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Kochi, Jan 21: Eight tourists from Kerala were found dead in a resort at Daman in Makwanpur district of Nepal, reports said. The dead include a couple and four minor children.

The deceased were identified as Praveen Kumar Nair (39), Saranya (34), Ranjith Kumar T.B (39), Indu Ranjith (34), Sreebhadra (9), Abhinav Soorya (9), Abhi Nair (7) and Vaishnav Ranjith (2).

The deceased are from Chengottukonam in Thiruvananthapuram and Kundamangalam in Kozhikode. Praveen, a travel enthusiast hailing from Chengottukonam, went on the Nepal trip with his wife, three children and friends from Kochi, last week.

 “They were using a gas heater in the room. Suffocation might have caused their death,” said superintendent of police Sushil Singh Rathore of the District Police Office in Makwanpur, news agencies reported.

According to newspaper reports here, the deaths occurred at a resort named Everest Panorama. They were airlifted to HAMS hospital where they were pronounced dead on arrival, superintendent of police Sushil Singh Rathaur said.

They were part of a group of 15 people travelling from Kerala to Pokhara, a popular mountain tourist destination, The Himalayan Times reported.

They were on their way back home and stayed at Everest Panorama resort in Daman in Makawanpur district on Monday night.

The tourists are suspected to have died of asphyxiation after turning on the gas heater and shutting all the windows to keep warm.  Hotel staff opened the room using duplicate keys as there was no response from the rooms when the other members of the group went to check on them.

According to the manager of the resort, the guests stayed in a room and turned on a gas heater to keep themselves warm. Although they had booked a total of four suites, eight of them stayed in a room, the manager said, adding that all the windows and the door of the room were bolted from inside.

“All arrangements have been made to bring the bodies to Kerala at the earliest. The Union government is coordinating with the Indian Embassy in Nepal. A doctor from the Indian embassy will be present during the post mortem. Other members of the group are being brought to Kathmandu by road,” said Union minister V Muraleedharan.

Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that NORKA will coordinate with Nepal authorities to bring dead bodies.

 “Embassy officials are at the government hospital where a post mortem is being done. Formalities will be completed at the earliest and arrangements are in place to bring dead bodies by Wednesday evening. State government is in constant contact with Nepal authorities,” said Kadakampally Surendran, tourism minister.

Kota, May 9: Karnataka Yakshagana Academy has come to the rescue of artists in distress due to cancellation of all Yakshagana festivals following coronavirus outbreak and clamping of lock-down.

The academy spends lakh of rupees every year from the money sanctioned to it on training new artists, performances and documentation. However, no such activity was undertaken due to COVID-19. Hence, the academy is discussing to transfer a large amount of money to Yakshagana artists as emergency aid, Academy President Prof M A Hegde said here.

In a statement issued here on Saturday, he said that along with this aid the donations by the public and Yakshagana admirers too could be given to the artists.

Managluru, May 13: Expressing regret over the inconvenience faced by the first batch of passengers from UAE that landed at Mangaluru International Airport last night, Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, deputy chief minister of Karnataka, today assured that all short comings will be addressed.

Addressing Kannadiga delegates from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and other countries through a video conference, Dr Narayan also assured that necessary steps will be taken by the Karnataka government to provide free quarantine facility for those who cannot afford private quarantine in hotels or guest houses. The video conference was organised by coastaldigest.com.

"The incontinence faced by passengers from Dubai at Mangaluru Airport have already been brought to my notice. All these shortcomings will be addressed. We will take appropriate steps to prevent the recurrence of such inconveniences," he said.

He said that the Karnataka government has already amended its standard operating procedure for international passengers to allow pregnant women to entre home quarantine if they test negative for covid-19. 

The problems faced by passengers at Mangaluru Airport last night include lack of staff to handle luggagues, lack of food and water, delay in arranging vehicle to transport passengers to quarantine centres and lack of free quarantine facility for those who cannot afford private quarantine facility. The next batch of repatriates will not face these problems, he said. 

Dr Narayan also promised to exert pressur on the union governmment to operate more flights to repatriate stranded Indians, especially Kannadigas from Saudi Arabia.

Prominent NRI commnity leaders Zakariya Jokatte, Naveen Bandary, Joy Fernandes, Shathosh Shetty Riyadh, Althaf Saqco, Shiekh Expertise and others participated in the video confernce.