The Hindu : Karnataka News : Briefly

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 31, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

Briefly

Farmer ends life

HASSAN DEC. 30. Manje Gowda (50), a farmer of Kundur village in Channarayapatna taluk, committed suicide by consuming poison on Thursday, reportedly owing to his inability to repay the loan he had borrowed from Primary Land Development Bank. The police said that Manje Gowda had borrowed Rs. 40,000 from the bank for drilling a borewell in his 2.3 acre land a year ago and had received notice from the bank for repayment.

BJP defers stir plan

BANGALORE DEC. 30. At a special in-camera meeting, the State unit of the BJP decided to defer its proposed Statewide agitation against the "failures" of the Government and instead take up relief measures for those affected by the tsunami tragedy on priority. The meeting attended by the Karnataka in-charge, Ved Prakash Goel, the State unit president of the party, Jagadish Shettar, the party's general secretary, H.N. Anantha Kumar, the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, B.S. Yediyurappa, and others felt that the agitation against the Government can be taken up in the third week of January as responding to relief works happens to be the "immediate responsibility." The meeting felt that drawing public attention and launching agitation on the "failures" of the Government in all taluks before the session of the legislature commences is also of importance. Mr. Goel has asked the partymen to prepare themselves to face the Assembly elections as the coalition Government may not last long, sources said.

Survey to identify beneficiaries

Bangalore Dec. 30. The Deputy Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, today said that the Government will conduct a door-to-door survey of people to identify beneficiaries for distribution of yellow ration cards. The survey is expected to be completed by February-end. After a meeting with officials here, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that there are 27,000 villages in Karnataka and the survey will take time. The Government has decided to eliminate all bogus ration cards and hence the survey.

Plea to Manmohan

BANGALORE DEC. 300s0. The secretary of the Institute of Parliament Affairs, M.C. Shanthamurthy, has urged the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to create a separate ministry for disaster management, to handle situations arising out of earthquakes and other natural calamities.

Conference postponed

BANGALORE DEC. 30. The Regional Official Language Conference to be held in Bangalore on January 3 and 4, 2005 has been postponed in view of the tsunami tragedy. Around 1,000 delegates from various Union Government offices/undertakings/banks/corporations/boards in the four southern States and two Union Territories were to participate in the conference, according to a press release from the Regional Implementation Office (South), Bangalore. The delegates will be informed about the new date of the conference, the Regional Office has said.

Protection for Digambar saints sought

HASSAN DEC. 30. Members of the Zilla Jaina Alpasankhyatha Horata Samithi, led by its president, Sudarshan, took out a procession here on Thursday protesting against the humiliation caused to few Digambar Jain saints here recently.

They also sought protection to hundreds of Digambar Jain saints who will attend Mahamastakabhisheka scheduled in February 2006.

The members of the samithi also submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner in this regard.

Cultural

festival

MANGALORE DEC. 30. The Karnataka Samskruthika Vedike and Mangalore City Corporation will jointly organise the District Cultural Festival on Saturday at Town Hall here. The festival will be on for 15 hours, once it starts at 3.30 p.m. that day.

Nagesh Salian, vedike president, told presspersons here on Wednesday that the programme includes bhajans, a children's drama, bharatanatyam, folk dances, poetry reading in Beary language, comedy show, a body building performance, mimicry, yogasana performance, Tulu drama, Konkani folk dances, and folk songs sung in Yakshagana mode. An exclusive Yakshagaana performance has been slated for the evening, where the Mayor and other corporators will perform, Mr. Salian said.

Deve Gowda to visit Madikeri

Madikeri Dec. 30. The former Prime Minister and the Janata Dal (Secular) president H.D. Deve Gowda is visiting Madikeri on January 1, V.P. Aiyappa, Kodagu party unit president, said here on Thursday. Mr. Deve Gowda will inaugurate a new party office in the city and address party workers at the Town Hall.

Two women murdered

Udupi Dec. 30. A man allegedly murdered his mother-in-law and sister-in-law at Gandhinagar at Baikady coming under the Brahmavar Police Station limits on Wednesday. According to the Brahmavar police, Raghavendra fought with his mother-in-law, Lakshmi Markalti (60), and his sister-in-law, Leelavati Markalti (22), over land and ration card, and attacked them with a sickle.

Lending target exceeded

Udupi Dec. 30. Ramesh Poojary, Manager of the Lead Bank for the district, Syndicate Bank, said on Thursday that the banks in the district had exceeded targets in providing advances to priority and non-priority sectors.

Cultural festival

Deve Gowda to

visit Madikeri

Bank donates Rs. 1 lakh

SIRSI Dec. 30. Sirsi Urban Souhard Bank has donated Rs. 1 lakh to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund for tsunami-hit areas. The bank employees will donate a day's salary to the fund. The bank has offered to issue demand draft without commission for the relief work, said V.S. Sonde, president, and M.S. Prabhu, managing director of the bank.

Two women

murdered

Lending target

exceeded

He was addressing the District Level Review Committee for banks here. The break-up of sector-wise target was given as: primary (Rs. 45.30 crores), secondary (Rs. 122.82 crores) and tertiary (Rs. 91.11 crores) respectively. The achievement in the non-priority sector was Rs. 131.34 crores as against the target of Rs. 69.33 crores, he said. The Udupi Zilla Panchayat President, U. Vanajakshi, the Chief Executive Officer, the Deputy Secretary, P. Shivashankar and the Deputy General Manager of Syndicate Bank, H.R. Kulkarni, were present.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka