Mangaluru: DC refutes reports that passenger from Dubai had coronavirus

Bengaluru, May 8: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Friday held a meeting with opposition parties at his office here over COVID-19 situation in the state.

Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Congress leaders SR Patil and DK Shivakumar participated in the meeting. From Janata Dal (Secular), former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and HD Revanna were present.

"Congress legislative party leader Siddaramaiah and DK Shivkumar have arranged the Chief Minister to request the central government to announce a special package of Rs 50,000 crore to Karnataka to fight coronavirus and also special packages requested for small and medium scale industries," said Siddaramaiah's media secretary.

Meanwhile, Yediyurappa has announced a special package for those involved in leather works, especially those who work on the roadside.

The special package has been announced for cobblers and leather workers, who work on the roadside.

 Bengaluru, Jan 12: Two pilgrims from Bengaluru, who were siblings, drowned in sea off Auro Beach in Puducherry today.

The deceased have been identified as V Gauthman, 22, and his brother Vivek, 20.

Gauthman and Vivek were among a group of around 150 devotees from Bengaluru to the Adhiparasakhi temple at Melmaruvathur in Kancheepuram district of Tamil Nadu. They started their journey from Bengaluru in three buses on Friday.

After offering special puja at Adhiparasakthi temple and worshipping at a few other temples, they reached Auro Beach on Sunday afternoon. 

While they were having lunch on the beach, Gauthman entered the sea. He was caught in a huge wave.

Vivek, who tried to rescue his brother, too was caught in the wave.

Other pilgrims and fishermen began to search for them in fishing boats.

After an hour, their bodies were washed ashore, around two km from the spot.

The Auroville police retrieved the bodies and sent them for postmortem.

Bengaluru, Feb 19: Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa thanked his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan for initiating action against those dumping bio-medical and bio-wastes in Karnataka's districts from neighboring state Kerala.

In a statement, he said, "First I would like to thank Kerala Chief Minister Pinnarayi Vijayan for his prompt reaction and response to initiate legal action against the dumpers of bio-medical and bio-waste in our districts neighboring Kerala."

The Karnataka Chief Minister has taken a serious note of the reports in a section of media on alleged dumping of bio-medical waste and bio-waste by people from Kerala in bordering Mysuru, Kodagu and Chamarajnagar districts.

"I have directed deputy commissioners of concerned districts, environment department, and pollution control board to take stock of the situation and check surreptitious activities of individuals and agencies from Kerala who are indulging in this illegal activity. I have also directed the officials to prevent the use of this bio-medical waste by Jaggery units as fuel," Yediyurappa said.

He assured that soon this activity will be checked and ended.