Elephantine request stumps Karnataka CM

Hundreds of people with requests ranging from houses to jobs and residential sites to transfers line up outside Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s official residence in Bangalore during the weekly Janata Darshan programme. But, on Saturday, two elderly citizens of Bangalore stumped Kumaraswamy with an elephantine request.

The citizens hailing from the City waited in the long queue for their turn to request the Chief Minister to gift an elephant to the Doddaganapathi Temple in Basavangudi in Bangalore. Kumaraswamy, who was visibly taken aback by the rare request, took some time to respond.

But, soon it dawned on the Chief Minister that his father’s ten-year-old unfulfilled promise had come to haunt him. The elderly citizens brought to Kumaraswamy’s notice that his father and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda had promised to gift an elephant to the Temple during the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in 1996.

“Though Deve Gowda won the elections, his promise remains unfulfilled. We have been waiting for the last ten years, hoping the former Prime Minister would fulfill his promise”, the citizens told the Chief Minister.

Though the request for an elephant would well be a rare one, Kumaraswamy, who is also as religious a person as his father, promised the elderly citizens that he would try to do the needful.

Mentally deranged man shot dead after he beheads three in Karnataka village

A mentally deranged man was shot dead by the police after he beheaded three unsuspecting fellow villagers in Manvi in north Karnataka’s Raichur district.

Police said Bheemanna, 35, who was wandering in the lanes of the village on Saturday armed with an axe, suddenly went berserk attacking the villagers. His first victim Hanumantha Naik, who was entering the village, was caught off-guard when Bheemanna pounced on him with the axe. After cutting Naik’s head, Bheemanna severed his legs from the body and threw them on the roadside.

His second victim Dyavala Sab was returning from the fields when the insane Bheemanna pushed him to the ground from behind and tied up his hands. Next, he beheaded Dyavala Sab, much to the horror of the villagers.

Soon thereafter, Bheemanna rushed towards Mallappa, who was selling utensils in the village. Mallappa too met the same fate as Naik and Dyavala Sab.

Even as the panic-stricken villagers ran indoors, Bheemanna picked up Mallappa’s body on a hay stack and burnt it. Though a few bold villagers threw stones at the madman and forced him to run for cover, he returned menacingly with the blood-stained axe in his hand.

Soon, a message was sent to the Manvi police station following which a police sub inspector and a constable arrived in the village. But, Bheemanna turned his wrath on the policemen, who initially ran into a house and bolted from inside. But, they emerged from their hiding and chased the madman on a motorcycle in the village.

When the policemen’s pleas to Bheemanna to surrender fell on deaf ears, the sub inspector received orders from higher authorities to shoot down the insane killer. When Bheemanna refused to surrender, the police opened fire on him and killed him.

Demand for federal rule in Karnataka border sparks fresh row

The Maharashtra Government’s recent demand for imposition of Federal rule in borders areas of Karnataka, particularly in Marathi-speaking areas of Belgaum and Bidar, has raised the hackles of Government and opposition parites in Karnataka.

Even though the H D Kumaraswamy-led coalition Government in Karnataka claimed that it was fully prepared to counter the Maharashtra Government on the vexed border row, the Congress, which is the principal opposition party in Karnataka, has called for an all-party meeting to take a serious note of the “disturbing” moves of Maharashtra Government.

Leader of the Opposition Dharam Singh, who is also a former Chief Minister, told reporters in Bangalore that the Maharashtra Government had filed a fresh petition in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Manmohan Singh Government to bring a total of 835 villages in border districts of Belgaum and Bidar under Federal rule. Several parts of Nippani and Khanapur in Belgaum, two predominantly Marathi-speaking areas, besides areas of Bidar district had been identified by the Maharashtra Government for imposition of Federal rule, the Congress leader said.

“The State Government should treat the issue with utmost seriousness and call for an all-party meeting to discuss the disturbing development”, Singh said.

Maharashtra Government is understood to have cited the “feeling of insecurity” among Marathi-speaking people in Belgaum and surrounding areas to justify its demand for imposition of Federal rule. The Maharashtra Government in its petition has also cited the humiliating assault on Mayor of Belgaum in Bangalore by pro-Kannada activists.

But, Karnataka’s Law Minister Basavaraj Horatti said Karnataka Cabinet had noted with concern the Maharashtra Government's new move during its recent meeting and has asked the legal department to be prepared to fight the issue in the Supreme Court. “As far as Karnataka is concerned, the Mahajan Commission report on the Belgaum dispute is final. Our response to the Supreme Court will be based on the Mahajan Commission report, which states that Belgaum is part of Karnataka”, he said.
Meanwhile, several pro-Kannada organizations in the border areas are infuriated over the new development. They have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to bring pressure on Maharashtra Government to abide by the Mahajan Commission report. The pro-Kannada organizations have noted with regret that Maharashtra Government had been failed to adhere to the solution recommended by the Mahajan Commission

Work on Bangalore Metro to begin anytime now

The last hurdle for the much-awaited Bangalore Metro Rail has been cleared with the Federal Government’s Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs giving its final stamp of approval for the project that is aimed at decongesting the City’s chaotic roads.

According to officials of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC), which is implementing the Rs 63.95 billion project, work on laying the 36.5 kms of urban rail network through traffic-choked Bangalore, can begin “anytime now” in the wake of green signal given to the project by the Federal Government.

Dubbed at the “biggest infrastructure project” to decongest Bangalore’s roads, the Metro Rail project with two corridors criss-crossing the City can ferry around one million people back and forth each day. The Bangalore Metro Rail project modelled along the lines of Delhi Metro will be implemented over a period of five years.

The Bangalore Metro Rail project will have an equity participation of Rs 12 billion from the Federal Government while the Karnataka Government’s contribution will be Rs 18 billion. The BMRC will obtain a loan of Rs 30 billion from the Japan Bank for International Co-operation.

The BMRC, which had been so far doing the spadework for the project, can start spending money in the wake of the Federal Cabinet’s approval at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Thursday. To start with, work on the first segment of the project between Byappannahalli and Chinnaswamy Stadium on Cubbon Road is expected to begin immediately. BMRC will shortly finalise the tender for awarding the overall contract to an international consortium that will award packages to various contractors.

Proposed to be built with standard gauge tracks, both underground as well as elevated, the Metro Rail project seeks to provide an efficient mass transit system to people with perks like fares competitive to bus transport and a single ticket that allows both ride on the metro and the bus.

Bangalore will become the third metropolis in India after Kolkata and Delhi to have a Metro Rail. The Karnataka Government has conceived a Metro Rail for Bangalore in search for a solution to the traffic nightmares of bustling technology hub, which has about 2.5 million vehicles plying on its roads.