Karnataka turning into a safe haven for terrorists; ban PFI, KFD: Pratap Simha

Mangaluru: The Air India Express is all set to increase the frequency of its flights from Mangaluru to Abu Dhabi to a daily flight from July 22. 

At present, Air India Express operates four flights in a week to Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.

This will also result in an uptick in daily flights to Bengaluru to eight, with AIE and IndiGo restarting flights and AIE routing aircraft for enhanced Abu Dhabi operations.

At present, IndiGo and AIE operate a total of five flights daily on the Bengaluru-Mangaluru sector. From July 8, the daily flights on this sector will go up to six, with AIE restarting its second daily flight. 

This number will further increase to seven from July 22, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. AIE will operate this additional flight onwards to Abu Dhabi from Mangaluru.

The Bengaluru-Mangaluru leg will operate purely as a domestic flight, and Abu Dhabi passengers will board at Mangaluru.

From August 1, flights on the Bengaluru-Mangaluru sector will go up to eight on three days in a week – Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, respectively. AIE will operate the third flight on these days to go with its two daily flights.

IndiGo will operate five daily flights, including the fifth flight which it announced in the summer schedule starting March 31. For operations on this sector that sees high passenger footfalls, AIE uses the Boeing-737 Max and IndiGo uses the Airbus series aircraft.

On the Mumbai-Mangaluru sector, AIE will operate the afternoon flight from July 16 in place of Air India, which will continue to operate the morning flight.

Currently, airlines from Mangaluru International Airport, operate five daily flights to Mumbai and Bengaluru, two daily flights to Chennai and Hyderabad, respectively, one daily flight to Delhi, three weekly flights to Pune and one weekly flight to Tiruchirappalli.

International flights operation includes two daily flights to Dubai by AIE, and four weekly flights by IndiGo, four weekly to Dammam, three weekly to Muscat, two weekly to Doha and Bahrain, and one weekly flight each to Kuwait and Jeddah – all by AIE.

Bengaluru: The ruling Congress in Karnataka has improved its tally by winning nine seats while the BJP and JD(S) combine emerged victorious in 19 constituencies in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP won 17 seats and the JD(S) secured victory in two constituencies.

The BJP, on its own, won 17 seats, making it a happy camper as Karnataka voters continued their trend (since 2004) of giving the saffron party the highest number of Lok Sabha seats in the state. The JD(S) won two out of the three seats it contested.

Out of nine seats won by the Congress, five are in Kalyana Karnataka region. Interestingly, in 2014 Lok Sabha elections, during Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s first term, the Congress won nine seats while the BJP won 17 and JD(S) two seats.

Congress, which stormed to power with a huge majority in the Assembly polls last year, was bullish on winning more than 10 seats, which it did last in 1999.

“We didn’t get the result we expected. We wanted 15-20 seats. Our calculations went wrong,” Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said. His deputy DK Shivakumar, who is also Karnataka Congress president, was more candid. “We expected more seats - 14 to 15 - because of the guarantees. We expected more votes for the work we’ve done. That didn’t happen,” he said.

Admittedly, the Congress’ guarantees, around which the party had designed its Lok Sabha poll campaign in Karnataka, failed to yield the desired electoral benefits.

Also, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar faced setbacks as Congress lost Mysore (CM’s native) and Bangalore Rural (where BJP defeated Shivakumar's brother DK Suresh).

But Congress has something to cheer about. Besides winning nine seats, the Congress’ vote share in Karnataka is up from 31.88% to 45.34%.

The result came in handy for the BJP to go after the ruling Congress. “The Siddaramaiah-Shivakumar government was arrogant for having 136 MLAs. People have taught them a lesson. Neither their MLAs nor the guarantees helped Congress,” Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka said.

Faced with an aggressive Congress, the BJP got the help it needed from the JD(S). Going by the result, the BJP-JD(S) alliance worked well on the ground as both parties gave their votes to each other.

The JD(S), struggling for survival after its near-rout in the Assembly polls last year, will view the Lok Sabha result as the battery it needed to recharge. “The result is the people’s reply to those who arrogantly chided JD(S) for having only 19 MLAs,” JD(S) state president HD Kumaraswamy said.

Mangaluru: Former minister and KPCC vice-president B Ramanath Rai stated that the NEET-UG should be conducted again and a high-level probe guided by the Supreme Court should be initiated.

“Being a Congress leader from Dakshina Kannada, which is an educational hub with a large number of medical colleges, I have to raise concern towards students and parents.

While a few students were becoming toppers in the exam earlier, this time 67 students scored 720. The grace marks were awarded, though it was not in the NEET guidelines. The govt has been playing with the future of lakhs of students. There should be a transparent and unbiased probe. The Congress will launch a nationwide protest,” he told reporters on Monday.

Stating that the NEET-UG result, which was scheduled to be released on June 14, was released 10 days earlier on June 4, Rai said, “The govt may have announced the results of NEET-UG and the Lok Sabha polls on the same day with the calculations of diverting the people’s attention. While many have made suicide attempts, the issue also has reached the court. Congress demands a high-level probe guided by the Supreme Court.”

Stating that the CET was introduced in Karnataka during the tenure of then-chief minister M Veerappa Moily in 1984, Rai said that a large number of students from the state were able to get admission to medical seats. 

“The previous system of holding medical entrance at the state level should be reintroduced. There is a need for a united fight along with other states for the re-introduction of the CET at the state level. Meanwhile, a fresh NEET-UG exam should be conducted for this year,” he said.

Congress candidate Padmaraj R Poojary, who contested the recent Lok Sabha poll, said a mass protest will be held if the central govt does not respond. He added that none of the students’ unions, except the NSUI, has raised their voice against the NEET-UG controversy.