, the number of vacancies in teaching staff in government primary schools (class 1 to 8) is almost 22,000, and the number is higher for all north Karnataka districts. The worst affected is Yadgir, with 1835 vacancies. In Bengaluru, in 60 schools in Shivajinagar block, there is a shortage of 76 teachers, a department official based in Bengaluru confirmed. This shortage of teachers is primarily due to delay in hiring by the government, and an overall shortage of candidates who clear the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET). Before appearing for TET, a candidate has to complete B Ed degree and a Bachelors degree in arts or science. While the number of vacant teachers’ posts is quite large, in 2017 the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan survey found that only 5.3% of the state’s 14,937 secondary schools have five core subject teachers. This leads to a single teacher being forced to teach multiple subjects. The Education Department official based in Bengaluru further said that the department’s move to appoint “guest teachers” to fill up the vacant positions with a monthly compensation Rs 7,500-8,000 per month does not attract good candidates, especially in urban areas which have other lucrative job prospects. This idea of taking help from the staff of private schools comes after the government had hinted last month at hiring engineering graduates to fill up the shortage of science and mathematics teachers. Till December 2018, there was a vacancy of more than 5,500 in these two subjects in government schools across Karnataka. However, these ideas have not got the endorsement of experts. For one, Niranjan Aradhya, a professor at the National Law School University of India, Bengaluru, and Programme Head at Universalisation of Quality Education Programme, has called all this proposal a sham. “This is just another neoliberal design for not hiring full-time quality teachers. If you hire people with very meagre remuneration, it will naturally affect the quality of education negatively, he said. He added that the procedure of becoming eligible to be a government school teacher also needs to be defined and made more efficient. “Basically, there shouldn’t be a need to conduct another eligibility test (TET) when it’s the government-mandated colleges teach B Ed courses, and that too candidates need to clear an entrance exam to qualify for the course. It’s as if the government itself does not trust its own standards so they have the TET. Moreover, if the government wants to conform to its TET standards, why does not it give the training to select B Ed passouts to bridge some of the shortage,” Niranjan argued.
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