The move leaves Health Secretary Alex Azar with more control over his department, which has been rocked by personnel scandals in recent weeks.
from Health Care https://ift.tt/2RJ8A7C
via IFTTT
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Monday, September 21, 2020
CDC says coronavirus is airborne and can spread farther than 6 feet
The new advice, which the CDC released quietly on Friday, comes as the country prepares for flu season.
from Health Care https://ift.tt/32QyTPA
via IFTTT
from Health Care https://ift.tt/32QyTPA
via IFTTT
Telugu actor Venkatesh Daggubati cheers for SRH ahead of its IPL opener
The Hyderabad-based franchise will clash with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Monday.
Facebook/Venkatesh Daggubati
With Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) taking on the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Monday evening in the Indian Premier League (IPL), popular Tollywood actor Venkatesh Daggubati sent his wishes to the Hyderabad team. The match is scheduled to begin at 7.30 pm IST and will be played at the Dubai International Stadium. This is also the third match in the 13th edition of IPL 2020. The veteran actor took to his official Twitter handle and posted, “All the best to the @SunRisers team, I’m rooting and cheering for you guys!” Venkatesh Daggubati, a six-time Nandi Award winner for his acting, is known for his roles in movies like Drushyam, Guru, Gopala Gopala etc. All the best to the @SunRisers team I’m rooting and cheering for you guys! pic.twitter.com/aw15mS68HF — Venkatesh Daggubati (@VenkyMama) September 21, 2020 Both teams will begin their IPL 2020 campaign through Monday’s game. SRH will be led by Australian cricketer David Warner while RCB will be led by the Indian skipper Virat Kohli. Apart from Warner, SRH also has Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson, England Wicketkeeper-batsman Jonny Bairstow and Indian pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar. RCB, meanwhile, has AB de Villiers and Australian batsman Aaron Finch, England all-rounder Moeen Ali and Indian bowlers Yuzvendra Chahal and Umesh Yadav. Among the two teams, high expectations ride on RCB as they have not won even a single IPL title since its inception, despite having a very strong line-up every year. The team has played in the finals thrice -- in 2009, 2011 and 2016 -- since 2008 and lost all three times. SRH, on the other hand, won their first IPL title in 2016 where they defeated RCB by eight runs in the finals to clinch the trophy. Since then, the team has made it to the semi-finals and were the runners-up in 2018. They lost the trophy to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the finals but Kane Williamson won the Orange cap of the tournament with 735 runs to his credit.
from Karnataka https://ift.tt/2EljI7J
via IFTTT
'Tablighi Virus', 'Pakistan devils': Hate speech in Kannada media coverage documented
The Campaign Against Hate Speech, a voluntary group noted that individuals are defamed, speculation was published without evidence, and mob justice was encouraged over due process in news reporting.
The Campaign Against Hate Speech, a voluntary group of lawyers, writers, activists, filed an extensive report documenting instances of hate speech in 2020 including by the Kannada media while covering incidents of violence in Bengaluru. In its report titled ‘The Report titled ‘Wages of Hate: Journalism in Dark Times‘, the group noted that individuals are defamed, speculation was published without evidence, and mob justice was encouraged over due process in news reporting. It studied coverage by Kannada newspapers and TV channels which are popularly read and watched in Karnataka. The Campaign Against Hate Speech highlighted patterns which suggested that a disregard for due process was apparent in the reportage by Kannada media houses similar to the reportage by a section of English news organisations. The report found instances of hate-speech in the coverage of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests and the reportage on the Tablighi Jamaat related coronavirus cluster by the Kannada media this year. "Kannada media has not been very different from its egregious counterparts in English, Hindi and other regional media houses, as its reportage of the Tablighi Jamaat cluster has been outrightly communal and has endangered Muslim communities across the state. Hate speech in this period dehumanized an entire community, making them targets of vigilante violence," stated the report. It also said that there was a continuity in the reportage on the Tablighi Jamaat related cluster of coronavirus cases and the reportage on the CAA protests by Kannada media. The report focused on reportage in nine TV news channels - TV9 Kannada, Suvarna News, News18 Kannada, Digvijaya News, Public TV, Kasturi News, BTV, TV5 and Raj News - and seven newspapers - Vijaya Karnataka, Vijayavani, Udayavani, Prajavani, Kannada Prabha, Samyuktha Karnataka, Varthabharati. The report examined coverage of the arrest of Nalini Balakumar, a student who held a placard which read 'Free Kashmir', the demolition of migrant settlements in Bengaluru over fears that illegal Bangladeshi residents were living there, sedition charges over a play staged at Shaheen School in Bidar, the arrest of three Kashmiri engineering students in Hubballi over a video of them allegedly singing 'Pakistan Zindabad' and the arrests of Amulya Leona and Ardra Narayanan in Bengaluru. ‘Framing accused as objects of hatred’ While covering the arrests of the three Kashmiri students in February, Public TV's popular anchor HR Ranganath urged people in Hubballi to inflict physical violence on the accused by saying, "Cut off their legs if they try to ever set foot on the ground." Public TV anchor HR Ranganath (pictured right) "It framed protests, dissent and those accused of sedition as objects of hatred and even of violence, thus leaving them open to life-threatening danger. It also allowed for a convenient framing of an us vs them rhetoric where the anchors adopt a self-righteous attitude as self-appointed guardian of the nation." the report said. The Bar Association in Hubballi passed a resolution to not represent the three students booked for sedition, a decision which was challenged by lawyers from Bengaluru. The Karnataka High Court observed on April 20 that no prima facie case of sedition was made out against the students and they walked free in June after the police failed to file a chargesheet within the stipulated time. Read: Hubballi Bar Association refuses to represent 3 Kashmiri students booked for sedition The same channel, while covering the arrests of Amulya Leona and Ardra Narayanan, referred to the duo as 'Pak Pishachigalu' (Pakistan's devils). The duo's faces were also stamped with seals which read 'anti-national'. Public TV graphic describing Amulya and Ardra as 'Pakistan's Devils' Amulya Leona was arrested in Bengaluru in February after she said 'Pakistan Zindabad' while speaking at a protest against the CAA but she was not allowed to complete the context in which she said so. Ardra Narayanan was arrested a day later after she held a sign saying, ‘Muslim, Dalit Kashmir, Trans, Adivasi, freedom, freedom, freedom, now.’ Read: Protester detained for holding up ‘Kashmir liberation’ poster at Bengaluru’s Town Hall TV channels in Karnataka also telecast death threats issued to student protesters. A Sri Rama Sene member offered Rs 10 lakh as reward to anyone who kills student protester Amulya Leona on February 21. The report by The Campaign Against Hate Speech examined that this statement was presented on Suvarna News, another TV channel, as a 'warning' and the threat that they not be released on bail as a 'request'. Read: Sri Rama Sene man announces Rs 10 lakh bounty for killing student activist Amulya Leona Suvarna News coverage of Sanjeev Maradi's 'warning' In January, Suvarna News aired a news report claiming the presence of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Bengaluru in January. Another video shot by a resident in a high-rise apartment in the city also claimed the presence of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. This video was shared widely including by Mahadevapura's BJP MLA Arvind Limbavali on Twitter. Days later on January 19, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) ordered the demolition of a migrant settlement in Bengaluru. The Karnataka High Court later found that the eviction drive was illegal and ordered the BBMP and the state government to rehabilitate those who lost their homes in the drive. Read: After video claims 'Bangladeshi immigrant' settlement in Bengaluru, BBMP razes 100 huts The report also found patterns showing how the coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic was communalised. Suvarna News aired a show terming coronavirus as 'Tablighi virus' on April 10 while Star of Mysore, a newspaper published in Mysuru came under fire for an editorial titled ‘Bad apples in the basket’ that seemingly called for genocide. Suvarna News report calls coronavirus 'Tablighi Virus' ‘Sterotyping and vilification the norm’ "Active incitement of hatred by media houses across the country against dissenting individuals, particularly those charged with sedition, has become a deeply disturbing tendency in reportage," the report said. It also highlighted the media coverage of two violent incidents in Muslim-dominated localities in Bengaluru. The first incident occurred in Padarayanapura in April and the second occurred in KG Halli and DJ Halli in August. "Media coverage of these two incidents of violence indicate that for Kannada TV news channels in particular, stereotyping and vilification through hate speech has become the norm rather than the exception. If government response to the violence has been to order indiscriminate arrests and treating the issue variously as a communal and as a law-and-order problem, judicial response to hate speech in the name of news coverage has been non-existent," the report stated. It added that wider diversity in media houses, forms of internal regulation and prosecution of FIRs which invoke hate speech are ways this development can be addressed.
from Karnataka https://ift.tt/32PoeEY
via IFTTT
Bengaluru sees massive protest rally by farmers against farm bills
Yogendra Yadav, Justice (retired) HN Nagamohan Das, centeraninan freedom fighter HS Doreswamy, among others, joined the farmers in their protest.
A large crowd carrying a mix of red, green and blue flags marched in protest in Bengaluru on Monday against the recently passed ordinances on land and agriculture reforms. Led by leaders belonging to Dalit and left-leaning farmer organisations, men, women gathered from across Karnataka in Majestic made their way to Freedom Park via the Anand Rao Circle flyover raising slogans. The day of the protests coincided with the first day of the Monsoon Session of the State Assembly where three contentious ordinances are set to be passed as laws. The three ordinances that were opposed by the protesters are Karnataka Land reforms (Amendment) Ordinance 2020, Karnataka Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation and Development) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 and Industrial Disputes and certain other laws (Amendment) ordinance 2020. Among other dilutions, these laws allow non-agriculturalists of any income group to purchase agricultural lands and retrospectively decriminalises those who bought farmlands illegally till now. Farm lands will also be allowed for industrial usage. Other changes proposed in these laws has increased the land ceilings to allow a person to own 52, 80, 120 and 216 acres of irrigated, partly irrigated, dry land, and barren land, which activists say, will increase land hoarding. The protesters also voiced their dissent against the Union government on Sunday after two similar “agri-reform” laws were passed in the Rajya Sabha under controversial circumstances using voice vote when supposedly the government did not have enough numbers. The farmers were joined by many civil society organisations and distinguished individuals including Yogendra Yadav, a psephologist and leader of Swaraj India; Justice (retired) HN Nagamohan Das, centeraninan freedom fighter HS Doreswamy, among others. The protesters called these legislations regressive and anti-farmer, and said that the laws will further increase the suffering of small and landless farmers, forcing them into penury and leaving them at the complete mercy of the corporate sector. Speaking at the protests, Yogendra Yadav, said, “Today’s protests are not only about farmers but also landless agricultural labourers. So, everyone who is associated with the agricultural economy is against the ordinances. We are also against the land reform which is actually not land reform but land ‘deform’. In the days to come, these protests will only grow further until these laws are withdrawn.” This is not land reform but land deform! @_YogendraYadav slams @BSYBJP govt for the ordinances to amend Land reforms act, APMC act. He reminds @narendramodi that farmers across India are against #FarmBills #ಐಕ್ಯಹೊರಾಟ @kkuruganti pic.twitter.com/EkBBTISJl5 — aikyahorata (@aikyahorata) September 21, 2020 Calling the new laws as unconstitutional, Justice (retd) Nagamohan Das, said, “These ordinances will destroy farming as we know it. Farmers will become workers in their own land or be pushed to cities. They are unconstitutional and should be rejected.” In addition to opposing the land and agricultural reforms, the left organisations also opposed the recently passed Industrial Disputes and Other Law (Karnataka Amendment) Ordinances, the Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act and the Factories Act. These changes relax job security for workers making it easier for businesses to sack workers or shut shop without any prior approval from the government. MD Harigovind of the All India Trade Union Congress said these ordinances that the state government is attempting to push through in the present assembly session has been undertaken at the behest of the central government which is enabling the corporate sector to monopolise the farm sectors. He added, “Such anti-people ordinances in the times of the economic crisis show the fact that the state government has lost touch with the reality of the lives of the working class people. The state government has buckled to pressure from the corporate sector and is undermining democratic values in our society by taking unilateral decisions, without any consultation with the peasant, farmer and workers organisations in our society.”
from Karnataka https://ift.tt/3iOElYY
via IFTTT
Rs 9,500 crore damage due to floods in Karnataka, state govt seeks Centre’s help
The government has used the State Disaster Relief Fund to tackle COVID-19 and is facing a severe crunch.
Representation photo
Floods have ravaged Karnataka for two consecutive years and the state government is facing a severe fund crunch to carry out relief and rehabilitation activities. Since August 1 this year, the state has suffered a loss of Rs 9,440.85 crore including destroyed crops, houses and infrastructure. Data provided by the government states that the estimated losses due to damaged crops and houses alone amounts to Rs 6,179.90 crore. In August this year, heavy rains resulted in floods across 130 taluks in 23 districts. The rain had abated for a while but since last week, the floods have once again struck Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts. The floods since August have resulted in destruction of crops in 3,57,426 hectares of agricultural land amounting to a loss of Rs 5,087.20 crore. The damage to 52,759 hectares of horticultural crops amounted to a loss of Rs 370 crore. As much as 50,208 hectares of plantation crops worth Rs 549.62 crore were damaged. As of September 20, 13,573 houses were damaged resulting in a loss of 159.33 crore. The damage to infrastructure this time around as well has been severe. According to data from the Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority, 21,173 km of roads were damaged. Apart from this, 3,546 km of state highways, 15,985 km of rural roads, 1,642 km of urban roads, 2,758 bridges, 786 minor irrigation canals, 503 man-made tanks, 2,669 government buildings, 118 water supply pipes and 219 drinking water pipes were damaged due to the floods this year. The total loss due to damaged infrastructure is pegged at Rs 3,260.96 crore. The state government is expecting Rs 755.69 crore as a part of the State Disaster Relief Fund from the Centre. However, the severe fund crunch due to the spending on managing the pandemic, officials say, has left the government short on funds to allocate for flood relief. Although Karnataka is one of the largest contributors to the Central coffers, the reductions in GST compensation, devolution of taxes, and the paltry amounts allocated for flood relief has crippled the state’s coffers. Despite its contribution, the state government has been left to pool in most of the funds for reconstruction and rehabilitation. The Centre, after assessing Karnataka’s vulnerability towards floods, allocated Rs 1,024 crore as the State Disaster Relief Fund. “Of this, the first installment of Rs 790 crore was used for COVID-19. The second installment is awaited. We have requested the Centre for more money. A team from the Centre had surveyed the damage in August. Since the floods continue, another assessment needs to be done, which is underway. Once that is done, the Chief Minister will request for more,” the officer said. According to the government, the Center had allocated Rs 1,869.85 crore for flood relief. This was after a survey was conducted and the loss was estimated to be Rs 35,160 crore. The state government has also scrapped several welfare schemes for the 2020-21 fiscal to pool in funds for relief and rehabilitation works for the 2019 floods. Accordingly, the state government had sanctioned Rs 6,108 crore under different departments and in March this year, the government had spent Rs 3,423 crore of this fund. “Now, most of it has been disbursed. Several houses are also under construction. We had to ask Deputy Commissioners of all districts to short list beneficiaries most in need of compensation. All those who lost homes were given relief. When we have limited resources and the damage is so huge, how do we allocate to each person who applies for relief? We have done our best in such a situation,” a senior IAS officer said. He further stated that Rs 10,000 compensation was given to each farmer who suffered crop loss and that construction and repair of 1,25,795 damaged houses was taken up. “For reconstruction we provided financial assistance of Rs 5 lakh to completely damaged houses, Rs 3 lakh for those whose houses had seen substantial damage and Rs 50,000 partially damaged houses. We also gave compensation of Rs 50,000 to those who had to shift to rented houses as theirs were destroyed,” he said. According to the KSDMA, between 2009 and 2019, the state had suffered loss due to floods to the tune of over Rs 55,000 crore. However, between 2009 and 2019, the state received only Rs 4,365 crore as compensation. “The Centre allocates money based on its own calculations and they never pay the entire amount of loss that is estimated. It is up to the states to manage floods,” the senior officer said.
from Karnataka https://ift.tt/3mHXs9a
via IFTTT
NLAT entrance exam by NLSIU Bengaluru not valid, rules Supreme Court
The court also directed that admissions in all National Law Universities (NLUs) be conducted in accordance with the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT).
Image for representation
The Supreme Court on Monday cancelled a notification by the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) in Bengaluru for a separate entrance exam, the National Law Aptitude Test-2020 held on September 12, for admission to its five-year integrated BA LLB (Hons) programme. While cancelling the NLAT-2020 entrance exam, the apex court also directed that admissions in all 22 National Law Universities (NLUs) be conducted in accordance with Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) 2020 which is scheduled to be held on September 28. A Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan passed the order on a plea challenging NLAT-2020 filed by former NLSIU Vice-Chancellor R Venkata Rao, and the parent of an aspirant. The Bench, also comprising Justices RS Reddy and MR Shah, said all NLUs should start their academic session by mid-October. "We thus conclude that home based online examination as proposed by the respondent (NLSIU) for NLAT-2020-21 could not be held to be a test which was able to maintain transparency and integrity of the examination," read the order by the Bench. The Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) is a centralised national level entrance test for admissions to 22 NLUs in India. Bengaluru's National Law School of India University is one of them. On September 11, the top court gave NLSIU Bengaluru its go ahead to hold a separate exam on September 12 but restrained it from announcing the results and admitting any student till the plea was heard. The Bench, which said it is an important matter which needs to be decided, had issued notices to the university and its VC, Sudhir Krishnaswamy, and sought their responses on the plea. The plea termed holding of a separate examination as "manifestly arbitrary and illegal". It said that NLSIU's examination caused uncertainty and imposed a burden on thousands of aspirants. A notice issued by NLSIU on September 3 stated that it will not accept the scores of CLAT 2020 for admission to academic year 2020-21 and an examination called NLAT will be conducted online. On September 17, the top court reserved its order on the plea seeking quashing of the NLAT-2020 notification. NLSIU Bengaluru had defended its decision in the apex court to hold a separate entrance examination instead of CLAT. The examination was held on September 12 with NLSIU announcing that 94% of the students who registered for the examination were able to attend it. However, many students told TNM that their examination was marred by technical glitches. Students had also complained about the technical requirements of the home-based NLAT examinations. Read: NLSIU announces 94% attendance in NLAT 2020, but many point out technical glitches
from Karnataka https://ift.tt/3mOUCzw
via IFTTT
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)