Bengaluru, Apr 23: The Karnataka government on Wednesday promulgated 'The Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Ordinance 2020' that provides the state with a power to seal borders, restrict essential services and punish those attacking public servants and damaging public property.
The Ordinance comes after violence in Padarayanapura when the police and BBMP officials were attacked while they tried to take some secondary contacts of a deceased COVID-19 patient into quarantine on April 19.
The Ordinance, which was promulgated after the Centre's guidelines in this regard, said, "The offender shall be liable for a penalty of twice the value of public or private property damaged as determined by the Deputy Commissioner after an inquiry."
It further said that if the penalty is not paid by the offender, then the amount shall be recovered under provisions of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964. The Deputy Commissioner can even attach the property of such offender in due course.
Also, abetment of offence would attract imprisonment of up to two years and a penalty of Rs 10,000 or both.
"No person shall commit or attempt to commit or instigate, incite or otherwise abet the commission of offence to cause loss or damage to any public or private property in any area when restrictions and regulations are in force to contain any epidemic disease," the Ordinance said.
Whoever contravenes such provision shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than six months, but may extend to three years and with fine which may extend to Rs 50,000, it added.
On Wednesday, the Centre brought an Ordinance to end violence against health workers, making it a cognisable and non-bailable offence with imprisonment up to seven years for those found guilty.
"We have brought an Ordinance under which any attack on health workers will be a cognisable and non-bailable offence. In the case of grievous injuries, the accused can be sentenced from six months to seven years. They can be penalised from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakhs," Union Minister Prakash Javadekar briefed media after Cabinet meeting.
Javadekar said that an amendment will be made to the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and ordinance will be implemented.
This comes amid nationwide lockdown in the wake of COVID-19.
Mangaluru, May 31: The bus services by private operators in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi Districts will begin from tomorrow (June 1) with 15 per cent hike in the fares, Canara Bus Owners Association president Rajavarma Ballal said on Sunday.
In a statement issued here, he said that the members of the Association have appealed for a 3-month tax break. ''We have received tax breaks for 2 months and have demanded for an additional month again,'' he added.
He said that the government has agreed to a 15 per cent hike in bus fares. All the passes issued already will be converted into cash cards and no discounts will be available till the end of the COVID-19 crisis.
An added attraction in private buses will be the option of paying travel fares through smart cards.
According to Dakshina Kannada Bus Operators Association president Dilraj Alva, 50 per cent of 325 private city buses will resume their services on Monday. It also meant that 50 per cent of buses will operate on the allotted routes.
The smart cards (or travel cards called Chalo Card) will not be introduced on all routes at a time. They will be introduced in a phased manner covering all routes from Monday.
Madikeri, Feb 23: Back-to-back floods and landslides in the last two years, has led to a fall in the number of tourists coming to the coffee-growing region of Kodagu, forcing the district administration to intervene and take confidence-building measures, telling tourists that Kodagu was safe to visit.
According to the statistics of the Karnataka State Tourism Department, Kodagu recorded a moderately good number of tourists in 2018 and 2019, the years that the district witnessed devastating floods and landslides.
The Department’s statistics reveal that 17 lakh tourists visited Kodagu in 2018 and 18 lakh in 2019. This means the flood-ravaged years did attract tourists contrary to what the stakeholders had claimed.
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We are already facing lot of problems here without food and money.
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