Unable to handle work pressure after childbirth, young mother kills self in Udupi

Angry BJP lawmakers stormed Assembly Speaker U T Khader’s chambers at the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, escalating tensions after the ruling Congress turned the tables on the saffron party over the Panchamasali Lingayat community’s reservation issue.

The friction began when Congress MLA Vijayanand Kashappanavar, a Panchamasali Lingayat, was allowed to criticise the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government’s controversial decision to scrap the 4 per cent Muslim quota, reallocating it equally to Lingayats and Vokkaligas. Kashappanavar slammed the BJP’s move, accusing it of being a mere election gimmick.

“The previous BJP government created two new reservation categories, 2C for Vokkaligas and 2D for Lingayats, just before the 2023 Assembly elections,” Kashappanavar said. “When challenged in the Supreme Court, the BJP government admitted it would not implement the decision. They announced it for votes but backtracked in court, misleading Panchamasali seer Basava Jaya Mrityunjaya Swami.”

Adding fuel to the fire, Kashappanavar alleged that RSS members had incited violence during a protest for enhanced Panchamasali Lingayat reservation. This claim enraged BJP lawmakers, who demanded the comment be expunged. However, Speaker Khader permitted Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda to read aloud the BJP government’s affidavit to the Supreme Court.

“If the Panchamasali Lingayat community has faced injustice, it is because of the BJP,” Gowda declared, sparking further protests from the opposition. BJP leaders accused Khader of being “one-sided” and disregarding a point of order raised by BJP MLA V Sunil Kumar.

When Khader adjourned the session for lunch, the confrontation boiled over. Opposition Leader R Ashoka, BJP state president B Y Vijayendra, MLAs Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, Sunil Kumar, and others barged into Khader’s chambers. Chaos ensued as shouting and hollering echoed through the halls, prompting marshalls to intervene.

“The Speaker was warned that if he continued behaving this way, we would boycott the session,” Narayan stated afterward.

Israeli forces have captured two towns in the southwestern Syrian province of Quneitra near the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and are moving towards the neighboring Dara’a province, after militant groups took control of the Arab country.

Israeli troops seized the towns of Madinat al-Baath and Hader after they pushed into the buffer zone in the Quneitra area and launched artillery shelling in the strategic region.

According to Israeli media outlets, the incursion was launched following heavy shelling of surrounding areas.

Israeli army soldiers are now heading towards areas in Dara’a, located about 90 kilometers (56 miles) south of the capital Damascus.

Earlier, Israeli soldiers had taken over a Syrian army outpost at the summit of Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights.

Soldiers from Shaldag, the Israeli Air Force’s commando unit, captured the outpost “without encountering resistance,” according to Kan TV News.

The commander of the Israeli military’s Northern Command, Ori Gordin, and the commander of the Training Command, David Zini, also visited the summit, the broadcaster said.

The Syrian army reportedly left the post amid the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s government.

Israeli media also reported the entry of the regime’s tanks into Khan Arnabeh, which is to the northeast of Quneitra and five kilometers from the border of the occupied Golan.

The regime’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that the decades-old agreement with Syria had collapsed, and he ordered Israeli forces to grab a buffer zone in the Golan Heights after Syrian soldiers had abandoned their positions.

The Israeli military also issued a warning, calling on residents of five towns in southern Syria to stay in their homes until further notice as it carried out dozens of air strikes against Syrian military bases, facilities and weapon depots.

These towns are Ofania, Quneitra, al-Hamidiyah, western al-Samadaniyah, and al-Qahtaniyah. 

Armed groups, led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) militants, announced on Sunday that they had fully captured the Syrian capital and confirmed reports of the fall of the Assad government.

Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali said the government was ready to “extend its hand” to the opposition and hand over its functions to a transitional government.

Mangaluru: A Mangaluru-based entrepreneur fell victim to a WhatsApp fraud, losing ₹2.7 lakh to a scammer posing as a supplier of recycled plastic granules.

The victim, who owns a unit in the Baikampady Industrial Area, was first contacted on July 24 by an individual claiming to be a granule manufacturer based in Maharashtra. The scammer, identifying himself as Nirmal Shah and representing "Zaveri Plastics," resurfaced on November 22 with a business proposal.

In need of raw materials, the entrepreneur placed an order for one metric tonne of Natural Film Grade RP Granules and transferred ₹2.7 lakh in instalments between November 25 and 28. The scammer provided invoices and a transport receipt, claiming the goods were dispatched via Balaji Transport and would arrive on November 29.

When the delivery didn’t materialize, the entrepreneur discovered that all contact numbers, including those for the transporter and driver, were unreachable. Further inquiries revealed no ties between the scammer and the legitimate Zaveri Plastics.

A case has been registered at Panambur police station, and investigations are ongoing.