APD to monitor air quality in Mangaluru during Diwali

coastaldigest.com news network
October 17, 2017

Mangaluru, Oct 17: City based NGO Anti-Pollution Drive (APD) Foundation has set up four stations across Mangaluru to monitor air quality before and during Diwali festival.

Under the ‘Shuddha Gaali’ project, the Foundation has set up air quality assessment stations at four places. The assessment of air quality started on Monday. “We will assess the air quality on Tuesday and again on Thursday and Friday (during the festival),” said Abdullah A Rehman, the founder of APD Foundation.

“Of late, many people are celebrating Diwali without firecrackers considering the ill effects crackers cause on the environment and health of the people. To motivate people to continue this trend, the foundation has planned three projects for the people. Firstly an Eco-Friendly Diwali celebration along with Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) that was held at Bearys Public School on Monday,” he said.

The second project is to assess the air quality to show the impact of firecrackers on environment. “This project will be supported by St George’s Homeopathy. We will be testing the air quality levels in four residential locations for two days starting Monday. Later, on Thursday and Friday, air quality will be again tested at the same locations,” he said adding that report of the air quality assessment will be submitted to the district administration, Mangaluru City Corporation and Department of forest and environment.

In addition, the APD Foundation will also conduct an advocacy drive, he said. “We will be submitting a memorandum to the district commissioner appealing him to take five problems (child labour, untoward incidents, air and noise pollution, effect on mental health and improper disposal) that are caused by fireworks into consideration and take appropriate steps.

The APD Foundation was set up in view of the fact that there is an apparent awareness, information and data deficit amongst the citizens of our country regarding environmental issues. Their key instruments towards obtaining their objective would be through holistic information, data sharing & advocacy campaign where they sensitise the people about the ill effects of pollution and drive the citizenry towards taking a more involved role in sustainable and responsible living.

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A P
 - 
Thursday, 19 Oct 2017

We should encourage these kind of projects  and aim for a green Diwali, hence a cleaner environment.

 

Hope they also come up with a project to measure noise pollution 5 times a day, all 365 days in a year.

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coastaldigest.com news network
July 27,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 27: Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, on completion of one year of his government, today said coronavirus hampered his development plans for the state.

He said the state will not see a lockdown again "at any cost".

"Due to coronavirus we couldn't meet people's expectations but now we'll not have lockdown in Karnataka at any cost. In future we're going to fulfill whatever I announced in Budget. If necessary we'll take loans and complete all development work," said Yediyurappa.

"Covid has hampered development plans of Karnataka, lot more needs to be done, i'm committed to providing an able, stable government," he said.

Arrangements were made for virtual celebrations to mark the one-year anniversary of Yediyurappa government at Banquet Hall in Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru. Social distancing was maintained at the event.

A record 5,199 new COVID-19 cases and 82 deaths were reported from Karnataka on Sunday, the state's health department said.

With this, the total number of coronavirus cases in the state stands at 96,141, including 58,417 active cases and 35,838 recoveries.

So far, 1,878 deaths have been reported from Karnataka. Karnataka is the only state to have over 50,000 active cases with overall tally below 1 lakh.

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News Network
June 30,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 30: To instill confidence among its commuters, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has decided to put stamp on hand of all passengers before they are allowed to board the buses.

In a statement issued here on Tuesday, The decision was taken in the wake of a sudden jump in the number of COVID-19 cases reported from Bengaluru.

The round stamp is, however, different from 'home-quarantine' stamp applied to infected and they were not allowed to travel. Officials said that the measure is aimed at reassuring passengers that those travelling with them do not have symptoms. The left hand will be stamped with an ink which can be washed away by the time they reach home.

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News Network
July 23,2020

Bengaluru, Jul 23: The opposition party Congress on Thursday demanded a judicial enquiry in the alleged scam in coronavirus related medical equipment procurement by Karnataka government.

However, Deputy chief minister Ashwathnarayan and Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai denied all the allegations.

Leader of Opposition (LoP) and former Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar addressed a press conference here and demanded a judiciary enquiry under a sitting High Court judge to investigate "BJP's Corona Scams."

"I made allegations on July 3. Nobody has denied it officially. On July 20, Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu and Deputy Chief Minister Ashwathnarayan in a press conference denied my allegations. Today, I furnished 14 documents. If you go through it, you will find corruption and misappropriation in medical equipment purchase," Siddaramaiah said.

"The documents are available with the government, how can they deny their own documents. They are telling that they have spent only Rs 324 crore but according to me the government has spent more than Rs 4,000 crore and nearly Rs 2,000 crore went in the minister and bureaucrats' pockets," he said.

He further said, "Centre has procured 50,000 ventilators under PM Cares at a cost of Rs 4, lakh per unit. Tamil Nadu has procured at Rs 4.78 lakh. But in our state, the price is between Rs 5.6 lakh to Rs 18.2 lakh. Is this not corruption?"

Siddaramaiah also dared the government to step up for an enquiry if they are "honest and transparent".

"I am demanding, constitute a judicial committee headed by sitting high court judge, let there be an enquiry in detail," he said.

DK Shivakumar said that his party has made the allegations based on government documents and media reports showing corruption.

"Karnataka government is purchasing equipment at high rates. We have exposed BJP's Rs 2,000 crore scams today. The government's main focus is to loot. They have paralysed the state administration," he said.
Denying the Congress' allegations, Deputy Chief Minister, Ashwathnarayan said that the government is ready to discuss this in the Assembly house.

"They have alleged Rs 700 crore misappropriation by health department but we have shown we have spent only Rs 290 crore," he said.

Giving details of the SDRF expenditure towards COVID-19 containment he said, "We have released Rs. 23,220.01 lakh in SDRF accounts and they have spent Rs Rs. 15, 918.99 lakh in various activities like migrant relief measures, measures for quarantine, sample collection, screening from March 14 to July 16."

Karnataka Home Minister, Basavaraj Bommai, said, "Karnataka government has spent Rs 506 crores for medical equipment and Rs 1,611 crores for other activities related to combatting COVID-19. So, we have spent Rs 2,117 crores as of now and there is no corruption in it."

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