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Bengaluru/Ballari, Jan 7: Former minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan of the Congress set a one-week deadline for the BJP government on Monday to arrest Ballari City BJP legislator G Somashekhara Reddy for his recent speech warning Muslims of dire consequences if they continue to protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Police have already booked Reddy, younger brother of tainted mining baron G Janardhan Reddy, under section 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) of the Indian Penal Code.

However, Khan took the fight to Reddy a step further. “If the government fails to arrest Reddy by January 13, I will stage a dharna outside his house in Ballari, come what may. Let them do whatever they want,” Khan told reporters in Bengaluru.

In his speech at a pro-CAA rally organized by BJP workers and ABVP activists in Ballari, the BJP legislator had said, “We [Hindus] are 83% and they [Muslims] are 17% and if we take law into hands, you know what will happen.”

Khan said on Monday, “I challenge Reddy, the coward, to unsheathe his sword and cut me down first. It is absolutely shameful for a legislator to speak such things against a particular community. Why is Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who often says Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, silent?”

On his part, Reddy on Monday said he stood by what he said. “What I meant was you Muslims should not get swayed by CAA protests and damage public property. We [Hindus] are sons of the same mother and live peacefully. However, they [Muslims] should not test our [Hindu] patience. I stick by my words 100%,” he said.

A delegation of the Ballari district Congress unit also submitted an appeal to the deputy commissioner, inspector general of police and superintendent of police on Monday to arrest Reddy for his provocative speech.

Bengaluru, Apr 5: The COVID-19 related lockdown has substantially improved the air quality of Bengaluru, taking it from satisfactory level to good, a senior state pollution control board offcial said here on Sunday.

"During the course of the lockdown 19 problem, we reached good position from satisfactory.

It is between zero to 50 AQI (Air Quality Index) now. We have good quality air," the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board member secretary Basavaraj Patil told PTI.

He said the indicator for knowing the air quality in

"If the AQI is zero to 50 then it is good. If it is 50 to 100 then it is satisfactory. 101 to 150 is moderate and if it is 151 to 200, then it is poor, he explained.

Patil said as per available recrods, there has been a 60 to 65 per cent reduction in pollution during the lockdown.

The city railway station and Peenya industrial area, which used to be among the areas with highest AQI, has seen pollution levels come down significantly, he said.

Another major contributor of pollution was construction activities, which too had ground to a halt due to the lockdown, resulting in zero dust emission.

Patil opined that the improved air quality would boost the immune system of the people.

"It will improve the immune system of people, including those who have breathing problems like asthma," he said.

He asked the public to learn lessons from the lockdown and later switch to sustainable means of transport such as public transport, walking and cycling,.

"We can still reduce the pollution load even after the lockdown is over," Patil said.

Bengaluru, Jun 21: As many as 453 new coronavirus cases were confirmed on Sunday including 196 in Bengaluru alone, taking the total number of infections in Karnataka to 9,150, the Health Department said.

Five more deaths took the toll due to COVID-19 in the state to 137, a bulletin issued by the department said.

An assistant sub-inspector posted in a traffic police station died due to coronavirus on Saturday night taking the number of policemen succumbing to the contagion to three, police said.

The entire police station has been sealed for sanitisation and 25 people including five primary contacts of the deceased have been quarantined at the designated hospitals.

The total number of COVID-19 cases include 5,618 discharges, 3,391 active cases, 137 deaths, four deaths due to non-COVID causes and 77 patients admitted in Intensive Care Units.

The 196 cases confirmed in Bengaluru today is the highest single-day spike ever since the outbreak of the pandemic.

With 64 deaths so far, the city's share in the total fatalities in the state due to COVID is 47 per cent.

The five deaths reported on Sunday included three in Bengaluru.

"Yes. It is a major single day spike in Bengaluru," a health department official told P T I.

Of the total cases reported in Bengaluru, 101 are Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) and 68 are those whose contact tracing is underway.

Apart from 196 in Bengaluru, 40 cases were reported in Ballari, 39 cases each in Kalaburagi and Vijayapura, 18 each in Mysuru and Gadag, 15 in Dharwad, 14 in Bagalkote, 13 in Bidar, eight each in Davangere, Uttara Kannada and Kolar.

The five deaths reported on Sunday consisted of four men and a woman.

In view of the rising cases in Bengaluru, the Chief Secretary on Saturday formed three teams.

According to an order, Principal Secretary in Cooperative department Tushar Girinath will head the team that will ensure shifting the patients from their houses or the institutional quarantine facilities to the designated hospital.

The second team headed by the Karnataka Public Service Commission secretary G Sathyavathi will monitor the containment zone and carry out extensive surveys of people with COVID-19.

The third team is headed by Karnataka State Mineral Development Corporation managing director Naveen Raj Singh and Additional Commissioner of police Hemant Nimbalkar who will ensure social distancing at public places.

These three teams will have senior bureaucrats and top police officers as members.