BJP’s Hindutva is dividing society; will never join hands with it: HDK

Udupi, Apr 7: The district administrations of Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts have appealed to the state government to request Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to allow COVID-19 tests at Manipal’s Kasturba Hospital.

Kasturba Hospital was granted approval by the ICMR to conduct tests on samples to detect the novel coronavirus on March 24, however it rescinded it later.

Udupi district Deputy Commissioner (DC) G Jagadeesha stated that the Council did not provide any reason for the cancellation of approval; his office has requested the Chief Secretary to pressurise the Council in granting approval again.

Udupi, Jun 4: Karnataka Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakhar on Wednesday said that he will take up an issue before a high-powered committee on COVID-19 to find out the possibility of imposing lockdown on a particular house of the person infected with the virus instead of sealing down of entire areas.

Talking to reporters here on Tuesday after reviewing the district's prevailing COVID situation, the minister said the concept and modalities of declaring any area as containment zone has undergone changes in the last two months.

"Hitherto, we were declaring the entire area as the containment zone after detection of coronavirus positive cases. Subsequently, the area of the containment zone was decreased from the whole area to a particular street," the Minister said.

"Now, BJP MLA Raghupati Bhat has given a suggestion to seal down a particular house of the positive patient which would be taken up before the high-powered panel. The district administration concerned could supply all essential items to the particular family," he said.

He further said that the Union government has been providing all facilities to all the states to deal with the situation."

We came on foot, we came on boats, shouting slogans of Azadi.

We stood on roof tops and sat on walls under the burning midday sun,

Listening to the words that we had longed to hear for so long.

Words that had been scripted through the lonely fears of our hearts.

Words that were spoken now with the clarity of courage.

Words that were spoken now with the suppressed strength of pent up anger.

Words that were spoken now with the certainty of belonging to the soil 

Which had become one with the dust of our ancestors.

We stood there in the waves of heat

Feeling the surge and press  of countless bodies around us.

Bodies meshed through the odour of sweat 

And the shared fear of a common persecution.

And hanging from the roof tops,

And tied to the poles,

And clutched in hands slippery with sweat,

And wrapped round the pillars,

And spreading into our blood,

Were three strips of colour with a wheel of spokes,

Sewn together into the shape of our being.

Woven into the folds of our future and the creases of our past. 

Stitched to the seams of the earth, the water, the air and the sky 

That belonged to us and to which we belonged. 

And we stood there from noon to evening,

We the people of India.

Raising our clenched fists like signposts to the future.

Chanting slogans like a new anthem.

Kin to each other through the ties of community.

Born to live and die 

In a nation that was ours to hold on to

And ours to belong to.

Dr Parinitha is a professor of English in Mangalore University. She penned the poem soon after participating in the historic protest against CAA, NPR and NRC at Shah Garden, Adyar, Mangaluru on 15th January, 2020.

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