BJP’s Hindutva mantra gets louder in DK, Udup as ‘Suraksha Yatra’ enters coastal districts

Belagavi, Apr 19: Veteran writer and Translator Chandrakanth Kusnoor passed away in his house on Sunday due to age-related disease.

He was 90.

He was survived by wife, four sons and one daughter.

According to family sources, the last rites were held in the wee hours of Sunday.

Mr Kushnoor, a multi-faceted personality, maybe the one of the few who had won the Karnataka Nataka Academy, Karnataka Lalitha Kala Academy and Karnataka Sahitya Academy awards for his works as writer, translator, novelist, poet, playwright, painter, art critic and institution builder.

He had translated many books from Kannada (late U R Ananthmurthy and Srikrishna Alanahalli) into Hindi, and other books into Marathi and Urdu.

He was among the pioneering abstract writers in Kannada. His plays like Dindi, Vidushaka, Ratto Ratto Rayara Magale and Ani Bantu Ondu Ani, were widely performed.

His biographical novel Gohar Jan chronicles the growth of professional theatre music tradition.

He had converted his home in Channamma Nagar into a mini art gallery and used to paint till recently. He hailed from Kalaburagi where he worked as a college professor for some years. He had settled in Belagavi after his retirement as the Deputy Director of Kannada and culture.

He had won the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award.

Bengaluru, Jul 22: Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar on Wednesday urged Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa to waive all property taxes in urban local and rural panchayats for a period of one year as citizens are bearing a huge financial brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taking to Twitter, Shivakumar wrote, "Citizens are bearing a huge financial brunt of the Corona Pandemic. It's imperative on the government to ease the financial burden on citizens. I urge CM B.S. Yediyurappa to waive all property taxes, in urban local bodies and rural panchayats, for a period of one year on humanitarian grounds."
In yet another demand, Shivakumar on Tuesday said the state government should give details of the amount it spent on migrants and labourers during the coronavirus crisis if it is transparent.

"The image of Karnataka has come to a very rotten position. We all know that Karnataka has failed in sorting out the problem. Let them (the state government) tell what has been the amount spent on the labour, migrants and food kits on the health department. We want an account (of the expenditure) if they are so transparent," Shivakumar said.

He said the state government should have approached the hospitals for treating COVID-19 patients and if any private hospital refused, a message should have been given that the government would take it over.

He also accused the state government of corruption.

Bengaluru, Jun 8: Karnataka recorded 308 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, with the majority of patients being domestic returnees, raising the state's tally to 5,760 an official said, here on Monday. "Over 308 new cases were reported from Sunday 5 pm to Monday 5 pm," said the health official.

Like everyday Maharashtra returnees accounted for 96 per cent (267 cases) of the 277 new cases. Majority infections in Karnataka nowadays are returnees, mostly from the state's northern neighbour.

A few returnees also came from Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. There was one international returnee, a 23-year-old man from Dakshina Kannada, who came from the UAE. Only 24 new infections were contacts of earlier cases.

On Monday, cases spiked in Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Bidar, Udupi, Bengaluru Urban, Ballari and Gadag.

Among the new cases, Kalaburagi contributed (99), followed by Yadgir (66), Bidar (48), Udupi (45), Bengaluru Urban (18), Ballari (8), Gadag (6), Shivamogga and Dharwad (4 each), Hassan and Dakshina Kannada (3 each), Bagalkote (2) and Koppal and Ramnagar (1 each). Four patients are suffering from Influenza-Like Illness (ILI).

Meanwhile, record 387 patients got discharged in the past 24 hours. On Monday, three persons - A 67-year-old man, a 48-year-old woman and another 65-year-old woman, all from Bengaluru Urban, succumbed to coronavirus.

Of all the cases, 3,175 are active, 2,519 discharged, 64 dead and 14 in the ICU.

In the past 24 hours, Karnataka tested 8,779 people. Of this, 8,231 reports returned negative. A number of tests were lower than other days. In total, 3.93 lac samples have been tested so far, of which 3.8 lac have returned negative.

Currently, Udupi is leading the state's COVID-19 burden with 628 active cases, followed by Kalaburagi (539), Yadgir (488), Raichur (276) and Bengaluru Urban (176) among others.

Bengaluru Urban has accounted for 18 deaths, followed by Kalaburagi (7), Bidar, Vijayapura, Davangere and Dakshina Kannada (6 each) and Chikkaballapur (3 each), among others.