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The Hindu
an hour ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
Udayagiri police station divided into north and south
The State government has approved the proposal to divide Udayagiri police station in Mysuru into Udayagiri North and Udayagiri South police stations. The government's decision follows a proposal submitted in this regard by the Director-General and Inspector-General of Police in April 2025. A Government Order dated June 20 said the approval follows the clearance by the Finance Department on Thursday. The Director-General and Inspector-General of Police, in the proposal, sought to divide the jurisdiction of the Udayagiri police station into Udayagiri North police station and Udayagiri South police station by fixing the Mahadevapura Main Road as the boundary. While the existing Udayagiri police station situated on Mahadevapura Main Road is proposed to be converted into the Udayagiri South police station, a new building for the Udayagiri North police station can be constructed on a Civic Amenities (CA) plot No. CA – 07 measuring 29x36 metres in Devanuru 1st Stage, the proposal said. The jurisdiction of the Udayagiri police station established in 1994 after being seperated from the Nazarbad police station limits comprises areas that are 'communally sensitive'. 'Over the past 26 years, the region has witnessed various criminal activities, communal riots, inter-caste and inter-religious conflicts, serious offences such as murders and attempt to murder, theft cases, and changing electoral scenario all of which had resulted in increasing pressure on the officers of the Udayagiri police station,' the proposal said. Giving details of the number of criminal cases registered in the Udayagiri police station in the last three years, the proposal said 215 cases were registered in 2022, while 213 and 209 cases were registered in 2023 and 2024 respectively. It was pointed out that the Udayagiri police station area comprises significant population of Hindus, Muslims, and Christians, with the presence of 78 mosques, 59 temples, and nine churches. 'During religious festivals, Urs and temple fairs, officials and personnel from other police stations in the city had to be deployed to ensure law and order,' the proposal said. The Mahadevapura Main Road, which is considered as a boundary for the division of the Udayagiri police station, is highly congested. The road has mosques, bus depots, bus stops, banks, schools, private financial institutions, ATMs, etc., besides vegetable, grocery shops, garment stores, medical stores, hotels, meat shops, etc. 'Street vendors crowd both sides of the road,' the proposal said. The road, which is a densely populated commercial stretch, connects not only major roads and residential areas, but also the Outer Ring Road, five km of which falls in the jurisdiction of the Udayagiri police station. While the existing population of the Udaygiri police station is estimated to be 3.11 lakh, the proposed Udayagiri North Police station will have 1.48 lakh people and the proposed Udayagiri South Police station will have a population of 1.62 lakh. The staff sanctioned for the Udayagiri South Police station includes one police inspector, four police sub-inspectors, eight assistant sub-inspectors, 24 head constables, and 48 police constables. Similiarly, the staff sanctioned for the Udayagiri North police station comprises one police inspector, four sub-inspectors, eight assistant sub-inspectors, 24 head constables, 48 police constables, and two assistant police constables. The creation of two police stations carries an estimated recurring annual expenditure of ₹6.11 crore and a non-recurring expenditure of ₹3.39 crore, the proposal added.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Quota for minorities in housing: Siddaramaiah turns tables on BJP, points to NDA's policy for minorities
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday turned the tables on the Opposition BJP saying the increase in the quota for minorities in housing schemes in Karnataka has been in deference to a guideline issued by the NDA regime at the Centre and the same has been in force for years. If this was unconstitutional or appeasement , why did the Union Government ask all states to follow it? Why is it being implemented under Central schemes such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana?, the CM asked in a media statement. The quota was applicable to minorities including Christians, Jains, and Muslims. "This is based on the Prime Minister's 15-Point Programme for the Welfare of Minorities (2019), which clearly directs all Central and State implementing agencies to earmark 15% of physical and financial targets for minorities wherever possible." by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like An engineer reveals: 1 simple trick to get all TV channels Techno Mag Learn More Undo "Our decision does not grant blanket enhancement of quota across the state. It only addresses a specific implementation challenge. In many panchayats where the minority population is less than 10%, the mandated 10% earmarking could not be utilised. To ensure optimal use of the allocated targets and avoid lapses, we have allowed the gap from such panchayats to be reallocated to those with a higher minority population, subject to a cap of 15%. This is an administrative adjustment within the unreserved category and does not affect SC, ST, or OBC reservations in any manner. The decision is legally sound and has been cleared by the Law Department after thorough review," Siddaramaiah said in response to criticisms from the BJP. The BJP's reaction, he said, was both hypocritical and politically motivated. The same party that implements the 15% target at the national level is now accusing Karnataka of appeasement for merely applying the same principle to its state schemes. "If the BJP has any objection, they must first explain why their own government continues to operate under the same guidelines and why it expects other states to do the same. This selective outrage is nothing but an attempt to stoke communal sentiments and derail efforts meant to uplift the poorest and most marginalised families in the state." Live Events Over 34,000 additional minority families, most of them landless and in need of housing, will benefit from this decision in the current year alone. Where no minority applicants are found in a panchayat, the unutilised share will be reallocated to where there is higher need, ensuring that not a single house remains unbuilt due to technical rigidities. This approach ensures equity, efficiency, and full utilisation of resources, while remaining fully compliant with constitutional provisions, the statement said. "We urge BJP leaders to rise above narrow political calculations and support measures that truly uplift the poor, instead of trying to block their path with misinformation and communal rhetoric," Siddaramaiah said. Deputy CM DK Shivakumar on Friday maintained that the 5% increase in the quota of minorities in the housing schemes would not eat into the share of other communities, lashing out at the BJP for threatening to launch an agitation demanding the reversal of the Cabinet decision. Housing Minister BZ Zamir Ahmed Khan has only transferred the quota of minorities from rural areas to urban areas as the population of minorities is low in rural areas. No quota is being snatched from anyone to give them to minorities, he told the media a day after the government's decision triggered sharp reactions from the Opposition BJP. The Karnataka cabinet on Thursday decided to increase the minority quota in the government's housing schemes by 5 percentage points, weeks after passing a bill to create a 4% Muslim quota in government's civil contracts. The government currently has a quota of 10%, which will now go up to 15%. Shivakumar said as per the Justice Sachar Committee report, minorities were given quotas in rural areas also. But it was not being used as the population of minorities was low in rural areas. As much as 90% of SC/STs have been given homes. The government cannot give funds unless they lay the foundation stone for their house, he added. The government cannot incur losses by keeping flats vacant, but the Opposition parties were politicising it, he said. Housing Minister Khan said the Centre already has a 15% quota for minorities as per the Sachar committee report. There has been a demand to have the same policy in Karnataka also. The Cabinet decided to implement the same here also, accepting the report of the Cabinet sub-committee, he said. Veteran BJP leader BS Yediyurappa said his party was not against the interests of minorities, it was not fair to over appease them for the sake of vote bank politics.
The South African
3 hours ago
- Politics
- The South African
'False prophets': Mmusi Maimane takes swipe at Floyd, Bushiri
Build One South Africa (BOSA) leader Mmusi Maimane has taken a swipe at Floyd Shivambu's political standing with the MK Party and his controversial visit to Prophet Shepard Bushiri, a fugitive of South Africa. On Thursday, 19 June, the former secretary-general held a press briefing in which he expressed interest in forming his own party. He also used the opportunity to insult his former parties, the EFF and the ANC. Outspoken Floyd also indirectly threw shade at Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, the daughter of former president Jacob Zuma. With Floyd Shivambu's press conference a hot topic on social media, Mmusi Maimane used his X account to mock the MK MP's headlines. Hinting at his visit to the wanted Malawian pastor, and Floyd's prospective party, Mmusi posted: 'Join @BuildOneSA. We will not Bushiri you'. Addressing South Africans, Mmusi Maimane continued in another post: 'You deserve a political party that does not chase false prophets. You deserve a political party that is not a family business. 'Join the party of ubuntu and professionalism, not umuntu and bushirism'. Throwing more shade – this time at Mzansi's viral drug feind – he added: 'Others, they have Alostro'. Apart from politics, Mmusi Maimaine is also an ordained minister and an elder at the Liberty Church in Johannesburg. The father of three – who has a masters in theology – also regularly preaches at churches around South Africa and around the world. He said of his choice of career: 'Politics is about two things: it's about government and it's about influence…the only way they (Christians) will become in charge of the nation is if the nation votes for them.' Let us know by leaving a comment below, or send a WhatsApp to 060 011 021 1 . Subscribe to The South African website's newsletters and follow us on WhatsApp , Facebook , X, and Bluesky for the latest news.
Los Angeles Times
6 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
In Amy Bloom's exquisite ‘I'll Be Right Here,' Colette plays a key supporting role
Amy Bloom's exquisite 'I'll Be Right Here' is a slim volume spanning close to a century. While it's tempting to label the novel a family epic, that description would fail to capture how Bloom reconstitutes 'family' on the page, or how her chapters ricochet forward and backward from decade to decade or year to year, shifting perspective not only from character to character, but from first- to third-person point of view. These transitions, while initially dizzying, coalesce into a rhythm that feels fresh and exciting. Together they suggest that memory conflates the past, present and future, until at the end, our lives can be viewed as a richly textured tapestry of experience and recollection, threaded together by the people we've loved. The novel opens with a tableau: Siblings Alma and Anne tend to their longtime friend, who's dying. They tenderly hold Gazala's hands in a room that 'smells like roses and orange peel.' Honey — once Anne's sister-in-law and now her wife — massages Gazala's thin feet with neroli oil. 'Anne pulls up the shade. The day is beautiful. Gazala turns her face away from the light, and Alma pulls the shade back down.' Samir 'presses his hand over his mouth so that he will not cry out at the sight of his dying sister.' Later in the novel, these five will come to be dubbed 'the Greats' by their grandchildren. The scene is a foreshadow, and signals that the novel will compress time, dwelling on certain details or events, while allotting mere lines to other pivotal moments, or allowing them to occur offstage, in passing. At first this is disorienting, but Bloom's bold plot choices challenge and enrich. In 1930 Paris, a young Gazala and her adopted older brother, Samir, await the return of their father from his job at a local patisserie, when they hope to sample 'cinnamon montecaos, seeping oil into the twist of paper,' or perhaps a makroud he's baked himself. In their cold, tiny apartment, Samir lays Gazala 'on top of his legs to warm us both, and then, as the light fails, our father comes home.' The Benamars are Algerians, 'descended from superior Muslims and Christians both, and a rabbi,' their father, M., tells them. He delights in tall tales of a Barbary lion that has escaped Northern Africa and now roams the streets of Paris. Years elapse in the course of a few pages, and it's 1942 in Nazi-occupied France. One night before bed, M. Benamar shreds the silk lining from a pair of worn gabardine pants to craft a belt for his daughter. Then,'he lies down on the big mattress he shares with Samir and turns his face to the wall.' He never awakens. Now orphans — we don't know exactly how old they are — the pair must conceal that they are on their own. Samir lines up a job where their father worked, while the owner's wife finds Gazala a position as companion to a renowned writer, offering her 'up to Mme. Colette like a canape.' Colette (yes, that one!) suffers from arthritis, and is mostly bedridden. She hides her Jewish husband upstairs, while entertaining guests below. Gazala observes that her benefactor's 'eyes are slanted under the folds of her brows, kohl-rimmed cat's eyes in a dead-white face, powder in every fold and crack.' Soon, the sister and brother's paths diverge, and Gazala makes her way to New York City. It's 1947. Through Colette, Gazala has found work at a shop on Second Avenue, and sleeps in the storeroom above. Enter Anne and Alma Cohen, teenage sisters who take an instant liking to Gazala and her French accent; in short order, they've embraced her as a third sibling. Months later, there is a knock on the bakery door, and it's Samir, returned from abroad, in search of Gazala. For the rest of their lives, the nonblood-related siblings will conceal that they are lovers. Going forward, the plot zigs and zags, dipping in and out of each character's life. It's 2010 in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where Samir and Gazala have lived together in a rambling old house for decades, maintaining appearances by keeping separate bedrooms. They are old, and Samir 'brushes her silver hair away from his lips.' She tells him she doesn't mind that he smells of the shallots in their garden. It's 1968, and Anne, by now a wife, mother and lawyer, has fallen in love with her husband Richard's sister, Honey. We glimpse their first sexual encounter after years of simmering emotions. Alma — who receives minimal attention from her author — marries a bighearted chicken farmer named Izzy, and later grieves the early loss of her husband, and the absence of children. As they grow older, the circle consisting of Gazala, Samir, Anne, Alma and Honey will grow to include Lily, Anne's daughter, and eventually Lily's daughter, Harry. Gazala and Samir take in Bea, whose parents were killed in a car accident; she becomes the daughter they never had. This bespoke family will support each of its members through all that is to come. It's 2015 in Poughkeepsie, and Gazala's gauzy figures float through her fading consciousness. Beneath the tree outside her window — 'huge and flaming gold' — sits her father, reading the paper. 'Madame pours mint tea into the red glasses.' The other Greats are gathered round. One last memory, the most cherished of all: It's 1984 and Gazala and Samir are in their 50s. He proposes a vacation in Oaxaca. 'Let's go as we are,' he whispers. At their hotel, 'they sit beneath the arches, admiring the yellow sun, the blue sky, the green leaves on the trees, all as bright as a children's drawing.' There, they freely express their love for each other. As Bloom has demonstrated throughout her stellar literary career, which began in 1993 with the publication of her acclaimed story collection, 'Come to Me,' she can train her eye on any person, place or object and render it sublime. Her prose is so finely wrought it shimmers. Again and again she has returned to love as her primary subject, each time finding new depth and dimension, requiring us to put aside our expectations and go where the pages take us. As readers, we're in the most adept of hands. Haber is a writer, editor and publishing strategist. She was director of Oprah's Book Club and books editor for O, the Oprah Magazine.
Hans India
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Hans India
Reservation for minorities under housing schemes hiked to 15%
Bengaluru: The Karnataka cabinet on Thursday decided to enhance the reservation for minorities under various housing schemes in the state from 10 to 15 per cent. According to the government, this enhanced quota will benefit all minorities including Muslims, Christians, and Jains. The move follows a recent government initiative to introduce a 4 per cent reservation for Muslims in public contracts, which has come under criticism from opposition BJP. The saffron party has accused the Congress dispensation of 'undermining' the Constitution through religion-based reservations. Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar defended the decision, saying its primary objective is to help poorer sections of the society. Speaking to reporters after the cabinet meeting, state Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil said, 'Under various housing schemes being implemented by the Housing Department across the state, in both urban and rural areas, it has been decided to enhance the reservation for minorities from 10 per cent to 15 per cent.' 'The decision was taken-- as the central government observing the inadequate housing among them (minorities) has given certain instructions, and the state government too has observed the high number of homeless among minorities in the state,' he said. Responding to a question about scientific basis for the increased reservation, the Minister said there are reports on the total number of homeless among SC/STs, general category, and others. 'On all that count, we have increased the percentage of reservation (for minorities),' he added. Asked if similar enhancements will be extended to all communities, based on population, Patil said it will be given wherever the number of homeless is high. 'There were also certain instructions from the Centre while allocating certain housing schemes to states, certain instructions are being given by the Centre based on the Sachar Committee report, keeping all this and social justice in mind, this decision has been taken,' he said, adding that this move does not require any amendments to rules and law. Noting that there has been a demand for such an enhancement in quota for housing, especially in urban areas, Patil said hence this decision has been taken unanimously by the cabinet. To a query if this decision will lead to a perception that it is aimed at benefiting Muslims, as other minorities are not in big numbers across the state, he said, 'we cannot respond to those building perceptions and those trying to politicise providing houses for the poor. I can only say that the government's intention is to provide social justice and more benefits to the communities where the homeless are high in is only for housing.' The Minister clarified that this reservation is not applicable to specified housing schemes for SC/STs and others. Criticising the decision, Karnataka BJP alleged that the Congress government is always ready to 'dishonour the Constitution'. 'Although the Constitution clearly states that reservations should not be given on the basis of religion, the Congress government in Karnataka is repeatedly violating it. Providing 15 per cent reservation separately for Muslims under the housing schemes is completely unconstitutional. The Congress, which has been reprimanded by the court for giving reservation to Muslims in contracts, will also be reprimanded in this matter,' it said in a post on 'X'. Defending the cabinet decision, Shivakumar told media that many houses built under housing schemes are vacant. As the minority population is more in urban areas compared to other parts, opportunity is being given to them to utilise. 'Urban areas have a higher population of minorities and their quota under various housing schemes was 10 per cent. Many houses were empty and not occupied, some percentage money has to be paid for these houses,' he said. Noting that the central government's funds for some of these schemes are less, he said, 'So, we (state government) have contributed to the remaining part and built these houses. As in many places the buildings (houses) built are not occupied, as the minority population is more in some areas, to give them an opportunity to utilise (the houses), the quota has been enhanced from 10 to 15 per cent,' he said. Rejecting BJP's allegations, the Deputy CM said, 'Let anyone say anything, we want to help poorer sections, when there are no applicants (for houses) what can you do? Can I keep the buildings vacant? We can't do that.'
