Medical services in Karnataka hit as doctors protest

Mangaluru: Congress leader and five-time Belthangady MLA K Vasanth Bangera, passed away on Wednesday, at a private hospital in Bengaluru on Wednesday. He was 79.

His health condition had worsened recently, and he was shifted to Bengaluru for treatment. His body is likely to be brought to Belthangady on May 9 and will be kept for public homage, family sources said.

He has the credit of contesting from all three parties - BJP, Janata Dal and Congress. Since 1983, he had contested nine assembly elections and won five times.

Bangera had entered the Legislative Assembly by winning Belthangady constituency as a BJP candidate in 1983 against Gangadhar Gowda of the Congress.

He won had the elections again in 1985 and later joined the Janata Dal. However, he lost the election against Gangadhar Gowda of Congress in 1989.

He became an MLA once again for the third time in 1994. In the 1999 election, Bangera lost to his brother Prabhakar Bangera who contested from BJP.

In 2008, Bangera joined the Congress and won the elections for the fourth time. In 2013, he had once again won the elections against Ranjan Gowda of the BJP, but he also lost the elections to sitting MLA Harish Poonja of the BJP in 2018.

He was born to Kede Subba Poojary and Devaki. He is survived by his wife Sujitha V Bangera, and two daughters Preethitha and Binutha.
 

Israeli military aircraft have heavily bombed the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip accompanied with ground advances shortly after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas said it had agreed to a proposal on ceasefire in Gaza.

A Palestinian journalist reported flares in the night sky, while locals said dozens of reconnaissance drones flew overhead.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa and Egyptian media said Israeli military vehicles advanced towards the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, as well as the Karem Shalom crossing with the Israeli-occupied territories.

A Palestinian security official and an Egyptian authority have told the Associated Press news agency that Israeli tanks have entered Rafah, reaching as close as 200 meters from Rafah’s border crossing with neighboring Egypt.

The Israeli military has said it was conducting “targeted strikes” against Hamas in eastern Rafah.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office has also said "Israel is continuing the operation in Rafah to exert military pressure on Hamas" in order to advance the release of captives and what it called "the other objectives of the war."

In the meantime, it described the proposal on ceasefire as "far from Israel's essential demands," but added that it would send negotiators for talks "to exhaust the potential for arriving at an agreement."

The military strikes on Rafah came ahead of talks in Egypt on Tuesday aimed at sealing a truce proposal accepted by Hamas, which was put forward by Qatari and Egyptian mediators. 

According to a copy of the proposal, there will be three phases to ending Israel’s onslaught against Gaza.

The first phase calls for a complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Netzarim corridor and the return of displaced Palestinians to their homes. The second phase involves an announcement of a permanent cessation of military operations. In the last phase, there would be a complete end to the blockade of the Gaza Strip. 

In return, Israel would be required to release an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners, withdraw its troops from certain regions of the Gaza Strip, and allow Palestinians to travel from the south of the coastal sliver to the north.

About 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah, once designated a “safe zone” by the Israeli military. Palestinians are now struggling to evacuate the city, after the Israeli military dropped leaflets ordering them to leave as a large-scale assault on the city is planned.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has said that a ground invasion of Rafah would be “intolerable” and called on Israel and Hamas “to go an extra mile” to reach a truce deal.

“This is an opportunity that cannot be missed, and a ground invasion in Rafah would be intolerable because of its devastating humanitarian consequences, and because of its destabilizing impact in the region,” Guterres told reporters on Monday ahead of a meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella in New York.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi has also warned that Israel is “jeopardizing the deal by bombing Rafah.”

The JD(S) on Tuesday, April 30, announced that former Indian Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda's grandson Prajwal Revanna has been suspended from the party temporarily until allegations against him over sexual abuse are probed.

Revanna and his father HD Revanna, also a JD(S) MLA, were booked on Sunday by the police for sexual harassment and criminal intimidation based on a complaint from a woman, who worked in their household.

"We welcome SIT against Prajwal Revanna. We've taken a decision to recommend our party's national president to suspend him from the party till the SIT investigation is completed, " JD(S) core committee president GT Devegowda said.

Revanna currently is not in India. Opposition members raised concerns over how he was allowed to leave the country.

"A decision was already made. Tomorrow it is to be recommended at the core committee meeting in Hubballi. Because he (Prajwal) is a Member of Parliament, it has to be done from Delhi. So I had requested Deve Gowda (JD(S) National President and former PM). Neither he (Gowda) nor I were aware of this issue," party chief H D Kumaraswamy has said yesterday. "Some issues have come out, based on that it has been decided yesterday itself to suspend (him). But many were in a hurry."

Prajwal, 33, represents the BJP-JD(S) alliance in the Lok Sabha election in Hassan, which happened on Friday.

Kumaraswamy alleged that Congress was manipulating facts to destroy the image of his family amid the controversy over the 'obscene' video case against his nephew Prajwal.

"We are not going to protect him, we will take severe action but the government's responsibility is more," Kumaraswamy said.

"This is the manipulation of Congress to destroy the image of our family. What is the role of Dewegowda Ji or me? We are not responsible for all those things. This is the individual issue of Prajwal Revanna. I am not in contact with him (Prajwal). It is the responsibility of the government to bring him before the law. Morally we have decided to make some decisions," Kumaraswamy told reporters on Tuesday.

Prajwal Revanna sex scandal

The state government under CM Siddaramaiah has formed a Special Investigation Team to look into the matter. In recent days, certain explicit video clips purportedly featuring Prajwal have circulated in Hassan.

In response, Revanna stated his willingness to cooperate with any investigation regarding the allegations of sexual abuse against his son and himself. He affirmed their readiness to accept any legal consequences if the accusations are substantiated.

Prajwal's father HD Revanna said that his son would appear for an SIT probe whenever he is asked to.

A case of sexual harassment and stalking was registered on Sunday against HD Revanna and Prajwal Revanna at Holenarasipur police station based on a complaint by their cook.

The complainant said she is a relative of Revanna's wife Bhavani.

She claimed that four months into her employment, Revanna began sexually harassing her, while his son Prajwal engaged in video calls with her daughter, engaging in "vulgar conversations."

She also alleged that there is a threat to her life as well as other members of her family.