150 seized vehicles gutted in fire in Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Jan 29 (PTI): Nearly 150 seized vehicles parked in an open area in Srirampura here were gutted in a fire accident on Wednesday, said police.
However, no causalities were reported.
The vehicles at Srirampura station were parked in a two-acre vacant land, they said. “Bengaluru city police used to park all the vehicles seized in criminal cases here,” said an officer to PTI.
According to him, over 10,000 vehicles have been parked in the facility in the last 10 years.
The fire, which broke out at around 11am in one area of the parking lot, soon spread to the other side of the parking lot, consuming about 150 vehicles.
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“We are not sure what exactly caused the fire, but it could be because of the heat and all the inflammable materials like batteries lying around. It is likely that the fire was triggered by patches of dried grass that covers the ground,” said the police.
He said the security guard saw the billowing smoke and alerted the police and firemen.
The police estimate that about 130 two-wheelers, 10 autorickshaws and 10 cars were destroyed in the fire.
Sources said it took firemen nearly two hours to douse the fire.
Incidentally, way back in 1981, a circus that was established in the same ground was burnt to the ground, killing nearly 92 and injuring 300 people.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
