Pay Rs 900 for extra cabin baggage on Jet Airways

Bengaluru, Jan 3: The Karnataka high court on Thursday issued notices to the Railway Board and the South Western Railways on a petition seeking review of superfast surcharge being levied on passengers in Malgudi Express train.

Petitioner and Mysurubased advocate Mohammed Dastagir, in a public interest litigation claimed that as per the circular issued by the Railway Board on December 10, 2006, Malgudi Express — which runs from Mysuru to Yelehanka — is not designated as a superfast train and despite the same, the authorities are illegally collecting additional charges known as supplementary charges ranging from Rs 15 to Rs 75 from passengers.

A division bench headed by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka posted the petition to second week of February.

Mangaluru, Jun 2: Even as the mosques in Karnataka recieved green signal from state government to reopen for congregational prayers from June 8, a senior Islamic scholar in coastal Karnataka has encouraged Muslims to prefer to offer prayers at homes during covid times. 

Twaqa Ahmed Al-Azhari, the Qadhi of Mangaluru, has welcomed the state government's decision to allow Muslims to offer congregational prayers including Jum'a prayers with certain precautions and conditions.

"Government has upheld our religions sentiments. All the mosques where congregational prayers will be held from June 8 should strictly follow all the guidelines issued by the government," he said. 

He also suggested that if any mosque is not in a position to follow all the guidelines issued by the government then it should refrain from holding congregational prayers. "Muslims can continue offer Fard and Jumá prayers at homes as the cornavirus pandemic is still spreading in the region and across the world," he said.

Mangaluru, May 23: Criticising the Karnataka government's fresh protocol for management of Covid-19 as expensive, a prominent physician in the city has demanded its withdrawal.

According to Dr B Srinivas Kakkilaya, the protocol released by the Health and Family Welfare Department on May 15 enlists unnecessary and unconfirmed tests and treatments. 

The protocol has classified Covid-19 cases into three categories and has provided for hospitalisation of all three categories of patients, from asymptomatic to the most severely ill.

In a letter to the government, Dr Kakkilaya said: "The protocol suggests several investigations to be done right on the day of admission, including blood counts, liver and renal function tests, chest X Ray, ECG, CT scan of the chest, and other special investigations, all of which, if done, will cost Rs 25,000 per patient."

"In the coming days when lakhs of patients are likely to be infected with SARS CoV2, is it necessary and feasible to hospitalise and test all these patients at Rs 25,000 per person," he questioned.

The treatment options suggested in the protocol are also surprising, he pointed out. "The protocol recommends choloroquine, azithromycin, oseltamivir, zinc and vitamin C for all patients, from asymptomatic to the severely ill, and also anti coagulant injections for many patients. All these would cost at least Rs 5,000 per patient. For severe cases of Covid-19, many unproven and experimental treatments have been suggested, which are very expensive and highly questionable," Dr Kakkilaya notes.

Therefore, this protocol, he asserted was not evidence based and likely to do more harm than good. He said these unnecessarily expensive tests and allowing private companies to conduct trials on Covid-19 patients is likely to be misused by vested interests and must be immediately withdrawn, and instead, a protocol that is evidence-based, simple and avoiding unnecessary expenses, must be developed.