Nagara Panchami: Hindus in Mangaluru express reverence towards Serpent

Bengaluru, Jul 18: Bringing a major change in the  administration of Bengaluru, which has emerged as a Covid-19 hotspot, the state government on Saturday transferred B H Anil Kumar out of the BBMP and brought N Manjunath Prasad to take his place. 

Manjunath Prasad, who headed the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) before being replaced by Kumar, will take over with immediate effect. The government has also placed him in concurrent charge of the Revenue Department as well as the Disaster Management, Bhoomi and UPOR.

Kumar, an Additional Chief Secretary, has been put in a place where earlier a secretary was posted. He now heads the Department of Public Enterprises. The posting would have brought him two spots down had it not been for the government upgrading it to the level of additional chief secretary. 

Anil Kumar, who was earlier praised for his work to contain the coronavirus pandemic, had faced criticism by the High Court of Karnataka for the BBMP's failure to help people in containment zones as well as other issues on the spread of the pandemic. 

Sources in the government said, pressure has been building up against Anil Kumar over the last two months after most of the Bengaluru MLAs complained to the chief minister's office.

"No MLA backed him. Everyone had a problem," a source said. 

Things came to the head with regard to a Rs 436 crore project given to KRIDL. "The issue reached the chief minister's office as all the MLAs took an issue with the way the project was awarded," a source said. 

Another source said that Kumar came under fire after a central team flagged the issue of failing Covid-19 surveillance measures in Bengaluru. The central team's criticism, it is widely believed in the government, came as the last straw. 

Mangaluru, Jul 7: The residents of Bangle Gudde, Mathadagudde area in Gurupura Gram Panchayat in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka, where two teen aged children were buried alive, were shifted to safer places.

District officials said on Tuesday that the residents have been provided temporary shelter in Gurpur school, PU college, and hostels, while few others were shifted to Ashraya centers. Total 40 houses out of 180 houses in this area located in the red zone were damaged due to heavy rain.

If the residents want to stay in the rented house, the revenue department is ready to pay a sum of Rs 2,500 towards rent, official sources said.

New Delhi, Jan 2: India on Sunday reported the second case of novel coronavirus with a person from Kerala with a travel history to China testing positive, officials said.

"The patient has tested positive for novel coronavirus and is in isolation in a hospital," the health ministry said.

The patient is stable and is being closely monitored, it said.

India's first novel coronavirus case in India was also reported from Kerala with a student testing positive.