BJP to go ahead with Mangaluru Chalo, even if cops deny permission

Bengaluru, May 23: SSLC and PUC students residing in containment zones will not be able to write the exams scheduled to be held in June and July, respectively, but will be given opportunity to write the supplementary examination and treated as fresh candidates.

Primary and Secondary Education Minister S. Suresh Kumar announced this at a press conference on Friday.

In turn, officials in the Department of Primary and Secondary Education will start collecting the list of students in containment zones. However, they are worried since the list of containment zones is dynamic and a particular locality can be declared a containment zone even the night before the examination.

“If any examination centre is located in the containment zone, then we can change the centre and move it to a non-containment zone. However, if a student resides in a zone that is declared containment zone just before the exam, there is no option but for the person to skip the exam,” an official said.

Officials of the department are worried about another scenario as well. “There is a chance that midway through the examination, an area is becomes a containment zone. Then some students may write a few papers and give the rest a miss. Implementation at the district- and block-levels will be a challenge,” said an official.

Sources said that the department is working out several situations that may arise and trying to work on providing practical solutions to the students.

Around 5.98 lakh students have registered for the second pre-university English examination that is scheduled to be held on June 18. As many as 8.48 lakh students have registered for the SSLC examination scheduled to be held between June 25 and 4 July. Currently, there are 261 containment zones in Karnataka that have 5.49 lakh people residing in these zones.

Meanwhile, the Karnataka Secondary Education and Examination Board has decided to ensure that only 18 students are seated in a classroom to write the SSLC examination. This is to ensure that social distancing is maintained in the exam hall.

Hassan, Mar 13: In what could have been a major tragedy, an under construction flyover across Hassan-Mangaluru railway level crossing, near the new KSRTC Bus stand here collapsed today.

Fortunately no casualties occurred despite six concrete beems of 50 feet height, collapsed and broke into pieces.

The much awaited project was completely neglected by the successive governments for over a decade due to politics.  It was sanctioned eight months ago.

The Rs 42 crore project was taken up by a joint venture between state, center and South Eastern railway. The contractor or the Engineer were not present when the incident occurred.

Blaming the contractor, the locals alleged that poor quality of work led to the incident. No contractor or engineer was present even during construction, they added. Siddaiah, who runs an eatery near KSRTC bus stand said that it could have been a major tragedy if people were underneath the flyover when it crashed. The incident should be probe and the contractor should be punished, he added.

Bengaluru, Jun 27: The Bengaluru Police Commissioner’s office on Infantry Road has been sealed after one of the staffers tested Covid-positive. It will remain shut from June 27 to 29. 

A senior police officer from the administrative department, in a media release, stated that almost the entire staff has been asked to work from home, while some have told to work from sub-divisions of DCP’s offices. 

It is said that one of the staffers, who recently reported for duty at Anti-Terror Cell (ATC), tested positive on Friday, and officials took a decision to seal the premises after the media got wind of it. 

Earlier, a function for Drug Observation Day too was held on the premises on Friday. The staff has not been asked to go on quarantine. 

Only a few staffers have been asked to come to the police control room situated in the same building.