Mangaluru: Two sentenced to life for black magic murder of 3-year-old girl

Bengaluru, May 28: As many as 115 new coronavirus cases were reported in Karnataka on Thursday taking the infection count to 2,533, Karnataka Minister S Suresh said.

The total coronavirus cases include 834 discharges, 1,650 active cases, 47 deaths so far due to the disease and two deaths due non-COVID causes, Suresh Kumar, who is minister for primary and secondary education, said during the daily COVID-19 briefing.

According to him, 29 cases were reported in Udupi on Thursday, followed by 24 in Dakshina Kannada district, 13 in Hassan, 12 in Bidar, nine in Bengaluru Urban, seven in Yadagiri, six in Chitradurga, five in Kalaburagi, four in Haveri, three in Chikkamagaluru, two in Vijayapura and one in Raichur.

The minister said among the new cases, 95 are inter-state passengers and two international passengers.

According to the health department, 84 infected people have returned from Maharashtra and eight from Tamil Nadu.

Among those discharged today, 13 are in Davangere, 12 in Dakshina Kannada, nine each in Yadagiri and Vijayapura, five in Gadag, three in Belagavi, one each in Mysuru and Bagalkote.

Two are severe acute respiratory infection cases.

There were, however, no coronavirus related deaths in the state today, the minister said.

Kumar said the government has issued another circular making changes in the quarantine rules.

"A person who has completed seven days of institutional quarantine and is asymptomatic can be permitted for home quarantine without a COVID test, subject to undergoing medical check-up," the minister said.

According to the circular, all elderly people of above 60 years of age and those with comorbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma, heart ailment and renal diseases, are required to be clinically evaluated diligently prior to shifting them to home quarantine.

Such people will be under mandatory home quarantine for seven days, the circular read.

Bengaluru, Mar 9: The BJP government in Karnataka on Monday scrapped the Shaadi Bhagya Scheme that was launched by Congress government in the state in 2013.

Under the scheme, Rs 50,000 was given to Muslim brides for marriage expenses after they submitted their Aadhar and BPL cards.

While the previous coalition government had allocated Rs 60 crore budget for the scheme, the BJP government decided to discontinue the scheme. Congress called the move by the state government as "anti-minority".

"They have launched a scheme for the majority community. I welcome that. But why are you discontinuing one scheme? It is a small scheme where marginalized people get a little help from the government," Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad told reporters.

"He (Karnataka Chief Minister) has wilfully reduced the money allotted to all the schemes," he added.

BJP MLA Basavana Gowda Patil Yantal welcomed the decision of the Karnataka Government to scrap the scheme.

"The minority does not need appeasement because equal citizenship needs to apply to all in this country. I wholeheartedly welcome this move by the Karnataka Government," Yantal told reporters.

"Should we not give the majority people anything in India? India not giving anything to the majority, is that secular? We have already given them Pakistan," he said.

The MLAs from the minority community in the state have demanded a meeting with the Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa.

Kochi, Jan 22: Rail passengers from Kerala are a happy lot as the state’s traditional food items such as appam and eggcurry, puttu and kadala curry have found their way back to the revised menu of the Railways in the wake of protests over reports that they were replaced by north indian delicacies.

The popular Kerala dishes were reinstated to the list following social media backlash over the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation’s reported decision to replace the favorite cuisine of Malayalis from its menu with north Indian dishes such as Kachori and Chole Bhature.

Ernakulam MP Hibi Eden, who had shot off a letter to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal raising the issue of alleged discrimination against Keralites, got an assurance from the IRCTC officials that popular items, including snacks such as unniyappam and sukhiyan will be served through its outlets in the state.

Eden said the IRCTC officials who visited him at his home on Wednesday morning have presented him with the list of delicacies to be served by its local vendors in Kerala. In his letter to the minister, the MP had stated that dishes which are very important to Malayalis for breakfast such as appam, egg curry, porotta, dosa, steam cake (puttu) were excluded along with snacks such as banana fry (pazham pori), kozhukkatta, unniyappam, neyyappam and sukhiyan.  He had also raised the issue of hike in price of food items.

According to him, price of meals has been increased from RS 35 to 70 and that ofsnacks such as vada from Rs 8 to 15.  While the price of vada has not been reduced, the fare of snack meal like parotta, chappathi, idiyappam, appam and puttu with kadala curry or egg curry will be served at Rs 50.  According to IRCTC, a passenger will have to shell out Rs 20 for unniyappam/sukhiyan/neyyappam, 2 numbers each.  Informing Goyal of the changes in menu, he said Malayalis are discriminated in trains and railway refreshment rooms by the food which is the right of every passenger.

He had sought urgent intervention of the Minister and speedy action in the matter.