Mangaluru, Jan 17: An auto-mobile shop at Deralakatte here caught fire on Friday incurring huge loss on the shopkeeper.
According to police, the incident happened in the morning when the shop owner opened the shop.
Locals suspect that miscreants might have set the shop on fire and had escaped from the scene at night.
Bengaluru, July 14: Ahead of the week-long lockdown in Bengaluru starting from Tuesday night, around 35,000 people have left the city and grocery stores and liquor shops are witnessing a rush with customers thronging to stock up on for the shutdown.
According to transport department officials, labourers from other parts of the state migrated in good numbers from Bengaluru ahead of the lockdown fearing that they would have to face similar challenges as they had to confront during the previous shuttering.
"Yesterday 35,000 passengers left Bengaluru. The number is big given the fact that we are allowing a limited number of passengers in the buses to maintain social distancing," a KSRTC official said.
Tipplers made a beeline for liquor shops and a senior State Excise official said liquor worth Rs 230 crore was sold on Monday alone.
"There was apparently a mad rush yesterday.India Made Foreign Liquor worth Rs 215.55 crore and 14.83 crore worth beer was sold...," the officer said.
In view of the rising coronavirus cases in the city at an alarming proportion, the government decided to impose lockdown from Tuesday 8 pm till 5 am on July 22.
Later, Dharwad and Dakshina Kannada districts too decided to impose a lockdown for nine days and seven days respectively from Wednesday.
"For the past two days there is an unusual rush of customers in our store," an executive of the Metro Cash and Carry said.
According to him, people are buying grocery items and vegetables with long shelf life such as onion, potato, radish, carrot and beetroot.
A salesperson at the Star Bazaar too said people were thronging the store for the past two to three days.
During the Sunday curfew, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the week-long lockdown will be stringent one and government has made all arrangements to address all concerns ahead of the shutdown.
As many as 19,702 people in Bengaluru have tested positive, of which there are 15,052 active cases, while 4,328 have been discharged.
The number of fatalities as of Monday is 321.
Across Karnataka, 41,581 people have tested positive for coronavirus including 24,572 active cases, 16,248 discharges and 757 deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic in the state.
Bengaluru, Jul 26: A year-long probe by Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd (CDEL) has found that its late founder V G Siddhartha routed Rs 2,693 crore out of the company to Mysore Amalgamated Coffee Estates Ltd (MACEL), another privately-owned entity of him.
The MACEL owes Rs 3,535 crore to subsidiaries of Coffee Day Enterprises as of July 31, 2019 of which only Rs 842 crore was accounted.
"Therefore, a sum of Rs 2,693 crore is the incremental outstanding that needs to be addressed," said the report of an investigation headed by Ashok Kumar Malhotra, a retired DIG of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and assisted by law firm Agastya Agastya Legal.
Siddhartha was found dead in early August 2019, and many suspected that he had committed suicide.
Steps are being taken by subsidiaries of CDEL for recovery of dues from MACEL, the company said.
"The board authorised the Chairman to appoint an ex-judge of the Supreme Court or the High Court, or any other person of eminence, to suggest and oversee actions for recovery of the dues from MACEL and to help on any other associated matters," it said in regulatory filings at stock exchanges late on Friday.
The probe further gives clean chits to the Income Tax Department and the private equity firms who Siddhartha in his parting letter had alleged of harassment.
"We have not been provided with any documentary evidence to draw an inference that there may have been any advertent or inadvertent harassment from the Income Tax Department," said the probe report.
The probe also highlighted severe liquidity crunch at CDEL in the build-up to Siddhartha's death.
A committee supported by senior professionals was formed to protect the interest of all stakeholders. CDEL said the debt levels which were about Rs 7,200 crore on March 31, 2019 have been brought down significantly by Rs 4,000 crore. The present debt of the group is around Rs 3,200 crore.
"The disinvestment process in the group continues and we are confident to have effective solution to all stakeholders," it said.
Bengaluru, Jul 6: Criminal cases will be registered against private hospitals that refuse treatment to COVID-19 patients, Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar said on Sunday.
Addressing a press conference here at Vidhana Soudha, he said: "No hospital should refuse to admit patients and if any hospital is found denying treatment criminal cases will be registered against them."
He spoke to media persons after returning from his surprise visit to Jayanagar General Hospital and Rajiv Gandhi Chest Hospital responded to the questions regarding private hospitals refusing to treat covid patients.
"The government has come up with 6 different systems for treatment of COVID-19 patients. COVID care centres, government medical colleges, private medical college, government hospitals, corporate hospitals and home isolation with proper facilities and according to government guidelines," the minister added.
Dr Sudhakar gave the statistics of 4 metropolitan cities in the country including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru.
"Bengaluru's and the mortality rate is the lowest at 1.46%. The aim is to increase testing by optimal utilisation of capacity especially in private labs. Once we increase testing, it is natural that the positive cases will also increase," he said.
"So citizens need not panic due to this but should take all precautionary measures. He advised to get tested in the nearest fever clinics as soon as any symptoms like cough, fever etc are found. Guidelines regarding the home isolation will be released soon," the minister said.
He announced that 400 ambulances will be deployed in Bengaluru and 2 each for every ward.
He said that the government recommended patients at private hospitals will be provided with insurance under Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust.
"If private hospitals refuse to admit the patients, call 1912 helpline to get assistance. If admitted in Private hospital voluntarily the treatment cost will be borne by patients as per the rates fixed by the government," Sudhakar said.
He said that the cost of testing at private labs has been capped at Rs 2,200 as per test.
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