15-year-old orphan girl raped, stabbed to death; 2 held

Bengaluru, Jun 24: About 8,48,203 students will appear in the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) examination tomorrow, i.e., June 24, said Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu on Wednesday.

Students have been advised to report to the examination centre three-hour before the commencement of the examination i.e., at 07:30 am. The examination will commence at 10:30 am.

Early entry to the centres will also help maintain social distancing that is very much essential during the pandemic, minister for primary and secondary education S Suresh Kumar said.

"SSLC exams to take place tomorrow. About 8,48,203 students will write the exam. Social distancing needs to be followed and the mask should be used. Minister of Education and I have already held a lot of meetings. Students from containment zones will be carefully handled," said Sriramulu.

Commenting upon the situation arising in the state due to COVID-19, Sriramulu said, "There is a panel of experts to decide about lockdown. There has been an opinion that the COVID-19 test should be increased. Workers, traders, and others should be categorised in 15 categories and tests must be conducted," he added.

Sriramulu further said that there will be a meeting of task force on the coming Monday.

"All the issues will be brought to the notice of the Chief Minister at the task force meeting, then CM will take a call on what needs to be done," he said.

Meanwhile, Suresh Kumar, Minister of Education inspected the schools and places where SSLC exams will be held.

Earlier Karnataka Education Minister S Suresh Kumar had announced that SSLC examinations, which were stayed in view of the coronavirus pandemic, will be conducted 'between June 25 and July 4' in the state.

According to the Union Health Ministry, Karnataka has 9,721 COVID-19 cases including 150 fatalities.

Bengaluru, June 5: Under the leadership of trouble-shooter D K Shivakumar, the Karnataka Congress is planning a political ‘ghar wapsi’ to bring back leaders who quit the party and also rope in those from other parties.

Shivakumar, the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president, has constituted a 12-member committee headed by former minister Allum Veerabhadrappa to liaise to anchor this effort to bring back people into the party fold. 

The committee comprises of former legislators B A Hasanabba, Ajaykumar Sarnaik, Abhaychandra Jain, Satish Sail, Prafulla Madhukar, former MPs R Dhruvanarayan and BN Chandrappa, MLA V Muniyappa, former mayor Sampath Raj, Mahila Congress leader Kripa Alva and former KPCC general secretary V Y Ghorpade. 

This move comes more than a year after over a dozen Congress MLAs defected and joined the BJP, leading to the collapse of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government. Also, several influential leaders quit the party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections last year.

The constitution of this committee also coincides with disgruntlement brewing within the ruling BJP. 

“Many people who left the party and others have applied (to join Congress). Many have met me also. I felt it wouldn't be right for me to make a decision. So, this committee has been constituted,” Shivakumar said. “They will process all applications and send it to the KPCC.” 

According to Shivakumar, any person wanting to join the Congress should accept the party’s leadership and its ideology. “Importantly, they should be first accepted by the cadre. If there's no acceptance from the cadre, then what's the point?” he said.

Bengaluru, Mar 12: Karnataka government on Wednesday issued a temporary regulation -- Karnataka Epidemic Diseases, COVID-19 Regulations, 2020 -- which aims to prevent the spread of the disease.

According to the regulation, all government and private hospitals should have flu corners for the screening of suspected cases of COVID-19.

All hospitals during the screening of such cases shall record the history of travel of the person if he or she has travelled to any country or area where COVID-19 has been reported in addition to the history of coming in contact with a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 shall be recorded.

Any person with a history of travel in the last 14 days to a country or area from where COVID-19 has been reported must report to the nearest government hospital or call at toll-free helpline number 104 so that necessary measures if required, may be initiated by the Department of Health and Family Welfare.

If a suspected case of COVID-19 refuses admission or isolation, the offices authorised under Section 3 of the regulation shall have powers to forcefully admit and isolate such case of a period of 14 days from the onset of symptoms or till the reports of lab tests are received, or such period as may be necessary.

No person, institution or organisation shall use print or electronic media to spread misinformation on COVID19. If a person is found indulging in any such activity, they will be punished.

If the cases of COVID-19 are reported from a defined geographic area, the district administration of the concerned district shall have the right to implement the following containment measures but not limited to these in order to prevent the spread of diseases:

* Sealing of geographic

* Barring of entry and exit of the population from the containment area

* Closure of schools, offices and banning public gathering

* Banning vehicular movement in the area

* Designating any government or private building as a containment unit for the isolation of cases

* The staff of all govt departments shall be at the disposal of the concerned district administration of the concerned area for discharging the duty of containment measures

Any person, institution or organisation found violating any of these regulations, shall be deemed to have committed an offence punishable under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).