Congress concentrated only on work, no marketing; BJP doing only marketing'

Bengaluru, Apr 22: The Karnataka government has announced partial relaxation of COVID-19 lockdown norms in the state allowing certain construction activities, manufacturing of packaging materials, courier services, among others, from April 23.

The activities will be permitted only outside the COVID-19 containment zones identified by the government.

Service provided by self-employed people like electrician, IT repair, plumbers, motor mechanics, and carpenters in local areas have also been given exemption.

Tea, coffee and rubber plantation have been allowed to work with 50 per cent workforce, and a similar exemption have been given to processing, packaging, sale and marketing of these produce.

“To mitigate hardship to the public, select additional activities have been allowed,which will come into effect from 00.00 hours of April 23,” Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar said in an order on Wednesday.

However, these additional activities will be operationalised by District Administrations and BBMP (city corporation in the case of Bengaluru city) based on strict compliance to the guidelines on lockdown measures, it said.

Before operating these relaxations, district administrations and BBMP (city corporation) shall ensure that all the preparatory arrangements on social distancing in offices, work place establishments as also sectoral requirements are in place, it said, adding that relaxations will not apply in containment zones.

Facing a financial crunch, the state government has been eager to kick-start economic activities in the state that had come to halt due to the coronavirus lockdown.

While hospitality services, bars, malls, theatres, shopping complexes, religious and places of worship among others will continue to remain shut, relaxation of norms has been for activities that are linked to essential services such as health, infrastructure and agriculture.

As per the order, while, public transportation will continue to remain suspended till May 3,private vehicles with passes for emergency services and personnel commuting with passes to places of work and back will be allowed.

Activities permitted include construction of roads, irrigation projects, buildings and all kinds of industrial projects, including MSMEs, in rural areas and all kinds of projects in industrial estates, where workers are available on site and no one is required to be brought in from outside.

Also permitted to function are manufacturing units of essential goods – drugs, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, their raw materials and intermediates;

food processing industries in rural areas, coal production (mines and mineral production and activities incidental to mining) besides manufacturing units of packaging materials.

Mysuru, May 19: Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday announced the results of garbage free-star rating for Indian cities.

He said that Ambikapur in Chhattisgarh, Rajkot in Gujarat, Mysuru in Karnataka, Indore in Madhya Pradesh and Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra have got a five-star rating.

Puri extended the wishes to the cities who got a five-star rating and said it came at a time when the entire world, including India, are reeling under the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.

"It was the intention of my senior colleagues and others to declare the result of star rating of garbage-free cities much earlier but we decided to postpone because we wanted at least some degree of opening to take place and we thought the timing is correct," Puri said.

The minister said that of all the flagship programmes Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced, Swachta Mission is the most important programme for him.

"I have often shared with you my assessment that of all the flagship programmes that the Prime Minister had announced after the 2014 election results. But my personal view, a view I have had a citizen and certainly a view that is fortified by my experience as Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, that the Swachta Mission by far is the most important programme of all the missions," Puri said

Mangaluru, May 6: Three more coronavirus positive cases have been reported in Dakshina Kannada district. 

According to fresh bulletin of health and family welfare department, an 11-year-old girl and a 36-year-old woman from Boloor in Mangaluru and a 16-year-old girl from Bantwal tested positive for the covid-19. 

All of them are undergoing treatment at Wenlock Hospital. Their condition is said to be stable. 

With this the total number of cases in the district reached 28 including 22 residents of Dakshina Kannada, 4 from Kasaragod, 1 from Udupi and 1 from Uttara Kannada.