1. SIT: Gauri Lankesh’s Murder was Planned for 5 Years
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the murder of senior journalist Gauri Lankesh has named Sanatan Sanstha behind the killing in its additional charge sheet submitted to the court on Friday, 23 November.
Four policemen carried a metal trunk containing the 9,235-page charge sheet to court on Friday evening and submitted it before principal city civil and sessions court Judge Shivashankar B Amarannavar. The SIT had filed the first charge sheet in the case in May.
Special Public Prosecutor in the case S Balan told DH that a crime syndicate under the Sanatan Sanstha was behind the murder and all the accused arrested in the case were members of this organisation. Gauri Lankesh was shot dead in front of her house on 5 September, 2007.
(Source: Deccan Herald)
2. Karnataka: Interest-free Loan Scheme for Vendors Launched
Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Thursday. 22 November, launched ‘Badavara Bandhu,’ an interest-free loan scheme for street vendors. There are over 4.5 lakh street vendors in the state out of which 80,000 are in Bengaluru. Under the scheme, nine banks and cooperative societies will give loans ranging from Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000 without any interest.
Vendors now need not have to run from pillar to post to get loans from banks. One need not have to show the BPL card too. All they require is an Aadhaar card and the street vendor card issued by the local corporation. The mobile banks will provide loans to vendors on the spot. On Thursday, 22 November, cheques were distributed to a few vendors.
(Source: The New Indian Express)
3. Why Karnataka’s Silk Farmers are Going Through a Rough Patch
There is silence in most parts of the Ramanagara silk cocoon market, about 60 kilometers from Bengaluru. The e-auctioning of cocoons is underway in Asia’s largest silk cocoons market. Hundreds of farmers from across Karnataka and the rest of India have brought their produce to be sold through bidding. Having emptied their cocoons onto the market’s tables, they stand next to their produce. Dozens of reelers – those who reel the cocoons together to produce silk threads – have come to the market to buy cocoons. The four warehouses in the market are choc-a-bloc with loads of silk cocoons of various grades and qualities.
Reelers make their way around the market, observing the quality of cocoons and silently making their bids over a mobile phone app. Most of the farmers look forlorn. The reelers don’t seem too happy either. “We’re not even making the costs of production nowadays, how can we be happy,” says Ashok Hanabaretti, a farmer who has come from Belgaum, 530 kilometers from Ramanagara.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
4. Disneyland at Harangi, Kabini, Hemavathy Dams
Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy has said that all the four reservoirs in Mysuru region - Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) in Mandya district, Kabini in Mysuru, Harangi in Kodagu and Hemavathy dam in Hassan district - will be developed on the lines of Disneyland.
Speaking to reporters here on Friday, 23 November, the chief minister said these dams would be developed in two phases in private-public participation. In the first phase, the KRS dam would be developed at a cost of Rs 1,060 crore. The other three dams would be developed in the second phase.
“While the first phase of works will be completed by 2020, the second phase will be completed by 2022. The private parties will maintain the project for 25 years and transfer it to the government later.
(Source: Deccan Herald)
5. Farmer Ends Life, Blames HDK in Suicide Note
Chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, in Mandya to inaugurate various projects, on Friday received a letter from a 44-year-old sugarcane farmer who killed himself and left a suicide note addressed to him.
In the note, the farmer, Jayakumar, blamed the government for mounting debts that drove him to despair after four years of drought.
In Ballari district, another farmer had committed suicide on Thursday, police said on Friday. Jummani Lingappa, 40, of Varakanahalli village, did not own farmland but took loans to cultivate crops on land his mother owns, police said on Friday.
The amount he owed had increased to ₹97,000 with compound interest and he was devastated by withered crops. On Thursday, he walked out of the village and hanged himself from a tree.
(Source: The Times of India)
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