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New Delhi, Mar 11: In the wake of the ongoing political crisis in Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy on Wednesday said that Bharatiya Janata Party is using Jyotiraditya Scindia to usurp power in the state and that the former Congress leader has "fallen into the trap."

"#BJP is enacting the strategy the way they did in #Karnataka. It is murder of democracy #JyotiradityaScindia has fallen into the trap. He will realise the himalayan blunder very shortly. BJP after using #Scindia will through (throw) him out. I am confident Shri Kamalnath prove majority," he tweeted.

The Chief Minister's comments came at a time of political turmoil in Madhya Pradesh after Scindia and 22 MLAs resigned from the party on Tuesday.

Scindia is likely to join the BJP today.

Mangaluru, Jul 9: The coastal district of Dakshina Kannada today recorded death of two coronavirus patients.

Meanwhile, the district today also recorded 167 new covid cases taking the total number of cases to 1701.

Yesterday, the district had recorded 183 cases. Today more cases were reported from Bantwal and Ullal regions. 

According to sources, a 48-year-old man from Boloor, who was under treatment for covid-19 at designated covid hospital passed away today. 

A 62-year-old covid patient, who had SARI symptoms, breathed his last at a private hospital.

With this, the total number of deaths of covid-19 patients in the district reached 30 including two deaths caused by other reasons.

Of the 167 who tested positive on Thursday, 110 are males and 57 females including seven children.

Three have returned from Qatar and Dubai, one from Bengaluru, 42 are diagnosed with influenza-like illness (ILI), six are diagnosed with severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) and 64 are primary contacts of earlier patients. Contact tracing process of 38 patients is on, and 13 pre-surgery samples.

Bengaluru, Jul 7: There seems no impact of Covid-19 on kharif crop sowing in Karnataka with the current year actually being ahead of previous years, according to an official here on Monday.

"In agriculture, as far as sowing is concerned, there is no impact of COVID-19," Agriculture Commissioner Brijesh Kumar Dikshit told IANS. One of the reasons, according to Dikshit, is that people in rural areas are aware, but not scared of the pandemic.

"In rural India, coronavirus is there. People are aware, not scared. They are taking precautions, but don't have any phobia," he said.

Another reason was that by June the number of infections in Karnataka was not as high as other states, when a lot of sowing was done, he said.

By the end of June, Karnataka saw 15,242 Covid-19 cases. Of that, 7,074 were active.

The sowing is ahead of previous year as it's mostly dependent on weather. "It's ahead of previous years. Agriculture is directed by weather and rains had been slightly earlier this year," he said.

According to Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, at 185 mm the state received 14 mm less rain in June against the normal 199 mm. "It's like a normal year, or slightly a good year," he said.

Some crops will be sown in the last fortnight of July and few more will extend up to August 15. "The last two weeks will be critical and on July 31 we should be able to tell whether we are short or ahead," he said.

According to preliminary indications, the Commissioner said the area under agriculture is increasing this year, which could also be because that labourers might have come back.