Plan to install Ganesh idol at Indian Embassy in Kuwait triggers controversy

Bengaluru, May 24: With 130 new cases, Karnataka's COVID-19 tally crossed the 2,000-mark on Sunday. Most new cases reported have interstate travel history with 97 coming from Maharashtra. The number of active cases in the state is 1,391 and the deaths reported so far is 42, including 2 for non-COVID reasons.

"Ninety seven of the 130 new patients are returnees from Maharashtra, the worst affected state in the country with 47,190 cases till Saturday," said a state health official. 

"The total number of COVID-19 cases across the state is 2,089, with 130 more testing positive in the past 18 hours," said the official.

Forty six patients were discharged from hospitals on Sunday taking the number of cured persons to 634. Of the 46 discharged, 18 are in Davanagere, 20 in Uttara Kannada, 4 in Chitradurga, 3 in Bagalakote and one in Haveri.

Of the 30 Karnataka districts, Chikkaballapura recorded the highest cases on Sunday at 27, followed by Yadgir (24), Udupi (23), Mandya (15) and Hassan (14).

Chikkaballapura is the home district of Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar, a doctor by profession, who is spearheading the fight against the pandemic.

On Saturday, the state's tally shot up to 1,959 due to 196 new cases, the highest single-day rise, with 195 of them crossing over from Maharashtra through the inter-state border, which was opened up as part of partial relaxation of the lockdown.  

The Karnataka government has imposed institutional quarantine on persons traveling in from outside the state, particularly by flight from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh.

New Delhi, Jun 4: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought response from Prajwal Revanna, the grandson of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, on a plea challenging his election in 2019 from Hassan Lok Sabha constituency as a joint candidate of the Janata Dal Secular and the Congress.

A bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and Hrishiksh Roy issued notice to the returned candidate from the high-profile constituency on an appeal challenging the Karnataka High Court's order by which an election petition against his win was dismissed.

In the proceedings held through video-conferencing, the top court issued notice and tagged the appeal filed by G Devarajegowda for hearing with other similar pending plea filed by the BJP candidate on the issue.

Mr Devarajegowda in the plea said that his election petition was dismissed by the High Court on "procedural irregularities". The plea said that Mr Prajwal had resorted to unfair and corrupt practices and his election should be set aside.

It said the High Court did not consider the fact that by dismissing the election petition, it was running a risk of having a representative in parliament who has not got the maximum number of valid votes.

The petitioner, an advocate by profession, sought a declaration of rival BJP candidate, A Manju, as the winner for having secured the maximum number of valid votes.

A separate appeal was earlier filed by Mr Manju against the High Court order and the top court had already issued notice to the retuned candidate on that.

Mr Manju had challenged the 2019 election of Mr Prajwal on the ground that there was allegedly non-disclosure of assets held by him in his election affidavit.

Mr Prajwal was declared winner with 6,76,606 votes. Mr Manju came first runner-up with 5,35,282 votes.

Bengaluru, June 29: The Karnataka government on Monday issued guidelines to conduct online classes for all students of ICSE, CBSE and SSLC under the directions of the High Court.

According to the guidelines, for the kindergarten students, online classes can be held 30 minutes a week and students in classes 1-5 will have online classes for 30-45 minutes divided into two periods for three alternate days every week.

For students in classes 6-8, the online classes will be for 30-45 minutes divided into two periods for five days every week while students in classes 9 and 10 can have the virtual classes for 30-45 minutes divided into four periods for five days a week.

Earlier, the state government barred online classes for the kids from LKG to class 5.

Minister for primary and secondary education S Suresh Kumar had said that online classes cannot be held for the kids from LKG to class V.