Christmas is being celebrated across the State with churches decked up and day-long prayers on. With the festival falling on a Monday, the long weekend has meant many people opting to travel out of town.
- Minister Shivanand Patil has landed in a controversy after saying at a public function that farmers are always hopeful of drought so that their loans get waived. Farmers’ leaders and the Opposition parties have reacted strongly against the statement. Karnataka is currently facing a severe drought.
- The southern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in Chennai has issued notices to the Union of India, the Governments of Karnataka and Kerala, and their respective State Pollution Control Boards in response to a complaint regarding the illegal and unscientific dumping of toxic pesticide endosulfan in the hilly area of Minchinpadavu, bordering Karnataka and Kerala. In 2013, a retired government employee, Achutha Maniyani, came forward with a startling claim that around 600 liters of endosulfan had been illegally dumped in an abandoned well at the cashew plantation situated in the Minchinpadavu Hillock. The Human Rights Protection Foundation, Udupi later pursued this matter.
- Ministers M.B. Patil and Satish Jarkiholi to inspect airport construction work at Vijayapura.
- Dalit activists will take out a procession and publically burn a copy of Manusmriti at Jagat Circle in Kalaburagi. This is to commemorate the same action by Ambedkar on this day in 1927.
