'If Hindu, then why promote eating beef?' Yogi asks Siddaramaiah

New Delhi, July 29: The government of India today announced Unlock 3.0, lifting of night curfew from August 1 and opening of yoga institutes and gymnasiums from August 5 while educational institutes will remain closed throughout August.

According to the Unlock 3.0 guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the lockdown in containment zones will be extended until August 30. The new guidelines will be in effect from August 1.

The operation of Metro rail and international flights will remain suspended. Cinema halls, swimming pools, entertainment parks, theatres, bars, auditoriums, assembly halls and similar places will remain shut. Large gatherings are also prohibited.

Yoga institutes and gymnasiums will start operating from August 5 for which the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will be issuing Standard Operating Procedures. 

Independence Day celebrations will be held with social distancing norms in place.

Restrictions on the movement of individuals during the night (Night curfew between 10 PM and 5 AM) have been removed.

According to the order, states have been given powers to prohibit certain activities outside containment zones or impose such restrictions as deemed necessary based on their assessment of the situation.

"However, there shall be no restriction on inter-state and intra-state movement of persons and goods. No separate permission/approval/e-permit will be required for such movements," the order said. 

In the previous two Unlock guidelines, the government had substantially opened various activities.

Bengaluru, Jul 28: After the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) reduced the syllabi for Classes 9 to 12 due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Karnataka government has followed the suit. The Department of Public Instruction has omitted the chapters on legendary south Indian rulers Hyder Ali and Tipu Sultan from the textbooks of Class 7 in their attempt to reduce syllabus for state board schools by 30 per cent. 

The department, however, has decided to retain similar chapters on Tipu Sultan in 6th and 10th Classes, though the syllabus in text books for all classes from 1 to 10th has been trimmed. 

The trimmed textbooks uploaded on the website of the Department of State Education Research and Training (DSERT) by Karnataka state Textbook Society revealed removal of chapters on Tipu Sultan for the seventh grade.

Justifying the decision, officials said, "students study similar chapters in Class 6 and more in the 10th grade." Yet another senior official from the Text Book Society said, "Trimming does not mean we have removed half of the syllabus from textbooks. It is only keeping in mind the repetition we have condensed the chapters. In case students study about a particular dynasty in higher grades, then the same had been removed from lower grades."

A few months ago, there was an uproar over dropping of content on Tipu Sultan and MLAs from the ruling BJP also demanded the same and petitioned to the Chief Minister. Even an expert committee led by Prof Baraguru Ramachandrappa suggested to not drop any content on the historic figure. However, the department still decided to drop lessons from one of the classes while keeping the syllabus short for the next 120 active academic days.

Earlier this month, a controversy had erupted over the CBSE's decision to omit topics like federalism, secularism, citizenship, etc while reducing the syllabus for Classes 9 to 12. The education board had issued a detailed clarification later, stating that topics claimed to be dropped "are either being covered by the rationalised syllabus or in the Alternative Academic Calendar of NCERT".

"The rationalisation of syllabus up to 30 per cent has been undertaken by the Board for nearly 190 subjects of class 9 to 12 for the academic session 2020-21 as a one-time measure only. The objective is to reduce the exam stress of students due to the prevailing health emergency situation and prevent learning gaps," it said.

Last week, the Congress in Uttar Pradesh expressed its concern over 'deliberate and systematic' deletions of chapters related to the freedom struggle and the party's role in it from the Class 10-12 syllabi of the Secondary Education Board.