Udupi: Congress candidate from the Udupi-Chikmagaluru constituency K Jayaprakash Hegde has clarified that, contrary to the allegation made against him in certain media reports recently, he had not made derogatory statements on his BJP rival Kota Srinivas Poojary's knowledge of language.

"While addressing an event in Brahmavar recently, I had stated that knowledge of English and Hindi helps an MP communicate easily with government officials. In the Lok Sabha, as there are translators, an MP can speak in Kannada too. My statement, however, was tweaked by some media houses in their reports, making it sound derogatory," Hegde said.

Pointing out that he had named no one while speaking about language facilities and knowledge, Hegde urged the people to put a halt to the problem of altering a speaker's statements in a manner that it creates chaos in society.

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He added that, having been a Parliamentarian earlier too, he had only made the statement with knowledge of his experience and not with an intention to hurt anyone's sentiments. "I have always respected my opponents and have never spoken ill or made defamatory statements about anyone as I do not believe they will yield result. On the contrary, I have believed that working for the people as their representative to be the greatest force in our favour during elections," he insisted.

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Imphal/Shillong (PTI): Manipur was struck by an earthquake of 5.2 magnitude on Tuesday morning, officials said.

The quake occurred at 5.59 am with its epicentre located in Kamjong district, they added.

Tremors were felt in neighbouring Ukhrul district and state capital Imphal, and even Meghalaya but no casualty or damage has been reported so far.