Mangalorean doctor Sunil Rao terminated from Bahrain Hospital over anti-Palestine tweets
Bahrain: Mangaluru Dr. Sunil Rao, an Indian-origin specialist in internal medicine, has been terminated from his position at the Royal Bahrain Hospital after posting inflammatory remarks on social media regarding the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. The controversial comments expressed support for Israel during the conflict with the Palestinian group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Dr. Rao's posts, shared on the platform X (formerly Twitter), caught the attention of Bahraini authorities after being reported by a concerned user. The hospital issued an official statement on X, clarifying that Dr. Rao's views were personal and did not align with the institution's values. The hospital confirmed that his statements violated their code of conduct, leading to his immediate termination.
In response to the controversy, Dr. Rao issued an apology on X, acknowledging the insensitivity of his remarks. He expressed regret, stating, "I would like to apologize for the statement I posted on this platform. It was insensitive given the current events. As a doctor, I value all lives. I deeply respect this country, its people, and its religion, as I have been here for the past 10 years."
Dr. Rao, an alumnus of Andhra Medical College in Visakhapatnam and Kasturba Medical College in Mangaluru, Karnataka, had approximately 20 years of experience in the medical field. His profile has since been removed from the hospital's official website.
This incident occurs amid the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas, resulting in a significant loss of life on both sides. The conflict began following a surprise attack by Hamas on Israel on October 7, prompting Israel to initiate a counteroffensive named 'Operation Iron Swords.' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated the intention to launch a ground operation in the Gaza Strip, vowing to eradicate Hamas entirely.
I would like to apologized about the statement that I posted on this platform.
— SUNIL J RAO (@shilpasunil_rao) October 19, 2023
It was insensitive in the context of the current event. As a doctor all lives matter. I respect this country its people and its religion deeply as I have been here for past 10 years.
كلماتي و افعالي
— RoyalBahrainHospital (@RBHospital) October 19, 2023
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Bengaluru: In a significant move towards enhancing disaster preparedness, the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), in collaboration with UNICEF, launched the Karnataka State Disaster Risk Reduction Roadmap (KSDRR) 2025-2030 on Monday, marking the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction.
With this initiative, Karnataka has become the fifth state in India to launch the Disaster Risk Reduction Roadmap, following Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Assam, as reported by The New Indian Express.
The new roadmap is designed to mitigate the impact of natural disasters and reduce the state’s vulnerability. Over the past five years, Karnataka has suffered an estimated Rs 1 lakh crore in losses due to floods, droughts, lightning, hailstorms, fire, and other calamities. Addressing these challenges, Mullai Muhilan, Director of KSNDMC, emphasised that the goal of the KSDRR is to implement a systematic approach to preventing and managing such disasters.
“The theme on this day is ‘Fund Resilience, Not Disasters’, and that is why this roadmap is a framework of existing solutions to reduce and prevent losses by mitigating floods, drought, earthquakes, heat waves and so on,” TNIE quoted Muhilan as saying.
The KSDRR outlines a multi-phase strategy, which includes a vulnerability profile of Karnataka, highlights DRR developments, initiatives taken in the state, financial arrangements, and defines the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders as per the National Disaster Management Act, 2005.
The roles and responsibilities, work implementation in the road map are based on three major milestones divided to achieve in five years. All departments, gram panchayats have prepared disaster management plans with latest data as baseline information.
In milestone 2 for the year 2027-28, the roadmap envisions that the state has to collaborate and partner with various stake holders from local to global level. In milestone 3, for the year 2029-30, it mentions reducing infrastructure damage, human and animal deaths, casualties by 75%.
“Currently, KSNDMC has applications including Varuna Mitra, dedicated mainly to providing weather forecast to farmers across the state. Similarly, we have Megha Sandesha, a mobile app developed in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Science. This app was created to mitigate urban floods and it provides information to various government bodies especially BWSSB, and others. We are still working on this app to provide information and data to BDA, GBA on the areas that might flood in the future. They can use this data before giving clearance to buildings of layouts,” explained Muhilan.
As part of the roadmap, several government departments have been directed to work towards risk identification, risk reduction, preparedness, financial protection, and resilient recovery. For instance, the Education Department will be responsible for developing school-level disaster management plan.
The roadmap also outlines a robust infrastructure for real-time disaster monitoring. Karnataka has already installed 6,500 telemetric rain gauge stations at the gram panchayat level, alongside 850 telemetric weather stations at the taluk level. Other installations include lightning and thunderstorm sensors, water level sensors in Bengaluru and surrounding cities, and seismic sensors at major dam sites.
