Bengaluru, Apr 24: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Thursday held a meeting with state officials to address the situation in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
Due to COVID-19, the prices of the crops have come down. It was instructed to buy those vegetables and keep them in cold storage and then sell. It was also instructed to export fruits, vegetables which cannot be kept for a long time to other states and countries.
Wherever there is a scarcity of drinking water, it was decided to supply water immediately.
Chief Minister Yediyurappa had earlier spoken to Union Minister Sadananda Gowda and took information regarding fertilisers.
As fertilisers' demand is less in the international market, the Union minister for fertilisers said that farmers will be given fertilisers at less than the actual price.
As some of the associations/guilds have violated the lease conditions by not starting the actual work which they have got the land for in Bengaluru, they have been instructed to return the land to the government where the lease conditions have been violated.
As far as the irrigation department is concerned, much water is stored in dams. It was decided to utilise the same for the cultivation of crops and for the purpose of drinking.
As far as the education department is concerned, it was instructed to give online training to students.
With the help of state television channel Doordarshan, it has been decided to teach students about the syllabus and other activities till the reopening of school.
The KSRTC has lost hundreds of crore due to the reduction in bus services due to COVID-19. So, they were instructed to use buses to transport goods to generate revenue.
The government also decided that salary for the doctors, who are working on a contract basis against COVID-19, will be increased significantly.
Bengaluru, May 13: Former chief minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Wednesday called the measures announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as 'disastrous' and said it is 'non-existent' in terms of benefits to poor migrants, labourers, contract employees and farmers.
"The first set of measures announced by @FinMinIndia @nsitharaman, after 8 PM speech by @narendramodi, is disastrous & non-existent in terms of benefits to poor migrants, labourers, contract employees, farmers, etc," Siddaramaiah said in a tweet.
The Congress leader said most of the intended benefits may not reach the end recipient.
This comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a Rs 20 lakh crore special economic package to revive the COVID-19 hit economy.
"The contribution by the government for the schemes announced are mostly notional and less of actuals and the devil lies in the detail," the Congress leader said in another tweet.
After Sitharaman announced support measures for MSMEs, Siddaramaiah said, "The credit infusion to MSMEs may help them clear dues to vendors but it is doubtful if they shall utilise the credit available to pay their labourers & to prevent job cuts. @FinMinIndia should have taken measures to pay part of the salaries to the employees in MSMEs."
Further questioning the Centre on 'ignoring the spending for boosting consumption', Siddaramaiah said, "The government is interested in capital infusion in the form of credits but totally ignorant of the actual spending that needs to be done to boost consumption. How can credit be considered as government spending?"
Siddaramaiah said the next set of measures should benefit the marginalised sections.
"Will be looking forward to next set of measures & I hope it will be something to benefit the marginalised sections. Direct benefits to the poorest sections will help them survive this pandemic. COVID-19 fight should not be another perception battle but a real one," he added in another tweet.
Sitharaman earlier announced Rs 3 lakh crore collateral-free automatic loans for businesses, including MSMEs.
Besides this, she also stated that to provide stressed MSMEs with equity support, the government will facilitate the provision of Rs 20,000 crore as subordinate debt.
Bengaluru, Jul 9: The total number of Covid-19 infections in Karnataka on Thursday breached the 30,000 mark as the state reported its biggest single-day spike of over 2,200 new cases and 17 related fatalities, taking the death toll to 486, the Health department said.
The day also saw a record 957 patients getting discharged after recovery, out of which 606 were from Bengaluru Urban.
Out of the 2,228 fresh cases reported on Thursday, a whopping 1,373 were from Bengaluru Urban alone.
The previous biggest single-day spike was recorded on July 8 with 2,062 cases.
As of July 9 evening, cumulatively 31,105 Covid-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 486 deaths and 12,833 discharges, the Health department said in its bulletin.
It said, out of 17,782 active cases, 17,325 patients are in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 457 are in ICU.
"Death rate in Karnataka is 1.49 percent, while in Bengaluru is 1.28 percent, and our target is to bring it below 1 percent," Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar told reporters.
"The reason for spike in cases in Bengaluru and other places in recent days is because during the last four months of lockdown we had controlled it very well, but as we relaxed lockdown for economic activities we did not follow certain precautionary measures like distance among other things," he said.
The Minister also conceded that there were lapses on part of the government also in terms of tracing and tracking.
"It has to be improved especially in Bengaluru and we are taking steps in this regard."
Among the 17 dead seven were from Dharwad, two each from Hassan, Kalaburagi, Mysuru, and one each from Raichur, Uttara Kannada, Tumakuru and Davangere.
The deceased include 13 men and 4 women.
The dead are all either with a history of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) or Influenza-like illness (ILI).
Out of 2,228 fresh cases today, contacts of the majority of the cases are still under tracing.
Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Bengaluru Urban accounted for 1,373, followed by Dakshina Kannada (167), Kalaburagi (85) and Dharwad (75).
Bengaluru urban district tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 13,882 infections, followed by Kalaburagi (1,901) and Dakshina Kannada 1,701.
Among discharges Bengaluru urban tops the list with total 2,834, followed by Kalabuagi (1,392) and Udupi (1,206).
A total of 7,79,209 samples were tested so far, out of which 20,028 were tested on Thursday alone.
So far 7,28,887 samples have been reported as negative, and of them 17,568 were reported negative today.
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We are already facing lot of problems here without food and money.
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