Panic in Dakshina Kannada as fake Rs 2,000 notes surface; probe begins

Mangaluru, May 4: As the coronavirus lockdown norms have been relaxed in the coastal district of Dakshina Kannada, people will be able venture out for essential activities from 7 a.m to 7 p.m.

The lockdown was imposed in the coastal district on March 22 midnight to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Initially it did not apply to essential services such as sale of food, groceries, milk, vegetables, fruits, and meat and fish. Gradually the administration had to intensify the lockdown and allow those shops to remain open between 7 a.m. and 12 noon. However, today (May 4) onwards there will be relaxation of lockdown between 7 am to 7 pm. 

Precautionary measures like maintaining social distancing has been urged and use of face masks has been made mandatory.

Permitted activities

• Permission for plying of auto-rickshaws, cabs, private vehicles and bikes has been given. However only three occupants, including the driver will be allowed and no pillion rule is applicable for two-wheelers.

• OPDs, medical clinics are permitted to operate.

• Standalone shops, shops located in neighbourhood colony, residential complex will be allowed to operate.

• Private organisations can function with 33% staff capacity while allowing work from home for rest of staff.

• E-commerce activities only for essential goods permitted.

• In site construction activities in urban areas, rural areas including MNREGA works.

• Permission is only available to open the shop in the market and in the market complex.

Prohibited activities:

• Movement of individuals is not permitted for all non-essential activities.

• Travel by air, rail and inter-State movement by road.

• Functioning of schools, colleges, and other educational and training/ coaching institutions.

• Hospitality services, including hotels and restaurants.

• Cinema halls, malls, gymnasiums, sports complexes, bars, clubs, swimming pool, entertainment parks, assembly halls, etc; barber shops, spas and salons, textile and apparel(clothes) shops.

• Social, political, cultural, academic, entertainment, religious and other kinds of gatherings; and, religious places/ places of worship for public. 

• Shops in urban and rural areas, for non-essential goods not allowed in malls, markets and Market Complexes.

• All types of traffic movements will be prohibited after evening (7 pm to 7 am)

Kalaburagi, Apr 9: An FIR has been lodged against the management and staff of Bahamani Super Speciality Hospital here in Kalaburagi allegedly for not following procedures meant to deal with COVID-19 and hiding details of patients with coronavirus symptoms, said District Deputy Commissioner Sharath B on Wednesday.

The district family welfare department official and nodal officer of KPME Kalaburagi took cognisance of the reports that the private hospitals in the district are not informing the government about patients having COVID-19 symptoms and they are only reporting about such cases at the last moment.

"It has come to our light that some private hospitals in Kalaburagi city are hiding information about the patients who are having COVID-19 like symptoms and these cases are not being reported on time to us," said the District Deputy Commissioner.

"We verified the records of these hospitals and it is clear now that they are revealing the serious cases in the last moment when the treatment has not given any help to patients. Only then such cases are bringing to ESI hospital in Kalaburagi. We have taken steps to quarantine the entire staff member of Bahamani hospital. We have taken legal steps against them for non-compliance of the orders issued to them and for not reporting this matter to us at the earliest stage," he said.

A case has been registered under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 column 51, 58 and sections 269 and 188 of the Indian Penal Code.

He further said that two new cases were reported positive on April 8 and one person has succumbed to the infection because he was having a severe respiratory infection.
He appealed to everyone to strictly follow lockdown restrictions and not violate Section 144 at any cost.

Speaking about the attacks on Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) and Anganwadi workers, who were given a task to collect travel details of locals in view of coronavirus crisis, Sharath said: "Some of the health workers, ASHA and Anganwadi workers, who have been given a task to going from door to door to verify health status were troubled unnecessarily, saying that they have come to collect data for NRC and NPR."

"They are doing a survey on behalf of the district administration as they have to gather travelling information so that a person can be quarantined to contain COVID-19 spread. There has been an attack, a case has been registered in this regard," he said.

Bengaluru, Jul 1: Karnataka Primary and Secondary Education Minister S Suresh Kumar on Wednesday played down reports about confusion regarding valuation of Second Pre- University and the Secondary School Leaving Certificate exam papers.

"Creating confusion has become a habit. There was confusion before the exam, during the exam and now confusion about the valuation of the exam papers," Kumar told reporters in Ramanagara when asked about the confusion over the valuation of answer sheets.

He had gone there to inspect a few centres where the SSLC or the 10th standard exams are underway.

The minister reminded people not to speak about the abilities of the students with contempt.

"Our students have toiled hard and are enthusiastically appearing for the examination. They are eligible for the marks they will score. So we should not speak about our children with disrespect," Kumar said.

The Education Minister said he had spoken to many leaders including former chief ministers Siddaramaiah and H D Kumaraswamy on conducting the examinations.

"Kumaraswamy had insisted on postponing the examination. I personally spoke to him and apprised him about the steps taken by us. I told him that we will work with more sincerity to ensure the safety of the children," Kumar said.

The SSLC exam was scheduled to take place from March 27 but due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, it was postponed.

While the CBSE and a few other states either decided to give marks based on the students' performance in the previous examinations such as quarterly and half-yearly exams or gave general promotion to the students, Karnataka went ahead to hold the exam.

According to Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board officials, around 8.5 lakh students have enrolled this year for the SSLC examination.

The exams are being held at 2,879 exam centres across the state.

Prior to the SSLC examination, the last exam of the Second PUC was also conducted on June 18, which was also put on hold due to the lockdown.