Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw meets CM Siddaramaiah, Deputy CM Shivakumar
Bengaluru (PTI): Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw on Tuesday met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar and greeted them on the occasion of Diwali, official sources said.
Shaw has been critical of Bengaluru's infrastructure woes by highlighting them through her social media posts, and has been repeatedly urging the state government to intervene.
"Biocon chief Kiran Muzumdar-Shaw visited Cauvery (CM's official residence) and wished Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Diwali. Legislative Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti was present on the occasion," the CM's office said in a statement.
Shah met Shivakumar at his Sadashivanagar residence in Bengaluru, the Deputy CM's office said.
The state government has come under criticism over the poor state of roads and traffic issues in the city for some time now, with industry veterans like former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai and Shaw repeatedly openly urging the state government to immediately intervene.
Faced with mounting criticism from industry leaders, Shivakumar, who is also the Minister in-charge of Bengaluru development, had recently urged them to stop "hurting" the city and the state that have contributed to their growth.
Stating that the government was making all efforts to fix the issues, he had appealed to industry leaders not to forget their "roots"'--Bengaluru, Karnataka, and its people--and asked them to be patient, stressing that "there is a limitation for everything."
With the Deputy CM subsequently alleging that she and Mohandas Pai had some "personal agenda", as they did not raise any issues relating to Bengaluru infrastructure during the BJP regime, Shaw, rejecting it, had posted on 'X', "Not true. Both T V Mohandas Pai and I have criticised deteriorating infrastructure in our city to previous BJP & JDS Governments. Our agenda is clear, clean up and restore roads."
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Odisha: Normalcy returns to violence-hit Malkangiri; internet services fully restored
Malkangiri (PTI): Normalcy returned to Odisha’s Malkangiri district on Monday, nearly a week after around 200 villages were damaged in violent clashes in a village, with the district administration fully restoring internet services, a senior official said.
Additional District Magistrate Bedabar Pradhan said internet services, suspended across the district on December 8 to curb the spread of rumours and misinformation following the clashes, were restored after the situation improved.
The suspension had been extended in phases till 12 noon on Monday.
The administration also withdrew prohibitory orders imposed under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita within a 10-km radius of MV-26 village, where arson incidents were reported on December 7 and December 8.
Though the violence was confined to two villages, tension had gripped the entire district, as the incident took the form of a clash between local tribals and Bengali settlers following the recovery of a headless body of a woman on December 4, officials said.
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The violence broke out after residents of Rakhelguda village allegedly set ablaze several houses belonging to Bengali residents, forcing hundreds to flee. The headless body of Lake Podiami (51), a woman from the Koya tribe, was recovered from the banks of the Poteru river on December 4, while her head was found six days later at a location about 15 km away.
Officials said the district administration held several rounds of discussions with representatives of the tribal and Bengali communities, following which both sides agreed to maintain peace.
Relief and rehabilitation work has since been launched at MV-26 village, with preliminary assessment pegging property damage at around Rs 3.8 crore.
A two-member ministerial team headed by Deputy Chief Minister K V Singh Deo visited the affected village, interacted with officials and locals, and submitted a report to the chief minister.
So far, 18 people have been arrested in connection with the violence, the officials said, adding that despite the withdrawal of prohibitory orders and restoration of internet services, security forces, including BSF and CRPF personnel, continue to be deployed to prevent any untoward incident.
On Sunday, Nabarangpur MP Balabhadra Majhi visited MV-26 and neighbouring Rakhelguda villages, and held discussions with members of both communities as part of efforts to rebuild confidence and restore peace.
More than two lakh Bengali-speaking Bangladeshis were rehabilitated by the Centre in Malkangiri and Nabarangpur districts in 1968, and they currently reside in 124 villages of Malkangiri.
