After 'Indira', Appaji canteen for Bengalureans
The political parties in Karnataka seem to believe that the way to a voter's heart is through his/her stomach.
After the Congress government in the state announced 'Indira Canteens', which will begin functioning on August 15, the JD(S) is keen to open 'Namma Appaji Canteen' in Basavanagudi next month.
While Chief Minister Siddaramaiah plans to have a canteen in each of the 198 BBMP wards, serving “affordable” breakfast, lunch and dinner, JD(S) MLC T.A. Saravana announced the opening of Appaji canteen in honour of party supremo H.D. Deve Gowda who turned 85 this week.
If Appaji canteen promises to offer two idlis and one vada for Rs 5, coffee and tea at Rs 5, and a meal of rice-sambar or ragi mudde (millet ball), for Rs 10, Indira canteen has finally churned out a menu for breakfast—idli, avalakki, rava upma, pongal, rice bhaat, and lunch—rice, sambar, rasam, and pickle. Each canteen will offer food to 250 people on token basis.
Drought tour unites Karnataka BJP
A divided Karnataka BJP is finally making amends. The BJP leaders, who have embarked on a state-wide tour to review the drought situation, launched the tour at Gubbi village in Tumkur this week.
During the public meeting, the two warring factions called a truce with state BJP president B.S. Yeddyurappa and leader of the opposition in the legislative council K.S. Eshwarappa greeting the cadre by holding each others' hand and declaring they would fight the 2018 polls unitedly while the crowed cheered.
BJP's national general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Muralidhar Rao, who held closed door meetings with the leaders, reminded them that any dissent had to be voiced within the party confines and not before the media. The tour, led by Yeddyurappa who was accompanied by senior leaders including Jagadish Shettar, Govind Karjol and Shobha Karandlaje, was launched at Sri Siddaganga Math in Tumkur with the aim to "expose the misdeeds" of the Siddaramaiah government and assess the drought situation.
The tour itinerary includes breakfast at a dalit's home, interaction with farmers, public meetings and meeting with local party workers at every district. The 36-day tour will conclude at Vijayapura in north Karnataka on June 29.
Home Minister G. Parameshwara mocked the saffron party's tour, terming it a "political gimmick". "Why are they (the BJP) touring the state to study drought so late? The pre-monsoon showers are already here. Moreover, none of the BJP MPs represented Karnataka's drought situation properly before the Centre to secure adequate relief. We asked the Centre for Rs 4,700 crore as drought relief, but were given only Rs 1,685 crore,” he said.
Green brigade opposes night tourism
The morning walkers and environmentalists in Bengaluru have given a thumbs down to a proposal to promote night tourism in the two big lung spaces of the city—Lalbagh and Cubbon Park.
While the department of tourism is exploring possibilities of hosting cultural nights at the green spaces, with concerts and food courts, the green brigade feels that such events would disturb peace of the birds and animals inside these parks.
The Lalbagh Botanical Garden is already a huge attraction for tourists and opening it up even during the nights would be intrusive as it would disturb the wide variety of species, especially the nocturnal birds and animals, feel members of the Morning Walkers Club.
Cubbon Park, which houses the Bal Bhavan and Band Stand is already hosting cultural programmes and the new proposal is uncalled for, say citizens.
Dynasty wins again
The elections to the Karnataka unit of the Indian Youth Congress sprang no surprises as the battle was between the kith and kin of sitting MLAs.
Basanagouda Badarli, nephew of Sindhanur MLA Hampannagouda Badarli, K.N. Rajendra, son of Madhugiri MLA K N Rajanna were in the fray for the post of state Youth Congress president (result awaited).
While Raksha Seetharam, son of Minister for Science, Planning and Statistics M.R. Seetharam was elected president of the Bengaluru City Youth Congress unit, Mohammed Nalpad, son of MLA N.A. Haris was elected general secretary and Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy’s daughter Sowmya as vice president.
Even the Ballari city and rural units will now be headed by sons of former ministers—Diwakar Babu and M.N. Nabi, while Faizan Sait, son of MLA Feroz Sait has been elected president of Belagavi unit and Mrinal Hebbalkar, son of State Mahila Congress president Lakshmi Hebbalkar as the vice president. Animal Husbandry Minister A. Manju’s son Manthara Gowda will now head the Hassan unit.
Karnataka down to 4th rank
Karnataka was ranked fourth (one position lower than last year) in Public Affairs Index-2017—the second edition of the annual ratings.
While the state scored well in 10 of the 11 parameters, it lost in delivery of justice and stood 11th among the 18 big states and 18th overall. The study categorised states based on population: 18 large states having more than two crore people and 12 small states with less than two crore people.
The Public Affairs Centre looked at pendency of cases in the high court and district courts, vacancy of presiding officers in district courts and tribunals and the number of undertrials. Karnataka also scored poorly in fiscal management—10th among large states and 16th overall—but moved two positions up since 2016 (18th in India).
Among the big states, Kerala topped the list again, followed by Tamil Nadu. Gujarat moved two positions up to be the third state to have better governance.
Kerala emerged the foremost of larger states for the second consecutive year. Bihar was ranked the last of the list. Of the 12 smaller states, Himachal Pradesh ranked first, followed by Goa, Mizoram and Sikkim respectively. Delhi was ranked ninth in the small states category but overall, Delhi ranked 22nd, a major dip from 9th position in 2016.
