Telangana girl climbs tower to marry lover
Hyderabad, July 13 : Climbing mobile phone towers by men to press for their demands is not uncommon but a girl in Telangana climbed on a tower to demand that she be married to her lover.
The incident occurred on Friday in Valigonda village in Yadadri Bhongir district of Telangana.
According to police, P. Jyothi climbed on the tower, threatening to jump down if R. Bhaskar was not brought there to marry her.
Jyothi and Bhaskar were in love for seven years but she alleged that he recently started ignoring her and moving with another girl.
Jyothi, who is said to have quit her job in a software company in Hyderabad, created flutter by climbing on the tower and sitting at a height of about 40 feet. Police made frantic efforts to persuade her to come down while large number of villagers gathered at the spot.
After keeping the police and the village on the edge for more than three hours, the girl came down when police assured to look into the matter. She demanded that justice be done to her as Bhaskar had gone back on his promise to marry her. She alleged that he was moving with another girl.
Jyothi had been staging sit-in outside Bhaskar's house for three days. However, he and his family members locked the house and left the village.
The two fell in love while studying in a college. She claimed that she cut off the relations with her family members to marry him.
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Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah accuses EC of ‘bias’, defends state guarantee schemes ahead of bypolls
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has accused the EC of "double standards" and "bias" after it sought details on the state’s guarantee schemes in Davanagere and Bagalkot districts, where bypolls are scheduled for Thursday.
In a post on 'X' on Wednesday, Siddaramaiah said the Election Commission of India had asked the Karnataka government for information on fund releases under five ongoing guarantee schemes in the constituencies going to polls.
The polls were necessitated following the deaths of senior Congress MLAs Shamanur Shivashankarappa and H Y Meti, respectively.
The schemes are Gruha Jyothi, which provides 200 units of free electricity to every household; Gruha Lakshmi, offering Rs 2,000 to women heading families; and Anna Bhagya, supplying 10 kg of rice per month to each member of BPL families.
In addition, Yuva Nidhi grants Rs 3,000 to unemployed graduates and Rs 1,500 to unemployed diploma holders aged 18–25 for two years, while Shakti enables women to travel free of charge within Karnataka on government non-luxury buses.
Siddaramaiah alleged that the ECI had remained silent when similar cash transfer schemes were announced in Maharashtra and Bihar ahead of elections, calling the scrutiny of Karnataka’s schemes a "clear case of bias".
"In states like Maharashtra and Bihar, cash transfer schemes were announced or fast-tracked just before elections, directly benefiting voters. Yet the ECI remained silent. This is not neutrality—it is complicity," he said.
The CM accused the BJP and NDA governments of "a double standard", noting that when they act, the ECI "looks the other way", but when Karnataka fulfils its promises, it faces "intense scrutiny".
He added that targeting the state’s guarantee schemes is "not just political but anti-poor, anti-women, and anti-Karnataka."
Siddaramaiah clarified that these schemes were not launched in connection with the bypolls but are ongoing programmes implemented as part of the Congress government’s commitments from the 2023 Assembly elections.
Funds are transferred regularly to beneficiaries in a transparent and structured manner, he added.
"The guarantees are part of governance—a direct investment in human dignity, household stability, and economic participation, not inducement," he said.
He also accused the BJP of "hypocrisy", saying that while it criticises Karnataka’s schemes as "freebies", it rolls out similar programmes in states it governs.
"The Karnataka model has set a benchmark for the country. What is deeply concerning, however, is the ECI’s selective approach," Siddaramaiah added.
