Death sentence to rapists within 24 hrs if BJP comes to power in Karnataka: Yeddyurappa

Bengaluru, Feb 4: Congress MLA UT Khader on Tuesday alleged that B.S. Yediyurappa-led government has stopped providing free food to poor families under 'Anna Bhagya' scheme from last two months which was started by the Congress in the state.

"Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had started a scheme 'Anna Bhagya' under which free rice and wheat to 494 education institutions, NGOs, and old age homes were provided and the present government has stopped providing benefits to the poor people," said the MLA.

Alleging that the present government has stopped with the scheme Khadar said, "From last two months the government has stopped providing free food to the institutes and NGOs."

Khadar further demanded to restart the scheme to help the poor students.

"They should restart the scheme which supports poor students and old age houses, or congress will protest if the scheme is not restarted."

Last year in August, Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa had said that his government has no plans to stop any "pro-people schemes" including Anna Bhagya.

"Our government has no plans to scrap any of the pro-people schemes. Our Government is a pro-people Government. I have already signed the file to release grants to continue the "Anna Bhagya scheme" the twitter handle of Karnataka Chief Minister's Office had quoted him as saying.

Bengaluru, Jun 23: Karnataka Congress leader and Kanakapura MLA DK Shivakumar said on Monday that in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, people of his assembly constituency have taken a unanimous decision of remaining under voluntary lockdown until July 1.

The decision was taken after he headed a meeting at Kanakapura on Sunday, at the office of Kanakapura Municipality.

"Let us consider the situation after July 1, hold a similar meeting, and take the next decision. It has nothing to do with the state government's mandate. It came to the conclusion that this was a decision that we all voluntarily took," said DK Shivakumar.

DK Shivakumar informed that the merchants have agreed to sell groceries, fruits, vegetables, fennel, meat and other food items from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. only. District authorities, DCs, SPs and hospital representatives have decided the timings of clinics and drug stores.

He further said, "In this self-motivated lockdown, unnecessary driving should be avoided. The social gap must be maintained. No one should be oppressed by anyone."

Member of Parliament DK Suresh, Ravi - Ramanagara District Collector Archana, SP Anoop Shetty, and Kanakapura Planning Authority Chairman Jagannath were also present in the meeting.

Bengaluru, May 28: The Karnataka government has done away with previously mandatory COVID-19 testing for asymptomatic international travellers. 

The development comes a day after the government issued a circular, which allowed placing of international travellers into home quarantine if they had completed seven days of institutional quarantine.

A circular signed by Jawaid Akhtar, Additional Chief Secretary to the State Government, dated May 27, says that any “person who has completed seven days of institutional quarantine and is asymptomatic can be permitted for home quarantine with a COVID-19 test (RT-PCR), subject to undergoing a medical check-up.”

This check-up equates to thermal screening (with a required temperature of under 37.5C or 99.5F and pulse oximetry of under 94%). 

The circular added that all elderly people, over the age of 60, and those with comorbidities (such as Diabetes mellitus, hypertension, asthma, heart ailment, renal disease...etc) are “required to be clinically evaluated diligently prior to shifting them for quarantine.”

On Wednesday, Pankaj Pandey, Commissioner, the Department of Health and Family Welfare said that these new guidelines were based on recommendations from the COVID Task Force. A member of the COVID Task Force said that new strategies had been formulated based on the latest findings on how the SARS-Cov-2 virus affects people.