No links between terror outfits and Zakir Naik, clarifies Modi Govt

Mangaluru, May 13: Kannadigas in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have sought additional flights to return to Karnataka during a video conference with Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa here on Tuesday.

Noting that most of the ex-pats in UAE were from the coastal region, they urged the state government to ensure that most of these flights land in the Mangalore International Airport.

Many Kannadigas in the UAE were left unemployed due to the lockdown. “Many of them do not have the means to return to Karnataka and the state government should aid them,” representatives of various Kannadiga ex-pat groups urged the CM.

Yediyurappa said that the government has made all arrangements to bring back the ex-pats, and assured to fulfil all their demands.

Bengaluru, Jul 11: Karnataka on Saturday reported the biggest single-day spurt of 2,798 cases and a record 70 related fatalities, taking the total number of infections in the state to 36,216, the health department said.

The day also saw a record 880 patients getting discharged after recovery.

Out of 2,798 fresh cases, a whopping 1,533 cases were from Bengaluru urban alone.

The previous biggest single-day spike was recorded on July 10 with 2,313 cases.

As of July 11 evening, cumulatively 36,216 COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 613 deaths and 14,716 discharges, the health department said in its bulletin.

It said out of 20,883 active cases, 20,379 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 504 are in ICU.

Out of 70 deaths reported, 23 are from Bengaluru urban, 8 from Mysuru, five from Dakshina Kannada, among others.

Most of the dead are either with a history of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) or Influenza-like illness (ILI).

Out of 2,798 cases tested positive today, contacts of the majority of the cases are still under tracing.

Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Bengaluru urban accounts for 1533 cases, followed by Dakshina Kannada 186, Udupi 90, Mysuru 83, Tumakuru 78, Dharwad 77 and Yadgir 74.

Bengaluru urban district tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 16,862 infections, followed by DakshinaKannada 2,026 and Kalaburagi 2,024.

A total of 7.99 lakh samples were tested so far, out of which 20,587 were tested on Saturday alone.

So far 7.46 lakh samples have been reported as negative, and out of them 17,488 were reported negative today.

Bengaluru, Jan 25: To address the grievances of the Industrialists, over the issue of acquisition of land, the state government have plans to dilute the Land Reforms Act, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, said here on Saturday.

Speaking to the media here, on his visit to the World Economic Forum, Davos, recently he said that 'the visit was fruitful and ends with satisfactory note by procuring promises from several Industrial houses to investment in Karnataka'.

Stating that during his five-day stay at Davos, he had met several Industries heads on the sidelines of the summit, and had an interactive meeting with them, Chief Minister said that 'the event had helped us to present our state Karnataka, to convince them about the prevailing industry-friendly environment'.

He said that he had met several heads of global companies, including Arcelor Mittal, Kirloskar, MAHINDRA, Bharat Forge, 2000 Watt, general electrical, Dassault, Dalmia, Lulu Group, Volvo, Nova Nosdik and Domeco.

'The interaction with the corporate heads was encouraging and more investment is expected to flow into Karnataka, in the fields of Mining, Power, Agriculture, Pharma, Education, and Industries.'

Informing that the main grouse expressed by the Industrialists about the bottlenecks being faced in the Land Reforms Act to procure land, he said that 'To make ease of conversion of Agricultural land we have plans to bring amendment and it would be both win-win situation to both Farmers as well as Industries.'

'We have promised them to remove all hurdles, which comes in the way of acquiring land to set up industries, and we have promised to rectify all the administrative problems within a month or two and legal problems in the next couple of months by amending existing laws.'

'We have also plans to present a new Industrial policy in the coming budget and roll out a comprehensive and investor-friendly law', he further said.

Replying to questions, Chief Minister said that 'all those investment proposals which got clearance at the High-Level Clearance Committee would automatically considered as ‘deemed permission’ and start the process of acquisition of land'.

'TheWorldEconomic Forum Summit had also served us as a platform to invite Industrialists to take part in the Karnataka Global Investors Meet scheduled to be held in November this year', he added.