After delay of over 10 years, Pumpwell flyover inaugurated in Mangaluru

Civic

The flyover had become an election issue in Mangaluru and even mock inaugurations have taken place.

Prajwal Bhat

It is a celebration more than ten years in the making. A parade of cultural troupes, with some people playing the chende (a drum used in Yakshagana), some others dressed as giant puppets and one person even dressed as Mr. Bean, turned the Pumpwell flyover in Mangaluru into a carnival. The flyover was inaugurated amid fanfare, more than 11 years since the letter of approval was granted for its construction in 2009. Over the last decade, it was a source of conflict between the Congress and the BJP in the coastal city. Ironically, the flyover, which has been built to ease the traffic logjam at the intersection of NH66 and NH55 was inaugurated at 9.37 am, which is about the same time the area faces heavy traffic due to people heading towards city to reach offices and educational institutions. According to a traffic policemen, the inauguration was delayed from the scheduled start at 9 am. “We were told to cordon the area until VIP’s leave and allow regular commuters after the inauguration was done,” a traffic policeman said. The inauguration however lasted for about an hour, after which and the regular vehicular movement was allowed around 10.30 am. Speaking at the inauguration, Dakshina Kannada MP and BJP Karnataka President Nalin Kumar Kateel argued that it did not take over a decade but merely three years for the completion of Pumpwell flyover. “Until 2016, only the support elevated area on which the flyover stands were acquired for the project. We could not complete the entry and exit-ramps as the local residents had obtained stay order. The Congress party that had elected representatives both in the state assembly as well as Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC), did not make any effort, to negotiate or bring consensus among the litigants, even as ordinary people continued to suffer from traffic congestion,” he said. Responding to the criticism and trolling over repeated changes of the deadline for the flyover’s completion, Nalin alleged that it was the opposition led ‘drama’ to show BJP leaders in poor light. “It has only made me more popular. But let them first answer that despite knowing Navayuga Udupi Tollway Pvt. Ltd (NUTPL)'s poor financial health, why did the Congress at the Centre in 2009 decide to handover the project to NUTPL. It was us (BJP) who convinced the Central government to award advance of Rs. 59 Crore for the Pumpwell project after NUTPL had failed to convince private bankers to extend loan for the project,” he said. Speaking to The News Minute, the project director of NHAI Mangaluru Project Office Shishu Mohan said that four-laning of the road is completed and only a few final touches at the two-underpasses leading to a local hospital is pending. “The flyover will easily be able to manage a load of 20,000 vehicles from the Pumpwell junction,” he said.  The inaugural event was largely dominated by the BJP’s local legislators, along with its local corporators and party workers. The event did not see any presence of Congress representatives or leaders. Nalin, a three-time MP from Dakshina Kannada, was first elected from the constituency in 2009. He subsequently won from the constituency in the 2014 and 2019 parliamentary elections. In the run-up to both elections, the Pumpwell flyover was an election issue raised by his opponents. At one point, the flyover was officially slated to be inaugurated on March 31, 2013 but it has now been inaugurated more than six years after the initial target. The flyover is a part of the 90 km highway widening project from Talapady to Kundapura, a distance of 112 km between Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts. NUPTL was tasked with completing the construction and was supposed to hand the property back to the government in 2035 after managing the property for over 20 years. However, due to slow progress in land acquisition by the government, court litigations and local political pressure, the firm’s work on the flyover was only completed earlier this month. In the last two years, the Congress and the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) had celebrated a mock inauguration of the incomplete flyover wearing masks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Nalin Kumar Kateel.  

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Praveen Sood appointed as DG and IG of Karnataka after Neelamani Raju retires

Law and Order

TNM Staff

Praveen Sood, the incumbent DIG of CID’s Economic Offences Wing has been appointed as the Director General and Inspector General of Police for Karnataka state. On Friday, the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms issued a notification that the current DG and IG Neelamani Raju retired on superannuation. Known as the police officer who brought in reforms in training officers deputed with cyber crime units across the state, Praveen Sood introduced several reforms that sped up investigation processes. He introduced the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System all over the state by networking all police stations in the country and ensuring data entry and retrieval of all information in police stations and higher police officers online. Born in 1964, Praveen Sood graduated from IIT Delhi and joined the Indian Police Service in 1986. He kicked off his career as the Assistant Superintendent of Police in Mysuru in 1989. He has served as the SP of Ballari and Raichur before being posted as the Deputy Police Commissioner (Law and Order) of Bengaluru. In 1999, he served as the police officer on foreign deputation as the police advisor to the Government of Mauritius for 3 years.  He was posted as Police Commissioner of Mysuru City between 2004 and 2007.  He took over as the Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) in Bengaluru in 2008 and continued in the post till 2011. He has won the Chief Minister’s Gold Medal for excellence in service in 1996, the Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 2002  and the President’s Police Medal in 2011.  During 2013-14 he took over as Managing Director of Karnataka State Police Housing Corporation. He later worked as the Principal Secretary to the Home  Department as the Additional Director General of Police (Karnataka State Reserve Police) and the ADGP of Administration. In 2017, he was appointed the Bengaluru Police Commissioner. He was also instrumental in launching “Suraksha” App and “Pink Hoyasalas” managed by all-women police officers. As the DIG of the CID, Economic offences and Special Units, he is credited for opening the Centre for Cyber-crime Investigation, Training and Research for training police officers, prosecutors and the judiciary in handling cyber crime cases.     

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Bidar school sedition case: Youngest student cops questioned over play is 9 years old

CAA

The mother of the pupil and the head teacher arrested may not get bail till February 4 as the judge is on leave.

Prajwal Bhat

On Thursday, officials at the Shaheen Primary and High School in Bidar district of Karnataka were prepared for the sight of police personnel in plain clothes walking into the school premises. The police had called up earlier and asked the school authorities to present all students who participated in a play staged on January 21 about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) to the police station. However, when the school authorities refused to send students to the station, the police came to the school instead, this time for a second round of questioning.  While they had anticipated as much, the school authorities were not prepared for what came next. The police not only questioned students in the school but also arrested a head-teacher of the school’s primary section – Fareeda Begum (52) – for overseeing the play, and the mother of a child who took part in the play – Nazbunnisa (26). The school management is also facing charges of sedition for allowing the play to be conducted. On Friday, though the school authorities applied for bail for the two women who were arrested, it did not come up for hearing. The lawyer who is representing the two women told TNM that the judge in the District and Sessions court in Bidar was on leave till February 4 and it will most likely not be possible to secure bail. Read: Mother of student, teacher arrested after Karnataka school stages play on CAA-NRC "The students were questioned for over two hours. All the students are from classes 4, 5 and 6 and the youngest among them was aged 9," says Tauseef Madikeri, the CEO of the school.  Bidar SP T Shreedhara told TNM that the mother has been arrested for telling her daughter to say a dialogue that anyone who asks for documents should be hit with a chappal (slipper), and including abusive words which were not part of the script of the play. “The head-teacher was arrested because she was overseeing the play," the SP added. He said that while the school management is facing charges of sedition, the parent and the teacher arrested will be "charged to the extent of their involvement." The police are unwilling to disclose if there is a separate FIR against the parent and the head teacher, and the only FIR that the media has accessed till now is a case based on sedition law. "At this point we cannot reveal what charges have they been booked under. Only an investigation will reveal their role," Bidar DSP Basaveshwara Hira, who is investigating the case, told TNM.  In a video reportedly of the play which has now been taken down from social media, a child is heard telling another child, “The government is telling Muslims to leave India and go away.” The other child responds, “Amma, Modi is saying show documents of your father and grandfather otherwise he is telling us to leave the country.” At this point, another child is heard saying, “Hit them with slippers if anybody asks for documents.” Tauseef says the dialogue uttered by the child was generic. "It has been wrongly interpreted. It was not used to target anyone and the girl spoke of hitting anyone who would ever dare ask her for her documents with a chappal. She has picked up this part from watching videos and listening to conversations at home," Tauseef adds.  Speaking in an interview with India Today before her arrest, Nazmunnisa apologised for the incident and took responsibility for it in the hope that her daughter is not targeted for her part in the play. "We did not intend to portray the Prime Minister in a bad light. We were thinking about how we can do the play; saw something on YouTube and thought of doing it," Nazmunnissa says.   Complaint says play was 'insulting PM’ Police officials from New Town Police Station acted on a complaint made by Nilesh Rakshala, an activist of the Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), in which he stated that dialogues in the play "insulted the Prime Minister". Police first visited the school on January 28. On this occasion, there were police personnel in uniform as well as those in plain clothes, who questioned students involved in the play. Police officials, in plainclothes, made a second visit to the school on Thursday, and once again questioned students. The police further asked parents of the children involved in the play and the head-teacher Fareeda to visit the police station for questioning.  The police justified their actions stating that the children were witnesses in a complaint of sedition. "We have followed protocol in examining juvenile witnesses. A child rights activist was present and police officials visited the school in plain clothes. We have a system of Special Juvenile Police Units in each police station and they have acted based on the complaint," Bidar SP T Shreedhara said.  School says police didn’t follow child-friendly procedure But people connected to the school say that the questioning by the police was not conducted in a child-friendly manner, and that some of the police officials who visited the school were in uniform. "Police officials who visited on Thursday were in plain clothes. However, on January 28, there were policemen who were in uniform at the school," says Tauseef. Photographs, which have been shared widely, also show police officers in uniform questioning students.  Members of the Shaheen Alumni Association wrote to the Chairperson of the Karnataka State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights on the issue.  In the letter, it was pointed out that under the section 107 of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015, only a Child Welfare Police Officer (CWPO) can deal with children. The letter points out another rule which states that parents of the child may be present during the interrogation, however, this was not followed.  "Photos that are going viral on the social media prove the fact that rules of child-friendly procedures have been completely breached by the concerned police officers, as the police officer interviewing is wearing a coloured shirt, however, the other two officers accompanying him are in complete uniform and are carrying weapon which is visible. The impact of such a sight is traumatising for the children (sic)," reads a letter written by Irfan Ahmed, Coordinator of the Shaheen Alumni Association.  Police officials say that they will continue their investigation into the incident even as school authorities are scrambling to ensure bail for the teacher and the parent arrested. 

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'Love Mocktail' review: This pleasant romcom strikes all the right notes

Review

The music and cinematography enhance this romcom that the audience will surely be able to relate to.

Aravind Shwetha

From Romeo and Juliet to Preetham and Nandini (of Mungaru Male fame) we have seen millions of couple fall, rise and die in love. So, a love story in a movie is no surprise. But what makes a movie different and watchable is the emotional quotient and the connect it has with viewers. Darling Krishna’s Love Mocktail gets this connect right as he takes a slice out of a common man's life. The movie takes off with a middle-aged Adi (Darling Krishna) driving to the coastal region and rescuing a woman on the way. She accompanies him through the journey where he opens up about his love, life and an array of emotions he has been through over the last few years. Adi (played by a teenager who looks very similar to Darling Krishna) has a major crush on his classmate (Reema). But like most boys, he is hesitant to approach her. But his antics like caring for her and dreaming of a future with her keep him busy. Once the bubble is burst, Adi wakes up to reality and gets into an engineering college where he meets Jo (Amruta Iyengar) who comes from a well-to-do family. Though her love is true, she has her own doubts about his ability to take care of her and provide the lifestyle she deserves. But this doesn’t keep them away from enjoying and living in the moment. After engineering, he joins an IT company and promises to fulfil her desires. But Jo, who is under pressure from her parents to marry a well-off guy, breaks up with Adi. Heartbroken, Adi meets Nidhi (Milana Nagraj), an IT employee and a down-to-earth woman, who enjoys the simple things in life. What follows is another interesting tale. Urban love stories are what the youth look for in romcoms these days. Ideal couple goals, a dream wedding, a cutesy love story and a bundle of emotions - Love Mocktail has it all. The music and cinematography enhance this usual love story which comes with a touch of reality. There are several takeaways from the movie - teens dreaming about marrying their school crush, pressure from parents to study in candlelight, cash/currency-strapped college days, waiting for hours to get back 100 free SMS (pre-Internet era), friends who stand by like rocks in tough times, the strong bond a husband and wife share, happy moments, and more. All these small elements of life, shown through a rose-tint, put a smile on one’s face. The movie, by and large, connects to the urban teens and youth and remains true to its genre - a romance saga. Throughout the movie, like most people, Adi looks for love. When he finds Nidhi, he is satisfied. But when she leaves him, he doesn’t look for love anymore. He has now leant to live with the bittersweet memory and all the love she has filled him with. This whole concept, freshly refurbished, stands out in the movie. Darling Krishna has managed both acting and direction with responsibility. He has got casting, music and the storyline right; he has made the right choices. The locations too have contributed to bringing the story alive. His performance is up to the mark, especially as a doting husband. Amruta Iyengar shows promise and potential. Milana Nagaraj has a refreshing character and plays her part well. Milana must continue to pick roles like these that bring the best out of her. A few VIPs have played a guest role in the movie, including Vijeth Suvarna, a well-known biker and restaurateur. Raghu Dixit’s music and Sri Crazy Minds’ cinematography are the biggest highlights. Raghu has inserted the right notes in every scene and the songs too bring out the feel-good factor. 'Love you Chinna' and 'Neene Yendigu' linger even after coming out of the theatre. Sri’s camera deserves special mention for showing the greenery and coastal Karnataka like never before. Love Mocktail, served ahead of Valentine’s Day, is a pleasant romantic experience for the weekend. Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the series/film. TNM Editorial is independent of any business relationship the organisation may have with producers or any other members of its cast or crew.

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Akshay Kumar shoots with Bear Grylls in Karnataka's Bandipur

Wildlife

The shoot took place two days after Rajinikanth had shot with Gryllis at the same national park.

IANS

Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar filmed a Discovery channel programme with Bear Grylls in Karnataka's Bandipur Tiger Reserve on Thursday, an official said. "Akshay Kumar shot for a day in Bandipur on Thursday for a Discovery channel programme," Chief Wildlife Warden Sanjay Mohan said. Discovery channel had sought permission for shooting between January 28 and January 30.  The actual shooting with the actors, Rajinikanth and Akshay, was only for one day each on Tuesday and Thursday. "The Discovery team had come to my office. We told them they would have to follow the rules strictly. If they fail to abide by the norms, we will cancel the shooting," said Sanjay. The permission is needed from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and others. The Bandipur Tiger Reserve, an 874 sq km national park, was formed by integrating forest areas of erstwhile Venugopala Wildlife Park, which was established in 1941, and was later enlarged to its current size in the Chamarajanagar district, about 220 km southwest of Bengaluru. The tiger reserve lists 28 species of mammals, including Royal Bengal tiger, Asian elephant, leopard, bonnet macaque, Indian pipistrelle and barking deer. However, a forest official was unhappy with the channel for not recognising the department's role in nurturing the forest. "I told them you must include information in the programme and show how the forest guards are working tirelessly to save the forest," said the official. According to the official, Discovery should not just use Indian forests for shooting programmes but also recognise India’s efforts at conservation. Bandipur Tiger Reserve Director T Balachandra said the channel paid Rs 10 lakh for four days of shooting. The Forest department didn't charge Discovery anything more than the usual fees, Sanjay said.

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Mother of student, teacher arrested after Karnataka school stages play on CAA-NRC

CAA

Nazbunnisa, the mother of a student who played a role in the play and Fareeda Begum, the teacher who was involved in staging it, were arrested by police officials on Thursday.

TNM Staff

The mother of a student and a head teacher of a Karnataka school were arrested and booked for sedition on Thursday by police officials in Bidar in connection with a school play which was allegedly against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The arrests were made after the school authorities blocked the police from further questioning the students. Nazbunnisa, 26, the mother of a girl who played a role in the play and Fareeda Begum, 52,  the head teacher who was involved in staging it, were arrested by police officials from Bidar New Town Police Station. Fareeda is the teacher in-charge of the primary section of the school.  They were booked under sections 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 505(2) (Statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill-will between classes), 124A (sedition), 153A (promoting, attempting to promote disharmony) and 34 (common intent) of the Indian Penal Code. The arrests were made based on a complaint by Nilesh Rakshala, an activist of the Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) after the play was staged by students of classes 4, 5 and 6 at the Shaheen Primary and High School on January 21. Following the complaint, three policemen, two of whom were in uniform and one in plain clothes, visited the school and questioned the students who were part of the play, including a 9-year-old child.  While the play was focused on the CAA, the school's CEO Tauseef Madikeri says it was one particular line in the play that caused trouble. Speaking to The Wire, Tauseef says that the line was a generic one, which was wrongly interpreted.  In a video reportedly of the same event, which has now been taken down, a child is heard telling another child, “The government is telling Muslims to leave India and go away.” In reply, the other child says, “Amma, Modi is saying show documents of your father and grandfather otherwise he is telling us to leave the country.” At this point, another child is heard saying, “Hit them with slippers if anybody asks for documents.” Police stated that Anuja Minsa's daughter delivered the dialogues 'insulting' Prime Minister Narendra Modi, The Hindu reported. The complainant had alleged that anti-Modi lines were delivered in the play.  Read: School in Karnataka's Bidar booked for sedition over children’s play on CAA-NRC

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Trump sticks embattled health chief with coronavirus response

Trump and his top aides are privately on edge about the global threat, ramping up their response as fear starts to spread across the U.S.

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