Bengaluru tops major polluting cities list
BENGALURU, August 13: Beating the highly polluted Delhi, the Garden City Bengaluru has topped the list of six major polluting cities in the country.
According to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report, the state capital recorded the second-worst pollution due to increased industrial activities, a high number of diesel generator sets, road dust, and vehicle emission.
However, Lakshman, chairman of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), has reacted with skepticism. “Bengaluru does not have so many polluting industries. I don’t think these are accurate numbers. I will verify the numbers,” he told TOI.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
