Here are the big stories from Karnataka today

Karnataka Today newsletter: Bengaluru woman dies of electrocution on city outskirts, and more

Moving a step ahead on the Socio-Economic-Educational Census, popularly known as caste census, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced on October 7, 2024, that the report is likely to be placed before the Karnataka Cabinet on October 18 to take a call on its implementation. 

“We will abide by whatever the Cabinet decides,” the CM assured after meeting over 30 ministers and legislators from Other Backward Communities (OBC). All of them gave him memorandums seeking the government to accept the report and implement it. He clarified that the caste census was not a census of just OBCs, but that of ‘all the seven crore Kannadigas’.

Meanwhile, accusing the government in Karnataka of trying to divert public attention from the alleged scam in MUDA by bringing the caste census to the forefront, Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy challenged the Congress to seek a fresh mandate to implement the report in the State.

A 55-year-old woman died in Tavarekere, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, after an electric wire snapped and fell on her on October 7, 2024 morning, according to police reports. Sources in Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) said that the deceased, identified as Manjamma, a homemaker, was washing clothes when the electrical conductor snapped due to a technical fault.

Bescom sources claimed that once the wire snapped, “the woman panicked and fell directly on the wire.” While the electrical flow was supposed to trip as soon as it snapped, that did not happen as the wire fell on a concrete road, the source said. This is the second instance of death by electrocution due to snapping of an electrical conductor within Bescom jurisdiction in the last year. 

Jigani police had a breakthrough in the ongoing investigation into two Pakistani families illegally residing in Bengaluru. They have arrested a key suspect who is believed to have facilitated their stay in India.

The accused, Pervez Ahmed alias Farvez, was apprehended on October 6 near Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna (KSR) railway station at Majestic. The police said he is confirmed to be a member of Mehdi Foundation International (MFI) in India.