'Lotus on passports part of security feature': MEA clarifies after Congress's outcry

Mangaluru, May 8: Migrant workers, stranded in Karnataka due to lockdown, staged a protest on Friday at the Central Railway Station here, demanding to be sent back to their respective native places.

The workers demanded the state government to take measures and send them back to their homes.

Maintaining social distancing and covering their faces with masks, the workers were holding placards which read -- "We want to go home Jharkhand, We want justice and we want to go home."

They appealed to the state government to arrange trains and buses to ferry them to their native places and threatened to walk home if denied transport.

Several protests have erupted in different parts of the country, such as Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, as stranded labourers took to the roads demanding to be sent back home.

The Ministry of Home Affairs on May 1 had issued an order to extend the ongoing lockdown by two more weeks from May 4 with some relaxations.

Mangaluru, May 19: Officials at the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) said that Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada along with Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru have been alerted about possible heavy rains.

Dr GS Srinivasa Reddy, Director, KSNDMC, said, “Coastal districts have already been witnessing heavy downpour since Monday morning. This will continue for another two days depending on the cyclonic movement along the east coast.”

Until last evening, Haleyangadi and Surathkal in Dakshina Kannada district had received 83 mm and 82.5 mm of rainfall, respectively. Several other areas in Udupi also witnessed heavy rainfall of about 60 to 70 mm rainfall.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) attributed the rain, which intensified on Monday, to a cyclonic circulation over parts of the Arabian Sea (Comorin area) off the coast of Kerala.

The weather department said the sudden convergence of wind over the peninsular region was due to Super Cyclone Amphan, which is set to barrel into the east coast. The IMD issued an Yellow Alert for coastal Karnataka and Malnad, warning of moderate to heavy rainfall in the next few days.

Bengaluru, Jul 19: Three legislators of the opposition Congress in Karnataka, including 2 MLAs and 1 MLC tested positive for coronavirus and are under treatment, a party official said on Saturday.

"Our Bailhongal MLA Mahantesh Koujalgi in Belagavi district and Humnabad MLA Rajashekhar Patil and his MLC brother Chandrashekhar Patil in Bidar district tested positive for the infection and are under treatment at designated hospitals," party spokesman Ravi Gowda told media persons in Bangaluru.

Koujalgi's swab sample was taken on Friday after he showed signs of illness and its result turned positive earlier in the day.

"As Koujalgi attended a review meeting at Bailhongal, about 20 officials who participated in the meeting have been home quarantined," said Gowda.

Koujalgi is the second lawmaker in the state's northwest region to test positive after BJP's Belagavi North assembly segment MLA Anik Benake tested positive for the virus on July 15.

"Patil brothers were in self quarantine after meeting BJP's Bidar Lok Sabha member Bhagwanth Khuba, who tested positive on Wednesday. Their tests also showed they were infected with the virus," Gowda said.

Congress MLC Sandesh Nagaraj, who tested positive on Friday, is under treatment at a private hospital in Mysuru.

Dakshina Kannada district Youth Congress president Mithun Rai is in institutional quarantine in Bengaluru after he tested positive for the infection.