The Evening Wrap: Eshwarappa’s arrest at discretion of police, says Karnataka CM

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has said that the police will decide on the arrest of RDPR Minister K.S. Eshwarappa in connection with the death of contractor Santosh Patil. Speaking to media persons in Hubballi on April 15, Bommai said, “Congress leaders need not become the investigating officer, prosecutor and the judge in the Santosh Patil suicide case. Let them allow a free and thorough investigation.” On the demand for the arrest of Eshwarappa, he said that in case of former minister K.J. George, who faced charges in the death of police officer Ganapathy, both CBI and police did not arrest him. On whether the whole development was a setback or embarrassment to the BJP and the government, the Chief Minister said, “There are no personal issues in the case. The question of a setback does not arise.” On whether the RDPR Minister would be convinced to change his decision to resign, Bommai said Eshwarappa had clarity in his mind on his decision and he is confident of coming out clean in the case. On allegations about a conspiracy in the case, he said that the investigation would cover all the angles to unearth the truth. As COVID-19 cases rise in north India, experts urge caution COVID-19 cases have shown a rising trend in parts of the country including Delhi, Delhi-NCR and Maharashtra with experts stating that the mild surge could be primarily due to emergence of mutant variants like Omicron XE and BA.2 which have a high degree of transmissibility. “Added to that with return to the normal routine and relaxation of mask mandate and social pandemic norms in most of the States, the ability of mutant variants to spread increases,” said Dr. Viswesvaran Balasubramanian, consultant Interventional Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine, Yashoda Hospitals, Hyderabad. “Ensuring adherence to COVID-19 vaccinations and recognition of early symptoms and quarantine can help in mitigating spread and severity of COVID-19 infection.” He added that with the reports of mild increase in number of cases in North India, “though many requiring only symptomatic treatment and home care, the elderly and others with underlying conditions that suppress immunity like diabetic or patients with heart ailments and malignancy continue to remain vulnerable.’’ While the positivity rate in the Capital has jumped from 0.57% on April 1 to 2.39% on April 14, the number of home isolation cases have also shown an upward trend in the last one week. The trend seems to be repeating in other parts of the country also. Confirming that hospital admissions aren’t rising at the moment, Dr. Sachin Kandhari, senior neurosurgeon, IBS Hospital, Delhi, said although COVID’s XE variant has gained prominence in the last few weeks the complete details for the new variant are yet unknown. “As the number of cases have registered a mild spike, the hospitalisation rate still remains very low. So, there is no need to panic. But there is a need to take all necessary precautions,’’ he advised. Dr. Kandhari added that going by the current clinical scenario of COVID cases, there doesn’t seem to be as many symptoms as the Delta strain though transmissibility might be higher than Omicron. He added that the rise of new variants can be attributed to inequitable vaccination across the globe with more than a third of the population yet to receive the first dose while the U.S. prepares for a second booster. “It would be prudent for all of us to take necessary precautions to avoid the extreme circumstances including full vaccination doses, wearing masks, social distancing, and regular hand hygiene practice,’’ Dr. Kandhari said. Reforms crucial but can’t ignore the poor, says Sri Lankan FM ahead of IMF talks Sri Lanka’s economic recovery will depend on reforms undertaken with the IMF’s support, but the government will not ignore the country’s poor, Finance Minister Ali Sabry said. The recently appointed Minister spoke to The Hindu ahead of his departure to Washington DC, where he will lead the Sri Lankan delegation in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund. “We have seen huge cuts to the country’s revenue and are trying to recover from the current economic crisis. Reforms are going to be crucial,” he said. Sabry, who served as Justice Minister in the former Cabinet, stepped down with his Cabinet colleagues early in April, amid mounting pressure from citizens demanding that the President, Prime Minister and their relatives in office step down for “mismanaging” the crisis. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa soon appointed him as Finance Minister in a “new”, four-member cabinet. Sabry resigned again, but it was not accepted by the President. With Sri Lanka deciding to default on its foreign debt totalling about $ 50 billion dollars, Colombo is counting on an IMF programme for improved chances of borrowing in the international market. Sri Lanka has received IMF support at least 16 times in the past. On what Sri Lanka would put forth to the international financial institution, expected to extend support based on tough conditions, Sabry said: “We believe there is a need for a poverty alleviation programme. We definitely need a safety net for the poor. We cannot ignore the poor,” he said. According to a recent World Bank report on Sri Lanka, the pandemic years saw at least 5 lakh more people fall below the poverty line, owing to severe job and income losses. It remains to be seen how the government, which was earlier reluctant to seek IMF assistance, might now reconcile the Fund’s likely conditionalities of fiscal discipline and prudent state spending, with growing public resentment. CBSE yet to decide on reverting to single board exam for Class X and XII next year The decision to revert to single board examinations for Class X and XII will be taken in due course of time, said a senior Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) official. “As far as 2023 academic session is concerned, whatever decision will be taken will be communicated to you,” CBSE’s Controller of Exam Sanyam Bharadwaj told The Hindu. He underlined though that the decision to split the Board exams into two was taken only for the academic session 2022-2023 in view of COVID-19. The first term board examination was held in December 2021 and January 2022, and the second term board examination starts from April 26. While the first term exams used only multiple choice objective type questions which had to be completed within 90 minutes, the second term exams will include subjective type questions, with short and long answers, and have to be answered within two hours. On the issue of how much weightage would be given to the two examinations, Bharadwaj said, “We will take a decision on that when we prepare the results of term 2”. “Schools are in favour of one-time examinations because board exams require a different kind of set-up and involve collection of papers, maintaining confidentiality, privacy, arranging high security system and then conducting the exam, carrying out the evaluation and posting the marks. It is a big exercise, and doing this twice is taxing for both students and schools,” said Jyoti Arora, Principal of Mt Abu School. However, P Vishnucharan, Correspondent, Shree Niketan Group of Schools in Chennai differed. “As CBSE decides whether to revert to a single Board exam, it is carrying out a consultative process to understand the impact of splitting it into two semester exams. In a way having two term exams is quite effective because it ensures that students learn throughout the year, otherwise the tendency of the students is to study only post December,” Vishnucharan said. He added that two-term exams may also help students who don’t do well the first time and can improve their performance in the second term exam. Russian military’s damaged Black Sea flagship sinks; Moscow targets factory near Kyiv that allegedly made the missiles that struck the warship The flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, a guided-missile cruiser that became a potent target of Ukrainian defiance in the opening days of the war, sank on April 14 after it was heavily damaged in the latest setback for Moscow’s invasion. Ukrainian officials said their forces hit the vessel with missiles, while Russia acknowledged a fire aboard the Moskva but no attack. The loss of the warship named for the Russian capital is a devastating symbolic defeat for Moscow as its troops regroup for a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine after retreating from much of the north, including the capital. The Russian Defence Ministry said the ship sank in a storm while being towed to a port. Russia earlier said the flames on the ship, which would typically have 500 sailors on board, forced the entire crew to evacuate. It later said the blaze had been contained and that the ship would be towed to port with its missile launchers intact. The ship had the capacity to carry 16 long-range cruise missiles, and its removal reduces Russia’s firepower in the Black Sea. It’s also a blow to Russian prestige in a war already widely seen as a historic blunder. Now entering its eighth week, Russia’s invasion has stalled because of resistance from Ukrainian fighters bolstered by weapons and other aid sent by Western nations. The news of the flagship’s damage overshadowed Russian claims of advances in the southern port city of Mariupol, where they have been battling the Ukrainians since the early days of the invasion in some of the heaviest fighting of the war — at a horrific cost to civilians. Maksym Marchenko, the Governor of the Odesa region, across the Black Sea to the northwest of Sevastopol, said the Ukrainians had struck the ship with two Neptune missiles and caused “serious damage”. Russia’s Defence Ministry said ammunition on board detonated as a result of a fire, without saying what caused the blaze. It said the “main missile weapons” were not damaged. In addition to the cruise missiles, the warship also had air-defence missiles and other guns. The Neptune is an anti-ship missile that was recently developed by Ukraine and based on an earlier Soviet design. The launchers are mounted on trucks stationed near the coast, and, according to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the missiles can hit targets up to 280 kilometres (175 miles) away. That would have put the Moskva within range, based on where it was when the fire began. Other Russian ships that were also in the northern Black Sea moved further south after the Moskva caught fire, said a senior U.S. defence official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal military assessments. The U.S. was not able to confirm Ukraine’s claims of striking the warship, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday. Still, he called it “a big blow to Russia”. “They’ve had to kind of choose between two stories: One story is that it was just incompetence, and the other was that they came under attack, and neither is a particularly good outcome for them,” Sullivan told the Economic Club of Washington. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian military factory outside Kyiv that produced missiles allegedly used to hit the Russian warship was partly destroyed by overnight Russian strikes, an AFP journalist at the scene saw on Friday. A workshop and an administrative building at the Vizar plant, which lies near Kyiv’s international Zhuliany airport, were seriously damaged. Russia had earlier announced it had hit the factory using Kalibr sea-based long-range missiles. According to a statement on Ukraine’s state weapons manufacturer Ukroboronprom website, the Vizar factory produced Neptune missiles. Andrei Sizov, a 47-year-old owner of a nearby wood workshop, said the strikes came at night. “Around 1:30 am, my security guard called me because there was an air strike,” he told AFP. “There were five hits. My employee was in the office and got thrown off his feet by the blast.” He said he believes Russia was taking revenge for the Moskva warship. In Brief At least 35 people died and 71 were injured in Zimbabwe when a bus carrying churchgoers to an Easter gathering veered off the road and landed in a gorge, police said Friday. The bus was carrying members of a local Zion Christian Church who were travelling to an Easter meeting in the south-eastern town of Chipinge. The bus was reportedly overloaded. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow [logo] The Evening Wrap 15 APRIL 2022 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Eshwarappa’s arrest at discretion of police: Karnataka CM Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has said that the [police will decide on the arrest of RDPR Minister K.S. Eshwarappa]( in connection with the death of contractor Santosh Patil. Speaking to media persons in Hubballi on April 15, Bommai said, “Congress leaders need not become the investigating officer, prosecutor and the judge in the Santosh Patil suicide case. Let them allow a free and thorough investigation.” On the demand for the arrest of Eshwarappa, he said that in case of former minister K.J. George, who faced charges in the death of police officer Ganapathy, both CBI and police did not arrest him. On whether the whole development was a setback or embarrassment to the BJP and the government, the Chief Minister said, “There are no personal issues in the case. The question of a setback does not arise.” On whether the RDPR Minister would be convinced to change his decision to resign, Bommai said Eshwarappa had clarity in his mind on his decision and he is confident of coming out clean in the case. On allegations about a conspiracy in the case, he said that the investigation would cover all the angles to unearth the truth. As COVID-19 cases rise in north India, experts urge caution [COVID-19 cases have shown a rising trend in parts of the country]( including Delhi, Delhi-NCR and Maharashtra with experts stating that the mild surge could be primarily due to emergence of mutant variants like Omicron XE and BA.2 which have a high degree of transmissibility. “Added to that with return to the normal routine and relaxation of mask mandate and social pandemic norms in most of the States, the ability of mutant variants to spread increases,” said Dr. Viswesvaran Balasubramanian, consultant Interventional Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine, Yashoda Hospitals, Hyderabad. “Ensuring adherence to COVID-19 vaccinations and recognition of early symptoms and quarantine can help in mitigating spread and severity of COVID-19 infection.” [A health worker in New Delhi collects nasal swab sample from a girl for a COVID-19 test. File] He added that with the reports of mild increase in number of cases in North India, “though many requiring only symptomatic treatment and home care, the elderly and others with underlying conditions that suppress immunity like diabetic or patients with heart ailments and malignancy continue to remain vulnerable.’’ While the positivity rate in the Capital has jumped from 0.57% on April 1 to 2.39% on April 14, the number of home isolation cases have also shown an upward trend in the last one week. The trend seems to be repeating in other parts of the country also. Confirming that hospital admissions aren’t rising at the moment, Dr. Sachin Kandhari, senior neurosurgeon, IBS Hospital, Delhi, said although COVID’s XE variant has gained prominence in the last few weeks the complete details for the new variant are yet unknown. “As the number of cases have registered a mild spike, the hospitalisation rate still remains very low. So, there is no need to panic. But there is a need to take all necessary precautions,’’ he advised. Dr. Kandhari added that going by the current clinical scenario of COVID cases, there doesn’t seem to be as many symptoms as the Delta strain though transmissibility might be higher than Omicron. He added that the rise of new variants can be attributed to inequitable vaccination across the globe with more than a third of the population yet to receive the first dose while the U.S. prepares for a second booster. “It would be prudent for all of us to take necessary precautions to avoid the extreme circumstances including full vaccination doses, wearing masks, social distancing, and regular hand hygiene practice,’’ Dr. Kandhari said. Reforms crucial but can’t ignore the poor, says Sri Lankan FM ahead of IMF talks Sri Lanka’s economic recovery will depend on reforms undertaken with the IMF’s support, but the government will not ignore the country’s poor, [Finance Minister Ali Sabry said](. The recently appointed Minister spoke to The Hindu ahead of his departure to Washington DC, where he will lead the Sri Lankan delegation in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund. “We have seen huge cuts to the country’s revenue and are trying to recover from the current economic crisis. Reforms are going to be crucial,” he said. Sabry, who served as Justice Minister in the former Cabinet, stepped down with his Cabinet colleagues early in April, amid mounting pressure from citizens demanding that the President, Prime Minister and their relatives in office step down for “mismanaging” the crisis. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa soon appointed him as Finance Minister in a “new”, four-member cabinet. Sabry resigned again, but it was not accepted by the President. With Sri Lanka deciding to default on its foreign debt totalling about $ 50 billion dollars, Colombo is counting on an IMF programme for improved chances of borrowing in the international market. Sri Lanka has received IMF support at least 16 times in the past. On what Sri Lanka would put forth to the international financial institution, expected to extend support based on tough conditions, Sabry said: “We believe there is a need for a poverty alleviation programme. We definitely need a safety net for the poor. We cannot ignore the poor,” he said. According to a recent World Bank report on Sri Lanka, the pandemic years saw at least 5 lakh more people fall below the poverty line, owing to severe job and income losses. It remains to be seen how the government, which was earlier reluctant to seek IMF assistance, might now reconcile the Fund’s likely conditionalities of fiscal discipline and prudent state spending, with growing public resentment. CBSE yet to decide on reverting to single board exam for Class X and XII next year The decision to revert to single board examinations for Class X and XII will be taken in due course of time, [said a senior Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) official](. “As far as 2023 academic session is concerned, whatever decision will be taken will be communicated to you,” CBSE’s Controller of Exam Sanyam Bharadwaj told The Hindu. He underlined though that the decision to split the Board exams into two was taken only for the academic session 2022-2023 in view of COVID-19. The first term board examination was held in December 2021 and January 2022, and the second term board examination starts from April 26. While the first term exams used only multiple choice objective type questions which had to be completed within 90 minutes, the second term exams will include subjective type questions, with short and long answers, and have to be answered within two hours. On the issue of how much weightage would be given to the two examinations, Bharadwaj said, “We will take a decision on that when we prepare the results of term 2”. “Schools are in favour of one-time examinations because board exams require a different kind of set-up and involve collection of papers, maintaining confidentiality, privacy, arranging high security system and then conducting the exam, carrying out the evaluation and posting the marks. It is a big exercise, and doing this twice is taxing for both students and schools,” said Jyoti Arora, Principal of Mt Abu School. However, P Vishnucharan, Correspondent, Shree Niketan Group of Schools in Chennai differed. “As CBSE decides whether to revert to a single Board exam, it is carrying out a consultative process to understand the impact of splitting it into two semester exams. In a way having two term exams is quite effective because it ensures that students learn throughout the year, otherwise the tendency of the students is to study only post December,” Vishnucharan said. He added that two-term exams may also help students who don’t do well the first time and can improve their performance in the second term exam. Russian military’s damaged Black Sea flagship sinks; Moscow targets factory near Kyiv that allegedly made the missiles that struck the warship The flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, a guided-missile cruiser that became a potent target of Ukrainian defiance in the opening days of the war, [sank on April 14]( after it was heavily damaged in the latest setback for Moscow’s invasion. Ukrainian officials said their forces hit the vessel with missiles, while [Russia acknowledged a fire aboard the Moskva]( but no attack. The loss of the warship named for the Russian capital is a devastating symbolic defeat for Moscow as its troops regroup for a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine after retreating from much of the north, including the capital. The Russian Defence Ministry said the ship sank in a storm while being towed to a port. Russia earlier said the flames on the ship, which would typically have 500 sailors on board, forced the entire crew to evacuate. It later said the blaze had been contained and that the ship would be towed to port with its missile launchers intact. The ship had the capacity to carry 16 long-range cruise missiles, and its removal reduces Russia’s firepower in the Black Sea. It’s also a blow to Russian prestige in a war already widely seen as a historic blunder. Now entering its eighth week, Russia’s invasion has stalled because of resistance from Ukrainian fighters bolstered by weapons and other aid sent by Western nations. The news of the flagship’s damage overshadowed Russian claims of advances in the southern port city of Mariupol, where they have been battling the Ukrainians since the early days of the invasion in some of the heaviest fighting of the war — at a horrific cost to civilians. Maksym Marchenko, the Governor of the Odesa region, across the Black Sea to the northwest of Sevastopol, said the Ukrainians had struck the ship with two Neptune missiles and caused “serious damage”. Russia’s Defence Ministry said ammunition on board detonated as a result of a fire, without saying what caused the blaze. It said the “main missile weapons” were not damaged. In addition to the cruise missiles, the warship also had air-defence missiles and other guns. The Neptune is an anti-ship missile that was recently developed by Ukraine and based on an earlier Soviet design. The launchers are mounted on trucks stationed near the coast, and, according to the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, the missiles can hit targets up to 280 kilometres (175 miles) away. That would have put the Moskva within range, based on where it was when the fire began. Other Russian ships that were also in the northern Black Sea moved further south after the Moskva caught fire, said a senior U.S. defence official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal military assessments. The U.S. was not able to confirm Ukraine’s claims of striking the warship, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said on Thursday. Still, he called it “a big blow to Russia”. “They’ve had to kind of choose between two stories: One story is that it was just incompetence, and the other was that they came under attack, and neither is a particularly good outcome for them,” Sullivan told the Economic Club of Washington. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian military factory outside Kyiv that produced missiles allegedly used to hit the Russian warship was [partly destroyed by overnight Russian strikes]( an AFP journalist at the scene saw on Friday. [A man walks near a building with a collapsed facade at the Vizar company military-industrial complex, after the site was hit by overnight Russian strikes in the town of Vyshneve, southwestern suburbs of Kyiv on April 15, 2022. ] A workshop and an administrative building at the Vizar plant, which lies near Kyiv’s international Zhuliany airport, were seriously damaged. Russia had earlier announced it had hit the factory using Kalibr sea-based long-range missiles. According to a statement on Ukraine’s state weapons manufacturer Ukroboronprom website, the Vizar factory produced Neptune missiles.  Andrei Sizov, a 47-year-old owner of a nearby wood workshop, said the strikes came at night. “Around 1:30 am, my security guard called me because there was an air strike,” he told AFP. “There were five hits. My employee was in the office and got thrown off his feet by the blast.” He said he believes Russia was taking revenge for the Moskva warship. In Brief [At least 35 people died and 71 were injured in Zimbabwe]( when a bus carrying churchgoers to an Easter gathering veered off the road and landed in a gorge, police said Friday. The bus was carrying members of a local Zion Christian Church who were travelling to an Easter meeting in the south-eastern town of Chipinge. The bus was reportedly overloaded. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow  Today‘s Top Picks [[Main Paris attacks suspect apologises to ‘all victims’] Main Paris attacks suspect apologises to ‘all victims’]( [[Data | Is Hindi or English beneficial as the link language?] Data | Is Hindi or English beneficial as the link language?]( [[Prince Harry, Meghan Markle stop over to meet Queen] Prince Harry, Meghan Markle stop over to meet Queen]( [[Explained | All we know about the Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet, the largest one ever seen] Explained | All we know about the Bernardinelli-Bernstein comet, the largest one ever seen]( Copyright @ 2021, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. 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