Swacch Mangaluru Abhiyan completes 35 weeks; Marnamikatta gets a new look

Udupi, Apr 24: While several state governments and NGOs are actively working to provide essentials to the needy amid the COVID-19 lockdown, a fisherwoman in Karnataka's Udupi has proved that even a small gesture of help for others can make a huge difference in the society.
A fisherwoman, Sharadakka, distributed rice to 140 needy families in her neighbourhood during the ongoing lockdown. The contribution was made by spending all her life savings amounting to Rs 30,000. The amount was saved by her over a period of time in an effort to build a house for herself.
On Thursday Udupi Deputy Commissioner G. Jagadeesh visited her and ensured help to build her house.
"Spending her meagre earnings, Sharadakka generously filled many empty stomachs amid the nation-wide lockdown, which is a matter of pride," said the Deputy Commissioner.

Bengaluru, Feb 14: Bengaluru Police on Friday said that it has busted a gang engaged in e-commerce fraud over the online marketplace who were involved in 200 of the 316 cheating cases registered last year.

"We registered 316 cases for cheating through online marketplaces last year. We have busted a gang operating from Rajasthan's Bharatpur and arrested 5 people. They are responsible for 200 out of 316 cases. We are questioning the accused," Bhaskar Rao, Commissioner of Police, Bengaluru told reporters here.

Explaining their modus operandi, the Police Commissioner said, "There were fictitious buyers and sellers on the online marketplace. These people used to call up prospective buyers and sellers. The products that were shown were two-wheelers, four-wheelers, electronic items and furniture."

"People used to send their money to these fraudsters using their QR code. The fraudsters were operating from Bharatpur in Rajasthan. A police team of 15 was sent to the place from where they were operating. Rajasthan police gave us full cooperation and we were able to arrest five persons," he added.

Rao said that these fraudsters had an idea about the loopholes in the e-commerce sector and exploited them.
"Some of those arrested were employed in the e-commerce and banking business and they had an idea about the loopholes in this sector," he said.

"We warn the citizens to ensure that they verify the antecedents of the buyers and sellers in this sector before spending money on these platforms," he added.

Bengaluru, Jul 13: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has initiated the process of recruiting 1,700 medical professionals, doctors, staff nurses and support staff to scale up its workforce to set up 30,000 COVID-19 care beds, an official said on Sunday.

According to the official, to establish and run 30,000 COVID care beds, 1,800 doctors and 3,600 nurses are required. A 10,100-bed facility was set up last week in the Bengaluru International Exhibition centre (BIEC) on Tumkur road.

The Health Department has calculated that one doctor per shift is needed for every 100 patients and one staff nurse for every 50 patients. Similarly, two supporting staff and three Group D employees are needed per shift for every 100 patients. Generally, a day is divided into three shifts of eight hours each.

According to the director of medical education, there are 25,000 nursing students who have completed GNM and BSc Nursing courses and are pursuing higher education.

Likewise, there are 3,231 medical, dental and Aayush interns, while MD and MS postgraduate students have been identified to be 1,613 in Bengaluru colleges.

"The department plans to actively utilise the services of interns and postgraduate students for the COVID Care Centre (CCC) operations," said the official.

Currently, there are 2,100 CCC beds operational under the civic body in Bengaluru with a pool of 503 doctors, 167 ayush doctors, 128 nursing and paramedical staff.

Earlier in May, the civic body also notified the recruitment of 380 microbiologists, technicians and data entry operators for six months. In June, the civic body again notified the recruitment of 637 doctors, nurses, technicians and group d employees to strengthen its fight against the pandemic.

Bengaluru has recently seen a spike in COVID-19 in Karnataka, accounting for 61% of all active cases in the state.

On Saturday, the city reported 1,533 new cases, taking its total tally to 16,862, of which 12,793 are active.

Karnataka recorded 2,798 more coronavirus cases and 70 more casualties on Saturday evening, raising the state's total cases to 36,216 and the death toll to 613.