Pakistan not giving me visa; I am very sad and disappointed: Anupam Kher

Managluru, May 15: Kannadigas in Saudi Arabia deserve more attention from the government amidst covid-19 crisis as they remit huge amount of money to their home state and ultimately get no benefit, opined U T Khader, Mangaluru MLA.

The former minister held a video conference with stranded Kannadigas in Saudi Arabia on May 15 and assured to do his best to convince the Centre to operate more repatriation flights from Saudi Arabia to Karnataka. 

He also said that he would urge the chief minister of Karnataka to announce a separate rehabilitation package for Indian expatriates who have lost their jobs in Gulf countries amidst covid-19 lockdown.

Mr Khader also interacted with two medical emergency patients and promised them to inform the Indian embassy in Riyadh to facilitate their homeward journey via Dammam-Bengaluru flight in the second phase of Vande Bharat Mission. 

Mr Khader expressed regret over the inept handling of passengers from Dubai at Mangaluru International Airport on May 12 and said that next batch of passengers would not face such problems on arrival.

Bengaluru, May 16: At least 23 new COVID-19 positive cases have emerged in the past 19 hours, raising Karnataka''s tally to 1,079, a health official said on Saturday.

"New cases reported from Friday 5 p.m. to Saturday noon are 23," said the official.

Among the 1,079 cases, 548 are active and isolated in designated hospitals across the state, 494 patients got discharged and 36 died of the virus.

In the past 19 hours, cases spiked in Benglaluru Urban, the place hosting the highest number of coronavirus cases in the state.

Of the new cases, Bengaluru Urban reported 14 cases, followed by 3 in Hassan and Mandya, Ballari, Bagalkote, Davangere, Dharwad and Udupi, 1 each.

All the 14 cases, men, from Bengaluru Urban were secondary contacts of positive case 653.

All Hassan, Dharwad and Bagalkote cases had a history of inter-state travel to Mumbai, Maharashtra, India''s largest sufferer of Covid.

A 46-year-old man from Ballari had a travel history to Ahmedabad in Gujarat, another major COVID-19 hotspot state in India.

A 40-year-old man from Mandya had inter-district travel history to Kolar and Bengaluru.

A 1-year-old infant girl from Udupi had international travel history to Dubai.

Among the new cases, 15 are contacts of earlier cases.

Of the all cases, 20 are men and three women.

Only four of the 23 cases are above 50 and 18 below 40.

Of the 1,079 cases, 12 per cent patients were senior citizens, 66 per cent men and 34 per cent women with a discharge rate of 44 per cent.

Bengaluru, Jan 17: Six persons, said to be supporters of Social Democratic Party of India, have been arrested in connection alleged attempt to murder a member of RSS in Bengaluru.

Varun Bhopala (34), a resident of Sarakki in JP Nagar, was attacked while he was on his way to his father's shop near JC Road after attending a pro-CAA event organised by the RSS and other Hindutva organisations on December 22, 2019.

Police commissioner Bhaskar Rao said the arrested are Irfan alias Mohammed Irfan (33), Syed Akbar alias Mechanic Akbar (46), Syed Siddiq Akbar (30), Akbar Basha (27), Sanaulla Sharif (28) and Sadiq UL Ameen (39) - all residents of KG Halli in East and North Bengaluru.

Rao said the arrested wanted to attack and kill the leaders who took part in the pro-CAA event. They initially pelted seven stones to scatter the crowd so that they can attack the leaders, but they failed. Later, they saw Varun walking out of the crowd wearing a saffron shirt. So the arrested followed him and attacked him with lethal weapons. Assuming he is dead, the gang fled on their bikes towards Bidadi.

''The SDPI activists were funded by their leaders to create a disturbance, kill Hindu organisation leaders,'' Rao said. "I have formed a special team to investigate in-depth about the SDPI activities and take necessary action,'' he added.