Regional

Bengaluru, Sep 4 (IANS) The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has warned of thunderous rainfall till September 9 across Karnataka. Heavy rains are going to lash Bengaluru, three districts of coastal Karnataka and hilly regions of the state from Sunday.

Yellow alert has been issued to Kodagu, Shivamogga, Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Chikkamagalur districts. Incessant rains have continued in the state for a month.

The fishermen have been told not to venture into the sea as dangerous speedy winds are predicted. The rains are expected to pound north Karnataka districts of Bidar, Kalaburagi, Vijayapura, Gadag, Dharwad, Haveri, Davanagere for the next 4 days.

Heavy rains are predicted on the first day of the week - Monday, in Bengaluru city. The capital city has been facing the fury and many of the regions especially those in IT corridors have been affected.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is visiting the flood affected localities and directing officials to respond to the flood affected local residents. Mahadevapura, Marathahalli, Outer Ring Road stretches of roads are inundated affecting the movement of software professionals.

The companies have written to the government and conveyed their displeasure over crumbling infrastructure due to heavy rains. Thousands of houses have been inundated across Bengaluru and authorities have taken up an operation to clear encroachments on storm water drains amid incessant rains.

Karnataka State Natural Disaster Management Centre (KSNDMC) has also warned of heavy rainfall.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 3 (IANS) The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Saturday filed a chargesheet against two accused in People's Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) recruitment case of Kerala before a special NIA court.

The chargesheet was filed against Kambhampati Chaitanya alias Chaithanya alias Surya and Valagutha Anjayanelu alias V. Anjineyulu Velugutra, both the resident of Andhra Pradesh under sections 120B, 121A, 122, 123 of IPC, section 18, 18B, 20, 38 and 39 of the UA(P) Act.

The official said that the case pertains to recruitment of youth for the proscribed terrorist organisation CPI (Maoist) and training of such youth by CPI (Maoist) leaders and their front organisations besides organising camps to further carry out their activities and spread Maoist ideologies.

The case was suo-moto registered by NIA on February 3.

According to NIA, Sanjay Deepak Rao alias Vikas, a Central Committee Member from Western Ghats Special Zonal Committee (WGSZC) of CPI (Maoist), Pinaka Pani and Varalakshmi, members of the Revolutionary Writers Association, a frontal organisation of CPI (Maoist) in Andhra Pradesh, Sreekanth of Wayanad (Kerala) and Anjaneyalu alias Sudhakar of Andhra Pradesh had radicalised Chaithanya alias Surya to join the proscribed terrorist orgarnisation.

After recruitment, he was imparted training with the intention to threaten the country's security, unity, integrity and sovereignty.

Further investigations in the matter are on.

--IANS
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Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 3 (IANS) Kerala Assembly Speaker and senior CPI-M leader M.B. Rajesh resigned from his post on Saturday to join the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Cabinet.

The swearing-in of Rajesh is likely to be held on Tuesday, according to government sources. CPI-M state committee member and Thalassery MLA A.N. Shamseer will be the new Assembly Speaker.

The changes were effected after newly-anointed CPI-M state secretary M.V. Govindan resigned from the post of Urban Affairs and Excise Minister.

Govindan assumed office after incumbent state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan was admitted to a private hospital in Chennai for cancer treatment. It was Balakrishnan who insisted that he would resign from the party post and not take a leave for his treatment.

Rajesh is a two-term Lok Sabha MP and a first-term MLA who had been an office-bearer of the SFI and the DYFI for many years. Shamseer is a second-term MLA who had headed both the SFI and the DYFI in the state.

--IANS
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Chennai, Sep 3 (IANS) Chennai-based private hospital MGM Healthcare is exploring ways to use drones for transporting organs for transplantation, said Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari.

The Union Transport Minister was speaking via video conferencing during a function organised to mark over 500 successful heart and lung transplant operations at the MGM Healthcare.

Gadkari said that the construction of highways is reducing the travel time between various cities like Chennai-Bengaluru which will be of help for organ transportation.

Meanwhile, Prashanth Rajagopalan, Director MGM Healthcare said that the hospital is looking at using drones to transport organs from the Chennai Airport to the hospital.

According to him, currently the organs for transplant operations are transported by road from the Chennai Airport by creating a green corridor with the help of the city police.

He said that this put the public at some inconvenience and hence the hospital is looking at drones as alternative for carrying human organs from other cities.

According to Rajagopalan, the hospital has tied up with a city-based drone company while declining to mention the latter's name, citing a non-disclosure agreement with that player.

Hospital officials said transport of human organs for transplant operation is in vogue in some foreign countries. And in India, permission from the government authorities have to be obtained.

They also said the box containing the human organ for transplant will weigh about nine kgs and drones can easily lift them.

Speaking at the function Tamil Nadu's Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ma. Subramanian said that the state is the pioneer and the leader in organ transplantation.

Subramanian also said that the state government will take steps to create necessary facilities in all its hospitals to carry out organ transplantation surgery.

--IANS
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Shivamogga (Karnataka), Sep 3 (IANS) The ruling BJP will not interfere in the investigation of rape case involving prominent Lingayat seer Dr Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru, State Home Minister Araga Jnanendra said on Saturday.

"Police are acting as per the requirements of law. They are carrying out the court's directions. The case involving Murugha seer is sub judice. Will not talk much about it," he stated.

Additional security has been provided to the Murugha mutt of Chitradurga, he said, adding that seven platoons of the Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) have been deputed on the premises, he said.

The ruling BJP was alleged of exerting pressure on the system, including the police, not to initiate action against the accused in rape of minors. Action was initiated only on the sixth day after the filing of an FIR.

Maintaining that it is the investigators' prerogative to arrest or not to arrest the accused in the POCSO case, the police neither issued a notice nor bothered to question the seer.

Spot mahajar was conducted by the police in the mutt with the minor girls belonging to the oppressed class at a time when the accused seer was present in the mutt. After the arrest, without the court's permission, the accused seer was shifted to a hospital and all preparations were made to admit him to a Bengaluru hospital.

Noting the developments, the court rapped and questioned the prosecution on Friday and gave directions towards not giving any preferential treatment to accused seer before handing him over to the police custody.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Sep 3 (IANS) Former Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, who has been brought to the forefront by the BJP high command ahead of assembly elections in Karnataka, on Saturday claimed that he will ensure thumping victory for the saffron party.

Yediyurappa, who has been nominated to the party's highest decision-making bodies, the Parliamentary Board and the Election Committee at the national level, was seen sharing dais with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the frontline in Mangaluru on Friday.

During Prime Minister Modi's last visit to Bengaluru and Mysuru cities, Yediyurappa was only seen at the airport receiving him and could not be seen anywhere during his two-day visit on the occasion of celebration of International Yoga Day.

Sources in the BJP said that this time, seating arrangements were made as per the wishes of the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Modi was seen holding hands of Yediyurappa at the time of his arrival and talking to him dearly.

Yediyurappa told Prime Minister Modi that he would meet him after the public rally. However, the Prime Minister took him to the rally and ensured he sat in the frontline, the sources added.

Yediyurapppa attended the government function without an invitation and protocol was also sidelined. He was seated next to the Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot.

Speaking to reporters in Shivamogga, Yediyurappa said, "I will travel the length and breadth of the state and ensure victory for the party in upcoming assembly elections in 140 seats," he stated.

Yediyurappa further stated that, "Prime Minister Modi has set a target of winning 140 seats out of 224 assembly constituencies in the state. Prime Minister Modi has told us that he would also arrive for campaigning. We will form a government in the state after the next assembly elections in 2023."

He also announced that he would organise a rally of 1 lakh people in Shivamogga in a short time after discussion with party leaders.

"Prime Minister Modi has told us that he would visit the state once in a month in the coming days. We will invite Modi Ji," Yediyurappa said.

The Central leadership is listening to Yediyurappa's strategies for the upcoming assembly polls in the state.

The response of the huge crowd in the form of clappings, whistling and celebrations, whenever Yediyurappa's name was mentioned at the Prime Minister's rally was testimonial to his popularity in the state.

When Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's name was called out, the crowd was silent and even during his speech, he did not get any attention from the crowd, the sources added.

--IANS
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Chennai, Sep 3 (IANS) Director Aishwarya Rajinikanth, who is busy penning the script of her next project, seems to be relishing the task. Taking to Instagram, the director wrote at length about the process of creating a script.

She said: "The evolution of a script is true magic. From the time the pen touches the paper...the first draft, then the second, the third."

"When you think it's ready to be typed, then additions and changes, you think you are ready to print the typed version, when you see the first spiral version of it! "How through time you see the shades of paper and yet you don't feel like throwing a single sheet away. Every time you read it, your work feels new and you want to improve.

"The journey is worth it when you think it's ready to be read...yet the writing never ends and a script can never be stopped writing until the day of shoot! #writerslife #lovemyjob #fridaymood"

Aishwarya, who earlier this year had announced that she parted ways with her husband Dhanush, will be making a return to direction with her maiden Hindi film, 'Oh Saathi Chal'.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Sep 3 (IANS) Two cab drivers have been arrested for gang-raping a woman on the pretext of dropping her to a church in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

The arrested have been identified as 25-year-old G Akshilesh from Ballary and 21-year-old J L Deepu from Hassan.

In her complaint to police, the 25-year-old victim said that on Thursday, she was walking towards church in Ejipura when the accused offered her lift to the place of worship.

However, instead of church, they took her to an isolated place near Huskur, stripped her and gang-raped her. The accused also kept her in captivity. The victim somehow managed to escape from there in the darkness and took shelter behind the bushes for entire night, police said.

Early on Friday morning, the victim managed to reach a nearby house and requested for clothes. After managing to get them, she reached straight to Viveknagar police station where police lodged an FIR and arrested the accused.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, Sep 2 (IANS) Noted journalist and founder-editor of the People's Archive of Rural India, P. Sainath, has decided to return the award and cash prize given to him by rape accused Lingayat seer Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru on Friday.

Sainath's announcement came after a court in Karnataka on Friday sent the Chitradurga mutt seer accused of raping minor girls to police custody till September 5.

Sainath has written a letter in this regard to the Chitradurga mutt and appreciated the efforts of 'Odanadi', an NGO which exposed the scandal by supporting the minor victims.

"I am most disturbed to learn from media reports of the appalling developments involving the pontiff of the Shri Murughamath in Chitradurga, Shri Shivamurthy Murugha Sharanaru.

"He now faces a case and charges under the POCSO and SC/ST Act for alleged sexual abuse of children, specifically high school girls. No words are strong enough to condemn any such offences against children," Sainath wrote in the letter.

"In solidarity with the survivors and with the cause of justice in this case, I hereby return the Basavashree award (and the Rs 5 lakh prize money that came with it, by cheque) conferred on me by the Math in 2017.

"I would like to record my appreciation of the efforts of the Mysuru-based NGO 'Odanadi' to bring the awful incidents to light and their decades-long fight against social evils.

"I appeal to the Karnataka government to pursue the investigation into the scandal vigorously and not allow that to be compromised on any grounds whatsoever," Sainath added.

The letter has gone viral on social media with netizens appreciating Sainath's decision.

--IANS
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