Karnataka News: The grim reality of poor performance in the Lok Sabha elections has hit the Congress and JD(S) hard in Karnataka, and has also raised questions of accountability of those in-charge. JD(S) State President Adagooru H Vishwanath resigned from his post on Tuesday, accepting moral responsibility for the party’s failure. However, Vishwanath placed the blame for the coalition’s failure squarely on former Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah’s shoulder.

And while Vishwanath was addressing the media at noon on Tuesday, another significant development in the state’s political scenario occurred parallelly. Former Karnataka Home Minister and a staunch Congress loyalist, Ramalinga Reddy openly accused the Congress leaders in-charge of the party and the coalition of greed. In a Facebook post, Ramalinga Reddy blamed state leaders of rendering veteran leaders powerless within the party. And he indirectly targeted Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President Dinesh Gundu Rao.

“The inability to think about long-term repercussions, not taking into account the opinions of party veterans, and the placement of ineligible leaders as ministers and their inability to connect with the people are the main reasons why we lost the Lok Sabha elections in the state,” Ramalinga Reddy said. He also blamed the party leadership of allocating monumental responsibilities to newcomers, “with no knowledge about party affairs”, which he claims led to the party’s downfall. Reddy raised concerns about the inability of the leaders of the coordination committee (referring to Siddaramaiah) to quell the infighting and… continue reading full story

Kerala News: Watching movies in a theatre will now be costlier in Kerala as the 10% entertainment tax came into effect on Tuesday. The tax will be collected by local bodies- Corporations, Municipalities and Panchayats.

The government had scrapped entertainment tax levied by local bodies when the Good and Services Taxes (GST) came to force in July 2017. But section 3 of the Kerala Local Authorities Entertainment Tax Act that empower the local bodies to collect entertainment tax was not done away with it.

However, in January, the state government announced a 10% ‘entertainment’ tax on tickets in the budget. Finance Minister Thomas Isaac while announcing the decision had said that the government followed Tamil Nadu which levies both an ‘entertainment’ tax and GST and decided to do the same.

It is estimated that with this the price of each ticket will rise between Rs 10 and 25. It will be levied in addition to the current 18 % GST on tickets. The government order in this regard came on Monday with the direction to implement with…. continue reading full story

Tamil Nadu News: The CCTV had captured it clearly: 36-year-old Aarti being thrown out of a moving car in Coimbatore. As onlookers gather, the car speeds away, without stopping to help the woman lying on the road. It is with this footage that Aarti is now trying to get justice for years of torture allegedly at the hands of her husband, Arun Jude Amalaraj, assisted by his father Colonel (Retd) Antony Vincent Amalaraj, and mother Kala Amalaraj.

What has also come to light is the callous and corrupt attitude of a few police officials in Ooty and Coimbatore. It took the intervention of the Superintendent of Police, the top police officer of the district, for a simple FIR to be registered based on her complaint.

Aarti alleges physical abuse from her husband was nothing new for her. Though she does not know the reasons for the abuse, she alleges it started a few days after she married Arun in 2008. Since her father-in-law was a retired colonel, she had high hopes on leading a happy married life. However, it was not to be.

“Abuse was there right from day one of our marriage. But it was very subtle back then,” she tells TNM.

Watch the Video here → Tamil Nadu Domestic Violence Video