BJP supremo Amit Shah to visit Mangaluru on Oct 4

Yadgir, July 2: A fresh video of the health staff dragging the body of a Covid-19 victim and dumping it into a pit disgracefully has gone viral on social media.

The incident occurred in Yadgir district of Karnataka on Tuesday, just days after shocking visuals of bodies of Covid-19 victims being handled disrespectfully in Ballari district went viral.

In the fresh video, two persons with PPE suits can be seen dragging, hurling and dumping the dead body of a senior citizen who died of covid-19. The duo dragged the body using a wooden log inserted to both hands of a plastic body bag for nearly 300 meters.

After pulling till the pit, the body was heartlessly dumped including a wooden log. Several villagers were also seen in the video.

The victim was settled in Siravara in Raichur district, although he originally hailed from Yadgir. On Sunday he was busy overseeing his daughter' wedding that was first postponed due to lockdown.

According to a relative of the deceased, on Monday he complained of breathing problems following which an ambulance was called to carry him to Raichur Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS).

Raichur Deputy Commissioner (DC), R Venkatesh said he was brought dead to the hospital as he succumbed en-route. The family members were quarantined and the body was packed as per the protocols and sent to Yadgir as his family members informed that the victim is from the neighbouring district. "In Yadgir district he was swabbed and his test results came positive," DC informed.

As soon as residents of Honagera village learned about the arrival of the body, the family members were harassed asking them to not to bury the body in any of the fields in the village.

Sridevi, a relative of the deceased said "the locals assembled near our house and threatened consequences if the body was brought here. Fearing backlash, we asked the district authorities to perform the last rites in the farmland owned by the victim. But it is now saddening to see the video where the body was inhumanely dragged and dumped."

Meanwhile Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa on Wednesday (July 1, 2020) said that six staff members have been suspended in connection with the inhumane funeral of a man who died of COVID-19 in Balari district.

Another covid victim’s body inhumanly dragged, dumped into pit in Karnataka pic.twitter.com/xs1fssupPg

— coastaldigest.com (@coastaldigest) July 2, 2020

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 29: With Saudi Arabia indefinitely suspending visas for visit to Islam's holiest site for the Umrah pilgrimage in the wake of coronavirus outbreak, more than 10,000 people in the state who are awaiting their turn this year for the annual Hajj pilgrimage are a worried lot.

"This year more than 10,000 people in Kerala have been cleared by the Hajj committee," said C Muhammed Faizy, chairman, Kerala State Hajj Committee.

"There is no cause of worry. We hope that during the time of the pilgrimage, the travel restriction by Saudi Arabia will be lifted," he said.

Umrah is a pilgrimage to the holy site that can be undertaken at any time of the year, while the annual Hajj pilgrimage has specific months according to the lunar calendar.

"The move by the Saudi Arabian Government to impose travel restriction was due to the outbreak of coronavirus. It is a preventive step to contain it. In such large gatherings, if one person is affected, it will spread to others. So we fully understand the concerns of the Saudi Government," Muhammed Faizy added.

He said that the Hajj Committee only processes the requests of annual Hajj visit pilgrims and not Umrah.

"This year we expect the Hajj pilgrimage season to be from June to August after Ramzan. But it may vary according to the Ramzan date. We are yet to get any official correspondence from the Saudi Government regarding travel restrictions," he added.

The Saudi Arabian Government suspended visas for tourists from countries affected by the coronavirus, with many having to cancel their Umrah pilgrimage at the last minute.

New Delhi, Feb 29: India’s economy expanded at its slowest pace in more than six years in the last three months of 2019, with analysts predicting further deceleration as the global Covid 19 coronavirus outbreak stifles growth in Asia’s third-largest economy.

The gross domestic product (GDP) data released yesterday showed government spending, private investment and exports slowing down, while there is a slight upturn in consumer spending and improvement in rural demand lent support.

The quarterly figure of 4.7% growth matched the consensus in a Reuters poll of analysts but was below a revised - and greatly increased - 5.1% rate for the previous quarter.

The central bank has warned that downside risks to global growth have increased as a result of the coronavirus epidemic, the full effects of which are still unfolding.

Prime minister Narendra Modi’s government has taken several steps to bolster economic growth, including a privatisation push and increased state spending, after cutting corporate tax rates last September.

In its annual budget presented this month, the government estimated that annual economic growth in the financial year to March 31 would be 5%, its lowest for last 11 years.

Modi’s government is targeting a slight recovery in growth to 6% for 2020/21, still far below the level needed to generate jobs for millions of young Indians entering the labour market each month.

The annual GDP figure for the September quarter was ramped up from an earlier estimate of 4.5%, while the April-June reading was similarly lifted to 5.6% from 5%, data released by the Ministry of Statistics showed on Friday.

Capital Investment Drop

In the December quarter, private investment grew 5.9%, up from 5.6% in the previous quarter, while government spending rose by 11.8%, against 13.2% in the previous three months.

However, corporate capital investment contracted by 5.2% after a 4.1% decline in the previous quarter, indicating that interest rate cuts by the central bank have failed to encourage new investment. Manufacturing, meanwhile, contracted by 0.2%.

“It appears growth slowdown is not just cyclical but more entrenched with consumption secularly joining the slowdown bandwagon even as the investment story continues to languish,” said Madhavi Arora of Edelweiss Securities in Mumbai.

Many economists said that the government stimulus could take four to six quarters of time before lifting the economy and the impact of those efforts could be outweighed by the global fallout from the coronavirus epidemic that began in China.

“The coronavirus remains the critical risk as India depends on China for both demand and supply of inputs,” said Abheek Barua, chief economist at HDFC Bank.

Indian shares sank on Friday for a sixth session running, capping their worst week in more than a decade. The NSE Nifty 50 index shed 7.3% over the week, while the Sensex dropped 6.8%, the worst weekly declines since the 2008-09 financial crisis.

Separately, India’s infrastructure output rose 2.2% year on year in January, data showed on Friday.

A spike in inflation to a more than 5-1/2 year high of 7.59% in January is expected to make the RBI hold off from further cuts to interest rates for now, while keeping its monetary stance accommodative.