1. Police Tell Pub Owners: Make Koramangala Another MG Road
The city police, who have been strategising to ensure maintenance of law and order on MG Road and Brigade Road on New Year’s Eve, are suggesting alternative areas for revellers to head to.
But it has angered many citizens, as the areas that the police have proposed — Koramangala, HSR Layout and Indiranagar — have been witnessing widespread protests by residents against “conversion of residential pockets into party hubs”.
Seemanth Kumar Singh, Additional Commissioner (East), held a meeting with pub and restaurant owners in Koramangala on Thursday and urged them to “make Koramangala another MG Road”.
(Source: The Hindu)
2. Will Not Share a Single Drop of Water with K’taka from Mandovi: Goa Minister
Amidst heightened protests and politicking, the Mandovi water sharing dispute has taken a new turn. Goa’s Water Resources Minister – Vinod Palienkar on Wednesday dismissed Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s letter to BJP’s Karnataka President BS Yeddyurappa.
The Minister called Parrikar’’s letter a “political stunt” and that the Goa government would “not share a drop of water from the Mandovi river”.
“I have already made my stand clear. Whatever he (Parrikar) has written, he has not sent it to me. You can ask him. If he has sent a letter to Karnataka BJP chief, I can only say that it must be a political stunt. We will not make any compromise and will not give a drop of water to Karnataka. I do not want comment anymore,” Palienkar told the media.
Source: The NewsMinute
3. Revolt in the Country if BJP Changes Constitution, Warns Siddaramaiah
There will be a revolt in the country if the Constitution is amended, warned Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Speaking after inaugurating projects at Sira, Tumakuru, he said changing the Constitution, sowing seeds of contempt between people of different faiths and creating unrest in society was the BJP's 'hidden agenda'.
Siddaramaiah was retorting to Union Minister Anantkumar Hegde's "we have come to power to change the Constitution" remark.
"It is not easy to change the Constitution in this country. Here, people still believe in democracy. We will not allow a change in the Constitution," the CM asserted.
When BJP was ruling Karnataka, the government spent Rs 18,000 crore on irrigation. Congress government has spent Rs 45,000 crore in four plus years and will spend Rs 5 lakh in the next three months, he informed.
Source: Deccan Herald
4. Foreign Students up in Arms Against Compulsory Hostel Rule
Foreign students on scholarships are up in arms against a rule change that came into effect in 2016, making it compulsory for them to stay in their college hostels for the entire duration of the course.
The change, students say, has put them in trouble as many of them moved out of their hostels after completing their first academic year. Now, with their hostel stipend stopped, they are in dire financial trouble. They had also protested last year over the same issue with no results.
On Wednesday, about 70 students from five private colleges in the city protested outside the offices of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) in a repeat of last year’s incident. They were demanding that ICCR release the hostel stipend payable to them so that they can pay rent for the houses that they were staying in.
Source: The New Indian Express
5. Woman, Lover Held for Killing Daughter
A 23-year-old woman and her lover have been arrested for allegedly murdering her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter at Havada Devanahalli near Anekal town. Niveditha, a homemaker, and her close relative Satish, 25, strangled Annapurna to death with a dupatta and threw the body into the bushes at TVS Junction near their village, police said.
Chandrashekhar, Annapurna's father and an iron fabrication unit worker, found his wife and daughter missing on 24 December and filed a missing person complaint on 26 December. Police traced Niveditha to a rental house near Attibele where she lived with Satish. The duo confessed to the crime when police questioned about the child's whereabouts.
Source: The Times of India
5. Post GST Revenue Dip Casts Shadow Over CM’s Plans to Present Rs 2L cr Budget
A sharp dip in the state's revenues under the GST regime has cast a shadow over Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's plans to present a massive sop-filled Rs 2.10 lakh crore budget for 2018-19 on 9 February .
In the three months before the GST rollout on 1 July, the commercial tax department had collected Rs 14,244 crore value added tax (VAT). Tax collections during the five months after the GST rollout has been put at Rs 15,213 crore.
"That the amount of tax collected in five months of GST regime is just about equal to that of the three-month collection during the earlier VAT regime is a clear indication of the declining trend. It is due to low compliance, thanks to technical glitches in the system and reduction of tax rates," said BT Manohar, member of the GST advisory committee of government of Karnataka.
Source: The Times of India
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