Sharp fall in vegetable prices, lack of cash hit farmers, traders

Mangaluru, Apr 1: The rush for purchase of essential commodities has eased in several places in Dakshina Kannada with the relaxation of lockdown from Wednesday between 7 am and 12 noon by the district administration. However, a few markets in Mangaluru still had queues in front of vegetable shops on Wednesday.

Vegetable shops and markets in Mallikatte, Kadri, Bejai-Kapikad, Urwastore, Mannagudda and Carstreet areas were crowded with people violating social distancing norms due to the coronavirus crisis.

To avoid swelling of crowds at Central Market in Mangaluru, the market was opened only for wholesalers to collect vegetables. The entry of public to Central Market was prohibited.

MCC Commissioner Ajith Kumar Hegde Shanady said that retail sale is prohibited at Central Market.

The Surathkal market too has been closed from April and traders from the market are allowed to sell essential commodities at alternative locations from 7 am to 12 noon.

Bengaluru, Feb 24: Census authorities in Karnataka have requested deputy commissioners in the state’s districts to hold outreach and awareness campaigns about the National Population Register (NPR), as they fear misgivings about the exercise could hurt the forthcoming enumeration of population.

The house-listing phase of the Census and updating of NPR will be rolled out simultaneously by mid-April in the BJP-ruled state.

About 1,50,000 enumerators will handle the massive exercise.

Officials believe widespread awareness will help address concerns about the NPR data-gathering process and make people cooperate with enumerators when they visit houses for both NPR and census work.

“Sensing the kind of questions that enumerators may face when they do house visits, in all video conferences with deputy commissioners of districts, we have requested to establish contact with local representatives,” SB Vijay Kumar, director of Census Operations in Karnataka told news agency. “We have asked them to organise outreach programmes to ensure that people’s doubts are resolved before the information gathering work begins,” he added.

Census operations are handled by the Union home ministry. Several district officials are said to have raised concerns about the possibility of people refusing to share information when the work on the census and NPR begins in two months. This would affect the quality of the census work, making the exercise incomplete.

news channel earlier reported that people in parts of Karnataka had declined to share personal information with officials visiting households in connection with government programmes, suspecting them of gathering data for the yet-to-be unveiled National Register of Citizens, following enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) recently.

Kumar said district authorities will train and sensitise enumerators to tread carefully while gathering information. Enumerators will be told not to demand information but seek it gently.

“We will tell enumerators to proactively engage with people. For instance, if an old man in a village does not know his exact date or place of birth, the enumerator may engage in a conversation with the person that may elicit some anecdotes and roughly establish the year and the place of birth,” the census director said.

As of now, the NPR questionnaire has 21queries, but officials say it has not yet been finalised.

With most of the census and NPR data gathering and storage happening digitally this time, the challenge before census officials is to convince people that the data would remain safe.

“Individual data is sealed and all that we can see is collective data. The information is consolidated and tailor-made. We are telling district officials to create awareness about data safety as well,” Kumar said.

Bengaluru, Mar 14: Bus-stands and railway stations in this IT city wore a deserted look on Saturday and malls, cinemas, pubs and night clubs remained shut as part of the lockdown announced by the state government following the country's first coronavirus fatality reported from Karnataka on March 12.

Six people in Karnataka have contracted the virus including the 76-year-old man who died due to this disease from Kalaburagi in the state.

A day after chief minister B S Yediyurappa announced the shutdown for a week, the usual rush at the Central bus-stand was missing.

"Since yesterday there is slackness. Today again we are witnessing the same," a Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation official told PTI.

The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, which runs inter-city and inter-state buses, too has seen a decline in its revenue.

"For the past five to six days we are seeing a drop of Rs 32 lakh to Rs 35 lakh in our daily revenue of Rs eight crore," Bengaluru divisional controller B T Prabhakar Reddy said.

On March 13, Yediyurappa issued instructions to stop all kinds of exhibitions, summer camps, conferences, fairs, marriage, sports and engagement events and birthday parties state-wide for a week from Saturday.

Business at pubs and aars have taken a hit due to the virus threat.

"Our businesses have suffered somewhere between 40 per cent and 70 per cent.

It is very difficult to cope with the situation," said Manu Chandra, Bengaluru chapter head of National Restaurant Association of India.

In Chitradurga district, the annual Rathayatra was cancelled whereas in Bengaluru, a temple displayed a board that it will not distribute any 'teertha' (holy water) or 'prasad' (offering) to devotees in view of the coronavirus scare.