Kerala Governor under fire from UDF for supporting CAA
Kozhikode, Dec 22: Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan came under attack from Congress-led UDF on Sunday for reportedly supporting the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act, with the Opposition alleging he has stooped to the level of a BJP spokesperson.
The Governor, like the BJP, was trying to present a "distorted" version of history, the opposition front said referring to his speech at the Nehru Museum Memorial and Library in New Delhi on Saturday.
Speaking on the topic of "Citizenship institutional and civilizational," Khan had said the Congress had "committed itself in 1947 to accept" the people who have already fled Pakistan and who are likely to flee because their lives and honour were in danger.
"It is unfortunate that the Governor who holds the high constitutional post has stooped to the level of a BJP spokesman,"Congress parliamentary party deputy leader in the Kerala Assembly, K C Joseph, said in a statement.
The Governor, like the BJP, is trying to present a "distorted" version of history, he said, a day after Khan said in the programme, justifying CAA and indirectly blaming the Congress for protesting the law meant to provide citizenship to persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
"The governor's finding that CAA had been the creation of the Congress is absolutely baseless,'' Joseph said.
He said the Congress had never decided to determine citizenship of a person in the name of his religion.
Hitting out at the Governor, former state Congress Chief V M Sudheeran accused him of working like PRO of the Central government.
The Governor is taking efforts to whitewash the CAA, a "mad decision" taken by the Centre, he said.
The senior Congress leader urged the Governor to desist from directly or indirectly justifying the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Otherwise, the Governor will lose the acceptance he receives from Kerala society, he said in a statement.
IUML state general secretary K P A Majeed condemned the statement of the Governor, terming it "very bad."
Speaking to reporters here, he said such statements were not expected from a person holding the post of Governor.
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Heatwave alert in north Karnataka segments going to polls on May 7, rain predicted in Bengaluru
Bengaluru (PTI): An orange alert for heat wave has been issued in most of the 14 Karnataka districts where Lok Sabha constituencies are going to polls on May 7, as temperatures hit 42 to 44 degrees Celsius in the last couple of days, whereas Bengaluru could get light rains in the coming days.
The Election Commission has made arrangements to mitigate the heat in the polling centres, hoping that the voter turnout will not be affected by the weather conditions.
Separately, the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) has issued a red alert for five districts -- Bagalkot, Belagavi, Dharwad, Haveri and Koppal – till May 9.
The 14 segments where polling is set to take place on May 7 are Chikkodi, Belgaum, Bagalkot, Bijapur, Gulbarga, Raichur, Bidar, Koppal, Bellary, Haveri, Dharwad, Uttara Kannada, Davangere andShimoga.
In the polling centres of these constituencies, the Election Commission has set up tents, provided additional fans and chairs and set up drinking water dispensers and put ambulances on standby in polling centres to ensure that voters do not face heat-related distress.
Incidentally, Kalaburgi district (Gulbarga Lok Sabha constituency), has been recording the highest maximum temperature of over 44 degrees Celsius for the past seven days, according to IMD.
Meanwhile, even as Bengalureans awaited the rains with bated breath, the showers skipped the IT hub on May 5.
According to C S Patil, Director of the Meteorological Centre, Bengaluru, IMD, there was only 4 cm of rain in Karnataka on May 5. But the IMD predicts light to moderate rain tomorrow in both Bengaluru Urban and Rural districts.
Maximum temperatures remained steady at an average of 37 degrees Celsius in the city. May 6 too will see a similar maximum temperature range.
While Bengaluru city received 4mm to 30mm rain in the last four days, there was heavy downpour in Hosakote district, which falls under Bengaluru Rural district, particularly on May 3.
According to KSNDMC, on May 3 alone, Hosakote received 79.5mm of rainfall, the highest in Karnataka.
The thunderstorm brought its own share of heartbreaks. In Hosakote district, a 55-year-old woman died when struck by lightning on May 3.
“Rathnama belonged to Ganagalu village. She was taking her goats for grazing in an open field when the incident occurred. Some of her goats – about 15 or so – were also struck by lightning,” Bengaluru Rural Superintendent of Police Mallikarjun Baladandi said.
People also posted on social media about the widespread damage to property caused to rain. According to them, gusty winds and heavy rain in Old Mysuru Region (OMR) had severely damaged banana plantations in the districts of Ramanagara, Mandya, Mysuru and Chamarajanagara.
