A video of hundreds of Bajrang Dal activists dancing while brandishing swords and machetes has emerged, raising concerns about a possession by the Hindu outfit.On the eve of Ayudha Puja, the members of Bajrang Dal took out a procession at Peeranwadi here.

A group of 20-25 men allegedly attacked a youth and a woman from different communities and robbed them of a cellphone and Rs 50,000 on the outskirts of Belagavi last week. Police have arrested one person in the incident that took place on October 13.

Four people, including a woman and her son, were killed on the spot and two others sustained injuries after a private bus collided with a goods vehicle near Siddharthanagar on the outskirts of Tumakuru on Sunday.

With the government planning to allow schools to conduct regular classes for grades 1-5, some schools in Dakshina Kannada district, especially the ones that have a higher number of students on roll, are likely to face a shortage of classrooms due to social distancing norms.

With Covid-19 cases continuing to dip, many private schools in Bengaluru, that until now offered online classes or a hybrid arrangement, are switching completely to on-campus mode.

With no sign of another wave of Covid infections yet based on the interval between the first and second waves some virologists and doctors had suggested that a third wave would strike in October-November health experts suggest that the pandemic appears to be fizzling out.

The Hangal bypoll campaign began in right earnest on Sunday with chief minister Basavaraj Bommai accusing opposition leader Siddaramaiah of starting a whisper campaign against state Congress president DK Shivakumar.

(This story originally appeared in BangaloreMirror on October 18, 2021)

A 24-year-old youth who was allegedly trying to elope with a married woman was beaten to death by her brother and three of his friends in Bengaluru late Saturday night. After the murder, the quartet bundled the body into an autorickshaw and knocked on the doors of Annapoorneshwarinagar police station, west Bengaluru, around 3am Sunday and declared they would like to surrender before cops.

Three men brandishing a country-made pistol had barged into a jewellery shop on MES Road, Jalahalli, north Bengaluru in September 2020, and fled with articles worth Rs 90 lakh.

Spells of rain or thundershowers are highly likely in the city for two more days, the Met department said on Sunday, even as heavy showers on Saturday night uprooted five trees.

An intense spell of rainfall activity over south peninsular India under the influence of a low pressure area over southeast Arabian Sea and adjoining Kerala saw the twin districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi receive unprecedented heavy rainfall in the three hours starting from 7.45pm on Saturday, inundating several low lying areas in the districts as well as the city.

Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Sunday said the party high command will decide on its chief minister after winning the 2023 assembly polls in Karnataka, and whomever they name, every one will abide by it.

Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Sunday hinted at reducing cess and sales tax on petrol and diesel in the state to ease the fuel prices, which have touched an all-time high.

After petrol, for the first time diesel price has touched the three-digit mark in the city. Diesel is now costing a record Rs 100/ litre, going up from Rs 64.4/ litre in March 2020, an increase of Rs 35.6 in 19 months. Meanwhile, a litre of petrol cost Rs 109.1 here on Saturday.

The state government will launch doorstep delivery of ration from November 1 in Bengaluru, covering all 28 assembly constituencies, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Saturday.

The Palike wrote this letter after taking into consideration a request from residents. It is said that the company is unlikely to get a completion certificate for the flyover works unless it agrees to fulfill these terms.

Bagalkote, Ballari, Belagavi, Bidar, Chitradurga, Davangere, Dharwad, Koppal and Vijayapura reported zero infections and zero Covid-19 related deaths.

Unidentified miscreants looted nearly 9,000 mobile phones worth Rs 7 crore from a Bengaluru-bound truck and allegedly attacked the driver by beating him up and throwing him out of the vehicle, police here said on Saturday.

Even as the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is getting ready to demolish 404 buildings in Bengaluru, which are structurally weak and could collapse any time, newly built seven-floored police quarters along Magadi Road dangerously tilted by 1.5 feet due to a wide crack, on Saturday.

The legislature panel on backward classes and minorities welfare has asked for a survey of churches in the state in a bid to weed out unauthorised ones.

Active cases in Karnataka dropped to 9,578 on Thursday, the lowest in the past 212 days (nearly seven months). The state had 9,428 active cases on March 16 after which cases rose rapidly before steadily declining. Yadgir had zero active cases, the only district in Karnataka to have no active infections. However, active cases in the state rose to 9,671 on Friday.

(This story originally appeared in BangaloreMirror on October 16, 2021)

After Mumbai and Hyderabad, Bengaluru became the third metropolitan city in the country where the price of diesel has shot past the 100-rupee mark.

Agriculture minister BC Patil on Friday said the government was planning to provide a subsidy of Rs 20 per litre on diesel and petrol used by farmers for agricultural purposes.

The City of Heritage basked in the 800-year-old tradition of victory celebration of good over evil with a muted procession on Friday of cultural troupes and caparisoned elephants. It marked the culmination of the nine-day Mysuru Dasara celebrations during the Covid pandemic.

Thundershowers that have bothered Bengalureans through this week are likely to continue till Sunday and the minimum temperature will drop to 20 degrees celsius. The city witnessed a downpour on Friday evening with Jnanabharathi, the Bangalore University campus area, receiving 68.

For JEE-Advanced toppers from Karnataka, the preferred course to pursue is the obvious -- computer science engineering in the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay. Veeresh B Patil has secured All India rank 39 in JEE-Advanced and is the Karnataka state topper.

Inspired by 'Metro Man' E Sreedharans digital countdown clock in Metro offices, K-RIDE, which is tasked with implementing the Bengaluru Suburban Rail project, had in January 2021 said it will install one to track the number of days left for the deadline to remind officials to speed up work.

Mangaluru city police commissioner N Shashi Kumar said police have been looking into allegations of knives being distributed among activists of the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) by its leaders in the city as part of a Trishul Deekshe programme held during Ayudha Pooja celebrations on Thursday.

A father of a newborn baby has complained to the police that the Government Lady Goschen Hospital in Mangaluru handed him over a male baby during the discharge, though the hospital records show the his gave birth to a baby girl.

The legislative committee on Backward Classes and Minorities Welfare in Karnataka has ordered a survey of authorised and unauthorised churches, their priests and registering cases wherever complaints arose regarding forcible religious conversion.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai met BS Yediyurappa at the latter's residence on Friday to wish him on the occasion of the Vijayadashami. Bommai garlanded him and sought his blessings.

A few traffic wardens are CEOs and top entrepreneurs, often seen manning the busy roads of this city. The wardens make a difference by offering solutions to minor problems before they become worse or cause jams. Abhijeet Makhijaani owns two businesses, and has been running a tech company in Delhi, for the past eight years. Now, he manages traffic on Bengalurus roads during peak hours.

The Congress' Karnataka unit president D K Shivakumar said he will not blame anyone for the viral video in which former Lok Sabha member V S Ugrappa and media coordinator M A Saleem attributed him to an alleged scam when he was a minister.

A 32-year-old labourer has succumbed to the injuries he had sustained on October 4 during a fight with two of his friends over sharing of wages they had earned the previous day at Konanakunte, south Bengaluru.

Exasperated by the failure of authorities to repair the main road of their locality, senior citizens of Tulasi Layout in Kasavanahalli, Bellandur fixed it by mobilising funds from their savings and pension.

With motorists in Bengaluru finding it increasingly difficult to secure slots to get a learners (LL) or a driving licence (DL), conditions are ripe for overcrowding at regional transport offices (RTOs). This is especially since the Centre is unlikely to extend validity of documents like DLs and RC permits beyond October 31.

The states Covid-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) has recommended that the government empower BBMP marshals to make surprise visits to offices both public and private ones to ensure Covid-appropriate behaviour (CAB) is followed. The suggestion was made after it found adherence to safety protocol such as wearing masks was lax in offices.

Madiwala lake overflowed on Thursday after heavy rainfall lashed parts of Bengaluru.

Curtains will come down on the 411th edition of the Mysuru Dasara celebration with the Dasara procession on Friday.

Vaccination centres set up within temple premises in Dakshina Kannada district have become a huge hit with many devotees coming forward to take the shot.