A game of snakes
and ladders
Bharathi Thimmareddy ( in picture ), Ballari Zilla Panchayat president, holds a strange record of being in and out of the post four times in two years.
She won the ZP election from a general constituency reserved for women. The post of president was reserved for OBC (‘B’ woman), and she contested and won in April 2016.
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This was, however, challenged in the Dharwad Bench of the High Court of Karnataka by her opponents, who contended that Ms. Bharathi had obtained her caste and income certificate by concealing facts. The court passed an interim order directing Ms. Bharathi to not discharge her duties as president for eight weeks and she stepped down for the first time.
She resumed work at the end of this period but her opponents went on an appeal, which resulted in her stepping down again.
Meanwhile, Ms. Bharathi got a temporary relief after she approached the Supreme Court in October 2017. The court ordered the single judge to dispose of the case within four weeks and till then permitted her to discharge the duties of president. She took charge but had to step down yet again, for the third time, after the single judge quashed the notification for election to the post of president.
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Not giving up, Ms. Bharathi filed a second writ appeal before the Division Bench of the High Court, which granted interim stay and ordered that she could be president until the writ appeal was disposed of. As her appeal was dismissed in the first week of December, she had to step down for the fourth time.
Now, Ms. Bharathi wants to file an appeal in the Supreme Court.
Difficult catch
Fish are elusive and so are data related to them, believes Minister for Fisheries Pramod Madhwaraj ( in picture ). He recently told reporters that it is hard to collect “authentic” data on them since fishermen catch them in sea, rivers, lakes, and tanks.
And the Minister had a simple solution to this. He said he has just stopped asking data from officials.
However, officials maintain that the State’s fish production stood at four lakh tonnes and exports were worth ₹1,500 crore a year. Now, do we believe that?
At 84, Gowda still
at the crease
Regardless of his age, former Prime Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) national president H.D. Deve Gowda ( in picture ) is known for going all out to take on his detractors.
To prove his point to Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president G. Parameshwara, who said Mr. Gowda was not in a position to stand and speak in public functions because of his age, the 84-year-old JD(S) patriarch stood on the podium for two hours at a recent rally of the party in Tumakuru and delivered his speech.
Not just that, he challenged people much younger to him to match his stamina.
M. Ahiraj
Nagesh Prabhu
Muralidhara Khajane