Bengaluru, Apr 6: Veteran Kannada film actress Prathima Devi who had worked in more than 60 movies died at the age of 88 on Tuesday, family sources said.

Hailing from the district headquarters town of Udupi in coastal Karnataka, Prathima Devi is survived by her sons S V Rajendra Singh Babu, Sangram Singh, Jayaraj Singh and daughter Vijayalakshmi Singh.

According to the family members, she had a habit of sleeping before lunch everyday.

On Tuesday too, she was lying on the bed. When her family members tried to wake her up, she did not respond.

Believing that she might have lost her consciousness due to old age, the family members rushed her to a hospital where she was declared brought dead.

Born as Mohini, the actress adopted the new name Prathima Devi when she made an entry to the silver screen with the movie 'Krishna Leela' at the age of 15.

She was married to eminent Kannada film actor, director and producer late Shankar Singh.

Some of her prominent movies besides 'Krishna Leela' were 'Jaganmohini', 'Nagakanye', 'Shiva Parvathi' and 'Sri Srinivasa Kalyana.'

In his condolence message, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa expressed his deep sorrow.

She was one of the towering personalities in the Kannada film industry and the industry has lost a most talented actress in her death, the Chief Minister said in a statement.

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Malkangiri (PTI): Normalcy returned to Odisha’s Malkangiri district on Monday, nearly a week after around 200 villages were damaged in violent clashes in a village, with the district administration fully restoring internet services, a senior official said.

Additional District Magistrate Bedabar Pradhan said internet services, suspended across the district on December 8 to curb the spread of rumours and misinformation following the clashes, were restored after the situation improved.

The suspension had been extended in phases till 12 noon on Monday.

The administration also withdrew prohibitory orders imposed under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita within a 10-km radius of MV-26 village, where arson incidents were reported on December 7 and December 8.

Though the violence was confined to two villages, tension had gripped the entire district, as the incident took the form of a clash between local tribals and Bengali settlers following the recovery of a headless body of a woman on December 4, officials said.

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The violence broke out after residents of Rakhelguda village allegedly set ablaze several houses belonging to Bengali residents, forcing hundreds to flee. The headless body of Lake Podiami (51), a woman from the Koya tribe, was recovered from the banks of the Poteru river on December 4, while her head was found six days later at a location about 15 km away.

Officials said the district administration held several rounds of discussions with representatives of the tribal and Bengali communities, following which both sides agreed to maintain peace.

Relief and rehabilitation work has since been launched at MV-26 village, with preliminary assessment pegging property damage at around Rs 3.8 crore.

A two-member ministerial team headed by Deputy Chief Minister K V Singh Deo visited the affected village, interacted with officials and locals, and submitted a report to the chief minister.

So far, 18 people have been arrested in connection with the violence, the officials said, adding that despite the withdrawal of prohibitory orders and restoration of internet services, security forces, including BSF and CRPF personnel, continue to be deployed to prevent any untoward incident.

On Sunday, Nabarangpur MP Balabhadra Majhi visited MV-26 and neighbouring Rakhelguda villages, and held discussions with members of both communities as part of efforts to rebuild confidence and restore peace.

More than two lakh Bengali-speaking Bangladeshis were rehabilitated by the Centre in Malkangiri and Nabarangpur districts in 1968, and they currently reside in 124 villages of Malkangiri.