Rahul Gandhi likely to tour coastal Karnataka on March 20, 21

Bengaluru, Mar 15: The civic body in Bengaluru has said that gathering at marriage functions should not exceed 100 people in order to curb the spread of coronavirus.

A circular issued by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) dated March 15 said, "All marriage functions pre booked in marriage halls, hotels, Party places, etc. prior to the issue of circular dated March 13, shall be allowed to be conducted subject to the condition that the gathering in the function not exceeding 100 persons."

"The above relaxation is an exception in consideration of the difficulties in rescheduling and cancelling the Marriage event immediately," the circular said.

It said, "The Owners/Management of such locations where Marriages are to be solemnized due to pre booking shall maintain high standards of sanitation and hygiene by periodically cleaning by 10 per cent Sodium Hydrochlorite Solution or any other effective disinfectant the surfaces, floors and exposed areas likely to be touched by the attendants."

"Any person attending the function having any such symptoms like Cough, Cold, and Fever etc. shall be requested for immediately leaving the Programmes," it said.

The civic body further said in the circular, "No fresh bookings of any place for Marriage programme are permitted till further orders. Any bookings on future dates by any organizer, event manager, owner of such property or any other person will be at his own risk and action will be taken against the property or any other person for any kind of bookings before an Order allowing such bookings is issued by a Competent Authority."

"The restrictions imposed are in the absolute interest of Public Health for preventing the Community Spread and outbreak of the disease at mass scale. All other restrictions imposed by order dated March 13 shall stand the same," the Circular added.

Bengaluru, Feb 28: Historian S. Shettar, 85, breathed his last early on February 28 in Bengaluru. He was suffering from respiratory problems and was hospitalised for over a week.

Shettar was known for his multi-disciplinary work, encompassing linguistics, epigraphy, anthropology, the study of religions and art history. He had extensively worked on the Jain practice of ritual death in Karnataka and Asoka edicts. He had studied and compiled early edicts in Kannada and worked extensively on the growth of Kannada language down the ages.

Born in 1935 at Hampasagara, Ballari district, he went on to study at Cambridge University and started his career as a Professor of History at Karnatak University, Dharwad, his alma mater. He later headed the National Museum Institute of the History of Art, Conservation and Museology in 1978 and Indian Council for Historical Research in 1996. He was also a visiting professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru.

He was a bilingual historian who wrote in English for most of his career, but started writing in Kannada in later years. In the last two decades, he developed a keen interest in linguistics and wrote multiple books on classical Kannada and Prakrit. His 2007 book “Shangam Tamilagam” is considered a seminal work in the study of the early period of Dravidian languages. It won him Bhasha Samman from Central Sahitya Akademi. He later wrote two works on Halegannada, classical Kannada. His most recent work was “Prakrita Jagadvalaya” in 2018.

Bengaluru, Jan 31: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Friday got the green signal from the BJP central leadership for the much-awaited cabinet expansion in the state and he is mostly likely to induct 11 ministers. Yediyurappa said the date of swearing-in will be decided in a day or two, although he indicated that it would most likely be held on February 3.

Currently, there are 18 ministers, including the chief minister, in the cabinet that has a sanctioned strength of 34. Sixteen berths are vacant. "Many of our suggestions have been accepted by Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP national president J P Nadda. If there are differences, we will discuss in Bengaluru and finalise it," Yediyurappa told reporters after meeting Shah in the Parliament Complex here.

Except for one or two, most of the disqualified JDS-Congress MLAs who got re-elected in the bypolls on BJP tickets will be made ministers, he said, adding there won't be any additional deputy chief ministers. However, sources said, a total of 11 ministers would be inducted into the cabinet.

"We discussed yesterday and now also. Shah has agreed to almost everything," Yediyurappa said, adding he is returning back "happy" after getting the nod for the cabinet expansion. "I am going happy," he said.

Yediyurappa had been anxiously waiting for the party high command's approval to expand his ministry amid intense lobbying by the aspirants. Opposition parties have been critical of the BJP and Yediyurappa over the delay in the cabinet expansion, alleging he was weak and that his administration had collapsed.