Ex-BJP MLA U B Banakar joins Congress
Bengaluru, Nov 21: Former BJP MLA U B Banakar, who was sulking in his party for some time, on Monday joined the Congress along with his supporters.
Banakar, son of former Karnataka assembly speaker B G Banakar, hails from Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's home district Haveri.
His entry into the Congress was on the cards ever since he resigned from the posts of Karnataka Warehouse Corporation chairman and the director of Veerashaiva Lingayat Development Corporation on November 9. Banakar had also resigned from the BJP's primary membership.
Banakar had been a loyalist of former chief minister B S Yediyurappa. He had first become MLA on a BJP ticket in 1994.
He had walked out of the BJP when Yediyurappa founded Karnataka Janata Paksha in 2013 ahead of the assembly election that year and won the assembly election against B C Patil (incumbent agriculture minister) from Hirekerur.
Banakar had been sulking in the party for being sidelined along with his supporters in Hirekerur.
Along with Banakar, JD(S) N T Srinivas too joined the Congress.
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Navi Mumbai sees 654 drug cases in 2024 compared to 475 last year; 939 persons held
Thane (PTI): Maharashtra's Navi Mumbai township has seen a rise in drug related crimes with 654 such cases being registered this year compared to 475 in 2023, a senior police official said on Thursday.
The total value of contraband seized in these cases was Rs 33.27 crore against Rs 22.97 crore last year, according the official said citing the Navi Mumbai police's annual report.
As many as 939 persons were arrested in 2024 for offences under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, compared to 811 last year, he said.
Among those arrested, 58 were foreign nationals, predominantly Africans, marking a rise from 37 in 2023, the official said.
The contraband seized from foreign nationals this year was valued at Rs 25.70 crore, an increase from Rs 11.61 crore in 2023.
Among the seized drugs, cocaine accounted for the highest value at Rs 16.70 crore, a staggering increase from Rs 1.25 crore in 2023, the official said.
The police seized mephedrone (MD) valued at Rs 12.67 crore, up from Rs 9.33 crore last year, while the MDMA seizure rose to Rs 29.98 lakh from Rs 22.10 lakh in 2023, he said.
The seizures of ganja and brown sugar were also high, with the values increasing to Rs 67.83 lakh and Rs 30.10 lakh, respectively, compared to Rs 8.46 lakh and Rs 1.78 lakh last year.
Besides, LSD blots valued at Rs 33.55 lakh were also seized, an increase from Rs 19.80 lakh in 2023, while charas seizure of Rs 67.81 lakh and methadone of Rs 55,000 were newly recorded in 2024, the official said.
Conversely, some substances, such as methaqualone and tramadol, which recorded seizures valued at Rs 5.96 crore and Rs 3.64 crore, respectively, in 2023, were not confiscated this year, he said.
Similarly, no heroin was seized in 2024, compared to the contraband of Rs 33,160 seized last year, the police added.
