4 cops sacrifice their lives to prevent suicide bomber from entering Prophet's mosque

Bengaluru, Jan 1: Elaborate security arrangements have been made in view of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's two-day visit to Karnataka on January 2 and 3, officials said.

The Special Protection Group officials had a meeting with state government officials, especially the police regarding the security arrangements.

During his stay in Tumakuru, drones will not be allowed and anybody violating the direction will face stringent action, said a notification issued by Deputy Commissioner of the district Dr Rakesh Kumar.

According to the tour itinerary, the Prime Minister will reach Bengaluru on January 2 and fly to Tumakuru by a helicopter to visit Sri Siddaganga Math.

PM Modi will later take part in the Krishi Karman Awards function at the Junior College grounds where he will address a gathering and distribute fishing equipment, a government press release said.

The same evening he will return to Bengaluru to visit the Defence Research and Development Organisation. He will stay at the Raj Bhavan.

The next day, the Prime Minister will inaugurate the 107th Indian Science Congress at the Gandhi Krishi Vignana Kendra Campus at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bengaluru, before flying to New Delhi in the afternoon.

To oversee the arrangements, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa visited Tumakuru on Tuesday and held a meeting with officials.

Speaking to reporters later, Mr Yediyurappa said PM Modi will reach Siddaganga Math at 2.15 p.m where he will pay his obeisance to the seer there.

He will be in the town till 5.30 p.m on January 2, he added.

"Later, he will take part in the Krishi Karman and Krishi Samman Awards function which about 1.5 lakh people are likely to attend. He is going to give awards to 28 progressive farmers from 21 states," said the Chief Minister.

Bengaluru, Jan 6: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Sunday launched the ruling BJP's outreach campaign in favour of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Bengaluru.

"The CAA came into being after its amendment bill was passed in Parliament during its winter session with the support of major political parties. It is meant to give shelter and protection to Hindu minorities facing persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. It does not take away any rights of Indians," Yediyurappa told residents on a door-to-door campaign in the city.

Accusing the opposition Congress of misleading the people on the CAA and inciting its protesters to indulge in violence, the chief minister said the Act does not cause any problem to all sections of Indians.

"There is no question of taking away anyone's citizenship, including that of Muslims, as the Act only facilitates the return of the Hindus persecuted in the neighbouring countries in the sub-continent," he asserted.

State deputy chief minister H.C. Ashwath Narayana and party's Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha member P.C. Mohan accompanied the chief minister on his outreach programme in some residential and commercial areas of the city.

As part of the nationwide campaign in favour the CAA, the party's state unit president Nalin Kumar Kateel and the state's dozen cabinet ministers led the campaign in other cities across the southern state.

"An awareness campaign will be peacefully held daily till January 15 across the state to counter the protests against it by students and other people at the behest of the Congress and Left parties," Kateel told reporters at Mangaluru, 350km southwest of Bengaluru.

Kateel is a BJP Lok Sabha member from the state's Dakshina Kannada seat.

Besides contacting the people directly at their doorstep through the party's leaders, cadres and supporters, the BJP is reaching all sections of society through social media and by holding pro-CAA rallies in all the 30-district headquarters across the state over the next 10 days.

"About 300 leaders and cadres of the party have fanned out in cities and towns across the state to explain the provisions of the CAA to the people and clarify their doubts, as the protesters were misleading them with wrong information about it," reiterated Kateel.

The CAA came into being after the President enacted the a law to give citizenship rights to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians who have been allegedly persecuted as minorities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan over the last seven decades.

"A deliberate misinformation campaign has been carried out against the CAA by vested interests, misguiding a section of college/university students, their faculty, activists and members of the minority community on its provisions so as to create unrest and trigger violence in the country," Ravikumar claimed.

The ruling party also held rallies and public meetings in major cities like Mysuru, Mangaluru, Hubballi, Belagavi, Bellary and Kalaburagi across the state and enlightened the people on the benefits of the CAA.

"As social media is all-pervasive with greater reach and better impact, we are also reaching about one crore people of all ages through Kannada, Hindi and English script, messages and audio/video clips in the state during the fortnight campaign," added Kateel.

Bengaluru, May 29: A cost-effective state of the art glove box testing booth for swab collection was inaugurated by Karnataka Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar at Victoria hospital.

Inaugurating the specially designed booth for safer, easier and quicker testing, Medical Education Minister Dr Sudhakar said that the portable booths can be used at border check posts and hot spots.

"The testing method involves the collection of samples from inside a box of aluminium and glass. The suspected corona virus-infected individual, whose samples are being taken, has to walk up to the booth and stand in front of the glass exterior. The healthcare worker inside the kiosk collects the sample and then, follows the sanitisation process before proceeding to take the next sample. The collection process, fully contactless, gets over in five minutes," the Minister said.

Dr Sudhakar also said: "This booth significantly reduces manpower requirement and the need for PPE kits. The main advantages of this procedure are that it needs fewer healthcare workers and strictly adheres to the norms of social distancing. 

The booth is low-cost. Each model costs about Rs 15,000-20,000."
It is also portable and can be mounted on a vehicle and transported to any location.

It can be particularly useful for collecting samples in hot spots and border checkpoints, he added.