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Bengaluru, May 4: Booze lovers ushered in the resumption of liquor sales in a spirited fashion in Karnataka onMonday thronging stores hours before shutters went up at severalplaces and made no secret of their celebratory mood.

At some places, they flocked liquor shops even before day-break and performed "special prayers" with flowers, coconuts,incense sticks, camphor and crackers in front of the stores.

Liquor outlets had been shut in the State from March 25 following the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Excise revenue loss during the period was about Rs 2,500 crore, according to government sources.

About 4,500 standalone liquor outlets (CL-2 and CL- 11licence holders), which comprise wine stores and those owned bystate-run Mysore Sales International Limited, outside containmentzones were allowed to be opened from Monday from 9 am to 7 pm withsome restrictions.

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These include customers compulsorily wearing of facemasks andmaintaining social distancing with not more than five people inside liquor shops.

Many customers were indeed well-prepared.

At many places, they came with umbrella, raincoat, newspapers and books and queued up as early as 3 am.

At a liquor shop in Salegame Road in Hassan, the tipplers lit the traditional lamp and incense sticks, performed 'aarati'with camphor and decorated the store with the garland of flowers.

With folded hands, they all performed 'special prayers'.

In Mandya, the tipplers queued up before Martaanda liquor shop before dawn.

An hour before the sales were to resume, a few people burst crackers in celebration.

Some tipplers in Belagavi were more "enterprising."

They wentto a liquor store on Sunday night itself, performed special prayersand placed their "representatives" in the form of slippers, bags and stones in the "social distancing boxes" they themselves had drawn sothat they don't have to stand in queue in the morning.

An elderly woman Dakamma was the centre of attraction in Shivamogga.

The bent body did not bend the determination of this spirited lady, claimed to be 96-year-old, who was heard saying "liquor is goodfor health."

At the taluk headquarters town of Brahmavara in the coastal Udupi district, the queue of the booze lovers was reported to be almost half-a-kilometre.

Long queues were seen at liquor stores at Mariyappana Palya and K R Puram, among others, in Bengaluru.

The store managers too were no less cautious while dealing with customers in the COVID era.

They let the customers enter after spraying sanitisers in their hands, and allowed only those who hadworn masks and maintained social distancing.

To maintain law and order, authorities had deployed policemen in good numbers at these stores and they were seen on duty ensuring  that customers maintained social distancing.

Bengaluru, May 30: The Karnataka government will soon launch a project to maintain the health database of all its citizens, said Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar on Friday.

A first of its kind initiative, the "State Health Register" will be a robust and standardised health repository of all the citizens, as per an official release.

Sudhakar said that the project will be implemented first in Chikkaballapur district on an experimental basis. "Enhanced focus on healthcare has become imperative and our government is committed to providing world-class healthcare to all citizens," he added.

While speaking to media, the minister said that COVID-19 experience has demonstrated the necessity of having robust, real-time public health data and, therefore, there is a need to maintain a repository of health data of each and every citizen.

He said that the government will be undertaking a survey of all 6.5 crore people in the state, by using a team of Primary Health Centre officials, revenue officials, education department staff and ASHA karyakartas.

"They will visit each household and collect health data of all the members of the family. This will not only help the government to provide better healthcare but will also help efficient resource allocation, management and better implementation of various citizen-centric schemes in the state," Sudhakar stated.

"Public-Private Partnership -- It's our vision to provide world-class healthcare to all citizens in the state and we need accurate data to make our vision a reality. The health register is a futuristic project which is taken up in the interest of the people. The project will include 50 per cent partnership of private hospitals. The data collected will help us to prioritise healthcare based on geography, demography and other targetted measures," read the release.

Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has assured all support for the project and a detailed discussion will be undertaken in the upcoming cabinet meeting, said Dr Sudhakar.

The minister also assured that he is committed to ensuring that all citizens of the state have access to world-class healthcare.

Bengaluru, May 15: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Friday said that the new amendment in the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act will substantially aid the farmers in getting remunerative price for their produce.

"Our motto is 'First Farmers'. The new amendment in the APMC Act will provide an opportunity for farmers to sell their produce directly to any purchase outside APMC or in other APMCs. This will help the farmers in getting remunerative price for their produce," CM Yediyurappa tweeted.

"Amendment will not dilute the powers of the work of the APMCs. All these marketing activities will be monitored by the Directorate of State APMC. This new amendment Act will benefit farmers in improving their income & suffering from losses due to market fluctuations," the Karnataka CM added.

Yediyurappa further said that the amendment will indirectly help farmers in doubling their income by 2022.

"This amendment will indirectly help farmers in doubling their income by 2022. I want to clarify that we have not removed the APMC Act, we are only amending 2 sections of the APMC Act which enable farmers to sell their produce at the markets where they intend to," he tweeted.