Shidlaghatta municipal employees stage protest accusing Cong leader of threatening commissioner
Chikkaballapura (Karnataka) (PTI): The employees of the Shidlaghatta City Municipal Council on Wednesday staged a demonstration outside their office demanding action against a Congress leader for allegedly threatening the Municipal Commissioner Amrutha Gowda.
The protesting employees alleged that the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee state convener Rajeev Gowda had called Amrutha Gowda over phone and hurled abuses for removing his banner in the town.
The audio of the alleged conversation has gone viral on the social media where Rajeev Gowda is purportedly threatening Amrutha Gowda that he would ensure that she is transferred from Shidlaghatta.
Amrutha, as heard in the audio, tried to explain to him that the banner was removed from the busy circle because it was causing accidents. The leader was not ready to understand and allegedly threatened her of dire consequences.
Municipal employees have also taken out procession in the town, condemning the Congress leader's behaviour.
In the audio, Rajeev Gowda is purportedly saying, “If my banner is removed then I would come and set things on fire. You have seen my gentleness, not my evil side.”
When Amrutha Gowda sought time to listen to her, he said, “I will not wait for a minute or two. Don’t treat me like any ordinary man.”
In a bid to persuade the Congress leader, the Municipal Commissioner said there were accidents happening due to the banner.
“Since we had received a complaint, it was removed. It was not put out in a scientific way. It was tied right in the middle of the road causing accidents. We will be held accountable if the accidents happen. No permission was taken to put out the banner,” Amrutha Gowda said.
Hurling abuses, Rajeev Gowda told her in a derogatory way that the banner should be restored immediately.
“I will bring people there (to the municipal office) so that you run away from the Taluk leaving your job. I will create riot in all the 31 wards and I will make people beat you up with slippers,” the Congress leader said.
As the Municipal Commissioner wept for being ill-treated, Shidlaghatta CMC employees went on a strike and raised slogans outside their office building. Many people came out in support of Amrutha Gowda in the town.
Reacting to the incident, Rajeev Gowda said he had obtained all the permissions. He also said that he had never used derogatory words or abuses against anyone.
According to him, his audio was edited.
The opposition leader in the Legislative Council Chalavadi Narayanaswamy slammed Rajeev Gowda for using abusive words against Amrutha Gowda.
He alleged that a disputable banner had led to the death of a Congress leader Rajashekhar Reddy in Ballari, "who was shot dead by a private gunman of another Congress leader on January 1.
Narayanaswamy said the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah should immediately order the arrest of Rajeev Gowda.
“Rajeev Gowda, who had said that he would riot in the town and hurled invective against a woman, should be arrested under the Goonda Act. If this does not happen then we will stage demonstration across the state,” the BJP leader said.
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Wholesale price inflation rises to 8-month high of 0.83 pc in December
New Delhi (PTI): Wholesale price inflation increased for the second month in a row, rising 0.83 per cent in December 2025, driven by an uptick in prices of food, non-food articles, and manufactured items on a month-on-month basis, government data showed on Wednesday.
After witnessing a deflationary trend in the previous two months, the wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation returned to positive in December. In November and October, the pace of price rise was negative at (-) 0.32 per cent and (-) 1.02 per cent, respectively.
In contrast, WPI inflation was 2.57 per cent in December 2024.
"Positive rate of inflation in December 2025 is primarily due to an increase in prices of other manufacturing, minerals, manufacture of machinery and equipment, manufacture of food products, and textiles, etc," the industry ministry said in a statement.
According to WPI data, deflation in food articles was 0.43 per cent in December, as against 4.16 per cent in November.
In vegetables, deflation was 3.50 per cent in December, compared to 20.23 per cent in November.
Barclays India Chief Economist Aastha Gudwani said narrowing deflation in "food articles" and a rise in inflation in "manufacturing products" drove the increase in the headline WPI inflation in December. "We expect modest increases in WPI inflation to continue".
In case of manufactured products, WPI inflation inched up to 1.82 per cent from 1.33 per cent in November 2025.
The non-food articles category showed an inflation of 2.95 per cent in December, against 2.27 per cent in November.
Negative inflation or deflation continued in the fuel and power sectors, at 2.31 per cent in December, against 2.27 per cent a month ago.
ICRA Senior Economist Rahul Agrawal said led by the hardening in YoY food inflation owing to an unfavourable base, rise in global commodity prices, and sustained pressure on the USD/INR pair over the past few months, ICRA expects the YoY WPI inflation to rise to 1.5 per cent in January, the highest level in 10 months.
Data released earlier this week showed the country's retail inflation inching up to 1.33 per cent in December, from 0.71 per cent in November, driven by rising food prices.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reduced policy interest rates by 1.25 percentage points in the current fiscal year as inflation remained low.
The Reserve Bank, last month, significantly lowered the inflation projection for the current fiscal to 2 per cent from 2.6 per cent estimated earlier, as the economy continues to witness rapid disinflation.
The RBI mainly tracks retail inflation for deciding on benchmark interest rates.
Last month, the RBI cut key policy interest rates by 25 bps to 5.25 per cent, saying that the Indian economy is in a "rare Goldilocks period" marked by high growth and low inflation.
The Reserve Bank has raised its FY26 GDP growth projection to 7.3 per cent, from an earlier estimate of 6.8 per cent. India recorded an 8.2 per cent growth in the September quarter, and 7.8 per cent in the June quarter.
