BJP releases manifesto for Karnataka polls, reaches out to farmers

Madikeri, Feb 23: Back-to-back floods and landslides in the last two years, has led to a fall in the number of tourists coming to the coffee-growing region of Kodagu, forcing the district administration to intervene and take confidence-building measures, telling tourists that Kodagu was safe to visit.

According to the statistics of the Karnataka State Tourism Department, Kodagu recorded a moderately good number of tourists in 2018 and 2019, the years that the district witnessed devastating floods and landslides.

The Department’s statistics reveal that 17 lakh tourists visited Kodagu in 2018 and 18 lakh in 2019. This means the flood-ravaged years did attract tourists contrary to what the stakeholders had claimed.

Bengaluru, May 27: A 69-year-old woman from Yadgiri became the 45th COVID-19 related fatality in Karnataka, where 122 fresh cases have been reported, taking the total number of infections in the state to 2,405, the health department said on Wednesday.

With 45 deaths and 762 discharges, there are 1,596 active coronavirus cases in the state, the department said in its mid-day bulletin. It said, the deceased woman, a returnee from Maharashtra was brought dead to designated hospital in Yadgiri on May 20 and tested positive for COVID-19.

Fourteen patients have been discharged in the state so far on Wednesday. Of the 122 new cases, 108 are returnees from neighboring Maharashtra, three from Tamil Nadu, and one each from Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Delhi. While two are returnees from foreign countries- one each from UAE and Nepal.

Remaining four cases are contact of patients earlier tested positive.

Among the districts where new cases were reported, Kalaburagi accounted for 28, Yadgiri 16, Hassan 15, Bidar 13, Dakshina Kannada 11, Udupi 9, Bengaluru Urban 6, five each from Uttara Kannada and Raichur, Belagavi 4, Chikkamagaluru 3, two each from Bengaluru Rural and Vijayapura, and one each from Ballari, Mandya and Tumakuru.

Bengaluru, May 5: The movement of migrant labourers from Karnataka to other states has stopped temporarily, as few North Indian states are yet to give consent.

Revenue Minister R Ashok said that the state government will convince labourers to stay back and ensure free food supply at their camps. "Even if we allow them to travel, they will be quarantined for 14 days as soon as they reach their native states.

The labourers don't know about this and some states have not yet given permission for their return," Revenue Minister R Ashok said.

According to sources in CMO, the decision to convince the workers to stay back came after several major projects - both government and private - were affected by the mass migration of labourers to their native districts and states.

Ashok, along with S Suresh Kumar, Primary and Secondary Education minister and head of the group of ministers focusing on migrant workers, also visited labourers who had gathered demanding that they be allowed to return.

Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa will chair a meeting tomorrow and instruct builders under CREDAI to pay pending wages of labourers, provide food supply and ensure their safety, Ashok said, adding that all construction work by BBMP will also be taken up to help the labourers.