The Hindu : Briefly

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 18, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Briefly

Honour for Shivarudrappa

By Our Staff Correspondent

Mysore Jan. 17. The eminent cartoonist, R.K. Laxman, the Kannada litterateur, G.S. Shivarudrappa, and the former bureaucrat, H.Y. Sharada Prasad, will be conferred with honorary doctorates during the 84th convocation of the University of Mysore on January 22. R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India, will deliver the convocation address. The Governor, T.N. Chaturvedi, will preside over the programme. The Karnataka Minister for Higher Education and Pro-Chancellor of the university, G. Parameshwar, will be present. The convocation will be held at Crawford Hall (Vishwavidyanilaya Karya Soudha) at 4 p.m.

Samajwadi Party seeks alliance

By Our Staff Correspondent

TUMKUR JAN. 17. The General Secretary of Karnataka Pradesh Samajwadi Party, Choudhary Veersingh, has initiated talks with the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (Nanjundaswamy) for an alliance in the next Assembly elections. In his letter to M.D. Nanjundaswamy, President of the sangha faction, copies of which were released to the press here on Saturday, Mr. Veersingh expressed surprise at reports of the sangha faction's move to align with other political parties. "None of them is in any way different from the Congress and the BJP, which have not done much for the welfare of farmers,'' he added. He said he was ready to meet Prof. Nanjundaswamy as soon as the latter responded to his letter, and discuss the pros and cons of an alliance. Mr. Yadav and Prof. Nanjundaswamy were interested in the welfare of farmers, and their coming together would benefit farmer in Karnataka. Prof. Nanjundaswamy's faction would not be comfortable with any party other than the Samajwadi Party, he added.

Three youths assault woman

By Our Staff Correspondent

TUMKUR JAN. 17. Three youths assaulted a woman, injuring her seriously, at Byra Nayakanahalli in Tumkur district today. The police said that Devamma (25) had just left the village to visit her parents in an adjacent village when the three youths — Krishne Gowda, Yelavaiah, and Mooga — attacked her. They fled the scene when she fell unconscious. She is said to be recovering in hospital. Krishne Gowda and Yelavaiah have been arrested. The police said that Devamma had quarrelled with the youths' mother, Lakshmamma, over the sharing of drinking water recently, and the youths took revenge on her.

New post created

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore Jan. 17. The State Government has created the post of Commissioner for Information. The Transport Commissioner, I.M. Vittal Murthy, has been given the additional responsibility, according to an official press release here today.

Sales Tax Tribunal sought

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore Jan. 17. The Karnataka Tax Consultants' Association in its pre-budget memorandum to the State Government has suggested an independent Sales Tax Tribunal with powers to grant a stay. It was presented to the Commissioner for Commercial Taxes, Ashok C. Manoli, here on Friday. The tax consultants pointed out that an amendment to the KST Act had taken away the power of the appellate authority to condone any delay in filing appeals after a period of 180 days and this caused hardship to traders. The rules relating to check-posts provided for a penalty, while in Tamil Nadu there was a provision for collecting advance tax. The penalty provision led to much corruption at check-posts in Karnataka, they said. The tax consultants were also against the powers given under the KST Act to commercial tax officers to enter shop premises, make a surprise inspection, and seize goods or seal the premises. The officers were also empowered to break open and enter any shop or godown. "Such powers will not in any way help the Government get more revenue but only encourage corrupt practices," the tax consultants said.

Award for college principal

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE Jan. 17. The Bharatha Yathra Centre (BYC) has chosen K.E. Radhakrishna for the Samsa Theatre Award. The centre said in a release here today that Prof. Radhakrishna, Principal of Surana College, was selected for the award for his contribution to theatre by a committee headed by R. Nagesh, Chairman, Karnataka Nataka Academy, and B.L. Shankar, Chairman of the Legislative Council, and President of the BYC.

New CAMPCO building at Puttur

By Our Staff Correspondent

MANGALORE JAN. 17. The Union Minister of State for Finance (Revenue), Shreepad Yesso Naik, would inaugurate the administrative building of the chocolate factory of Central Areca nut and Cocoa Marketing Processing Cooperative Ltd. (CAMPCO) at Puttur on Wednesday, the President of CAMPCO, B. Nagaraja Shetty, said here today. He told presspersons that the building was constructed at a cost of Rs. 50 lakh. The Minister for Cooperation, H. Vishwanath, would launch a new product brought out by CAMPCO on the occasion. The Transport Minister, B. Ramanath Rai, V. Dhananjaya Kumar, MP, the Kerala Minister for Cooperation, M.V. Raghavan, D.V. Sadananda Gowda, MLA and the seer of Edneer Math, Keshavananda Bharati Swami, would be among those participating in the programme, Mr. Shetty added.

`Engineering teachers must upgrade skills'

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore Jan. 17. The Minister for Agriculture, H.K. Patil, today asked the Illinois Institute of Technology, which has a distance learning centre here, to help teachers in engineering colleges upgrade their knowledge. Speaking at the Graduation Day of the institute here, Mr. Patil suggested that it could work on some World Bank-sponsored programmes for improving the skill sets of instructors at engineering colleges through interaction with the universities concerned. "The teachers who have undergone your programme could replicate the curricula and method of teaching that make U.S. education the most desired in the world available to students in India," he said. Though Karnataka had a large number of engineering colleges, there were not enough teachers with the required ability. Bangalore, which already led India in the information technology sector, would soon be a leader in research and development too, Mr. Patil said. The city was about to become a hub for R&D work for almost all IT-related operations, and MNCs with a presence here were expanding their operations. Drash T. Wasan, Vice-President (International Affairs) and Motorola Professor of Chemical Engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, recalled how the institute came to Bangalore seven years ago at the invitation of Motorola. It was providing distance education in technology to personnel from a number of hi-tech companies, including Wipro and Infosys. A Masters course in Network Engineering was added in the centre last year. Nineteen students graduated this year in Masters programmes in Software Engineering and Telecommunications, he added.

Two killed in accident

MANGALORE JAN. 17. Two persons were killed on the spot when an autorickshaw in which they were travelling collided with a city bus near the New Mangalore Port main gate at Panambur this afternoon.

Police said the bus was headed towards Mangalore (Mangaladevi) while the autorickshaw was headed towards Bykampady. The autorickshaw was badly mangled due to the impact of the collision. Police had a tough time extricating the bodies from the wreckage. The identity of the victims is yet to be established. The authorities have kept the bodies at the mortuary of the District Hospital.

Panambur police have registered a case and are investigating.

Programme on eco awareness

MANGALORE JAN. 17. The Department of Botony, SDM College, Ujire, will conduct an environmental awareness and training programme for high school teachers at the college on January 20.

A press release said the coordinating teachers of eco-clubs and science teachers of high schools would participate in the programme. The programme was aimed at promoting environmental awareness in teachers and encouraging environment research activities. The college had planned to arrange such programme for high school students in future, the release added.

Eye check-up camp

MANGALORE JAN. 17. The Association for the Service of the Blind here will organise a free eye check-up camp at Vidyavardhaka High School, Pangala, on January 25.

A press release issued here said the camp would be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The patients would be provided spectacles and medicine free of cost. Surgery, if needed, would be done free of cost in a recognised hospitals in Mangalore.

AIPJD to stage protest

MANGALORE JAN. 17. The city unit of the All India Progressive Janata Dal (AIPJD) has decided to stage a rasta roko near Panambur Circle on Monday to urge the authorities concerned to stop the transportation of manganese ore in trucks to the New Mangalore Port.

In a press release issued here, the President of the district unit of the party, Ivan D'Souza, claimed that the transportation of manganese ore openly in trucks had caused health problems to people living near Baikampady and Suratkal. The trucks had also caused traffic hold-ups on National Highway 17. The party would urge the authorities concerned to take steps to rectify these problems.

Centre criticised

UDUPI JAN. 17. Members of the district unit of the Students' Federation of India (SFI) burnt an effigy of the Union Government here on Saturday to protest against its policy on education.

Earlier, the representatives of the federation met the MP, Vinaykumar Sorake, and a submitted a memorandum to him to put pressure on the Centre to modify its policies.

Educational institutions were now free to charge any amount of fees for professional courses, the protesters said. This was due to the "wrong" policies of the Centre. Such policies would not encourage talent and were against the principles of social justice, they said and added that education would become the domain of a privileged few in future.

B.M. Naseer, Secretary of the federation's district unit, participated in the protest.

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