Manipal: Seminar on Understanding Islam' on Saturday

Bengaluru, May 27: Amid uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has disrupted school education in Karnataka, the state government is seeking the help of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to televise classes, a state minister said on Tuesday.

"We request you to provide minimum three channels on the Doordarshan network exclusively for the Department of Public Instruction, Government of Karnataka," Primary and Secondary Education Minister Suresh Kumar said in a letter to Union I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar.

Suggesting co-branding the channels under DD and the state education department, he asked for the channels to be mandatorily transmitted by the cable and DTH operators under the Cable Act.

The state education department has already discussed with Prasar Bharti officials, who, according Kumar, have assured 3+3 hours of timeslots on the education channel Chandana on cost basis.

"We have also made all the necessary arrangements for content creation by the teachers," he said.

Meanwhile, the minister has revealed that television is the best medium for the students as a home learning mode in these challenging times.

"The department of public instruction reviewed various technological options and considered TV as one of the best means for home learning," Kumar said.

In a survey conducted by the education department, it was found out that 95 per cent households had television sets.

Kumar said the state operates government schools in nine languages, including Kannada, English and Urdu.

"To cater to all the students, and considering a long-term strategy to run schools by maintaining social distancing, we are in immediate need of minimum three exclusive channels to teach through TV," he said.

According to Kumar, the Karnataka government is facing hardships to meet the capital expenditure requirements, hence, it is seeking help from the I&B Ministry.

Karwar: The number of Covid-19 patients in Uttara Kannada district has gone up to 39 with seven more persons from Bhatkal testing positive for the virus on Sunday.

These seven persons include five men and two women. Among them, the youngest is 15 years and the eldest is 60 years. Rest of the patients are 50, 21, 16, 42, and 31 years old, a health bulletin said. All the new seven cases are contacts of the eight persons who were found positive on Saturday.

Of the new cases, one is an auto-rickshaw driver who had reportedly transported one of the patients. Now the administration is collecting the details of the driver’s journeys and the persons who had travelled in his auto-rickshaw. It is said that some of these persons who were confirmed positive on Sunday had travelled to Udupi and moved around in Bhatkal town to buy medicine.

The pressure on the administration is increasing with new positive cases being detected in Bhatkal town every day. After the first 11 cases, there were no new cases for 20 days. However, since Friday, there is sudden spike in the number of new cases in Bhatkal town.

Bengaluru, Jun 12: The Karnataka government is mulling to issue caste and income certificates to Brahmins though they are in a minority, accounting a mere three per cent of the southern state''s seven crore population, an official said on Thursday.

"Though Brahmins are in a ''minority'' in terms of their population across the state, they need caste and income certificates to benefit from the welfare schemes as in the case of the SC, ST and OBC groups," an official said here.

The Karnataka State Brahmin Development Board was set up in March 2019 as a state-run company with Rs five crore authorized capital and Rs five crore equity and is registered with the Registrar of Companies.

"The Board has petitioned the state government to implement the 10 per cent quota for the economically weaker sections, as its benefit is being given by the central government jobs and in admissions to the national educational institutions," said its chairman H.S. Sachidananda Murthy.

Responding to the demand, state Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa said the state government would consider issuing caste certificates to the Brahmins so that they too can benefit from the state''s various welfare schemes.

"Though Brahmins belong to the forward community, they are economically weaker and need financial support," said Yediyurappa on Wednesday after unveiling the Board''s official website for all its stakeholders here.

Brahmins whose gross annual family income is less than Rs eight lakh per annum will be eligible for the benefit schemes.

"The Board will soon be authorised to issue caste and income certificates to the members of the Brahmin community so that they can also benefit from the schemes," said the chief minister on the occasion.

Noting that every community has people who are forward and backward economically for various, including historical reasons, Yediyurappa said the Board would be empowered to serve the Brahmins.

"The Board also proposes to provide interest-free loans to the financially weaker sections of the people in the Brahmin community," added Murthy.

The community members urged the Chief Minister to provide 10 per cent of the state government jobs and seats in state-run educational institutions, including professional collages.