Karnataka: On "Mask Day" BJP MP Ananth Kumar Hegde attends meeting without wearing mask
Karwar: The BJP Government in Karnataka observed “Mask Day” in the state to create awareness among the masses about the importance of wearing masks during the COVID-19 crisis. But the BJP MP of Uttara Kannada District, Ananth Kumar Hegde was seen attending a meeting in Karwar without wearing a mask, photos of which are now going viral on social media platforms.
Chief Minister Yediyurappa while underlining the importance of wearing masks and using sanitizers had ordered observing “Mask Day” across the state on June 18. Social media users debated that when an elected representative cannot follow the norm and observe the “Mask Day” how was the government expecting general people to follow it.
Hegde was attending a meeting with officials at the Zilla Panchayath Office in Karwar where reports added that several officials and elected representatives were not wearing masks. After the pictures from the meeting went viral, several users questioned if the “Mask Day” was only for the general public to be observed?
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Chhattisgarh coal levy scam: Rs 4 crore assets of suspended IAS officer attached
Raipur (PTI): The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has attached properties of Rs 4 crore belonging to suspended IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, an accused in a coal levy scam, for allegedly amassing assets beyond his known sources of income, officials said.
The EOW had registered a disproportionate assets case against Vishnoi in July 2024, an official release said on Saturday.
During the investigation, the agency identified nine immovable properties, valued at around Rs 4 crore, allegedly acquired through illicit means in the names of Vishnoi’s family members and associated firms, it said.
“An application seeking attachment of these properties was filed before the Special Court under the Prevention of Corruption Act in Raipur. Following a hearing on April 17, the court ordered attachment of all such properties,” the statement said.
Accordingly, the Anti-Corruption Bureau/Economic Offences Wing attached the properties. The attached properties cannot be sold or transferred, it said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier provisionally attached five immovable properties linked to Vishnoi in connection with the coal levy scam, it added.
Proceedings are also underway in cases involving other public servants, including action taken in September last year against properties linked to Saumya Chaurasia, who was deputy secretary in the chief minister’s office during the Congress government, the statement said.
Vishnoi, a 2009-batch Indian Administrative Service officer, was first arrested in 2022 by the ED in connection with the alleged coal levy scam. He was among several accused who were granted bail last year by the Supreme Court.
The case refers to an alleged Rs 540 crore racket between July 2020 and June 2022, when an illegal levy of Rs 25 per tonne was being extorted by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen for every tonne of coal transported in the state.
