Deve Gowda makes his grandson JD(S) general secretary

Bengaluru, Mar 16: Stepping up measures to curb spread of coronavirus in the state, the Karnataka government would start thermal screening of visitors at various places including the vidhana soudha, high court, secretariat, and city civil courts, from Tuesday.

In view of coronavirus scare, screening of visitors has already begun at Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa's residence at Dollar's Colony in the city.

A medical team has been deployed for the purpose, sources close to the CM told PTI. Medical screening of passengers arriving at the Kempegowda International Airport here was underway. So far seven people have been tested positive in the state while one of them died due to COVID-19 in Kalaburagi.

The Department of Health and Family Welfare said the procurement of equipment such as scanners would be completed by Monday.

"The procurement of scanners, other supplies, deputation of staff nurses and trainingshall be held and completed on March 16, Monday itself on war footing basissetting aside other works," Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare department, Pankaj Kumar Pandey said in his order to district level health officers.

The KarnatakaState Drugs Logistics and Warehousing Society (KSDLWS) would procure and give the thermal scanners to the district health and family welfare officers of Bengaluru Urban, Kalaburagi, Dharwad, it said. Sufficient virus filtering N95 masks, handgloves and sanitisers would also be provided to the officers, it added.

Mangaluru, Apr 12: A 70-year-old woman who tested positive for COVID-19 got discharged from a hospital here on Sunday after she recovered from the novel coronavirus, said Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner, Sindu B Rupesh.

Seven other patients have also recovered and discharged in Dakshina Kannada till date. Total number of active cases in the district has decreased to 5 now.

As many as 232 COVID-19 positive cases have been reported in Karnataka till date.

The total number of coronavirus cases in India on Sunday climbed to 8447, including 764 cured and discharged, 1 migrated and 273 deaths, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Mysuru, Jan 19: The 'City of Palaces', for the first time in history, got a Muslim woman as its first citizen, on Saturday.

Tasneem, a JD(S) Corporator, is elected as the 22nd Mayor of Mysuru. The 34-year-old Tasneem is a second-time corporator, representing Ward number, 26. She defeated BJP candidate Geetha Yogananda, representing Ward no 65 of Srirampura, by a margin of 24 votes. Out of 70 members, who were present during the election, 47 voted for Tasneem, 23 for Geetha Yogananda.

Tasneem thanking the party leaders said the JD(S) gave her an opportunity to serve the city and its people. JD(S) gives more priority for minorities. The party facilitated the first Muslim Mayor, Arif Hussian, in 1996. Later, Congress corporator Ayub Khan served as mayor in 2008.

Women from different communities had served as mayor of the city, but, Tasneem is the first Muslim woman to be elected as Mayor of Mysuru.

Tasneem, a BA Graduate from Maharani's College, was proud for being the first citizen and thanked party supremo H D Deve Gowda, leaders H D Kumaraswamy, MLAs Sa Ra Mahesh, G T Devegowda, K S Rangappa, and her colleagues in the Mysuru City Corporation. Tasneem extended her gratitude to her voters, who voted her for the second time.  

'Mysuru is known for cleanliness. Thus, my first priority is to maintain cleanliness and I will work towards retaining the 'Clean city' tag. The city is facing issues related to street lights among others for many days. I will make prompt attempts to resolve them,' she said.

JD(S) city president K T Cheluvegowda said the party nominated Tasneem for mayor's post as per the suggestion from the party supremo H D Deve Gowda and other leaders. There were other aspirants, but, they were convinced and nominated Tasneem, he said.