Voting underway for 6 Karnataka Legislative Council seats
Bengaluru (PTI): Voting is underway on Monday in the biennial elections to six seats in the Karnataka Legislative Council from teachers' and graduates' constituencies.
Seventy-eight contestants are in the fray. Counting of votes will be held on June 6.
In the 75-member Upper House, the Congress has 29 members.
The polls are being held for the constituencies of Karnataka North East Graduates, Karnataka South West Graduates, Bangalore Graduates, Karnataka South-East Teachers, Karnataka South-West Teachers and Karnataka South Teachers.
These seats fell vacant following the retirement of six members.
The graduates' constituencies and teachers' constituencies have 3.63 lakh and 70,260 voters, respectively.
The Election Commission has set up 170 polling stations for the teachers' constituencies and 461 polling stations for the graduates' constituencies.
The Congress has fielded Marithibba Gowda (South Teachers constituency), K K Manjunath (South-West Teachers), Ayanur Manjunath (South-West Graduates), Chandrashekhar Patil (North-East Graduates), Ramoji Gowda (Bangalore Graduates) and D T Srinivas (South-East Teachers).
The BJP and its ally JD(S) are contesting the MLC elections together. The BJP is fighting in four constituencies and the JD(S) two.
The BJP has fielded Amarnath Patil from the Karnataka North-East Graduates constituency, Dr Dhananjay Sarji from the Karnataka South-West Graduates constituency, A Devegowda from the Bangalore Graduates' constituency and Y A Narayanaswamy from the South-East Teachers constituency.
The JD(S) candidates are K Vivekananda from the South Teachers constituency and Bhoje Gowda from the South West Teachers constituency.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
