BJP leaders accord warm welcome to Yogi Adityanath in Mangaluru

Bengaluru, Mar 21: Three new COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Karnataka, taking the total number of infections to 18, the state government said on Saturday.

Earlier in the day, Health Minister B Sriramulu giving details about one positive case said, a 32-year old person from Gauribidanur in Chikkaballapura district, who has returned from Mecca has been confirmed for coronavirus infection.

The person has been admitted in a designated isolated hospital for treatment, he said in a tweet.

Details regarding the other two patients are still awaited.

The mid-day situation update by the government also said a circular has been issued to Health and Family Welfare Department officials and staff at all levels to work even on Sundays and general holidays without fail till March 31 in view of COVID-19.

A total of 48 government hospitals and 35 private hospitals have been identified as first respondent hospitals for the case management of COVID-19 cases, it said.

Mental health counselling is being done for positive COVID-19 cases and suspects in the identified hospitals and quarantined persons at home and hospital.

A total of 4,390 counselling sessions have been held till date, it added.

Sriramulu in a tweet, also said the government as a precautionary measure is planning to install thermal test CC cameras at government offices and certain important places.

Bengaluru, Jan 28: Brace for hefty traffic penalties as the state government is all set to reverse a notification on revised fines which came into effect last September following pushback from road users and opposition parties.

The Karnataka government will implement traffic penalties as stipulated in the amended Motor Vehicles Act, 2019, in a phased manner following a diktat from the Centre. The government did not specify the timeline for it.

“At a recent meeting of transport ministers from various states, the Union government explained why it wanted to implement these huge fines. We found it convincing and will implement it in its original form,” said transport minister Laxman Savadi on Monday.

Savadi said India’s image globally has taken a beating due to the high number of road deaths and the Centre wants to change it at any cost. However, he said the entire set of hefty fines would not be reintroduced all at once.

BJP govt revised rates in Sept

The BJP government last September had revised fines on compoundable offences and those which are fined on the spot by traffic cops by 50%- 80%, barring drunken driving and racing.

As per the revised rates, helmetless riding attracted a penalty of Rs 500 against Rs 1,000 notified by the Centre. Driving without a licence attracted a fine of Rs 1,000 for

two- and three-wheelers and Rs 2,000 for light motor vehicles as against the earlier Rs 5,000 for all types of vehicles.

The central government recently told states and Union Territories they should enforce fines as per the amended Act and they cannot be rolled back. The road transport and highways ministry said fines cannot be reduced below the minimum amount fixed by law, unless the President gives his assent.

New Delhi, Jan 9: A total of 10,349 people involved in the farming sector, including 5,763 farmers or cultivators, committed suicide in 2018, the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)'s report on 'Crime in India-2018' reveals.

The annual data was released around three months after the government released the NCRB report on 'Crime in India-2017'.

As per the latest data, of the 10,349 persons, who committed suicide in 2018, 4,586 were agricultural labourers.

The number of suicides in the farming sector in 2018 accounted for 7.7 per cent of the total suicide-victims (1,34,516) in the country, the NCRB data said.

Suicides in the country in 2018 rose to 1,34,516 from 1,29,887 in 2017.

The rate of suicides was up from 9.9 per cent in 2017 to 10.2 per cent in 2018. In 2017, a total of 10,655 farming sector-suicides were reported.

West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Goa, Chandigarh, Daman and Diu, Delhi, Lakshadweep and Puducherry reported zero suicides of farmers or cultivators and agricultural labourers during 2018, said the report.