Karnataka's water warrior Kame Gowda honoured with lifetime free bus pass after PM's praise
Bengaluru: Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the lake-man of Karnataka Kame Gowda, the Karnataka government on Thursday honoured him with a lifetime free bus pass to travel in all classes of state road transport buses.
Sharing the information in a string of tweets along with the photograph of the bus pass, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has issued Kame Gowda lifetime free bus pass.
A shepherd from Dasanadoddi village in Mandya district, the 82-year-old hit Gowda hit the limelight for digging about 16 ponds for providing water for the cattle he used to take to barren hillocks to graze in his village.
While the animals used to graze, he would dig the ponds.
Due to the ponds, the greenery in these hillocks too increased substantially as the water table increased.
Recognizing his work, the then Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had honoured him with the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award in November 2018.
The Chief Minister said the decision regarding a lifetime bus pass was taken as Kame Gowda had expressed his desire in an interview to a newspaper.
While emphasizing on water conservation in his radio talk, Mann Ki Baat, on Sunday, Modi narrated Gowda's story to highlight how the shepherd solved the problem of water scarcity in his village.
He even referred to him as a 'water warrior'.
The Chief Minister too recalled that Modi had mentioned Gowda's name in his Mann Ki Baat.
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Surat LS candidate Nilesh Kumbhani whose nomination form was rejected suspended from Congress
Ahmedabad, Apr 25: The Gujarat Congress on Friday suspended from the party for six years its Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected over discrepancies leading to the BJP's Mukesh Dalal getting elected unopposed.
A statement from the Congress said the party's disciplinary committee decided to suspend Kumbhani after thorough discussion, adding it had come to the conclusion that the nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or "in connivance with the BJP".
"To be fair to you we have given time to you to explain your case but instead of coming before the party disciplinary committee you have gone incommunicado. After your form was rejected by the authorities, BJP went ahead and got form of other eight candidates withdrawn. This has deprived people of Surat their voting rights," the Congress disciplinary committee headed by Balu Patel said.
"People of Surat and party workers have become very angry due to your action and are expressing their anger in different ways. The Congress party has decided to suspend you for six years from the party," the press note said.
Kumbhani's nomination form was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming the signatures on the document was not theirs.
The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.
In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said the three nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala were rejected after prima facie discrepancy was found in the signatures of the proposers and they did not appear to be genuine.
Kumbhani, a former corporator from Surat, had unsuccessfully fought the 2022 Assembly polls from Kamrej there.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency on April 22 after all other nominees, including one from BSP, withdrew from the fray one by one on the last day of withdrawing papers.
