“Ultimately, we will see community spread in this country."
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Tuesday, February 25, 2020
JD(S) in talks with Prashant Kishore in its mission to revive party electorally
Ex-CM HD Kumaraswamy has said that first round of discussions has already taken place.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Tuesday said he has held the first round of discussions with poll strategist Prashant Kishor on plans to organise JD(S) for the future. "I have spoken to him (Prashant Kishore)...with a view to organising politically in Karnataka for the future.First round of discussions has happened. I will tell you later," Kumaraswamy told reporters in response to a question. Top JD(S) sources had recently revealed that the party leadership, after facing setbacks in successive polls, planned to hold talks with Kishor on plans to revive the party. The JD(S), which bagged only 37 of 225 seats in the 2018 assembly polls and came to power in alliance with the Congress with Kumaraswamy as Chief Minister, managed to win only one seat out of 28 in the state during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Party patriarch and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda were also defeated in the parliamentary polls. The JD(S) later also failed to win even a single seat during the December 2019 bypolls to 15 assembly constituencies in the state. The Kishor-led Indian Political Action Committee (I- PAC) had helped the AAP to post a splendid performance in the recent Delhi assembly polls. The political advocacy group also helped in the election campaign of Narendra Modi in 2014 when he was the BJP's prime ministerial candidate. The I-PAC has worked on a number of successful campaigns since 2014, including the one that brought JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to power in 2015. The organisation also helped Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy win both the state and Lok Sabha elections. Kishor, who was the Janata Dal (United) national vice- president, was recently expelled from the party following a bitter fallout with its chief Nitish Kumar. Responding to a question on the BS Yediyurappa-led BJP government in the state, Kumaraswamy said there was nothing worth discussing this dispensation yet. "I don't want to discuss about the current government. There is no need for it as there is nothing worth discussing about this government. When there is no development, what (is there) to discuss?" he asked. "Let's wait and see, they (BJP) have asked for six months," he said. Yediyurappa had recently said that after looking at his administration six months, people would punish the opposition. Responding to a question, Kumaraswamy said U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to India should benefit the country as he noted that he had no big expectations from this visit. "Nothing should happen that will lead to a loot of India's resources...they (US) should not take away our resources, we should be careful about it," he said.
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Allocate funds to help women affected by farmer suicides: Activists urge K’taka govt
Activists say that in instances of farmer suicides, it is the women who are left to pay off moneylenders and want the government to rehabilitate such women.
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Sudha is a farmer, who cultivates green chillies and ragi in Karnataka’s Sira, located in Tumakuru. Sudha’s brother Shivanna, who was the sole breadwinner of the family, committed suicide three years ago due to severe crop losses. The day after Shivanna’s funeral, moneylenders showed up at her house demanding payment. Sudha, who was never consulted about any financial affairs and was strictly asked to not interfere in the family’s financial affairs prior to Shivanna’s death, was shocked to learn that she had to repay a debt of Rs 15 lakh to various moneylenders. Sira is one of the taluks in Karnataka that have been declared drought-hit for five consecutive years. “I only knew that my brother had taken a bank loan for digging a borewell. He got 12 borewells dug and we did not get any water from any of them for a long time. When he died, all the moneylenders turned to me. They asked me to repay the money. Until then, I was not allowed to look into the family’s financial affairs. I did not know that my brother had taken so many loans and that we were living in such a bad condition,” Sudha says. Just like Sudha, thousands of women in families that have witnessed farmer suicides, are under immense pressure to repay loans. Sudha, whose family owns a 4 acre plot in Sira, says that she is now working as an agricultural labourer to repay the loans. “Firstly, women are not informed about financial conditions. Our inputs are not taken when the men incur debts. My brother did not inform me or even confide in me the problems we were facing. I would have been better equipped to handle this if I knew,” Sudha says. Just like Sudha, many women across Karnataka have been facing the pressure of repaying loans. Despite some of the famines receiving compensation, the burden is too high. To help women in agrarian economies cope with farmer suicides, the Mahila Kisan Adhikaar Manch (MAKAAM) is demanding that the Karnataka government prioritise the rehabilitation of women farmers, who have been affected by farmer suicides and allocate funds for the same in the upcoming budget, which is to be presented on March 5. MAKAAM wants the state government to institute a comprehensive relief and rehabilitation package for affected women. It also demanded that the state government set up district level coordination and monitoring committees to deal with the issue of supporting affected women. “In terms of benefits for farmer suicide families, there are various departments involved. We are demanding that like Maharashtra, Karnataka too issue ID cards to these women, who can go and avail the services provided to them. The district level committees will be responsible for helping them out in terms of coordinating with various departments,” says Kavitha Srinivasan, Karnataka convenor of MAKAAM. Another demand is for the setting up of Kisan Helpline to address the issues of farmers and also set up mechanisms to address mental health issues of farming families. MAKAAM also conducted a study where it surveyed 52 families in five districts of Karnataka. All the families had been affected due to suicides. “There are many problems that arise out of this. Women are the ones left behind in the cases of farmer suicides that have been documented. Since we do not have data on women farmer suicides, we cannot find out how many are succumbing to the pressure. But our study also found that in 18% of the farmer suicide families, the children were taken out of schools,” said Kavitha Kuruganti, who was a part of the MAKAAM team that conducted the study. The study found that all women were aware of the compensation from the state government and the pension amount that is given to sanctioned cases of farmer suicides. However, it also found that less than half of the women surveyed knew about education support provided by the state. “In the absence of economic support for livelihoods and without adequate social security measures like free healthcare, education, ration, pension, housing, these women end up borrowing more to meet daily survival needs, for healthcare of families and education of their children, thus entering into a further debt trap,” Kavitha said. MAKAAM also wants the state government to start documenting cases of women farmer suicides to get an accurate picture of the condition in the state. “There are too many women farmers and they are not included in the data set collected. This is important,” Kavitha Kuruganti said. According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), there were 6,644 farmer suicides in Karnataka between 2016 and 2018. According to a study conducted by MAKAAM in 2019, Karnataka’s farmer suicides make up 18-23% of the total farmer suicides in India and are highly prevalent in Chikkamagaluru, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Mandya, Mysuru and Shivamogga districts. “Clearing off outstanding debts was reported as the biggest burning problem by most widows, followed by continuing the education of their children. Social obligations and continuing with agriculture were cited as the next couple of responsibilities or problems looming in front of them. About 79% of the widows reported feeling stressed about managing a wide variety of responsibilities and a large majority felt overburdened by the responsibilities thrust on them after the suicides of their spouses,” the study said. <
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No crack in metro pillar near Vijayanagar, says Bengaluru metro authority
Speaking to TNM, BMRCL said that a news report about a ‘crack’ was misleading as it had mistaken a marking on the bridge structure as a crack on the pillar.
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Metro rail authorities in Bengaluru on Tuesday dismissed a media report stating that there is a crack on pillar number 301 near the Vijayanagar station. The report aired by Suvarna News on Monday has said the pillar 301 had developed a crack. The same report was published on Youtube with the title “Ground Report | 'Namma Metro' Pillar Develops Crack Near Vijayanagara.” There is no crack or damage. This news is totally false. https://t.co/Vz4CO0LDGi — BMRCL (@cpronammametro) February 25, 2020 Reacting to this, a Twitter user had asked the metro officials to clarify on the status of the pillar on Tuesday morning, to which BMRCL (Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited) said that the report was fake. Speaking to TNM, Ravi Prakash, BMRCL General Manager (Public Relations) said that the report was misleading as it had mistaken a marking on the bridge structure as a crack on the pillar. He said, “There is no reason to worry. This is just part of the regular maintenance work that BMRCL undertakes on a regular basis by the engineers. So wherever there are issues that need to be looked at, our engineers go and check on it. But they (the TV channel) did not even inform us or reach out to any officials. This has led some people to panic.” He added, “Do you think we will put the lives of these many (commuters) into risk if there is damage to the bridge? You have seen previously whenever there is a need for long-term work, we plan and stop running trains for the required number of hours.” He clarified there has been no further checking done by the officials following the reports suggesting that the engineers and other concerned officials are well aware of the condition of the bridge. “We know what the situation is. We cannot jump to wrong conclusions based on this,” he said. Previously in a similar instance in April 2019, BMRCL has dismissed media reports stating that a Metro pillar near South End Circle station had developed cracks. Then the BMRCL had said there was no crack either on pillar number 67 and 66. Read: BMRCL denies reports of crack in pillars near Bengaluru’s South End Circle Metro station Also read: Namma Metro: Cracks observed in same pillar in 2012 and were repaired, says BMRCL
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Surprised about exclusion of 'Gantumoote' at BIFFES: Director Roopa Rao to TNM
The organisers offered that 'Gantumoote' be screened instead in the non-competition section of 'Women filmmakers of Karnataka'.
Even as the Bengaluru International Film Festival (BIFFES) gets underway on Wednesday, the exclusion of a few acclaimed films including Gantumoote, directed by Roopa Rao, has raised eyebrows. The director confirmed that Gantumoote was entered in the competition section of Karnataka, Indian and Asian in the film festival, and added that she was surprised when the final list of films to be screened at the festival excluded it. "I understand that at times, films which are selected in other film festivals are sometimes left out. But I was surprised at the decision because the films selected, just like Gantumoote, were in many year-end lists of best films of 2019," says Roopa Rao, speaking to TNM. She added that on Sunday, the organisers of the film festival reached out to her to include Gantumoote in a non-competition section - "Women filmmakers of Karnataka". However, the filmmakers have decided against screening the film in this section. "I remember this category was not there earlier. They (organisers) wanted the materials to reach them within a day but we were unable to comply with their request since the team members were travelling," says Roopa. She adds that she received many messages in support when Gantumoote was excluded from the competition sections of BIFFES. BIFFes calls #Gantumoote director Roopa Rao and offers to screen her film in "Women Directors of Karnataka" category. She politely refuses. Creating new non-competitive categories days before event is not the way to go @BIFFESBLR pic.twitter.com/nTmyL5uosc — ಎಸ್ ಶ್ಯಾಂ ಪ್ರಸಾದ್ S Shyam Prasad (@ShyamSPrasad) February 23, 2020 "Around the world, there are women film festivals and it is important to have specific film festivals for women filmmakers. However, in a film festival like this, we wanted to be part of the competition section since this is one of the few festivals that have Kannada films in specific competition sections'," adds Roopa. Gantumoote was released theatrically after it was screened at diaspora film festivals like the New York Indian Film Festival and Melbourne Indian Film Festival. In New York, it won the award for the Best Screenplay. The film tells a coming of age story through the eyes of Meera – a high school student in ‘90s Bengaluru.
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How a threat call to Congress MP spurred Karnataka police to track down Ravi Pujari
For nearly three years, the Karnataka police was hot on gangster Ravi Pujari’s trail before he was finally extradited to India.
One of the most feared underworld dons in the country, Ravi Pujari, who was extradited from Senegal and brought back to Bengaluru on Monday, had led a life devoid of criminal activity in West Africa’s Senegal, state police say. Although he was known as a philanthropist in Senegal, police sources say that it was the August 2017 threat call to Bengaluru Rural MP DK Suresh, which set off the police’s chase against him. Police sources say that hours after the Income Tax Department conducted a search and seizure operation at Congress troubleshooter DK Shivakumar’s properties in August 2017, DK Suresh had allegedly received a threat call from Ravi Pujari. The Sadashivnagar Police had registered an FIR against Pujari under section 387 (Putting person in fear of death or of grievous hurt, in order to commit extortion) and 506 (Criminal intimidation) of the IPC. On July 18, 2018, the Karnataka government issued an order for Ravi Pujari’s arrest. Police sources say that Ravi ran a chain of restaurants in Senegal, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast. Ravi also had his hand in textiles and sale of electronics in Senegal. Police sources say that he became popular among the locals in Senegal as he donated money to charitable causes and also donated water pump sets to households. However, he allegedly continued to make threatening phone calls to extort money from politicians, police say. When Ravi Pujari allegedly made the threat call, it was DK Suresh’s assistant Vinay picked up the call. Ravi is alleged to have demanded money and issued a death threat against the Congress MP if the money was not paid to him. How Ravi Pujari got to Senegal Ravi Pujari turned fugitive in the early 2000s after the Maharashtra and Karnataka police had over 100 cases registered against him. The Interpol had issued 13 red corner notices against Ravi including one for the murder of Bala Zalte, who was a don in Mumbai’s Andheri area. The police were also hot on Ravi’s tail as he was a member of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s gang and was a trusted associate of gangster Chhota Rajan. In the late 2000s, Ravi Pujari allegedly obtained fake credentials as Ricky Fernandez from Mysuru and obtained a fake passport in the name. He fled to Nepal and went to Uganda and later travelled to Burkina Faso. He is believed to have obtained another fake passport under the name Anthony Fernandez and then fled to Senegal. Pujari is believed to have built up goodwill and also a good network among the local businessmen of Indian origin. Police say that with the help of a few members of the Gujarati community, who lived in Senegal, the police were able to conclusively identify Ravi Pujari’s whereabouts in December 2018. He was arrested in January 2019 when he was getting his hair coloured at a barber shop in Senegal’s Dakar. “Initially he was in Dubai when his feud with Chhota Rajan was at its peak. He fled from Dubai and he came back to India before fleeing to Nepal. After settling in Senegal, he knew that the police were trying to track him down. The Mumbai and Gujarat police were after him. So, he kept travelling to Malaysia and Indonesia. He also travelled to America once before returning to Senegal,” the police adds. The probe Speaking to TNM, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Amar Kumar Pandey, who took the lead on tracking down Ravi Pujari says that he hit a deadend multiple times during the investigation. “It was like chasing a ghost,” he says. When ADGP Amar Pandey took up the case in 2017, he did not know what Ravi looked like and the gangster was already on the run for almost 20 years. The picture he had of Pujari in a swimming pool was one of the few photos he had to identify him as even those were two decades old. ADGP Pandey began tracking Ravi Pujari’s threatening phone calls to DK Suresh, former Congress ministers Anil Lad, Tanveer Sait and Ramanath Rai. He, however, still remained elusive as he used VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) mobile apps to make phone calls and he never used the same SIM card to make two different calls. Finally, in December 2018, ADGP Pandey tracked Ravi down to Burkina Faso and by the time he could be arrested, the gangster had fled the place. With the help of the Ministry of External Affairs, Indian Embassies in various African nation states, local businessmen of Indian origin and the local police, ADGP Pandey was able to trace him to Senegal in January 2019. He says that he was working on a hunch that he was in Africa. When he claimed to be Anthony Fernandez and informed the Supreme Court of Senegal that he is not Ravi Pujari, ADGP Pandey enlisted the help of his counterparts in Mumbai. Ravi Pujari’s fingerprints were in the Interpol’s file. He was fingerprinted by the Mumbai police after he murdered a local gangster in Andheri named Bala Zalte. In February 2019, the Mumbai Police sent over a file that contained Pujari’s fingerprints, which were used to determine his identity and bring him back to India.
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Kambala jockey Srinivasa Gowda to take part in SAI trials for race track
The athlete had earlier declined to participate in the Sports Authority of India (SAI) trials as the two sports are very different from each other.
Srinivasa Gowda, the Kambala jockey who rose to fame after his race timings caught the attention of the media, has finally agreed to take part in race trials conducted by the Sports Authority of India (SAI). Though Srinivasa had earlier said that he had no interest in track events, he later agreed to participate in the trials. Speaking to TNM, Srinivasa’s father said that he would give the trial at the synthetic track in Moodabidri. “The Kambala season is still ongoing. After the races, which end in the first week of March, Srinivasa needs to take some rest. Then we will go for trials and consider joining training based on the trials.” Srinivasa has bagged 39 medals in the current Kambala season, which runs between November and March, reported Deccan Herald. There are three more races that Srinivasa will attend, and try to break the current record of most medals in a season. He is currently the frontrunner for the season. The Kambala jockey had recently met with Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, who praised Srinivasa’s achievements. Yediyurappa hailed him for his Kambala performance, for which he won several medals. The Chief Minister had also given Srinivasa a cheque of Rs 3 lakh. Initially, the athlete had declined to take part in the trials to run on the track, as the two are very different sports and take place on different terrains. Though he was widely compared to Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt, he denied any comparisons with world famous runners, and credited the speed to “well looked after buffaloes.” However, the media and social media calculated that his 142.50 metres in 13.62 seconds dash with the buffaloes was faster than Usain Bolt’s world record. Bolt holds the current world record for 100 metres in 9.58 seconds. But some criticised the comparison as lacking merit since Srinivasa had the support of the buffaloes and was running on the field instead of on a synthetic track. Meanwhile, another Kambala racer, Nishanth Shetty beat Srinivasa Gowda’s record a few days after it was made, running 143 metres in 13.6 seconds. Nishanth also denied any comparisons with Bolt. “We cannot compare sprint and Kambala as there are a lot of differences between the two events,” he told the media.
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