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Bengaluru, Jul 7: There seems no impact of Covid-19 on kharif crop sowing in Karnataka with the current year actually being ahead of previous years, according to an official here on Monday.

"In agriculture, as far as sowing is concerned, there is no impact of COVID-19," Agriculture Commissioner Brijesh Kumar Dikshit told IANS. One of the reasons, according to Dikshit, is that people in rural areas are aware, but not scared of the pandemic.

"In rural India, coronavirus is there. People are aware, not scared. They are taking precautions, but don't have any phobia," he said.

Another reason was that by June the number of infections in Karnataka was not as high as other states, when a lot of sowing was done, he said.

By the end of June, Karnataka saw 15,242 Covid-19 cases. Of that, 7,074 were active.

The sowing is ahead of previous year as it's mostly dependent on weather. "It's ahead of previous years. Agriculture is directed by weather and rains had been slightly earlier this year," he said.

According to Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, at 185 mm the state received 14 mm less rain in June against the normal 199 mm. "It's like a normal year, or slightly a good year," he said.

Some crops will be sown in the last fortnight of July and few more will extend up to August 15. "The last two weeks will be critical and on July 31 we should be able to tell whether we are short or ahead," he said.

According to preliminary indications, the Commissioner said the area under agriculture is increasing this year, which could also be because that labourers might have come back.

Mangaluru, May 8: Migrant workers, stranded in Karnataka due to lockdown, staged a protest on Friday at the Central Railway Station here, demanding to be sent back to their respective native places.

The workers demanded the state government to take measures and send them back to their homes.

Maintaining social distancing and covering their faces with masks, the workers were holding placards which read -- "We want to go home Jharkhand, We want justice and we want to go home."

They appealed to the state government to arrange trains and buses to ferry them to their native places and threatened to walk home if denied transport.

Several protests have erupted in different parts of the country, such as Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, as stranded labourers took to the roads demanding to be sent back home.

The Ministry of Home Affairs on May 1 had issued an order to extend the ongoing lockdown by two more weeks from May 4 with some relaxations.

Bengaluru, Mar 13: Health Minister B Sriramulu on Thursday assured the House that the state government will recruit doctors in all Primary Health Centres across the state through direct recruitment by the end of April this year.

The minister was answering MLA A T Ramaswamy, who raised the issue of shortage of doctors on Thursday. Sriramulu said there are 2,359 primary health centres in Karnataka, of which 1,432 centres have permanent doctors, 436 have doctors on contract basis, 236 have Ayush doctors, 55 have doctors who work under rural service, and the rest work on contract basis under the National Health Mission.

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, who had recently directed ministers to cancel KPSC recruitment and go for direct recruitment, expressed his anger  as it hasn’t been implemented even now. Sriramulu said, “I have directed the concerned District health officer to take action and go for direct recruitment. It will be done by end of April.”

He also said he is aware of the difference in salary between doctors working under the health department and those working under the medical education department. “This will also be rectified,’’ he assured.

Meanwhile, Sriramulu said that a hospital that he had inaugurated recently in Mysuru, has been shut due to the lack of doctors and furniture. “This will be sorted out soon,’’ he assured.