Muslim family conducts post death ceremony of Hindu man

Bengaluru, Jan 26: BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel has been served with a court notice asking him to personally appear before the special court for people’s representatives on February 24, in connection with a defamation suit filed by Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad.

Rizwan had lodged the defamation suit against Kateel and state BJP social media chief after the party, in a tweet during the 2019 Lok Sabha election, alleged Rizwan’s involvement in the manufacture of fake voter identity cards.

Apart from Kateel, head of the party’s social media unit has also been asked to appear in person at the above court on February 24.

Bengaluru, Jun 14: Karnataka's Health Department has shut down four city clinics for not reporting Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) cases, which are COVID symptoms, an official said on Sunday.

"We have shut four Bengaluru clinics for not reporting ILI and SARI cases," a health official told IANS.

The clinics are Namma Clinic at Sahakaranagar, Panchamukhi Specialty Clinic at Peenya 2nd Stage, Mathru Chaya Clinic at Sudhama Nagar in Bommanahalli and Nayak Hospital in Gayathri Nagar.

"We gave notice to 17 clinics for not reporting ILI and SARI medical conditions in patients. Out of the 17, 13 reverted that they did not do and will start reporting," said the official.

However, the four named clinics did not revert leading to their shutdown.

According to the official, the clinics failed to adhere to the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1987, Disaster Management Act, 2005 and others.

All medical facilities and hospitals should report all patients with ILI and SARI symptoms as many COVID positive cases have them as underlying conditions.

Shivamogga, Apr 13: Banana farmers in Shivamogga say their crop is rotting and they are incurring huge losses amid lockdown due to COVID-19.

The farmers alleged that although permission has been granted for the sale of agricultural products, with inter-district movements being affected, the local buyers are forcing the farmers to sell their produce at ridiculously low prices.

"Local buyers are asking us to sell bananas at Rs 4-5 per kg which is impossible for us. I do not know what we can do," Vijayendra, a farmer told ANI here.

"We expected the markets to be good during the summer season, I have cultivated bananas in four acres of land. There are thousands of other farmers who cultivate it in smaller hoardings," he added.

The farmer further implored the government to ensure there is an open market and inter-district movement of agricultural produce is allowed to ensure the farmers get the right price.

Vijayendra also said that the bananas have started rotting as they were not being harvested due to the lockdown.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last month announced a 21-day lockdown in the entire country effective from March 24 midnight to deal with the spread of coronavirus, saying that "social distancing" is the only option to deal with the disease, which spreads rapidly.

There is also the likelihood that the nationwide lockdown might further be extended even after the completion of the 21-day period on April 14, based on the statements from several chief ministers following a video conference with the Prime Minister held a few days earlier.