As the sun sets on 2023, Karnataka’s year in review
The Hindu
As New Year 2024 dawns, The Hindu’s Karnataka reporters look back at the year that was through the Rewind 2023 series
The year 2023, that draws to a close on December 31, was marked by a change in political guard in Karnataka with a keenly contested Assembly election bringing Congress to power. It also saw the ushering in of five “guarantee” schemes, including free bus travel for women, even as the State suffered a huge deficit in rainfall with 223 out of 236 taluks being declared drought-hit. As always, it resurrected the Cauvery water sharing dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
On a positive note, Bengaluru-based ISRO succeeded in its moon mission Chandrayaan-3 this year, while the city with its notorious traffic jams had some reason to cheer with the much-awaited Bengaluru-Mysuru expressway opening and the entire stretch of Metro Purple line becoming operational.
“We are judges and therefore, cannot act like Mughals of a bygone era ... the writ courts in the guise of doing justice cannot transcend the barriers of law,” the High Court of Karnataka observed while setting aside an order of a single judge, who in 2016 had extended the lease of a public premises allotted to a physically challenged person to 20 years contrary to 12-year period stipulated in the law.
The High Court of Karnataka on Monday declined to interfere, at present, in the investigation against a Bharatiya Janata Party worker, who is among the accused persons facing charges of circulating obscene clips, related to “morphed” images and videos clips related to Prajwal Revanna, former Hassan MP, in public domain through pen drives and other modes.