Mangaluru: BJP holds protest over sand scarcity, hits out at state govt

Belthangady, Jul 26: The forest department officials on Sunday banned traffic in Charmadi ghat section as a precautionary measure following information that landslide and uprooting of trees may take place due to heavy rain which has been lashing the ghat section since last one week.

The officials said that a tree was likely to be uprooted in the 6th and 7th cross of the ghat section therefore the entry of vehicles were banned and this has resulted in a traffic jam.

It is said that despite lockdown many vehicles have been playing in the Ghat section.

Bengaluru, Jun 18: Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah has accused the BJP-led government of not passing the benefit of the low price of crude to the common man and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take steps to bring down prices of petroleum products.

Hitting out at the BJP-led government, he termed it as "opportunistic" and said the price of petroleum products were being increased when people were facing difficulties due to COVID-19.

"It is very disheartening to witness and unprecedented opportunistic government which is trying to extract every pound and flesh from the common man, that too when the whole country is suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic. This is in the backdrop of the continuous price hike in the last 10 days," said the letter was written on Wednesday.

The Congress leader said that the policy decisions taken by the government "with respect to managing fuel sources are inconsistent with the prudent measures generally adopted".

"When the price of crude oil was remarkably low in March, April and May 2020, your government was very reluctant to pass on the benefits to the people by reducing the fuel prices proportionately, but, instead, your government continued to capitalise by increasing the excise duty," he said.

He said the government had also "failed" in the last six years to increase the oil storage capacity which could have been used for the country's advantage when the international crude oil price fell really low.

He said the government should roll back the excise duty and help in the reduction of fuel prices.

"The reduced burden will help the common man to have additional money in hand that will be spent on essential goods and services which will ultimately help them tide over these difficult times," he said.

Bengaluru, Jun 6: Karnataka registered 378 Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, breaching the 5,000-mark to settle at 5,213, said an official, here on Saturday. "New cases reported from Friday 5 p.m. to Saturday 6 p.m. is 378," said a health official.

Of the new cases, 333 are local returnees, comprising 88 per cent of the new infections. Returnees from Maharashtra accounted for 99 per cent new cases at 329.

Majority infections in Karnataka nowadays are returnees, mostly from the state''s northern neighbour. Only 27 new infections were contacts of earlier cases.

On Saturday, cases spiked in Udupi, Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Bengaluru Urban, Belagavi, Vijayapura, Davangere and Dakshina Kannada.

Udupi witnessed the highest number of cases (121), followed by Yadgir (103), Kalaburagi (69), Dakshina Kannada (24), Bengaluru Urban (18), Vijayapura and Davangere (6 each), Belagavi (5), Gadag (4), Mandya, Hassan, Dharwad and Haveri (3 each), Raichur, Chikkaballapura and Uttara Kannada (2 each) and Bidar, Tumkur, Kolar and Koppal (1 each).

Among the new cases, three patients from Bengaluru Urban are suffering from Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and another from Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI).

There were seven cases with international travel history to United Arab Emirates (UAE) and one to Turkey.

Meanwhile, 280 people were discharged in the past 24 hours and two persons succumbed to the virus, one from Bidar and another from Vijayapura. Of all the cases, 3,184 are active, 1,968 discharged, 59 dead and 11 in the ICU.

In the past 24 hours, Karnataka tested 11,862 people, of which 11,431 reports returned negative. In total, 3.72 lakh samples have been tested so far, of which 3.61 lakh have returned negative.

Currently, Udupi is leading the state''s Covid-19 burden with 785 active cases, followed by Kalaburagi (448), Yadgir (407), Raichur (320) and Mandya (163) among others.

Bengaluru Urban has accounted for 13 deaths, followed by Kalaburagi (7), Bidar, Vijayapura, Davangere and Dakshina Kannada (6 each) and Chikkaballapura (3 each), among others.