Basavaraj Horatti elected new chairperson of Karnataka Legislative Council
Bengaluru: Senior JD(s) leader Basavaraj Horatti was on Tuesday elected as the chairperson of Karnataka Vidhan Parishad after the Congress nominee withdrew his nomination from the election.
The election for the post took place even as Congress leaders staged a protest in the Well of the House, against the passing of the Prevention of Cow Slaughter Bill. Congress argued that the Bill was passed in an "undemocratic" manner overlooking their demand for the division of votes.
Notwithstanding their protest, the election was announced. Even though Congress had nominated Naseer Ahmed as a contestant, the party leaders refused to take part in the election process. As a result, the House declared Horatti as "unanimously elected”.
Horatti is a seven-time MLC, consecutively elected from Teachers' Constituency (West) since 1980. He also served as the Science and Technology, and Rural Development minister in the Congress and JD(S) coalition government in 2004. Later, in the 2006 BJP-JD(S) coalition, he held the Primary and Secondary Education, and Law and Parliamentary Affairs portfolios. He was nominated as pro-tem Chairperson of the Council for a brief period, during the Congress-JD(S) coalition in 2018.
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MP boat tragedy: Death toll climbs to 13; body of last missing person recovered
Jabalpur (PTI): The bodies of a five-year-old boy and his uncle were recovered from Bargi Dam in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur district on Sunday morning, raising the death toll in the cruise boat tragedy to 13, police said.
The boat, around 20 years old and operated by the state tourism department, capsized during a storm on Thursday evening.
"The bodies of Mayuram (5) and his uncle Kamraj (around 50), an employee of the Ordnance Factory in Khamaria, were found floating and were fished out of the dam," Bargi Sub Divisional Officer of Police Anjul Ayank Mishra told PTI over the phone.
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All 13 missing persons identified have now been accounted for, he said, adding the bodies were sent to a government hospital for postmortem.
Teams comprising around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, along with personnel from the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and local divers, were involved in the search operation, the police said.
Of the 41 identified passengers on board the vessel, 28 were rescued after the incident, according to the police.
The CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the boat, though the identities of 41 passengers have been confirmed so far, they said.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the incident and dismissed three crew members. It also banned the operation of similar vessels in the state.
