Heavy downpour continues, impact of bad drainage shows up

Bengaluru: Incumbent Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna, who is accused of rape and serial sex abuse, has lost against Congress’ Shreyas Patel.

Prajwal lost by 40,000 votes against Patel, which has helped Congress win the Hassan Lok Sabha constituency after 25 years. Patel had lost against Prajwal’s father H D Revanna from Holenarsipur in the Assembly polls last year.

When did the JDS-Congress tussle begin in Hassan? 

The rivarly between Deve Gowda and the Shreyas Patel's grandfather and Congress veteran late Putta Swamy Gowda began in 1985, when the latter contested against the former PM as an independent candidate but lost. Later, he defeated Deve Gowda from the seat in the 1989 state elections and also scored an upset in the 1999 general elections as well. 

In 1999, G Putta Swamy Gowda scored a major upset against HD Deve Gowda. Despite these setbacks, Deve Gowda has represented the constituency five times in the Lok Sabha. 

The rivalry continued for decades on end, with their next generations taking the fight forward. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Prajwal Revanna won from Hassan with over 6.76 lakh votes and a vote share of 52.91 per cent. With this, he marked the entry of the third generation of Deve Gowda's family into politics.

A 40-year-old expatriate from Karnataka’s Mangaluru had a lucky escape to survive even as a huge fire engulfed an apartment complex in Kuwait, killing over 49 people. 

Praison Roby Peter, who was working as an administrator in a private company for the last seven years, was asleep when the fire started.

“He was on the fourth floor. Fire started from the ground floor when they were asleep at 4 am. Suddenly, the smoke spread to the upper floors. To escape from smoke he jumped from the fourth floor and hence was injured,” said Joy Mathew from the Kuwait Pentecostal Mission Church.

Mathew is working closely with Indians who were injured in the Kuwait tragedy.

Kannadiga among victims

One person from Aland Taluk from Kalaburagi is one among the 45 Indians who lost their life in the Kuwait fire tragedy. 

The deceased has been identified as Vijay Kumar Prasanna (43) and his body is expected to reach Kalaburagi tomorrow. “We are coordinating with the Kochi Airport authorities. Once all the bodies arrive in Kochi, the body of the deceased will be transported to Hyderabad via flight on Friday night. From Hyderabad, the body will be moved to his native village in Aland using a district ambulance. We are hoping that the body will reach the family by early morning on Saturday,” a senior official from the Kalaburagi district administration said.

According to sources in Kalaburagi district administration, Prasanna was working as a driver in a private company in Kuwait for the last ten years. He is survived by his wife and three children, sources revealed. Prasanna is one of the deceased in the Kuwait apartment blaze that killed close to 45 Indians on Wednesday. 

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.