Man divorces wife through triple talaq' on phone from abroad

Mangaluru, Mar 10: Tension prevailed in the city after an international flyer quarantined at the District Wenlock Hospital walked out of the facility.

The passenger, with a recent travel history to high-risk countries, refused to cooperate with health officials. The day-long drama ended when the district administration intervened and the flyer agreed to get himself re-admitted.

Deputy commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh said the passenger had fever and was sent to an isolation ward. “The passenger is cooperating with the treatment and samples have been collected for testing,” she said. The samples will be sent to a testing centre in Bengaluru.

Sources told  that rude behaviour by staff at Mangalore International Airport may have angered the passenger and he walked out of the quarantine facility.

She said if passengers show reluctance to be screened, they should first be counselled and allowed to get themselves admitted to a hospital of their choice with quarantine facility. If they still refuse to cooperate, they will have to be hospitalised forcefully, she added.

Bengaluru, Mar 3: Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu has called a meeting of top officials of his department on Tuesday following information that the man, who tested postive for novel coronavirus in Telangana had travelled from the city.

The minister in a tweet said people residing in the person's local address have been identified and are being monitored.

He also said state government has taken all precautionary measures to contain the spread of the virus.

The condition of the 24-year-old man, who tested positive for the coronavirus was stable and he was being treated in an isolated ward at the state-run Gandhi hospital in Hyderabad, the Telangana government had said on Monday.

The man, a software engineer who works here, had been to Dubai last month on an official visit, where he is suspected to have contracted the virus.

The man reached Bengaluru on February 19/20 and later travelled to Hyderabad in a bus.

Earlier, Sriramulu had said, the government has strengthened all surveillance and control measures against the spread of the virus in Karnataka.

Till date, 468 travellers from COVID 2019 affected countries have been identified and 284 are under home isolation while one admitted in selected isolation hospital, he had said.

The Karnataka Minister had also said that till date samples of symptomatic are sent for testing, out of which 240 samples were eligible for testing and 238 were reported as negative.

He added that 104 'arogya sahayavani' (health helpline) has reserved 2 seater for receiving calls and providing guidance over Coronavirus and 6,770 calls have been received and information provided.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has rationalised by up to 30 per cent the syllabus for classes 9 to 12 for the academic year 2020-21 to reduce course load on students amid the COVID-19 crisis, Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' announced on Tuesday.

The curriculum has been rationalised while retaining the core elements, the Human Resource Development said.

Among the chapters dropped after the rationalisation exercise are lessons on democracy and diversity, demonetisation, nationalism, secularism, India's relations with its neighbours and growth of local governments in India, among others.

"Looking at the extraordinary situation prevailing in the country and the world, CBSE was advised to revise the curriculum and reduce course load for the students of classes 9 to 12.

"To aid the decision, a few weeks back I also invited suggestions from all educationists on the reduction of syllabus for students and I am glad to share that we received more than 1.5K suggestions. Thank you, everyone, for the overwhelming response," Nishank tweeted.

"Considering the importance of learning achievement, it has been decided to rationalise syllabus up to 30 per cent by retaining the core concepts," he added.

The Union minister said the changes made in the syllabi have been finalised by the respective course committees with the approval of the curriculum committee and the Governing Body of the Board.

"The heads of schools and teachers have been advised by the board to ensure that the topics that have been reduced are also explained to the students to the extent required to connect different topics. However, the reduced syllabus will not be part of the topics for internal assessment and year-end board examination.

"Alternative academic calendar and inputs from the NCERT on transacting the curriculum using different strategies shall also be part of the teaching pedagogy in the affiliated schools," a senior official of the HRD ministry said.

For classes 1 to 8, the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) has already notified an alternative calendar and learning outcomes.

According to the updated curriculum, among the chapters deleted from class 10 syllabus are-- democracy and diversity, gender, religion and caste, popular struggles and movement, challenges to democracy

For class 11, the deleted portions included chapters on federalism, citizenship, nationalism, secularism, growth of local governments in India.

Similarly, class 12 students will not be required to study chapters on India's relations with its neighbours, changing nature of India's economic development, social movements in India and demonetisation, among others.

Universities and schools across the country have been closed since March 16 when the central government announced a nationwide classroom shutdown as one of the measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.

A nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, which came into effect the next day. While the government has eased several restrictions, schools and colleges continue to remain closed.