Expectations high in Dakshina Kannada as SSLC exams begin

Bengaluru, Jun 9: A 24-year-old who wanted to experience the feeling of death lost his life after consuming pesticide — he recorded it all on TikTok — in Koratagere taluk of Tumakuru district on Saturday evening.

Chided by his mother for not earning money, Dhananjaya, a resident of Gouraganahalli, on Saturday evening bought pesticide from a shop and shot a 15-second TikTok video, saying, “I want to experience the feeling of what death would be like. I will try to kill myself.”

Locals rushed Dhananjaya to a nearby hospital where he breathed his last the next morning. Koratagere police registered a case of unnatural death.

According to police, Dhananjaya had in the past rammed his Bajaj Pulsar bike into a tree to ‘experience’ death but had survived with minor injuries. Villagers and family members had advised him to not to take such risks. But he continued to do so as he was obsessed with death and posted his opinion regularly on TikTok, where he had 431 followers.

He tied the knot four months ago and was running an autorickshaw on rent. However, his earnings reduced to zero during the lockdown and he wasn’t mentally stable, claimed villagers.

Investigators said Dhananjaya wanted to scare his mother with his suicide threat and wanted to ‘experience’ death. He consumed poison near a farm but later panicked thinking he would die. However, he was not in a position to ride back home. He called his friend, who visited the spot and shifted him to hospital on Saturday night, police said.

Bengaluru, Mar 25 : Karnataka recorded its highest single-day tally to date, as 10 people tested positive, taking the total number of cases to 51 in the state.

“Till date 51 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state which includes one death and three discharged," the health department said in a statement on Wednesday.

The rise in cases adding to the growing national tally of people who have tested positive for COVID-19.

The daughter of a former union minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Karnataka has also tested positive.

Bengaluru accounts for 32 of the total 51 cases recorded in the state so far,including three who have fully recovered and released.

Dakshina Kannada has five confirmed cases, Chikkaballapura and Kalaburagi has three cases each, Mysuru has and Uttara Kannada has two cases each and four other districts have one case each.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced a 21-day lockdown of the country to keep people indoors and contain the spread of the virus in the community.

The government has also been trying to scale up testing.

Medical education minister K.Sudhakar on Wednesday told Mint that Karnataka will scale up testing by 10-fold with the help of government and private labs approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

A total of 2,438 people have been tested in Karnataka and 2242 have tested negative, according to state health department. 214 people are lodged in medical hospitals.

Bengaluru, May 29: Karnataka Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy on Thursday said the Centre has objected to the state's decision to increase working days at factories, and the matter would be discussed in the next cabinet meeting.

"....the Centre has raise objection to extending working days and has said it should be brought down. We will amend it....I will share the details after the next cabinet meet, the matter did not come up today (Thursday), we have received the letter," Madhuswamy told reporters in response to a question after the cabinet meeting.

He noted that a couple of states that had increased the working hours have withdrawn it. The Karnataka government had, on May 22, issued a notification allowing factories to extend working hours upto 10 hours a day and 60 hours a week till August 21. The extension of work hours is from the existing eight hours a day and 48 hours a week.

Pointing out that while announcing COVID-19 relief package, the Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had announced Rs 5,000 per acre for maize farmers, Madhuswamy said while issuing the circular which mentioned that relief would be applicable to rabi crop, as it would not benefit many farmers.

Now, it has now been decided to give Rs 5,000 per acre to all maize farmers, irrespective of rabi or kharif. There were also several rules and regulations for barbers, autorickshaw and taxi drivers among others to claim their one-time compensation of Rs 5,000, the Minister said.

"We have decided to relax most of them (rules) other than those essential and give compensation, as regulations wouldn't have benefited many," he said. With five nominated seats of legislative council falling vacant on June 23, the cabinet has authorised the Chief Minister to nominate for 5 seats.

The cabinet also gave post-facto approval for Karnataka Repealing of Certain Enactments and Regional Law Bill 2020 that has been passed by the legislature.