Business

Mango festival from April 15

Lalbagh is busy organising festivals these days. After grapes and brinjals, it is now the mango festival, to start from 15th April. Organised by horticulture department, the festival signals the arrival of the mango season. Untimely rains during November and December last year had a negative impact on the mango crop. However, the second one was a bumper crop, and mangoes are already available in the Bangalore market. The festival will continue till June end. (Vijaya Karnataka, Tuesday, April 7)

Crime

2000 faces in city Rowdies Gallery

Now it is official. There are more than 2000 rowdies in Bangalore. Rowdism is more in the south and west divisions of city police department, and is on the increase recently. There were series of murders leading to gang wars. Police record says out of 2000, only 200 are ‘big’ rowdies. Most of them are youngsters, that too between the age of 18 to 25 years. (Kannada Prabha, Tuesday, April 7)

Education

Officials convert free seats into management seats

You have read about officials magically making MBBS seats under all India quota disappear, in this coloumn. Now again irregularities have surfaced in the higher education department. Officials have converted 23 free seats meant for poor and intelligent students, into payment (management) seats during 2007- 08 and 2008-09. They claim that the seats were converted as there were no takers for the same, stretching one’s imagination to the limit. However the law allows such conversion. If government quota seats have no takers, they can be converted into management seats. (Vijaya Karnataka, Monday, April 6)

Swamiji proposes continuation of CET

Sri Channamalla Swamiji of Nidumamidi Muth, who is known for his bold remarks, proposed the continuation of CET for professional courses. Participating in a programme organised by ‘Samvahana’ in Bangalore, Swamiji alleged that cancellation of CET is an attempt to deny higher education to poor students. CET is doing fine. What is the necessity of cancelling it? he questioned. He urged the government to appoint an expert committee to look into it before taking the final decision. (Vijaya Karnataka, Monday, April 6)

MD students selling seats?

A network of clever students is making money by selling MD seats. This network is working quitely in Bangalore. The modus operandi goes thus: students who pass the entrance exam get seats in several colleges. The rule does not bar them from applying for a seat in more than one college. This allows them to get admission in several colleges. Students will get admitted to a college of their choice and sell the rest of the seats to other students for money. Private colleges too are the part of this scam. (Vijaya Karnataka, Thursday, April 2)

Election

She pledged gold to contest election

Mood is different in this parliamentary election. Predominantly people prefer to thrash politicians. This is the reason for why Maremma filed nomination from Koppal. Maremma pledged her gold to raise loan to pay deposit to file nomination. She thought Rs 5,000 is the deposit money as someone told her. However when she came to know that the deposit is Rs 10,000 she did not have any option but to pledge the gold. Maremma is just a daily wage worker. She ran pillar to pillar to get her work done. Fed up with politicians, she decided to become politician, which allows her not to vote anyone other than herself. (Kannada Prabha, Sunday, April 5)

Facing elections from behind masks?

Narendra Modi masks were a super hit during assembly elections in Gujarat. Analysts claim that the masks had a huge impact on voters. Some parties in Karnataka too tried this kind of propaganda during the last assembly elections. In the present one BJP leaders are again using masks in a big way. With Rs. 6 per mask, they find it a better option, what with restriction on flex boards and posters. (Udayavani, Sunday, April 5)

Parties woo Tamil voters

Tamil voters have a major role to play in some of the constitutuencies in Bangalore. The Congress and JDS parties are trying to woo them through their TN connections. While Congress has requested DMK to canvass for it in Bangalore, JDS is trying to establish an AIADMK connection. Karunanidhi too has asked party cadres in Bangalore to help the Congress. However local leaders have set a condition of reserving certain seats for DMK in the coming BBMP elections. (Kannada Prabha, Sunday, April 5)

By-polls to follow elections in state?

Kannadigas have to face more elections after the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Some of the sitting MLAs including former CM HD Kumarswamy and Jameer Ahmed are contesting for parliamentary elections. If they win there by-polls will have to be held. Thanks to ‘Operation Kamala’ by BJP, MLAs of Chamarajpet and Govindarajanagar in Bangalore too are likely to resign. That will again result in by-polls. (Vijaya Karnataka, Thursday, April 2)

60 years back

Bangalore had two out of nine constituencies during the first ever parliamentary elections held in 1951. Bangalore was part of the erstwhile Mysore state at the time, which had only nine constituencies. Bangalore North and Bangalore South were the two constituencies at that time. N Keshava Aiyengar and T Madaiah Gowda represented these two respectively for the first time. (Kannada Prabha, Wednesday, April 1)

Candidates’ wives actively into canvassing

The Bangalore South parliamentary constituency is one of the high profile constituencies of Karnataka. Former union minister Ananthkumar from BJP and youth Congress leader Krishna Byregowda are contesting from here. Interestingly, wives of both the candidates have plunged into canvassing. Both Tejaswini Ananth and Meenakshi Sheshadri Krishna Byregowda are taking care of media campaign of the respective candidates. Both are confident of their husbands’ victory. (Kannada Prabha, Saturday, April 4)

Choppers make hay while elections are on

Lok Sabha elections have created a huge demand for choppers in Karnataka. You will not be able to hire a helicopter from Deccan Aviation for next one month even for emergencies- it is the lone private company that rents choppers in the state. All choppers of the company are booked for the whole of April. Some political parties have even booked helicopters from Hans in Mumbai. Helicopters are useful for star campaigners to cover a maximun number of constituencies in a single day. (Kannada Prabha, Wednesday, April 1)

Government

Police health care goes online

The police department is going hi-tech. It has launched www.arogyabhagya.com to facilitate health related services to its personnel. The website will have details of family members of all its employees, so that they have easy access to documents for medical assistance in case of emergencies. All hospitals are required to access the website and provide treatment under the police health insurance scheme. (Kannada Prabha, Monday, April 6)

Atrocity case filed against Lokayukta

Corrupt officials have found a new way to ‘tackle’ the Lokayukta menace. Renuka Vasanthi, against whom Lokayukta had filed a case for cooperating with a corrupt senior KAS officer in Belagaum, has filed a case of atrocity against Lokayukta officials. Renuka allegedly owns the property on behalf of KAS officer DB Nayak, who was caught last month in a Lokayukta raid. In her ‘complaint’ Renuka accused Lokayukta officers ADGP Roopkumar Dutta, KS Naik, RP Patil and others of mental harassment. A case has been registered against these officers under various IPC sections. (Prajavani, Friday, April 3)

Health

Dead body sale big business in city

The suspension of four police officers for allegedly selling a dead body has opened a can of worms. There is a huge demand for dead bodies, especially that of females, for anatomy classes in medical colleges. Scarcity of the same forces colleges to fork up lakhs of rupees to acquire dead bodies. Police, who usually have unidentified bodies at their disposal, are allegedly hand-in-glove with government hospitals to sell them illegally to private medical colleges. (Kannada Prabha, Thursday, April 2)

No ICU at Bowring hospital

Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, popularly known as Bowring Hospital, is one of the leading government hospitals in Bangalore. However surprisingly this hospital does not have ICU. In case of emergency doctors have to provide first aid and send the patient to Victoria Hospital. This hospital from pre-independence times comes under the medical education department. Patients with serious health problems do not prefer this hospital. (Udayavani, Tuesday, April 7)

Sports

He writes his destiny ‘single handedly’

Cricket is a tough game, where sportsmen with two healthy arms may also not succeed. However Abhimanyu is an exception. The Abhimanyu of Mahabharatha fought till the end even after he lost both his arms. So also this modern day Abhimanyu. Born and brought up in Bangalore, Abhimanyu lost his left arm in a freak accident in a lift when he was a six year old. Undaunted, Abhimanyu struggled hard initially and overcame challenges to become a complete cricketer. He now bowls medium pace and bats brilliantly. Abhimanyu is representing the Andhra Pradesh Ranji team. (Kannada Prabha, Thursday, April 2)

Tradition

Karaga returns

Bangalore’s famous Karaga festival returns. Dharmarayaswami Karaga in Tigalarapete will fall on April 9. The nine days of preparations for the event are already on, beginning with a flag hoisting ceremony at the temple. Trustees of the temple went to invite the ‘Pujari’ who carries the Karaga, to the festival. The selected Pujari is not allowed to go to his house but is required to live in a special room called ‘Jnanapeetha’. This time the Pujari is CM Lokesh, a graphic designer. (Prajavani, Saturday, April 4) ⊕