Bengaluru, Apr 15: Police on Wednesday conducted surprise raids at nearly 120 shops in Bengaluru following complaints of black marketing and sale of foodgrains above the MRP rate.
Sandip Patil, Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime, Bengaluru in a tweet said that action has been initiated against these shopkeepers.
Though the government has maintained the supply chain of essential items, few shopkeepers have used the lockdown opportunity to charge higher prices for essential items.
Bengaluru, July 31: Denying irregularities in covid-19 equipment purchase by the Karnataka government, the state unit of the BJP has issued legal notices to Congress leaders Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar demanding that they apologize or face a defamation suit.
The notices seek a public apology for the allegations levelled against the government on irregularities in the procurement of Covid-19 equipment and supplies.
Both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, the Karnataka Congress president, have been doggedly pursuing allegations of corruption against the BJP government and have demanded a judicial inquiry.
BJP general secretary N Ravi Kumar said that while the Congress leaders claimed that Rs 4,157 crore was spent during Covid-19, they also allege that the government has not responded to any of the 20 letters written by them. "If the government has not provided any answer to the Opposition, where did they get the figures from," he said.
None of the allegations of corruption is specific and the statements made are factually incorrect. "These statements, without any basis, have been issued calculatedly to lower the image and damage the reputation of the government, the Bharatiya Janata Party, representatives of the party and the ministers in the government," the notice issued on behalf of Ravi Kumar read.
Bengaluru, Feb 24: Census authorities in Karnataka have requested deputy commissioners in the state’s districts to hold outreach and awareness campaigns about the National Population Register (NPR), as they fear misgivings about the exercise could hurt the forthcoming enumeration of population.
The house-listing phase of the Census and updating of NPR will be rolled out simultaneously by mid-April in the BJP-ruled state.
About 1,50,000 enumerators will handle the massive exercise.
Officials believe widespread awareness will help address concerns about the NPR data-gathering process and make people cooperate with enumerators when they visit houses for both NPR and census work.
“Sensing the kind of questions that enumerators may face when they do house visits, in all video conferences with deputy commissioners of districts, we have requested to establish contact with local representatives,” SB Vijay Kumar, director of Census Operations in Karnataka told news agency. “We have asked them to organise outreach programmes to ensure that people’s doubts are resolved before the information gathering work begins,” he added.
Census operations are handled by the Union home ministry. Several district officials are said to have raised concerns about the possibility of people refusing to share information when the work on the census and NPR begins in two months. This would affect the quality of the census work, making the exercise incomplete.
news channel earlier reported that people in parts of Karnataka had declined to share personal information with officials visiting households in connection with government programmes, suspecting them of gathering data for the yet-to-be unveiled National Register of Citizens, following enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) recently.
Kumar said district authorities will train and sensitise enumerators to tread carefully while gathering information. Enumerators will be told not to demand information but seek it gently.
“We will tell enumerators to proactively engage with people. For instance, if an old man in a village does not know his exact date or place of birth, the enumerator may engage in a conversation with the person that may elicit some anecdotes and roughly establish the year and the place of birth,” the census director said.
As of now, the NPR questionnaire has 21queries, but officials say it has not yet been finalised.
With most of the census and NPR data gathering and storage happening digitally this time, the challenge before census officials is to convince people that the data would remain safe.
“Individual data is sealed and all that we can see is collective data. The information is consolidated and tailor-made. We are telling district officials to create awareness about data safety as well,” Kumar said.
Bengaluru, Aug 3: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa tweeted late Sunday night that he had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
In a brief post on Twitter, Mr Yediyurappa said that he was fine but had been hospitalised on the advice of doctors. While his daughter Padmavathi has also tested positive for the virus, the Chief Minister's son, Vijayendra, has tested negative.
The Chief Minister's media team has said he has been admitted to Manipal Hospital. Mr Yediyurappa, 77, also requested those who had come in contact with him to be wary of Covid symptoms and self-isolate.
"I have tested positive for coronavirus. Whilst I am fine, I am being hospitalised as a precaution on recommendation of doctors. I request those who have come in contact with me recently to be observant and exercise self-quarantine," the Chief Minister's tweet read.
The testing of the Chief Minister was done as part of the routine weekly tests he undergoes along with his staff. The results of Mr Yediyurappa's gunmen and security staff, around 50 of them, are expected today.
Staff members at Mr Yediyurappa's home office, Krishna, had tested positive early last month.
At that time Mr Yediyurappa said: "I am going to discharge my duties from home from today for the next few days in view of some of the staff in the office-cum-residence Krishna testing positive".
Mr Yediyurappa had also met Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala in Bengaluru on Friday. State Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai was also present at the meeting.
The Chief Minister is the second high-profile political leader to confirm testing positive for COVID-19 today; hours earlier Union Home Minister Amit Shah tweeted similar news.
Mr Shah, 55, too said he was "fine" and that he had been hospitalised on the "advice of doctors".
The minister also asked all those who had been in contact with him over the last few days to "please isolate yourself and get your tests done".
The Home Minister was at a cabinet meet last week, at which top colleagues, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman were present.
All Covid norms, including social distancing, were followed at that meeting, sources said.
Last month Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan tested positive for the virus as well. He has been in hospital since then and tweeted today to say that he was well and, minutes after Mr Yediyurappa tweeted his Covid positive status, he posted a get-well-soon message.
"I pray to God for your speedy recovery, Yediyurappaji," Mr Chouhan wrote.
Mr Chouhan had tweeted a message for Mr Shah too. "Home Minister Amit Shah, may God help you recover soon, so you can serve the nation with full energy. Our best wishes are with you," his tweet read.
Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also tweeted, saying: "I wish BS Yediyurappa a speedy recovery and to return with good health to continue his work for the people".
Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit also tested positive today, Chennai's Kauvery Hospital, where he has been admitted, said. He is asymptomatic and clinically stable.
On Sunday morning the virus claimed the life of a UP minister - Kamal Rani Varun, 62, died at Lucknow's Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences.
Over the last 24 hours, 54,735 cases were reported, taking the total number of cases to 17,50,723, data from the Health Ministry showed.
The continuing spike in cases over the past weeks comes as India gradually re-opens its economy after more than four months of the world's strictest lockdown. Unlock3, the third phase of easing of restrictions, came into effect on Saturday.
It took just 185 days for India to cross the 17-lakh mark after the first case was reported in Kerala in January; it took 110 days to record the first 1 lakh cases. More than 60 per cent of total cases in the country and over 50 per cent of total deaths have been recorded in July.
Also Read: Karnataka CM is in clinically stable condition: Manipal Hospital
Comments
Need tough punishment.
Instead of helping with lesser price, troubling the people. These are cruels.
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