Bengaluru school hikes fee, threatens to de-enrol students for not paying

Education

A school representative said that they will address the issue with the parents personally.

Soumya Chatterjee

www.karnataka.com / education

Parents of students studying in Vibgyor School in Bengaluru’s Horamavu have alleged that the school has hiked the fee while the state government has asked schools not to hike fees this year. Further, a circular has been sent to parents threatening that their children’s enrollment will be discontinued if they fail to pay school fees within a certain period of time. This the parents say is in contravention of a circular issued by the state government. A part of the communique (Circular No VH43-CIRNO2489) dated July 1 to the parents by the Vibgyor School principal which was shared by a parent reads, “For the small number of parents who have NOT yet paid any fee for this academic year, it will be assumed that you are no longer interested in your ward continuing to study at our school. As a consequence, we will initiate the de-enrolment process for your ward from 13th July 2020, for the academic year 2020-21. In case you still wish to continue, we request you to pay up the dues immediately.” Speaking to TNM, a school representative refused to comment, and said that issues related to fees will be dealt by the school management directly with the parents if there is a concern. A front office representative of the school told TNM, “Anything related to the fees, we can address the parents directly. Whichever parents you are contacting, you can reiterate to them that we are meeting them in person and we are able to convince them. With relation to this, if we need to get back to them, we will address that.” It is also not clear if the school has made any concessions for students whose parents are unable to pay the present fees due to the economic distress caused by the pandemic. A circular dated April 28 issued by the Department of Public Instruction concerning this had asked schools not to increase the fees by the normal 15% every year citing financial hardships caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The department had subsequently launched a helpline and complaint window program over the same issue. According to reports, close to 1,000 complaints were registered by the end of May. Another note issued by the department on May 19 stated that schools can collect fees only from willing parents and cannot increase the fee that was charged last year and they should make concessionary arrangements for parents who have been economically affected. “Despite the clear instructions from the government, the school has increased fees saying that the fee for the next class will be obviously higher than the previous grade. I am made to pay Rs 68,000 more from last year,” Pramod Prabhakar, one agrrevied parent said. Read:  Many private schools in Bengaluru hike fees, despite govt order barring it

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DK Shivakumar takes charge as KPCC chief, party members log on from 7800 locations for event

Politics

"Many felt that my political career had ended after the BJP targeted me, but it didn't", DK Shivakumar told the crowd.

Prajwal Bhat

It was not quite the swearing-in ceremony DK Shivakumar would have imagined when he was made the President of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) in March. There was no rally with thousands of cheering Congress workers, there were no massive celebrations on the streets.  Instead, a small swearing in event with around 150 attendees, including senior Congress leaders and officials in Bengaluru, was held at the party office on Queen’s Road in the city. Smaller events were held in as many as 7800 locations in Karnataka with more than 30,000 party members connected via video conference, a Congress official said.  Addressing party leaders and workers in Bengaluru, Shivakumar referenced that the swearing in ceremony was the start of the party’s rebuilding process in Karnataka. “We should change the Congress in Karnataka to a cadre-based party. I have suggested implementing the Kerala model which says that even the biggest leaders should first represent the booth level and we are initiating programmes for this,” DK Shivakumar said. Shivakumar knows that he faces a herculean task ahead as the state Congress chief. It was less than a year ago that Shivakumar was released from Tihar jail after he was accused by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering case. “Many felt that my political career had ended after the BJP targeted me. Sonia Gandhi came to the jail I was in and spoke to me for an hour and assured that she was with me. She has now made me stand here as a party worker and I take this role as my duty.,” DK Shivakumar said.  In a half-hour address, Shivakumar stressed on collective leadership to help Congress return to power in the state. “Joining together is the beginning, thinking together is the progress and working together is the success. I believe in working together and bringing everyone in the party together,” he said. Before the oath-taking, a documentary on Shivakumar’s rise to becoming Karnataka’s Congress chief was shown starting with a young Shivakumar’s first electoral foray in 1985 when he went up against Janata Dal (Secular) supremo HD Deve Gowda and narrowly lost the election. “I was still a final year degree student when the Congress decided to give me a ticket. This is the connection I share with the Congress party,” Shivakumar said. Shivakumar, currently the legislator of Kanakapura constituency, takes charge of the Congress at a time the party’s morale is low after two consecutive electoral failures, first in the 2018 Assembly elections, and then in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The party managed to win 80 seats in 2018 but it was 42 less than the 122 seats it won in 2013, a mark of the party’s descent in Karnataka.  Even though the Congress joined hands with the JD(S) to form a coalition government in Karnataka, the alliance lasted just over a year with frictions developing and as many as 17 MLAs of the alliance switching over to the BJP.  In 2019, the Congress won just one of the 28 seats in the state. Bengaluru Rural MP DK Suresh, the brother of DK Shivakumar, was the lone leader to register a victory even as all other leaders including Mallikarjun Kharge, a nine-time MLA and two-time MP lost the elections.  Lockdown restrictions Due to the lockdown restrictions over the coronavirus outbreak, the oath-taking ceremony was delayed for months. Even when DK Shivakumar wanted to hold the event on June 7, the Karnataka government refused to allow political events, delaying the swearing in by another month. The Congress, managed to obtain permission for the event in mid-June and turned to technology to unite its party workers. The oath-taking ceremony in Bengaluru was held in the new Congress block opened close to its main office in Bengaluru, and physical distancing norms were largely ignored here. The event in Bengaluru was also streamed live in Congress offices in the state where LED screens were put up for workers to view the event. The workers were also shown on the screens put up in the Bengaluru event alongside the party’s slogan under Shivakumar ‘New vision, new direction’. It was DK Suresh and Vinay Karthik, a close associate of DK Shivakumar in the Congress, who put together the oath-taking ceremony event on Thursday. “This is a party building exercise and builds the party’s cadre. The idea is to unite the party workers in the state after the electoral defeats,” a Congress party member in Bengaluru told TNM.   District and block-level leaders were directed to conduct oath-taking ceremonies in offices across the state. "We coordinated with district officials through zoom calls and tried to ensure that everyone was comfortable with the technology being used. They were reminded that they have to wear masks and maintain distancing with around 150 workers in each location," said a party member. Before Shivakumar takes on the challenge of expanding the party’s base in Karnataka, he first hopes to unite the party’s cadre and build on the goodwill created by Thursday’s oath-taking event.

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Contacts of 64% COVID-19 patients yet to be traced in Bengaluru

Coronavirus

BBMP officials say that the reason for delay in contact tracing is due to the sudden spike in cases in the city.

TNM Staff

PTI/Representation Photo

Over the last three days, Bengaluru has witnessed a sudden spike in the number of COVID-19 patients. On Wednesday Bengaluru had 735 people who tested positive for the coronavirus. With the increasing number of cases, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike is now struggling to trace the contacts in close to 64% of the total number of positive cases.  As of July 1, there were 4,652 patients with COVID-19 in Bengaluru and of these, contacts of 2,963 patients are still being traced. BBMP officials say that the reason for the delay is due to the sudden spike in the number of people testing positive in the last four days.  On July 1, there were 735 new patients with COVID-19, there were 738 new patients on June 30, 783 new patients on June 29 and 596 new patients on June 28.  “There has been a sudden spike in cases. Earlier we used to have fewer cases. The spike is also because of Unlock 1.0. With so many people testing positive in less than a week, we are working hard to trace the contacts,” BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar said.  According to data provided by the BBMP, there were 176 patients with COVID-19 lodged in isolation in Bengaluru as of May 31, the last day of the lockdown. After Unlock 1.0 was implemented on June 1, the number of cases rose by 96% in the city. In just one month, the number of patients in isolation rose to 4,476.  The positivity rate rose from 1.17% to 4.74%. “The largest spike happened between June 22 and June 30, where we had 2,977 active cases. With these sheer numbers, it is obviously going to take time to trace contacts, map containment zones among other things,” Anil Kumar added.  The ward with the highest number of cases is Padarayanapura with 80 people getting COVID-19. VV Puram has 73 patients, Dharmaraya Swamy Nagar has 53 patients, Shivajinagar has 52, Hogasandra has 51, KR Market and SK garden have 36 and 35 patients respectively. The areas with more than 15 patients with COVID-19 include Sampangi Rama Nagar, Chamarajpet, Chalavadipalya, Shantala Nagar, Chickpet, Siddapura, Singasandra, Mangammanapalya, Jnana Bharati Nagar, Hoodi, Gottigere, Kengeri and Kumaraswamy Layout. As of Wednesday evening, there were 485 containment zones in the city.  “Most of the containment zones are located in West, South-Central and South-West Bengaluru. 87% of the containment zones are individual houses, so we have had to cordon off 100 m areas from the patients’ houses. Around 10% of the containment zones are apartments. We have 14 clusters of containment zones in Bengaluru, two slum areas that are containment zones and one hotel,” Anil Kumar added.  

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DK Shivakumar to take charge as Karnataka Congress president on Thursday

Politics

The event will be live-streamed to party offices across Karnataka.

IANS

File photo

Congress troubleshooter D.K. Shivakumar would take over as the party's Karnataka President on Thursday and the event would be streamed live for party leaders and cadres across the state, a party leader said. "Shivakumar's Pratigna Dina (Oath-taking day) as the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president will be held at the party office from 10.30 a.m. onwards in compliance with the lockdown guidelines, which restricts the gathering to about 50 people," party leader M.A. Saleem told IANS in Bengaluru. Congress General Secretary K.C. Venugopal, newly-elected Rajya Sabha member from state Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah, former state chief Dinesh Gundu Rao, former Union Minister Rehman Khan and party's women's wing head Pushpa Amarnath will be present at the event. The event will begin with homage to 20 martyrs of the Indian Army who died in a clash with Chinese soldiers in Ladakh's Galwan Valley on June 15. It will be followed by 'Vande Mataram', welcome speech by state Working President Saleem Ahmed and party's flag exchange from Gundu Rao to Shivakumar. Venugopal will deliver the inaugural speech, followed by Gundu Rao, Shivakumar, Kharge, Siddaramaiah, party's leader in Legislative Council S.R. Patil and Working Presidents Eshwar Khandre and Satish Jarkiholi. "Khan will administer oath to all party members on the Preamble of the Constitution and Shivakumar will take the party's pledge," said Saleem. Touting it to be an historic event, Shivakumar said though he would assume charge in the presence of a few party leaders due to restriction on a large gathering, hundreds of party leaders and cadres would join the programme in virtual world at 7,800 places across the state through live streaming. "Hundreds of our party members and supporters will watch the historic event from their homes, panchayats, civic offices and civic wards across the state, wearing masks and maintaining social distance," he said. Though Shivakumar, 58, was appointed on March 11, he could not take charge since then, due to the lockdown. Shivakumar's appointment came three months after Gundu Rao resigned on December 9 following the party's debacle in the Assembly by-elections on December 5, in which only 2 out of the 15 candidates won, while the ruling BJP got 12. Shivakumar is a legislator from the Kanakapura assembly segment. His brother D.K. Suresh is the party's Lok Sabha member from the Bangalure Rural constituency for the second time. He was the party's only candidate to have retained the seat, while 20 others lost in the May 2019 general elections.

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Karnataka contract doctors say they’ll discontinue services if not regularised by July 8

Health

Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had earlier assured the contract doctors that their jobs would be regularised, but doctors allege that no action has been taken since.

Alithea Stephanie Mounika

PTI/New Delhi. Representative image

On the occasion of National Doctors’ day, hundreds of contract doctors wrote to the state government that they will not be offering their services beyond July 8, as their jobs have not been regularised despite assurances. This is projected to affect lakhs of people who avail government health services in rural areas, the statement signed by the doctors on Wednesday said. Currently there are 507 doctors who are working on contract basis in Karnataka. Last month, the doctors had threatened to resign en masse if their jobs were not regularised. Though there are about 30% medical doctors’ posts vacant in the state, the government has hesitated to regularise the contract doctors as there is a huge pay disparity between the two posts, for doing the same work. On June 17, the state government had asked them to withdraw their resignations, which they had given in protest, and assured the they would be regularised. However, the doctors allege that no action has materialised in this regard. In a two-page statement, the contract doctors wrote that they are “working to the best of their abilities putting their life on the line to fight against COVID-19. These doctors have been doing the same work and maintaining all the responsibilities which a regular doctor does, since many years, for half the salary. Even with a huge pandemic like COVID-19 running rampant, these (contract) doctors are working day and night without any job security.” “[We have been] put into such a situation that we have become helpless and with a grieving heart we have taken this decision,” the statement adds. The letter noted that most of the contract doctors were from rural Karnataka. The statement also noted that the government was initially regularising contract doctors after they finish three years of service, but that is no longer happening. “Government was regularising contract doctors from 2007-2017 and it has been halted since then. We made a request to regularise us in our own respective working places as the government was doing earlier. We have been submitting multiple requests to the authorities since 3 years,” the statement said. It also noted that they were being pressured to quit by their families, as there was no job security, and they were providing their services at a risky time. “As of now plenty of doctors and health care professionals have succumbed to COVID-19. We are pressurized by our scared family members to resign as there is no job or life security for the work we are doing. Even we are ready to put our life on the line and do the duty. That is the reason we requested for regularisation of our services. But we are sad and de-motivated as the government hasn't taken any action. Superficially it appears as if the government doesn't need us. Based on that we are requesting the government to relieve us from work immediately.” The statement is signed off under the name of “Disheartened Contract Doctors.”

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America’s told-you-so moment: How we botched the reopening

The resurgence of Covid-19 was preventable, but the country’s rush to end shutdowns triggered disaster.

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Testing czar says coronavirus surge is straining testing capacity

“It is absolutely correct that some labs across the country are reaching or near capacity,” Giroir said Wednesday.

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