Bengaluru Apr 25 PTI Hindu organisations are up in arms against a Christian school for making Bible classes compulsory for even non-Christian students The more-than-century old Clarence High School here has come under the scanner of the Hindu outfits for directing all the students including non-Christians to compulsorily take part in Bible lessons According to details shared by Mohan Gowda spokesperson of the Hindu Janajagruthi Samithi the institution forced parents to sign a declaration in which they have to accept that their child attended Bible classes In the Declaration by Parents it was said You affirm that your child will attend all classes including morning assembly scripture class and clubs for hisher own moral and spiritual welfare and will not object to carrying the Bible and Hymn book during hisher stay at Clarence High School Gowda said the policies of the school say only those parents and children who have no objection to the guidelines can apply for admission This is nothing but compelling someone to follow someone elses faith which violates the Supreme Court ruling and misuse of Article 25 of the Indian Constitution dealing with religious liberty It also violates the Child Rights Protection Act Parents have also expressed their anger against the policy the Hindu activist claimed On Monday the Hindu activists visited the school and spoke to the school management regarding this They said they have apprised the Block Education Officer about it too They added that they would meet the Primary and Secondary Education Minister B C Nagesh on the issue The school authorities were not available for comment PTI GMS NVG NVG

Bengaluru Mar 31 PTI Following a violent clash between pilgrims from Karnataka and some vendors around Mallikarjuna temple in the temple town of Srisailam in Andhra Pradeshs Kurnool district Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said he has requested his Andhra Pradesh counterpart Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy to protect the devotees Pilgrims from Karnataka have been assaulted at Srisailam A large number of pilgrims from other States visit Srisailam for the religious Jatra fair The pilgrims from outside should be ensured proper protection Bommai told reporters here The Chief Minister said a large number of devotees from Maharashtra and Karnataka visit Srisailam I have been in constant contact with Andhra Pradesh officials since Wednesday night Bommai said Stating that the situation is under control Bommai said two pilgrims were seriously injured and hospitalised and they are now recovering Many vehicles belonging to Karnataka were vandalised at Srisailam sources said PTI GMS NVG RS GMS NVG NVG

Bengaluru Mar 30 PTI BJP MLA from Honnali M P Renukacharya on Wednesday said he received a threat from an unknown caller and lodged a complaint with the police I received multiple calls from a specific number When I answered one of them when I was out of a shop the caller said he wants to eliminate me he told reporters There was no immediate reaction from the government or the police on his statement PTI GMS NVG NVG

Bengaluru Dec 25 PTI Seven new cases of Omicron variant have been confirmed in Karnataka taking the total cases to 38 State Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said on Saturday In a set of tweets he said Seven new cases of Omicron variant have been confirmed in Karnataka on December 25 According to him those who tested positive were a 76-year-old man from Bengaluru who had travelled from Delhi a 30-year-old woman from Bengaluru who came from UAE a 63-year-old man from Bengaluru who arrived from Zambia and a 54-year-old man from Bengaluru who was a primary contact of a United Kingdom traveller He added that a 21-year-old man from Bengaluru who arrived from the UK a 62-year-old man from Bengaluru who came from Delhi and a 15-year-old boy from Bengaluru who travelled from the USA have also been found infected Sudhakar said all primary and secondary contacts have been tracked traced and tested The Health Department said except for the 15-year-old all are vaccinated Among the infected people four have symptoms of the new variant of coronavirus PTI GMS NVG NVG

Bengaluru Nov 19 PTI Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda on Friday welcomed the decision to repeal the three contentious farm laws against which the farmers were agitating for over a year I welcome PM narendramodis decision to repeal the 03 FarmLaws My salute to all the farmers who put up democratic resistance against the laws the JDS supremo said in a tweet Gowda underlined that debate and discussion are key in a parliamentary set-up He also posted the copy of his speech he had made against the farm laws in the Rajya Sabha in September 2020 In his speech the former Prime Minister said issuing ordinances to usher in such major reforms that affects millions of lives has sent a wrong message Stating that the laws have naturally sown seeds of doubt in the farming community Gowda had opined that the government should have engaged the primary stakeholders and communicated its implications in a language they understand He had even said that the suspicions of the farming community was not misplaced given the history of reforms in India which have hardly been farmer- centric PTI GMS SS SS

Bengaluru Nov 17 PTI Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday said he has sought a report on the damage caused to the agriculture and horticulture crops due to continuous downpour in several parts of the state for the past fortnightThe unexpected downpour is continuing and there are signals that it will extend for another four to five days due to depression in the Bay of BengalIts effect is evident in Bengaluru and a few other districts such as damage to the roads crops and inability to move out and water gushing into houses the Chief Minister told reporters on the sidelines of an eventHe said he has issued directions to officials concerned regarding the measures to be taken once the rain stopsWe are also assessing the crop loss in various districts due to rains to provide compensation to farmersToday I am going to hold a meeting with officials on procurement under the Minimum Support Price MSP We are monitoring the situation Bommai saidHe added he has directed the horticulture department to submit a status report on the impact of rain on vegetables and fruitsSince Bengaluru is also battered by the heavy rains Bommai said he said once the rain stops they have take up road repair work lay underground drains at an estimated cost of Rs 280 crore in the 110 villages which were added to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike BBMP in 2005-06Relief operations will also be taken up in low-lying areas and more personnel will be pressed into serviceFour Bengaluru specific State Disaster Response Force will be constitutedAccording to Bommai the confusion over taking up repair work in Bengaluru has been resolved and it has been decided that the maintenance contractors should take it upIf they refuse then the civic agency should undertake road repair work holding back the security deposit of the maintenance contractors the Chief Minister explainedThe city has been witnessing heavy rains for more than a fortnight and meteorologists have predicted rainfall for the next 48 to 72 hours in many parts of the state PTI GMS ROH ROH

Bengaluru Oct 27 PTI The Karnataka Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department has directed temples under its control to conduct cow-worship on Govardhan Puja on November 5 the day after Deepavali a Minister said I wholeheartedly welcome State BJP4Karnataka Governments order directing Muzrai department to conduct Gau Puja in all the Muzrai temples on Balipadyami Day as part of Deepavali celebrations Karnataka Minister for Large and Medium Scale Industries Murugesh Nirani tweeted on Wednesday He said A cow is a sacred animal and an integral part of our culture The day after Deepavali is celebrated in most parts of the country as Govardhan Puja where livestock is bathed decorated and cows are worshipped PTI GMS NVG NVG

Bengaluru Oct 27 PTI The Karnataka government has announced increasing the dearness allowances of its employees and pensioners from the existing 215 per cent to 245 per cent with retrospective effect from July 1 this year The government is pleased to enhance the rates of dearness allowance payable to the employees in the 2018 Revised Pay Scales from the existing 2150 per cent to 2450 per cent of basic pay with effect from July 1 2021 according to a government order The order would apply to full-time government employees employees of Zilla Panchayats work charged employees on regular time-scales of pay full-time employees of aided educational institutions and universities who are on regular time scales of pay PTI GMS NVG NVG

Bengaluru Sep 23 PTI Former Union Minister Veerappa Moily on Thursday welcomed the possible entry of election strategist Prashant Kishor into the Congress saying that he was okay even if he takes an important position Prashant Kishor an election strategist with 99 per cent success rate has volunteered himself to cooperate with us The process of Kishors entry is on Moily told reporters on the sidelines of an event here He dubbed the entry of Kishor and other internal reforms in the party as the resurgence of the Congress To a question whether he will be okay if he takes up a major role in the party Moily said I am perfectly alright I am constantly in touch with him Regarding the sudden change of guard in Punjab Moily said the party handled the situation very well He also hailed Captain Amarinder Singh who stepped down as Chief Minister of Punjab paving way for Charanjit Singh Channi to take the reins of the state PTI GMS SS SS SS

Bengaluru Sep 20 PTI The opposition Congress on Monday staged a walkout in the Karnataka Assembly in protest against price rise saying that they were not satisfied by Chief Minister Basavaraj S Bommais answers The Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah who initiated the debate demanded a cut in the taxes to bring down fuel prices No assurance came from the government The House also witnessed a heated exchange of words between ruling BJP and Congress as both sides traded charges against their leaders following which the Congress trooped out of the House Earlier on Monday the Congress took out a bicycle rally seeking to highlight what they called high fuel prices During the discussion Bommai conceded that the growing fuel prices were affecting the people and the government was keen to find a solution on bringing them under control While stating that the issue of rising fuel prices were hard realities leading to declining popularity on certain occasions the Chief Minister pointed out that everyone is of the opinion that the countrys economy should not get destabilised Bommai also insisted that the dependence on the import of crude oil has resulted in rising fuel prices In this context he advocated usage of increasing ethanol blending The Chief Minister also cited expert opinion that ethanol has all the qualities of petrol which can be used and it can be extracted from sugarcane paddy maize hay and stubble We can use cheap oil but we keep hearing that ethanol is not encouraged due to the pressure from the oil lobby the Chief Minister pointed out He also explained the measures to minimise the LPG cost by supplying it through pipelines instead of cylinders Bommai said the Central governments Ujjwala scheme has helped 1611 crore families get gas connections in seven years whereas in previous governments mainly that of the Congress provided only 13 crore gas connections in 60 years Underlining the importance of taxes the Chief Minister said development is carried out with the tax money as revenue is the backbone of any administration Taking a dig at the Congress Bommai said people know that those staging a bicycle rally will take to high end cars once the protest was over Retorting to this Siddaramaiah said the issue raised by them was related to the common man He also said his statement on price rise was not a political statement He pointed out that in seven years diesel prices had shot up from Rs 46 to Rs 96 impacting every sector Chaos prevailed as Siddaramaiah made remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi An angry Bommai too made a similar charge against former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Amid the noisy scenes Congress staged a walkout shouting slogans against the ruling BJP After the din was over JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy advised the Chief Minister not to speak ill against Manmohan Singh saying that his contribution to the Indian economy was huge as Prime Minister as well as Union Finance Minister in the Narasimha Rao government The Aadhaar scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act MGNREGA scheme and Goods and Services Tax GST which the BJP takes credit for was the brainchild of the Congress Had there not been MGNREGA economically weaker sections would have perished during the COVID induced lockdown Kumaraswamy said Bommai too agreed with him and said he has respect for the former Prime Minister PTI GMS RS APR APR