Regional

Chennai, May 7 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said that the government would ignore bad criticisms, take good criticisms and move ahead as his government enters the third year in office.

The Chief Minister and his ministerial colleagues visited the memorials of the first Chief Minister of the DMK and legendary Dravidian leader, C.N. Annadurai, and former Chief Minister and DMK's founder leader and Stalin's father, Kalaignar M. Karunanidhi and paid respects.

While speaking to reporters at Marina beach, the Chief Minister said that his government was for all those who have voted for the party and also for those who have not voted, and added that there was no differentiation.

He said ,"I have promised that this government would make those who have voted for us happy and those who have not voted for us regret as to why they did not vote."

Stalin went to the residence of his late father and former Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi and sought blessings of his mother, Dayalu Ammal.

The Stalin government which assumed office on May 7, 2021 is now entering the third year in office.

The government has got praise from all sections of the people following several pro-people friendly programmes including 'Illam Thedi Kalvi' scheme taking education to the doorsteps of children, 'Naan Mudhalvan Scheme' for skill development of youths, 'Pudhumai Pen Scheme' to support girls in higher education, 'Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam' scheme taking health care to door steps.

Free bus ride to women has been a major project of this government which is accepted cutting across party lines. The announcement of Rs 1000 crore honorarium to women monthly from September 15 benefitting 1 crore women is a major step taken by the Stalin government.

The Tamil Nadu government has attracted around Rs 2 lakh crore investments and has increased domestic productivity by 6.11 per cent.

The Stalin government garnered praise from across the country for an exclusive agriculture budget and three agriculture budgets have been presented already. The government is also promoting organic farming to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers.

However the government drew flak from even its allies on the move to amend the Factories Act and to increase the working hours of labourers from the present 8 to 12 hours. The government had to hurriedly withdraw the amendment after the criticism with the Congress party even walking out of the House in protest to the amendment bill moved in the legislative assembly.

The car explosion of October 23, 2022 on the eve of Deepavali at Ukkadam, Coimbatore in which a 29-year-old youth, Jameesha Mubin was charred to death, was a blot on the state home department. While all the co-accused were arrested, there were criticisms that the government was not cracking down on Islamic terrorism.

The Ambasamudram incident in which an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), Balveer Singh was accused of plucking the teeth of youths using pliers, had drawn widespread opposition.

The Vengaivayal incident in which an overhead water tank in Vengavayil panchayath supplied drinking water to a Dalit colony had the presence of human excreta shocked the state and the society at large. The case is now being probed by the CB-CID of the state police.

Stalin drew praise on the manner in which he handled the rumours that spread virally that North Indian workers were being attacked in Tamil Nadu.

--IANS
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Hubbali, May 7 (IANS) The Veerashaiva Lingayat forum, a powerful group of the Lingayat sect, has issued an open letter supporting the Congress in the May 10 elections for the Karnataka Assembly.

The forum has urged the members of the Lingayat community to vote for the Congress candidates in the elections. The Lingayat community has been a traditional vote bank of the BJP and since the 1980s the party leader B.S. Yediyurappa, who is from the community, had worked tirelessly to develop the Lingayat support and base.

However, with reports of Yediyurappa being sidelined and senior leader with honest credentials and former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar denied a seat from his bastion, Hubbali, the community is in anger against the BJP. Jagadish Shettar has openly lashed out stating that BJP national organising secretary, B.L.Santhosh, a Brahmin, denied him a ticket. There is a message that the BJP was trying to systematically reduce the influence of the Lingayat community in BJP.

The Lingayat is a powerful community with 17 per cent strength in Karnataka and the state had nine Lingayat Chief Ministers.

Congress leaders, Shamanur Shivasankarappa and Jagadish Shetter met the seers of the Lingayat community at Hubbali on Sunday morning. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had visited Sangamantha temple last week, which is the sacred Samadhi of the Lingayat sect founder, Basaveswhara also known as Basavanna.

With elections on May 10, the support extended by a section of the powerful Lingayat sect has given huge boost to the Congress.

--IANS
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Bengaluru, May 7 (IANS) The BJP is hoping to wrest most of the 28 Assembly seats in Bengaluru following the two-day mega roadshow of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the city.

PM Modi's second day roadshow in Bengaluru is happening on Sunday.

BJP is rooted strongly in Bengaluru, though its base is considered as weak in south Karnataka region. BJP won 15 seats in the last elections in the IT city. With PM Modi's unprecedented outreach, the saffron party is hoping to win at least 20 seats in Bengaluru alone.

Congress holds 12 seats and JD(S) had won one seat in Bengaluru in last Assembly polls. After 'Operation Lotus', BJP has got Vokkaliga faces and leadership in the state. PM Modi had inaugurated the 108-ft tall Nadaprabhu Kempe Gowda statue in the premises of Bengaluru International Airport in November last year, and had also inaugurated a new metro line in the state capital.

Apart from denying tickets to senior leader Arvind Limbavali and allotting ticket to his wife, the BJP had not done experiments with allotment of tickets in the city. Minister for Housing V. Somanna, who represented the Govindaraja Nagar Assembly constituency, has been given the task of defeating Opposition leader Siddaramaiah. He is contesting from Varuna seat in Mysuru district and Chamarajanagar seat in Chamarajanagar district. In Govindarajanagar, the party has fielded Umesh Shetty, a former corporator as its candidate.

The BJP wants to recover the Jayanagar seat, which it had lost to Congress. After the demise of MLA B.N. Vijaykumar, Congress wrested the seat. Powerful Congress leader Ramalinga Reddy's daughter, Sowmya Reddy, had defeated the BJP candidate.

She had won with a thin margin of 2,887 votes against BJP candidate B.N. Prahlad, brother of late MLA Vijaykumar. The constituency has a major chunk of Muslim votes. BJP has fielded loyal party worker C.K. Rammurthy this time. Sowmya Reddy is seeking election for the second time.

PM Modi's roadshow covered 29.8 kms on Saturday. The response of the people throughout the stretch has made the BJP camp joyful, and is hopeful of achieving the target. The campaign blitzkrieg by PM Modi has helped BJP to erase the bitter memories of failure of infrastructure during the flood situation last year in the IT city, sources in BJP said.

The second mega roadshow in Bengaluru covers 10 kms. The roadshow began from Old Airport Road and passed through BEML Factory junction in HAL 2nd Stage, Sairoad Junction in Indiranagar, Subramanya Temple on M G Road, and the show will end near the War Memorial on Brigade Road.

--IANS
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Panaji, May 7 (IANS) With the Narcotics Control Bureau busting the narcotics drug trade in Goa since the last seven days, the Opposition has raised questions about whether the local police were not aware of the drug manufacturing laboratories and the 'will' of the state government to act against it.

The NCB last Sunday busted an international drug cartel operating from North Goa, leading to the arrest of three persons and the seizure of multiple drugs worth lakhs of rupees.

Later on Tuesday it busted a LSD manufacturing laboratory at Anjuna in North Goa and arrested the manufacturer along with seizing multiple drugs valued at Rs 25 lakh.

On Friday NCB sleuths arrested a Kenyan national in possession of 1 kg cocaine valued at Rs 6 crore at Dabolim airport in Goa.

Though it is generally believed that drugs came to Goa with the hippies six decades ago, now the involvement of locals with foreign nationals has given a boost to this illegal trade.

Goa is increasingly known as a narco-tourism hotspot and many arrive in the coastal state with the intention of 'trade' and 'consumption'. In 2020, the BJP government in Goa was reportedly considering legalising the cultivation of marijuana or cannabis for medicinal purposes. However, after facing opposition the plan was dropped.

In the last four years, the Drug Disposal Committee of the Goa police has disposed off 101.993 kgs of narcotics, after the final disposal of the cases by the Court.

As per official records, the destroyed drugs include Charas, Ganja, LSD, Cocaine, Ecstasy tablets, MDMA powder, Heroin, Brown Sugar and Opium. Among these ganja is easily available in the coastal state.

According to official records of the Goa government, 168 cases in 2017, 222 cases in 2018, 219 cases in 2019, 148 cases in 2020, 121 cases in 2021 and 154 cases in 2022 have been registered under the NDPS Act.

Congress media cell chairman Amarnath Panjikar has attacked the BJP government over the drug trade alleging that it does not have the will to crackdown on illicit activities.

"The recent raids by the NCB prove that the narcotics trade is going on in a big way in Goa. This is because there is no control by the government on such activities. It is also strange that the local police were not aware of the LSD manufacturing laboratory, busted by the NCB. There may be many such labs in Goa which should be shut down," Panjikar said.

Panjikar said that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has failed as home minister and hence he should vacate this position and pave the way for others.

"Give the responsibility of the Home Ministry to someone who will work in the interest of the people of Goa," he said.

Sources informed that NCB is tracking and following up the drug cases, which helped them to bust the drug trade in Goa.

According to Amit Ghawate, Zonal Director of NCB Mumbai, on the intervening night of April 3 and 4, one Kenyan national named Samuel was intercepted at Dabolim, Goa airport by the Customs officials on suspicion of concealing some non-metallic substance in his baggage, raised during the screening/scanning of his luggage.

"He travelled to India from Johannesburg via Dubai. Information in this regard was immediately passed by the Customs officials to the NCB, Goa and subsequently, a team of NCB, Goa reached Dabolim airport and conducted a thorough search of said Samuel along with his baggage. During the search, cocaine in two packets, weighing total 1.009 kgs, was recovered concealed in the false bottom of his trolley bag," NCB officials said.

--IANS
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Thiruvananthapuram, May 6 (IANS) For the first time after taking over the case of a Delhi youth setting ablaze passengers on a train bound to Kannur last month, the NIA on Saturday took the accused out for evidence collection.

The accused was taken to a petrol pump at Shornur and the railway station from where he boarded the train and later committed the crime after the train left the Kozhikode station.

The incident took place on April 2 when the train bound for Kannur left Kozhikode. Shahrukh Saifi, the 27-year-old Delhi resident, set a few passengers ablaze by dousing them with petrol in the moving train.

He later travelled on the same train to Kannur and after a few hours boarded a train from there and got down at Ratnagiri in Maharastra.

Three passengers who witnessed the incident jumped out of the moving train in fear and died, while nine others suffered burn injuries.

--IANS
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Hubbali (Karnataka), May 6 (IANS) Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday said that the people of Karnataka are living and leading their life by working hard, and they do not need anyone's blessings.

She said this while responding to Union Home Minister Amit Shah's statement that if the BJP is not re-elected to power, the state would not get the blessings of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Congress leader addressed a huge public meeting here.

Sonia Gandhi said that the BJP was worried and perturbed over the Bharat Jodo Yatra of her son and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi as it was against those who were spreading hate.

She said that Karnataka, and even India cannot progress without ending the atmosphere of BJP's loot, lies, ego and hatred, adding that the BJP has turned into an arrogant political party.

The senior Congress leader said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was trying to intimidate Congress workers in Karnataka.

She said that arm-twisting tactics would not work against Congress. She was referring to the Enforcement and Income Tax raids being carried out in the state against Congress leaders.

The Congress leader also recalled that she won from Bellary constituency 24 years ago, and how the people of Karnataka had treated her.

She also said that Karnataka had elected former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1978 from Chikmangaluru.

Sonia Gandhi said that the people of Karnataka are those who live with pride, and they would not accept corruption by the governments at the Centre and state.

She also said that it was the responsibility of people to strengthen their voice against the BJP government's "dark rule".

Saying that the BJP was rattled ahead of the May 10 Assembly elections, Sonia Gandhi said the party was using "all tactics and all kinds of repression against political opponents".

"Don't you think that dacoity has become the business of those in power? You had not given them power in 2018 but they robbed the government and captured it... and then, their 40 per cent commission," she said.

The Congress leader also made indirect reference to the letter written by the contractors association to the Prime Minister on the 40 per cent commission being charged for public works in the state.

Former Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who switched to the Congress from the BJP, was also present at the dais along with Sonia Gandhi.

--IANS
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Patna, May 6 (IANS) What would you do if bundles of currency notes are dumped in bulk in a drain? A similar thing happened in Bihar's Rohtas district where a number of people fished out currency notes from a drain in Moradabad village on Saturday.

A video of the incident went viral on social media where a number of people could be seen entering the drain and collecting currency notes in the denomination of Rs 2,000, Rs 500, Rs 100 and Rs 10.

The local villagers claimed that early in the morning, they saw bags containing currency notes inside the drain. Soon, a large number of people jumped in and started collecting the notes. They also claimed that notes were genuine.

The district administration is probing if the currency notes are genuine and who dumped them in the drain.

--IANS
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New Delhi, May 6 (IANS) The final opinion poll for the Karnataka Assembly elections conducted by C-Voter for ABP News indicates that the Congress is still in the pole position though the BJP seems to have closed the earlier gap in the last leg of campaigning.

A detailed analysis of the poll data across demographics and other categories in the major regions of the state suggests that the Congress is likely to win between 110 and 122 seats in the May 10 elections. The Karnataka Assembly has 224 members and a tally of 113 is required to form a simple majority government.

The party is projected to get 40.2 per cent of the vote share, up 2.2 per cent from what it managed in the previous Assembly elections in 2018. The BJP, which currently has a government in the state, is projected to win between 73 and 85 seats. In 2018, the saffron party had won 104 seats.

Interestingly, BJP's vote share is projected to remain the same at 36 per cent. Compared to the earlier rounds of the C-Voter poll, this is an improvement both in terms of seats and vote share.

The JD(S) is projected to win between 21 and 29 seats. In 2018, it had won 37 seats. The projected vote share for the JD(S) in 16.1 per cent, down almost 2 per cent compared to the 2018 elections.

Barring the Greater Bengaluru region, which sends 32 MLAs to the Karnataka Assembly, the Congress is projected to win more seats than the BJP in all the other regions of the state.

Interestingly, the BJP is projected to substantially increase its vote share in the Old Mysuru region, a stronghold of the JD(S), from 17 per cent in 2018 to more than 25 per cent this time.

But this seems to be resulting in a triangular fight which is helping the Congress.

Elections are scheduled in a single phase on May 10 and the results will be declared on May 13.

--IANS
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Thiruvananthapuram, May 3 (IANS) The residents in and around Chinnakanal in Idukki district, who had been tormented by Kerala's one of wildest elephants 'Arikomban', are again worried, as on Wednesday, the officials said that radio signals have not been received for hours now.

'Arikomban' was captured, radio collared and sent to deep forest on Saturday.

According to the officials, the last signal was received on Tuesday afternoon.

The eight kg radio collar that was put on the neck of the elephant soon after being captured, is tuned to send signals every hour, but the forest officials said that the last signal was received was at 2 p.m on Tuesday.

And the location of Arikomban at that time was around 10 kms from where it was captured.

On Saturday, after being captured it was taken and let off around 21 kms from the spot from where it was taken into custody after seven doses of tranquilisers.

The forest department is now contacting the company, which has supplied the radio collar, and according to experts at times the connection can get aborted due to the location and probably bad weather too, but they are now trying to track Arikomban using a VHF antenna.

And, what has turned out to be a dampener is the news that wild elephants have a characteristic of returning to its favoured place and with 'Arikomban' last spotted around 10 kms from where it was captured, the talk of the town is -- will it return.

--IANS
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New Delhi, May 3 (IANS) In a major crackdown on criminals, the Dwarka District Police on Wednesday launched raid and search operations at over 20 locations in Delhi and Haryana.

An official said that the operation was aimed at targetting individuals, gangsters and associates involved in criminal activities.

During the raids, the police recovered a cache of weapons, cash and illegal substances from various locations.

"About Rs 20 lakh was recovered from a place in Delhi, and weapons seized from Jhajjar and other places in Haryana. Some people have been detained for questioning," a senior police official said.

The raids were carried out based on specific intelligence inputs and details about the recoveries from other places are still being collected, he added.

More details are awaited.

--IANS
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