Involvement of migrant labourers in crimes: K'taka Home Minister to discuss with Labour dept
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Monday said he would hold a combined meeting of Home and Labour departments along with Labour Minister Santosh Lad on measures that can be taken regarding the increasing number of crimes involving migrant labourers from other states.
He said workforce coming to Karnataka from other states cannot be stopped, but there is a definite need to take note of criminal activities involving them and take measures against it.
The Home Minister's statement came in the wake of alleged kidnapping and murder of a five-year-old girl in Hubballi by a 35-year-old Ritesh Kumar, who hails from Bihar's Patna, who was killed in a police firing on Sunday.
"Labourers are coming from different parts of the country as Bengaluru is a fast developing city and also across Karnataka. In many cases we see they are involved in criminal activities. We definitely need to take note of this," Parameshwara said in response to a question that people coming from other parts of the country are more involved in such crimes.
Speaking to reporters here, he said, "I would discuss with the Labour Minister and officers concerned, and see what we can do. We cannot stop the labour force coming from different states, but we can take some measures. I will discuss it with the Labour Minister. We will have a combined meeting (of the home and labour departments) on measures that can be taken."
Calling the kidnapping and killing of a five-year-old girl in Hubballi on Sunday by a man from Bihar as a "ghastly incident", the Home Minister said the police had secured the accused with in no time, and when he was taken to a place where he lived to gather evidence, he attacked the police all of a sudden, and to safeguard themselves naturally police fired on him and he died on the way to hospital.
"I have ordered for an investigation by a senior official for the facts to come out. Let the report come," he said.
Regarding the arrest of a suspect in connection with the molestation of a woman at Suddaguntepalya here earlier this month, Parameshwara said he has been secured in Kerala, and is being brought to Bengaluru, and further investigations will follow.
After a weeklong manhunt, the city police on Sunday said, they have tracked down a 29-year-old man named Santosh D, a resident from Gulbarga Colony near Tilaknagar, who allegedly molested a college student walking on the streets of Suddaguntepalya on April 3, from Kerala's Kozhikode.
According to police, the suspect worked as a driver at an automobile showroom near Brookefield.
The incident occurred on April 3 at 1.55 AM and the CCTV footage of the alleged incident had gone viral.
When two women were walking on the street, a man, whose face was not visible, groped one of them and tried to harass her. He immediately fled the scene when the women screamed for help.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
SC to hear pleas for reviewing wages of priests, temple staff
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea to constitute a judicial commission or an expert committee to review the wages and other benefits given to priests, 'sevadars' and temple staff in state-controlled temples.
A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta is likely to hear the PIL filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay.
The plea, filed through advocate Ashwani Dubey, seeks directions to the Centre and states to constitute a judicial commission or an expert committee to review the remuneration and other benefits given to the priests and temple staff in state-controlled temples.
"Petitioner also seeks a declaration that priests and temple staff are employee' under Section 2(k) of the Code on Wages, 2019. Petitioner submits that once the State assumes the administrative, economic and financial control over temples, an employer-employee relationship arises and denial of dignified wages to priests and temple staff violates the right to livelihood guaranteed under Article 21," it said.
Upadhyay said the cause of action accrued on April 4, when he went to Varanasi to attend a public programme and after performing 'Rudrabhishek' in the Kashi Vishwanath temple, which is controlled by the state, he came to know that even the minimum wages to live with dignity are not given to the priests and temple staff.
"Recently, in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, priests and temple staff organised a large-scale protest demanding the minimum wages. Priests and temple staff are not getting even the minimum wage prescribed by the State for unskilled and semi-skilled workers. This is a systemic exploitation. State is acting as a model employer through the endowments department, but violating the minimum wages Act and the directive principles of state policy (Article 43)," it said.
The plea further said the continued refusal to meet the minimum wages with the 2026 inflation-adjusted cost of living index has forced the petitioner to seek judicial intervention to prevent the further marginalisation of priests and temple staff.
Upadhyay further said the precarious nature of livelihood was starkly exposed on February 7, 2025, when a Tamil Nadu department issued a circular at the 'Dandayuthapani Swami Temple' in Madurai, strictly prohibiting priests from accepting 'dakshina' in 'aarti plates'.
"It is necessary to state that priests in such temples often receive no formal salary from the State and rely entirely on 'Dakshina'; the State's administrative order directly threatened them with starvation. Although withdrawn due to public outrage, the incident highlights the State's arbitrary power over the survival of the priests. This is also a bitter truth that States are controlling lakhs of temples but not a single mosque or church," the PIL claimed.
The petition, alternatively, sought direction to the Centre and states to take appropriate steps for the welfare of priests, sevadars and other temple staff in the spirit of the Allahabad High Court's earlier judgments.
