Karnataka to get four passport facilitation centres

October 3rd, 2009 BANGALORE - Over 10,000 food packets, mainly consisting of bread, biscuits and water, were flown from Bangalore Saturday for distribution among the hundreds of people marooned in the flood-hit north Karnataka districts. The death toll in the rain and floods since Wednesday in Bijapur, Raichur, Belgaum, Bidar, Gulbarga, Koppal, Bellary, Davangere and Chikballapur districts was officially put at 101.

July 5th, 2009 BANGALORE - Activists of the Kannada Protection Force (KPF) in Karnataka Sunday stormed into exam centres and disrupted railway recruitment examinations in protest against the appearance of north Indian candidates, especially from Bihar, in large numbers. Police arrested 65 KPF activists who were part of the groups that disrupted the exams being conducted in the Karnataka capital, Mysore and Hubli.

June 22nd, 2009 BANGALORE - An Independent legislator Monday withdrew support to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka but there was no threat to the B.S. Yeddyurappa ministry's survival.

May 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy Monday offered his party's support to the Congress-led government at the centre but wanted assurance of development in his state Karnataka.

May 16th, 2009 BANGALORE - Counting of votes cast for the Lok Sabha elections began Saturday morning amid tight security in Karnataka, poll officials said. Even as majority of the 23,000 counting staff began unlocking the 47,578 electronic voting machines (EVMs) at three centres here and 25 centres at district headquarters across the state at 8 a.m., the remaining staff started counting postal ballots first in each constituency.

May 15th, 2009 BANGALORE - Elaborate arrangements are in place for the counting of votes in 28 Lok Sabha constituencies across Karnataka Saturday and about 23,000 officials will be involved in the counting process. 'Counting of postal ballots will be taken up first in each constituency and the first round of counting will be completed by 9 a.m.

April 30th, 2009 BANGALORE - Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa came with his son, who is contesting elections for the BJP, to cast his vote on Thursday.

March 23rd, 2009 BANGALORE - Congress President Sonia Gandhi will launch her party's campaign for the Lok Sabha elections from Davangere in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Karnataka today. The launch of the campaign from Karnataka is seen significant as Karnataka was once seen as a Congress stronghold and where the BJP is considered to have made inroads.

March 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Congress President Sonia Gandhi is likely to launch the party campaign for the Lok Sabha elections from Davangere in Karnataka March 23, party sources said Monday. Launching the election campaign from Karnataka is a strategic decision for the party as the state was once considered its stronghold but was lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2008.

March 14th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Are you a student eager to vote but without any idea how to get registered as an elector? Don't fret. Your college will now have a facilitation centre where you get the form, get it verified by the authorities and submit it there too.

March 10th, 2009 BANGALORE - Voting in the first of the two-phase Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka will take place six weeks from now but already liquor and saris are being stored to woo voters, an official indicated Monday. 'From several parts of Karnataka, we have seized liquor worth over Rs.290,000 meant for distribution among voters,' state chief electoral officer M.N.

February 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Congress party Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka of communalising the state, 'which has led to the deterioration of the law and order situation'. 'The Congress strongly condemns the blatant move by the BJP government to saffronise and Talibanise the state.

January 12th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Tuesday announced it would set up citizen facility centres in each of the capital's 272 wards to receive complaints about civic issues. According to the MCD, citizens will be able to lodge complaints about sanitation, cleanliness, road repair, water logging, felling of trees and other issues at the centres and 'prompt' solutions would be delivered.

December 26th, 2008 BANGALORE - Taking strong exception to the way Aamir Khan-starrer 'Ghajini' was released throughout the state in violation of its guidelines, the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) has limited the number of theatres where it can be screened. Mars Suresh, vice president of KFCC, said the issue was discussed in a meeting that lasted till late Friday and the film's distributors were advised to take corrective steps immediately.

December 24th, 2008 BANGALORE - Christians across Karnataka, where around 15 churches were vandalised in September over alleged conversion and insult to Hindu gods, celebrated Christmas with fervour. Hundreds thronged brightly-lit churches for the midnight mass in Bangalore.