K'taka rights groups urge PM Modi to visit "sites of injustices" in Bengaluru, instead of roadshows
Bengaluru: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi gears up for a roadshow in Bengaluru as part of the BJP's election campaign, two rights groups in Karnataka have prepared an alternative route map known as the "citizens' route map." The groups, Bahutva Karnataka and Eddelu Karnataka, are urging the Prime Minister to avoid the roadshow and instead visit the "sites of injustices" in the city. According to the groups, the citizens' route map highlights the issues of marginalized communities and seeks to draw attention to the need for urgent action.
They have also called for Modi to conduct a 'Jan Ki Baat' press meet to engage with the public and address their concerns. The alternative route map comes in the wake of growing concerns about the BJP's election campaign and the party's approach to governance. Both Bahutva Karnataka and Eddelu Karnataka have been vocal in their criticism of the ruling party, accusing them of neglecting the welfare of marginalized communities and pursuing divisive policies.
Here is the full text of the route map:
Karnataka is having a state election. We will vote on what the current government has done and not done for the state. We do not know why your party is asking for votes in the name of the Prime Minister and not the Chief Minister. We do not know why you need to come do a road show here, for which lots of trees have had branches cut, street vendors prevented from doing business and roads blocked.
Given you are coming, we would like you to go to these spots.
Please follow the citizen’s route map and answer these questions.
Day 1 – Visit the sites of Injustice
Day 2- Stay in Freedom Park
Detailed Schedule
1) Shivaram Karanth layout – Ignoring the demands of farmers for fair compensation, Karnataka government destroyed standing crops. Gave notices to farmers preventing from protesting!
Q: How will you double the income of farmers when you won’t even let them farm?
2) ITI where workers were laid off for unionising, which is their right. This comes under your government and your minister turned a deaf ear.
Q: Why is the Contract Labour (abolition and regulation) Act 1970 not followed by your government?
3) Jayanagar BDA Complex – The BBMP violated the Street Vendors Act 2014 by evicting 300+ vendors without even giving notice? Not just that , the government has refused to conduct a survey of street vendors.
Q: Why does your government refuse to protect the rights of Street Vendors?
4) Ejipura EWS quarters where the Yeddyurappa government gave this land on a platter to BJP MLA Mr. Garudachar who has still failed to construct houses. The Lokayukta recommended to the BBMP to take back the land but the government has not done so.
Q: Why is your government helping builders at the cost of slum dwellers?
5) Electronic City – In the Electronic city police station limits, terrorist Puneeth Kerehalli used a stun gun on a citizen and broadcast it live. Yet no action was taken.
Q: Does your government not believe in rule of law? Can anyone use stun guns publicly?
Lunchbreak : You can have lunch at the closest Indira canteen you get and answer why the state government has cut funds for this pro-poor canteen
6) Majestic bus stand. Please ask bus commuters about the troubles they face. In 2018 your party manifesto promised doubling of bus fleet. Instead out of the 6500 buses, only 5600 are on road as your government has stopped hiring of drivers.
Q: Does your government want to weaken or strengthen BMTC?
7) Cottonpet police station – A dalit youth was killed in police custody here. Atrocities against Dalits are at an all time high and convictions at an all time low.
Q: Does your government not care for the welfare of Dalits?
8) Mahadevapura where Powrakarmikas stay in tents and had their houses flooded and damaged due to rain. Powrakarmikas are struggling as your government promised to regularize powrakarmikas but back-tracked and cheated them.
Q: Does the labout of Dalit- Bahujan women not count?
9) Visit any of the new Namma Clinics set up by your government or PHCs.
Q: Why do the public health facilities not have enough medicines or staff?
10) Devanahalli, where farmers who are protesting land acquisition had cases filed against them because the protest was not at Freedom Park.
Q: Why does your government stifle every protesting voice? Do farmers not have freedom of speech and expression under your government ?
Day 2
Please stay only in Freedom park. When citizens are restricted to Freedom Park for protests, when our rallies are not allowed, why should politicians be able to roam around everywhere ?
Please conduct a press meet there and also listen to Jan ki Baat.
Please allow any and all citizens to come and ask you questions.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Los Angeles county wildfires could be costliest in US history, early estimates say
Los Angeles, Jan 11: The wildfires that erupted this week across Los Angeles County are still raging, but already are projected to be among the costliest natural disasters in US history.
The devastating blazes have killed at least 11 people and incinerated more than 12,000 structures since Tuesday, laying waste to entire neighbourhoods once home to multimillion-dollar properties.
While it's still too early for an accurate tally of the financial toll, the losses so far likely make the wildfires the costliest ever in the US, according to various estimates.
A preliminary estimate by AccuWeather put the damage and economic losses so far between USD 135 billion and USD 150 billion. By comparison, AccuWeather estimated the damage and economic losses caused by Hurricane Helene, which tore across six southeastern states last fall, at USD 225 billion to USD 250 billion.
“This will be the costliest wildfire in California modern history and also very likely the costliest wildfire in US modern history, because of the fires occurring in the densely populated areas around Los Angeles with some of the highest-valued real estate in the country,” said Jonathan Porter, the private firm's chief meteorologist.
AccuWeather factors in a multitude of variables in its estimates, including damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure and vehicles, as well as immediate and long-term health care costs, lost wages and supply chain interruptions.
The insurance broker Aon PLC also said Friday that the LA County wildfires will likely end up being the costliest in US history, although it did not issue an estimate. Aon ranks a wildfire known as the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, in 2018 as the costliest in US history up to now at USD 12.5 billion, adjusted for inflation. The Camp Fire killed 85 people and destroyed about 11,000 homes.
The LA County wildfires, which were fuelled by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds and an extreme drought, remained largely uncontained Saturday. That means the final tally of losses from the blazes is likely to increase, perhaps substantially.
“To put this into perspective, the total damage and economic loss from this wildfire disaster could reach nearly 4 per cent of the annual GDP of the state of California,” AccuWeather's Porter said.
In a report Friday, Moody's also concluded that the wildfires would prove to be the costliest in US history, specifically because they have ripped through densely populated areas with higher-end properties.
While the state is no stranger to major wildfires, they have generally been concentrated in inland areas that are not densely populated. That's led to less destruction per acre, and in damage to less expensive homes, Moody's noted.
That's far from the case this time, with one of the largest conflagrations destroying thousands of properties across the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, home to many Hollywood stars and executives with multimillion-dollar properties. Already, numerous celebrities have lost homes to the fires.
“The scale and intensity of the blazes, combined with their geographic footprint, suggest a staggering price tag, both in terms of the human cost and the economic toll,” Moody's analysts wrote. The report did not include a preliminary cost estimate of the wildfire damage.
It could be several months before a concrete tally of the financial losses from the wildfires will be possible.
“We're in the very early stages of this disaster,” Porter said.
