1. Fund Crunch May Force CM Yediyurappa to up Taxes
Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, who will present the State Budget on Thursday, may have to resort to increasing excise, entertainment and petroleum product taxes to manage the budgetary requirements at a time when both state and central governments are facing an economic slowdown.
The state government may not approach the Centre for more funds as the latter too is facing a severe fund crunch. The size of the budget will be more or less the same as last year’s, sources said.
One of the major reasons for economic slowdown in the state is the dismal performance of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector, which has pending bills with the government.
(Source: The New Indian Express)
2. Anti-CAA Graffiti on Army Walls Spotted After a Month
Graffiti calling for Kashmir’s independence and against the CAA and the prime minister were sprayed on the walls of the army grounds in Dickenson Road, central Bengaluru.
Though the graffiti had been on the walls for over a month, no one including the army officers and policemen saw them. A passerby who saw it on Monday alerted the police.
Halasuru police have taken up a case under the Karnataka Open Places Prevention of Disfigurement Act and launched an investigation.
The graffiti were sprayed on the compound walls of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan Officer’s Enclave, NCC office and two other adjacent buildings.
(Source: Deccan Herald)
3. At 7 Minutes, Wait for an Uber Cab is Longest in B’luru
Among the four major cities in the country, Bengaluru waits the longest for an Uber ride with an average waiting time of seven minutes. The estimated time of arrival (ETA) for Hyderabad and Mumbai is five minutes each; in Delhi, it is four minutes.
An in-house study conducted by the app-based aggregator Uber for 2019 shows Bengaluru has the highest ETA mainly on account of the city’s traffic congestion, forcing some users to cancel the rides due to delay in getting a cab. Drivers often cancel trips in case the destination sees heavy congestion.
Hence, the completion rate — percentage of trips that end up getting completed based on requests made — is just 45% in Bengaluru. In contrast, it is 75% in Hyderabad, 71% in Delhi and 65% in Mumbai.
(Source: The Times of India)
4. Won't Apologise, Says BJP MLA who Called 102-yr-old Freedom Fighter a 'Pak Agent'
BJP legislator from Vijayapura in Karnataka, Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, who called 102-year-old freedom fighter HS Doreswamy a Pakistani agent, on Monday said there was no question of him taking back his statement. The MLA had targeted HS Doreswamy who is also an activist as he had taken a stand against the Citizenship Amendment Act and sat on a dharna against it.
Basanagouda Yatnal’s statement comes after members of the Prajadhikara Horata Samiti staged a protest at Maurya Circle and demanded that Basanagouda Yatnal be banned from entering the Assembly and also demanded an apology for his statement.
(Source: The News Minute)
5. Karnataka Officer to Head Strategic Chinar Corps
A top-ranking military officer from Karnataka was given command of the strategically located Chinar Corps (15 Corps) on Monday.
Lieutenant General BS Raju, an alumnus of the Sainik School, Vijayapura, and the National Defence Academy, Pune, is the 49th officer to command the corps which has its origins in World War I.
He was commissioned in December 1984 and has had a career spanning 36 years, with five tenures spent in Jammu and Kashmir. Notably, he was the Force Commander of the Rashtriya Rifles and the Brigade Commander of an Infantry Brigade on the Line of Control.
(Source: Deccan Herald)
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