New chiefs for B’lore urban ZP
Bangalore, DHNS: Mr M Sadanand and Mrs T Venkatalakshmi, both of the Congress, were on Monday unanimously elected president and vice-president respectively of the Bangalore Urban Zilla Panchayat for the second 20-month term.
While Mr Sadanand represents the Gottigere Zilla Panchayat seat, Mrs Venkatlakshmi, who was earlier President of the ZP for about four-months, represents the Tavarakere seat. While the president’s seat was reserved for general category, the vice-president’s seat for BCM-A category. But the election was preceded by strong protest from BJP members, who later staged a walk out from the meeting.
Hectic lobbying for ULB polls
Bangalore/Mysore, DHNS: With Monday being the last day for filing nominations for the local body elections, there was hectic activity with the candidates trying to get the B form to fight the elections.
Many candidates came in a procession bursting firecrackers on the way to file their nominations. There was widespread discontent among all the major political parties as many did not get tickets.
In Mysore, more than 30 Congress members were seen contesting as rebel candidates which has led to concern in the party. 
The groupism in JD (S) came to the fore in Mandya even as major political parties were trying to finalise the list till the last moment.
Massive fish kill in Maddur lake
Maddur, DHNS: Thousands of fish died in the Hemmanahalli lake here on Sunday following the release of a large quantity of effluents into the water body by a sugar factory. Last year, 20,000 fish had been released into the lake.
‘Headmasters should teach’
Secretary to Primary and Secondary Education T M Vijay Bhaskar on Monday said  headmasters of schools should continue teaching, besides looking after the administration.   He said  most headmasters cite administration and  school activities as reason for not teaching.  
Applications invited
The Ministry of Water Resources has invited applications for water conservation and national water awards from organisations and NGOs involved in rain water harvesting and other water conservation activities.
The last date to submit nomination forms is December 31, 2007. For more details visit http://mowr.gov.in or contact the commissioner, Department of Mining and Geology.

Notification still to be issued
Even after six days, after the State government announced a ban on cellphones in the educational institutions, notification has not been issued. At the time of the announcement, the Primary and Secondary Education Minister Basavarj S Horatti had said that the notification would be issued within three days. Now, the minister said that there was a delay, as the government was still working on the guidelines. He said a meeting would be held on September 19 to discuss the guidelines .
Deve Gowda meets Governor
JD(S) leader H D Deve Gowda, on Monday, held a hour-long meeting with Governor Rameshwar Thakur at Raj Bhavan, ahead of the party’s Legislative Party meeting, convened in the city on Tuesday. Mr Gowda’s meeting with Rameshwar Thakur has raised many eye brows in the political circles, though it is not known as to what they discussed. When contacted, Mr Gowda refused to divulge any information.
Though the party claimed that the JD(S) LP meeting will discuss only about preparations to be made for urban local body elections, sources said that the vexed power transfer issue will also come up for discussion.
Industrial growth at 10 per cent
The Central government, as part of the 11th Five Year Plan, is aiming to increase the growth rate of industrial and manufacturing sector to 10 per cent and 12 per cent respectively, Union Minister of State for Planning M V Rajashekharan said on Monday.
He was delivering the Visvesvaraya Memorial Lecture on ‘Industrial Perspective of Karnataka’ to commemorate the Founder’s Day of FKCCI.
The manufacturing sector has been hit by a lack of world-class infrastructure, he added