Bangalore

Muniasamy Neerathilingam, 43year-old, one hot day in the summer of 2013, took a break to quench his thirst. He walked out of his lab, purchased a tender coconut and sipped its sweetness…

“It’s so sweet, and Nature keeps the water so sterile…” thought Muniswamy. The idea got struck in his mind and refused to leave him. Munish, as he’s known, pay money for a few more coconuts and took them to his lab in the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Platforms (C-CAMP) at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) here.

On Saturday night, a 33-year-old man allegedly committed suicide by consuming poison at his home in Varthur police limits.
The deceased has been identified as Muniraju, was a resident of 6th Cross, Ramagondanahalli.
As per police, Muniraju was under constant worry on the professional front since he had suffered losses in his money-lending business.

He returned home after attending a party with his friends on Saturday. He had slept in his room when his family members observed froth from his mouth. He was rushed to a hospital where he was declared brought dead.

This year is sure to trouble you to no end, due to early and hotter summer. However, a short period of summer rain promises some relief. The prodigy can be credited to the northeast monsoon, say weather experts.

Generally, the city gets a good amount of rainfall during November-December but 2013 was different. The agro-meteorologist MB Raje Gowda said, “the atmosphere heated up faster because of scant rainfall last year.”

A 21-years-old man was found dead in his make shift house in Avalahalli police limits.
According to police, the deceased has been identified as Irshad, a resident of Chimmasandra village. He hailed from Bihar and had come to the City a few years ago in search of a job.

Irshad moved to Chimmasandra village after he got a job at a nearby factory. He was staying with Sadique, who also hails from Bihar. Five youths from Assam stay next to Irshad’s shed.

On Saturday, the Suvarnamukhi Travels bus, carrying passengers from Proddatur in Kadapa district , knocked against a parked scooter on NH-18 around 11.30pm, triggering the fire. The passengers noticed the flames and alerted the driver, who stopped the bus. Forty five passengers of a Bangalore-bound private bus had a providential escaped. The vehicle caught fire near in Ramapuram mandal headquarters area in Andhra Pradesh.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Saturday broke his security cover to meet his eight-year-old fan here.

Rahul stopped his convoy and got down from his car to meet Dushyant, a class four student who was waving a NSUI flag at the Congress vice-president as he was leaving Central College ground after an interaction with select students.

Speaking to reporters after his brief talk with Rahul, Dushyant said “….I had come to see Rahul Gandhi; ….he asked me how are you? I replied I’m fine, how are you?”

:“Indian political system has become paralysed and needs serious overhauling. Students should be politicised but they should not resort to politicking”, said Mr Ramesh Kumar, senior congress leader and MLA, Srinivaspura constituency, while addressing students at Students’ Parliament held in Legislatures Home here on February 15.

The Karnataka Police Academy (KPA) Mysore in association with The Office of the Advocate General, Karnataka, conducted a day-long workshop for the city police officials of the rank PSI and above on ‘The Karnataka Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug Offenders, Gamblers, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders and Slum-Grabbers Act – 1985’, generally referred as ‘Goonda Act’, here on Friday.

The main objective of the workshop was to educate officials on sensitiveness of the enactment of the act and the basic groundings required to book a person under the act.

Feb 16, 2014, (PTI)
Wooing women voters, Rahul Gandhi today sought their empowerment and said the party’s aim was to bring more women forward in the election process.

“India can’t be a superpower until we empower women. Wherever women are being empowered and given a chance, those states are progressing rapidly,” the Congress Vice-President told a rally here.

“We want to give women an equal chance in politics… In panchayats, in the Assembly, in Parliament, more women should be visible,” he said.

Now, with the setting up of a helpline in a move to curb the corruption among the police officials, first of its kind in the state, the city police have introduced a corruption control telephone number calling on which public can register their complaint if harassed by the men in khakhi.

The calls made on 0821-2418500 will be directly monitored by city police commissioner M A Salim. The line will be made open to the public between 10am and 9pm.

The Bahmani Educational and Cultural Association’s ‘launching ceremony’ and all India ‘Naatiya Mushaira’ was inaugurated by Minister for Municipal Administration, Wakf and Minority, Mr. Qamarul Islam. Dr. Wahab Andalib and Academy Registrar, Mr. Mirza Azmatullah were the chief guests at the function held at Faraan College here on February 5.

The Mushaira was jointly organised by the Bahmani Educational & Cultural Association and Karnataka Urdu Academy, Bangalore. Noted Urdu poets were present at the event.

Mr. U T Khader, Health Minister met the Union minister for minority affairs, Mr. K Rahman Khan here recently and discussed about a number of developmental works that need to be implemented in his constituency.

Mr. Khader told Mr. Khan in New Delhi there is a need to implement development programmes under various sectors like road development, education and employment, in Mangalore constituency which consists of 30% minority population.

Mr. Khan is said to have promised that the central government would consider his request.Courtesy:Karnataka Muslims

On Thursday, a 23-year-old man, who was reportedly carrying Rs 11 lakh in cash, has gone “missing” from Kumaraswamy Layout police limits.

Police have identified the person as Shashi Kumar, son of Appaji Gowda, who works in the zilla panchayat office on Kanakapura Road.
Though Kumar’s family claimed that he might have been abducted, police suspect that he went on his own as the cash belonged to his father.

Prabhakar Rao, who’s baptized ‘Go Green Rao’ because of his environment-friendly ways, celebrated a green Valentine’s Day this year. He cycled to work for a year and surprised his wife with a diamond ring with the money he’d saved on fuel. He got her a cycle too.

Rao give up his private sector job recently to teach people how to cycle. At present, the Go Green Club, from which he gets his name, is a developed group of over 2,000 members. Most of them pedal to work.

About 108 mini sewage treatment plants with a capacity of one-two million litres of water per day (MLD) will be constructed by BWSSB across the City as per the State budget for 2014-15.

As per board officials, these mini tertiary treatment plants will chiefly cater to citizens who buy treated water for construction, watering gardens and other non- drinkable purposes.

He further said, there are plans of letting out treated water into the lake for rejuvenation. As per the State budget for 2014-2015, a detailed project report (DPR) has already been prepared for the project.

The Karnataka budget for 2014-15 proposes to invest Rs.3,577 crore for the infrastructure development of Bangalore, including roads, flyovers, underpasses and bridges across railway crossings, protection of lakes and waste disposal.

“In addition to Rs.1,527 crore grants from various central and state schemes, the Bruhath Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) will spend Rs.2,050 crore to implement new projects and complete unfinished projects to improve infrastructure facilities across the city,” Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said Friday while presenting the budget.

Technology giant IBM has started a restructuring process, which would see as many as 15,000 jobs being cut globally, including India, Brazil and the European region.

“The estimate of jobs cut globally is 15,000,” International Coordinator at the Alliance@IBM (official IBM employees union) Lee Conrad told PTI.

Last month, the US-based firm had said its top executives will forego their bonuses and the company will initiate a USD one billion restructuring programme in the Q1 2014 as it grapples with declining sales of servers and storage systems.

Karnataka’s budget for ensuing 2014-15 spares the common man from new taxes but taxes those who drink beer and domestically-produced liquor.

Presenting the budget, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Friday told the legislative assembly here that additional excise duty on beer would be increased 13 percent to 135 percent to mobilise additional resources.

“I propose to increase the additional excise duty on beer to 135 percent from 122 percent on 330 ml bottled beer priced at Rs.125 and above,” Siddaramaiah said in his two-hour long budget speech.

On Thursday, the High Court ordered issuance of notice to the State government including BBMP and BMTC with reference to a petition challenging a government order dated November 11, 2012 which allowed transfer of five acres of Kalasipalya bus stand area to BMTC to construct a Traffic Transit Management Centre.

During the trial, the bench observed as to why a government land must be given to private bus operators to be used.

The petitioners, who are private bus operators, confronted the government order which permitted BBMP to transfer the property to BMTC.

A 15-year-old boy hanged himself from a ceiling fan using his belt after scolded by his father for not attending Maths tuitions on Wednesday night.The deceased, Manjesh P, a class 10 student of Florence English High School in Sanjayanagar and resident of Basaveshwaranagar III Block, west Bangalore, was not bothered about Mathematics classes in the evening.

His father, Prasad, pulled him up later in the night.The boy’s poor performance in the subject in a school test only provoked the argument, leaving him distressed.

On Thursday, the Bangalore Development Authority informed the High Court that it will not permit any commercial activity in areas which lack roads that are less than 40 feet wide, under the Revised Master Plan-2015 (RMP).

Even in areas with roads which are more than 40 feet wide, certain limitations would be enforced on carrying out commercial activities, the agency told the court.

Meanwhile, the High Court wanted clarification from BDA with regard to the ‘mutation corridors’ where commercial establishments are allowed close to residential areas for auxiliary use

A veteran human rights activist, Hasan Mansur, passed away here on February 12.

Prof. Mansur, 84 year old, retired HOD of English, Bangalore University, was involved with the activities of People’s Union for Civil Liberties ( PUCL ). He was also a part of various fact-finding and human rights initiatives in Karnataka and other places.

A founding member of the Karnataka Civil Liberties Committee ( KCLC ) in 1984, he was actively associated with PUCL till his death.

On Wednesday, police remove the body of a banker from a grave who had died last month, after his son made a complaint, suspecting that the death was mysterious.

Ankaiah, 57year-old, who worked for Union Bank of India in Gandhinagar, had collapsed and died in his home on January 28. Nagarathna, his wife, daughter Jhansi Rani and son-in-law Pandiyan — who were all at home at that time — later buried him in a graveyard near Shanthinagar, according to police.

Suresh Babu, his son, however, on February 9 made a complaint to the police, suspecting that the death was mysterious.

Women may have come out of their cocoon where careers are concerned, and forward their step ahead in the corporate world.

In spite of that workplaces remain unsafe for them. Roughly about 115 complaints from women had recorded by the National Commission for Women (NCW) on sexual harassment at the workplace every year between January 2010 and December 2013. The only silver lining is that workplaces in south India recorded very few complaints.

The advocate representing National Cadet Corps (NCC) was literally left speechless on Wednesday when Justice Anand Byra Reddy’s simple enquired, why are only Sikhs exempted for having beard in armed force, while others are not? The Central Government advocate representing the Ministry of Defence said he would need time to answer that as he had to take instructions from the ministry.

The court was hearing a case of seven Muslim students who were not permitted to write the ‘C’ Certificate exam.