Mangaluru: Budding cartoonist, food blogger Nikhil Pai commits suicide

Bengaluru, Apr 19: A recent government order prohibiting congregations, Ramadan prayers is discriminatory and needs to be withdrawn, JD(S) MLC B M Farookh has demanded.

In a letter to the chief secretary, Farookh pointed out that the order contained certain conditions such as restriction of the use of public address system and delivering Azan in low decibels, which had nothing to do with the prevention of Covid-19 disease.

“These days, Azan includes a call for the community to pray at home and does not offer namaz at mosque. The order also prohibits preparation and distribution of porridge, which has always been taken up in the interest of the poor. The High Court has noted that the relief distribution by NGOs or individuals should not be prevented and the state machinery has to coordinate the same by ensuring social distancing. The ban on distribution of porridge by mosques amounts to discrimination. The order needs to be withdrawn or revisited,” he wrote in his letter.

Further, observing that a religious fair was conducted in Kalaburagi recently, in violation of the government’s social distancing norms, Farookh sought the government to ensure that social distancing norms are enforced with regard to festivals of all communities without discrimination.

Udupi, Jun 9: A Mesolithic site has been discovered at Iduru-Kunjadi in Kundapura taluk of Udupi district of Karnataka by Prof T Murugeshi, Associate Professor of Ancient History and Archaeology at MSRS College, Shirva.

Prof Murugeshi said on Tuesday that the site is near a rock art site of the Mesolithic period that was unearthed. It is located in the Mookambika Wildlife Reserve Forest. At Iduru-Kunjadi, the finds of Mesolithic tools are characterised by blades, scrapers, burine, fluted cores, arrow-heads and flakes of the non-geometric pattern.

He said that though the site was found two years back, it took time to study and identify them. They resembled the tools found in a stratified context at Uppinangady on the Netravati basin, he added.

Bengaluru, Jul 23: Karnataka on Thursday recorded a biggest single-day surge of over 5,000 cases and 97 related fatalities, taking the total number of people who tested positive for the virus to 80,863, the health department said. 

The day also saw a record 2,071 patients getting discharged after recovery.

Out of 5,030 fresh cases reported, a whopping 2,207 cases were from Bengaluru urban alone.

As of July 23 evening, cumulatively 80,863 Covid-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 1,616 deaths and 29,310 discharges, the health department said in its bulletin.

It said, out of 49,931 active cases, 49,291 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 640 are in ICU. Out of the 97 deaths reported on Thursday 48 are from Bengaluru urban, followed by Mysuru 8, Dakshina Kannada 7 and others.

Most of the dead are either with a history of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) or Influenza-like illness (ILI).

Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Bengaluru urban accounts for 2,207, followed by Raichur 258, Kalaburagi 229, Dakshina Kannada 218, and others.

Bengaluru urban district tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 39,200 infections, followed by Dakshina Kannada 4,209 and Kalaburagi 3,370.