State

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar today said the Karnataka flag should compulsorily be hoisted at all educational institutions, businesses and factories, including in the information technology and biotechnology sector, in Bengaluru on November 1, the state's formation day.

He said about 50% of people residing in the city and Bengaluru Urban district are from other states, and they should also give priority to learning Kannada. "...[W]e are marking 50 years of Mysore state being renamed as Karnataka. November 1 is a day of celebration for Kannadigas...as in-charge Minister for Bengaluru I have formulated a new programme as part of which at all schools and colleges, factories, business including IT-BT sector Kannada flag should be hoisted compulsorily," Shivakumar said.

An order to this effect would be issued, he told reporters in Bengaluru. The unofficial but widely regarded yellow and red 'Kannada flag' was designed by Veera Senani Ma Ramamurthy in the 1960s.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav today garlanded a bust of Jayaprakash Narayan mounted atop a vehicle outside his residence where hundreds of party workers had gathered since morning after the authorities advised him not to visit the JP International Centre due to security concerns.

Yadav was accompanied by SP leaders Lal Bihari Yadav and Rajendra Choudhary, and Leader of Opposition Mata Prasad Pandey, among others. Yadav had reached the JPNIC on Thursday night and lambasted the Yogi Adityanath government for barring its main gate behind tin sheets apparently to prevent entry.

This morning, he slammed the BJP government in the state for putting up barricades near his house on Vikramaditya Marg in Lucknow to prevent 'Samajwadis' from visiting the site and garlanding JP Narayan's statue on his birth anniversary. "On the birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan ji, we go to the JPNIC museum every time to celebrate. But I don't know why this government stops us from doing it," he said.

 The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister alleged that the memorial at JPNIC is under covers because of a "conspiracy to sell it".

Aniket Mahato, one of the seven medics on hunger strike in West Bengal was hospitalised on Thursday night after his health deteriorated, a senior doctor said.

"Aniket Mahato's condition worsened and his parameters were not good. He was taken to RG Kar hospital and will be admitted to the intensive care unit," senior doctor Subarna Goswami told a news channel.

Mahato, along with a few others, has been at the forefront of the agitation seeking justice for the rape and murder victim of RG Kar for the last two months. Another agitating doctor accompanying Mahato said, "His pulse rate was very low and his other health parameters were also not normal."

A team of four specialist doctors was sent by the state health department to the venue of the hunger strike by junior doctors in the Esplanade area to assess the health condition of the seven doctors who have been on hunger strike for the past five days.

The Maharashtra cabinet on Thursday decided to request the Union government to increase the income limit to qualify for 'non-creamy layer' to Rs 15 lakh per year from the current Rs 8 lakh.

The decision came ahead of the assembly elections which are expected to be held next month. A non-creamy layer certificate, which means the family income of a person is below the prescribed limit, is needed to avail of reservation benefits in the Other Backward Class (OBC) category.

A draft ordinance to accord a constitutional status to the Maharashtra State Scheduled Caste Commission was also approved in the cabinet meeting, said a statement from the office of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

The ordinance will be tabled in the next session of the legislature, it said, adding that 27 posts were approved for the commission.

The Kerala assembly on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution urging the central government to roll back its decision to approve the proposal for 'one nation, one election' recommended by the Ramnath Kovind panel, saying that it was "undemocratic and unconstitutional".

The resolution was moved on behalf of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan by state Parliamentary Affairs Minister M B Rajesh who said that the proposal would weaken the country's federal system and sabotage the diverse nature of India's parliamentary democracy. He said that it would also lead to cutting short of the term of various state assemblies and local self governments in the country.

Rajesh further said that this decision amounted to a violation of the people's mandate, a challenge to their democratic rights and usurping of a state's power to hold elections and taking over of the federal system of the country.

"This move is unconstitutional and against constitutional values as well as an attempt to implement the RSS and BJP agenda," Rajesh claimed.

A militant of the proscribed Kangleipak Communist Party (People's War Group) was arrested in Manipur's Imphal East district, police said today. 

The accused, identified as M Dhanbir (39), was allegedly involved in extortion in and around Imphal, they said. He was arrested on Thursday.  Meanwhile, security forces seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition during a raid at the foothill areas of IVR Road near Uyok in Bishnupur district.

Among the items seized were a CMG, a tear gas gun, a 9mm pistol, a .303 sniper rifle, an SBBL gun, an IED weighing 1.35 kg, three hand grenades and two tear smoke grenades, police said.