Here are the big stories from Karnataka today

Karnataka Today newsletter: Belagavi minor girl’s family to withdraw POCSO case, and more

In a fresh development, the minor girl’s family has decided to withdraw the POCSO case filed against assaulted bus conductor, Mahadev Hukkeri, in Belagavi on February 25, 2025. The girl’s parents released a video statement saying they would take back the case filed by them against the conductor.

“There was an altercation in the bus over a ticket. But unfortunately, some vested interests turned it into a Kannada-Marathi fight. We do not want to be part of this. We are taking the case back,” the mother of the girl said in the video. The development came even as senior officials of Karnataka and Maharashtra held talks about resuming bus services between the States.

However, tensions continued to simmer with Karnataka Rakshana Vedike members holding a rasta roko protest in Belagavi and raising slogans against pro-Marathi groups and activists. In Bagalkot, Kannada activists defaced a Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus at Ilkal and wrote Jai Karnataka in Kannada on the bus windows.

Karnataka legislators will get recliners from the upcoming session onwards to take a nap post lunch, Karnataka Assembly Speaker U.T. Khader has said. The measure was taken to prevent absenteeism of MLAs after lunch as many would skip the proceedings of the House for a nap.

“We have decided to hire 15 recliners on rent during the legislative session from March 3 to March 21. We are not purchasing them, considering it a wastage of money as they will lie unused rest of the year,” Khader told reporters on Monday (February 24, 2025). He said these recliners will be removed once the session is over.

With the agricultural requirement of electricity going up every day due to hot weather, the Power Company of Karnataka Limited (PCKL) will use Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to study crop patterns and provide energy accordingly. The Energy Department has been making use of AI and ML for daily and monthly forecasting of energy demand in the State from July 17, 2024.

PCKL will do a cropping pattern survey study to assess electricity demand of crops and Irrigation Pump (IP) sets, based on which energy will be released for specific IP sets. The programme will first be run on AI and then a pilot district will be selected for implementation.