Dismissal of 7 BSP councillors from Kollegal upheld by Karnataka HC
Bengaluru, Jun 16: The Karnataka High Court has dismissed the appeal of seven Kollegal City Municipal Council members, who were elected on BSP ticket but defied the party's whip.
Under Sections 3 and 4 of the Karnataka Local Authorities (Prohibition of Defection) Act, they were disqualified as councillors by the Deputy Commissioner of the Chamarajanagar district.
They had challenged their removal in a writ petition before a single judge bench in 2021 but their dismissal was upheld. They had then filed an appeal before the division bench.
Pavithra, L Nagamani, Gangamma, Naseer Shariff, Prakash, Ramakrishna N and Nagadundaramma were elected as councillors in 2018 on BSP party ticket.
In 2020, when the election to the post of president and vice president of the CMC was held, they defied the party's whip to vote for the official candidate G Jayamari. Instead, Gangamma, the rebel candidate, was elected as president with the help of BJP.
Jayamari had sought their dismissal from the post of councillors, and they were disqualified by the Chamarajanagar Deputy Commissioner.
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Formulate model SOP for trekking safety in Karnataka: Minister Khandre tells officials
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Minister for Forest, Ecology and Environment Eshwar Khandre has instructed authorities to formulate a standard operating procedure (SOP) for trekking safety, intended to serve as a national model.
The Minister issued the instruction in writing to the chief wildlife warden in the wake of the disappearance of a woman from Kerala in the dense Tadiandamol forest, and the search for a minor girl in Chandradrona hills, his office said in a release on Thursday.
Like the ‘e-Gastu’ app already developed by the Forest Department and the ‘MStripes’ app used in tiger reserves, if a similar kind of app is temporarily installed on the mobile phones of trekkers during the trek, it will be easier to track those who go astray, hence the Forest Minister has directed to take steps to develop the app and provide group insurance to trekkers, it said.
In addition, Khandre has suggested that nature guides should be equipped with wireless communication sets and they should be held accountable for safety and coordination of trekking groups under their supervision, it added.
