What’s wrong in having own flag for state, asks Karnataka CM

News Network
July 19, 2017

Bengaluru, Jul 19: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday defended the state government’s decision to constitute a panel to look into the demand to accord official status to the Kannada flag, saying that there is nothing wrong in having a separate state flag.

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Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Siddaramaiah said, “We have a Nadageethe (state song), what is wrong in having an official state flag? There has been a demand from various quarters that official status be accorded to the Kannada flag.

The panel will look into all aspects. The government will take a call on its next step of action only after the panel submits its report,” Siddaramaiah added.

He said the Constitution of India does not restrict states from having their own official flags.

To a query, he sought to know whether there is any specific provision in the Constitution that prohibits the state from having its own flag. “Has the BJP come across such a provision?” he asked.

He dared the BJP leaders to make a public statement that the party is not in favour of a flag for Karnataka.

On the BJP’s charge that the flag issue is being raised with an eye on the Assembly polls, Siddaramaiah said, “Elections are still a long way to go.... It will be held in April-May next year and not tomorrow. The BJP is indulging in a disinformation campaign,” he remarked.

Siddaramaiah said that having a state flag will not come in the way of national integrity and unity. “The national flag comes first. State flag is not an alternative to the national flag,” he added.

The state government recently set up a nine-member committee of officials to look into the demand for according official status to the Kannada flag.

The committee is headed by Kannada and Culture department principal secretary. Heads of Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Finance and Law departments and PWD are the members of the panel, which will hold consultation with experts and Kannada writers in this regard.

The committee has been directed to submit its report, recommending steps to be taken for granting official status to the Kannada flag, sources in the Kannada and Culture department said.

The committee is likely to recommend to the government to enact a legislation to accord the official status to the flag, the sources added.

Kannada flag – rectangular in shape, with a strip of yellow (top half) and red in equal measure – has so far remained only an idea. The flag was first conceived by Kannada activist Ma Ramamurthy, who used it as a flag for ‘Kannada Paksha,’ a party founded by him in 1965. In 1998, the Kannada Development Authority had recommended to the government to give the flag an official status. However, the Law department turned down the proposal citing legal hurdles, the sources said.

In 2012, the then BJP government had issued a circular making it compulsory for government offices, schools and colleges to hoist the Kannada flag on November 1.

However, a division bench of the High Court of Karnataka questioned the government’s move to hoist any flag other than the national flag. The circular was subsequently withdrawn.

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News Network
May 17,2024

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Hubballi, May 17: Karnataka Police have arrested the killer, Vishwa, also known as Girish, in the sensational Anjali Ambigera murder case, police said on Friday.

Preliminary investigations reveal that Vishwa was a habitual thief who exploited innocent young women. The accused is also a drunkard and was caught while attempting to commit theft. He was also part of a gang which stole bikes.

The accused targeted gullible young women, enacting a drama of love and playing the emotional card to forcefully extort gold, silver, and cash from them. When Anjali did not agree to any of his attempts to rob her and outrightly rejected his offer to go with him to Mysuru city, he brutally killed her.

The police had formed two teams to hunt down the killer. One of the teams was searching in the south Karnataka region, and another team, which launched a hunt in Davanagere, nabbed him. The accused was arrested by the police on Thursday.

The police could not catch him sooner as the killer did not carry a mobile phone and did not use his phone for 15 days, before murdering Anjali. The jurisdictional Bendigeri Police were aware of the killer's history, but even after the complaint by the girl’s family, they showed "utter negligence".

The 24-year-old Vishwa entered Anjali Ambigera's (20) residence at 5.30 A.M. on Wednesday and stabbed the young woman multiple times before she could react. Vishwa dragged Anjali Ambigera all over the house, kicking and stabbing her. Later, he pushed her into the kitchen where he stabbed her repeatedly.

Despite efforts by Anjali’s grandmother and two sisters to stop the attacker, he killed her and managed to flee. The incident occurred in the Veerapura Oni area within the jurisdiction of the Bendigeri Police Station.

Vishwa had been blackmailing Anjali and pressurising her to accompany him to Mysuru without informing her parents. The incident which took place close on the heels of MCA student Neha Hiremath’s brutal murder by the jilted lover has raised concern over the safety of women all across the state.

The BJP had demanded the resignation of Home Minister G. Parameshwara while the Congress leaders have also demanded that the Hubballi-Dharwad Police Commissioner Renuka Sukumar should be transferred for failing to sensitise the police force regarding issues of women’s safety.

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News Network
May 8,2024

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Mangaluru, May 8: The health officials in Dakshina Kannada are concerned over the increase in dengue cases in the rural areas of the district. They've seen 108 cases since January, compared to 45 last year. 

Dr. Naveen Chandra Kulal, who works on controlling diseases spread by insects, says humidity makes mosquitoes breed more.

People storing water in pots and drums during summer also make more mosquitoes, he added. 

In Lingappayyakadu village near Mulky, a survey found people store lots of water because they don't have regular drinking water. Dr. Kulal says this water becomes a place for mosquitoes to breed if containers aren't closed properly.

Dengue cases are also rising in Bengaluru, Mysuru, and other districts, he said. Even though there haven't been big groups of dengue cases in Dakshina Kannada yet, the health department is trying hard to stop it from spreading. They're doing things like teaching people how to prevent dengue and getting rid of places where mosquitoes can breed.

So far this year, Dakshina Kannada district has only had 16 cases of malaria. Dr. Kulal says many of these cases were among workers who came from other states to work on building sites.

Dr. Thimmaiah HR, who works for the health department, says if people have a fever, they should go to the nearest clinic or hospital. He also says they should get tested if they have symptoms of dengue or malaria and be careful about the hot weather.

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News Network
May 18,2024

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In a fresh claim, arrested BJP leader and advocate G Devaraje Gowda has alleged that Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and four other ministers were behind exposing Prajwal Revanna’s sex scam that has brought disgrace to Janata Dal (Secular) H D Deve Gowda family. 

Devaraje Gowda has been arrested in a sexual abuse case. 

Speaking to reporters while being taken to the district prisons, in Hassan on Friday, Gowda alleged that he was offered Rs 100 crore to drag the name of H D Kumaraswamy in the Prajwal’s case. 

“D K Shivakumar had offered me Rs 100 crore to project that H D Kumaraswamy was behind the case. The offer was made through ministers N Chaluvarayaswamy, Krishna Byre Gowda, Priyank Kharge and another minister. They had even sent Rs 5 crore as advance to Bowring Club. But I did not agree. Hence, they hatched a plot to trap me,” Gowda alleged.

“It is D K Shivakumar, who collected all information from Prajwal Revanna’s former car driver Karthik and readied the pen drive. A team of four ministers were formed to handle the issue. As I did not agree to the plan. They planned to bring disrepute to the BJP, Narendra Modi and H D Kumaraswamy,” he said.

Gowda further alleged that former MLC M A Gopalaswamy of Channarayapatna was sent to him for negotiation.

“The main intention of D K Shivakumar is to bring disrepute to Modi and BJP in the case. Besides, he wanted to defame H D Kumaraswamy’s leadership in the state” he claimed. “They filed a sexual harassment and rape case against me, but found no evidence. Now, they are trying to fix me in the pen drive case” he alleged.

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