Border row flares up in Belagavi affecting bus services between Karnataka - Maharashtra
Bengaluru, Feb 23 (PTI): Bus services between Karnataka and Maharashtra have been affected due to attack on bus drivers from both sides amid the sudden flare-up of border row in Belagavi in the last two days.
The decades-old dispute resurfaced on Friday when a bus driver and a conductor were beaten up for allegedly not speaking in Marathi at Marihal in Belagavi.
The bus conductor stated in his police complaint that a girl asked for a ticket in Marathi. When he said he did not know Marathi and asked her to speak in Kannada, she and her male friend attacked him.
At Marihal, a group of youths intercepted the bus and beat up the conductor.
While police arrested four people for the attack, the conductor has also been booked for 'indecent behaviour' with the minor girl on a complaint filed by the girl, Belagavi Police Commissioner Yada Martin Marbaniang told reporters.
In a retaliatory act, miscreants attacked and blackened a bus driver of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) Bhaskar Jadhav at Guyilal in Hiriyur Taluk of Chitradurga district on Saturday.
Police have arrested a few who were allegedly involved in the crime.
Following the incident, the Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik on Saturday ordered the suspension of the state transport buses to Karnataka. Sarnaik said the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus, which was plying from Bengaluru to Mumbai, was attacked in Chitradurga around 9.10 pm on Friday by pro-Kannada activists.
On Sunday an ultra-luxury bus belonging to the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) was disfigured with slogans like 'Jai Maharashtra', 'Marathi' and 'Maharashtra Navnirman Sena' written on it with black paint.
The KSRTC has also minimised the bus services to Maharashtra following the incident.
"We have limited the number of buses going to Maharashtra for the time being and are taking all precautions to normalise the situation," a senior officer in the North West Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC) told PTI.
He said he was in touch with his Maharashtra counterpart to ensure smooth bus services between the two states.
Also, the bus conductor has been booked under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act following a complaint lodged by the girl.
Belagavi has a substantial Marathi population and a section among them often demands that this border district be merged with Maharashtra.
The Karnataka government and the local Kannada populace stoutly oppose this demand.
To assert its might, the Karnataka government has constructed Suvarna Vidhana Soudha in Belagavi where once in a year it holds the legislative session.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
