Ponzi scam: SIT arrests IMA auditor Iqbal Khan

Bengaluru, Apr 17: Forty-four new cases of coronavirus have been reported in the State till now, said Karnataka's Health Department on Friday.

"44 new COVID-19 cases reported in the State from 5 pm Thursday to 5 pm on Friday. The total number of positive cases in the State is 359 including 13 deaths and 88 discharges," said the Health Department.

Meanwhile, a meeting was convened to review the situation on the rising cases of coronavirus in the State. According to Karnataka Chief Minister's Office (CMO), the meeting was attended by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, Home Minister Basavaraja Bommai, Health Minister B Sriramulu, and Deputy Chief Minister Ashwath Narayan.

The CMO said: "Earlier we used to do 500 tests per day. Now we are doing 2,000 tests. The suggestion was made to take care of the people who are in the ICU to prevent death. It was suggested and planned to work out a protocol for the treatment of COVID-19 patients all over the state."

The meeting also stressed the need for plasma treatment. Experts opined that people having influenza-like symptoms like fever, cold, breathlessness, etc., need to get tested for COVID 19.

The CMO said: "Officers were directed to conduct tests of the people with influenza-like symptoms in the districts where nil cases have been reported. ICMR has issued circular to set up two labs in each district and one lab in each medical college. In this direction, efforts are being made to set up 10 more labs in the State by the end of April."

"It was also decided to be prepared for treating an increased number of patients after relaxing in lockdown. It was also decided to issue guidelines to companies that would start working after relaxing lockdown. It was also decided to appeal to people to download Arogya Setu App. We will meet on April 21 again to decide further course of action," added the CMO.

Mar 5: The Karnataka government on Thursday proposed to increase rate of tax on petrol and diesel by three per cent which would make the fuel dearer by Rs 1.60 and Rs 1.59 per litre, respectively.

Presenting the 2020-21 budget in the Legislative Assembly, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa proposed to increase rate of tax on petrol from 32 per cent to 35 per cent and diesel from 21 per cent to 24 per cent, as part of additional resource mobilisation measures.

Yediyurappa, who also holds the finance portfolio, increased excise duty on Indian Made Liquor (KML) across 18 slabs by six per cent.

However, to promote affordable housing, the government proposed to reduce stamp duty on first time registration of new apartments/flats costing less than Rs 20 lakh from existing five per cent to two per cent.

This is the first budget of the BJP government after coming to power last year; it's the seventh presented by Yediyurappa.

"For the year 2020-21, a total amount of Rs 55,732 crore is provided for stimulating economic growth sector", the Chief Minister said.

He said the revenue collection target for the Commercial Taxes department for the year 2020-21 is fixed at Rs 82,443 crore.

Stating the government had fixed a revenue target of Rs 20,950 crore for the excise department for the year 2019- 20, he said at the end of February Rs 19,701 crore had been collected.

"We hope to achieve the budget target."

He also hoped with the increase in rates and effective enforcement and regulatory measures, the Excise department would be achieving the target of Rs 22,700 crore fixed for the financial year 2020-21.

On the transport sector, Yediyurappa said it is proposed to levy motor vehicle tax on contract carriages having seating capacity to carry more than 12 passengers, but not more than 20 passengers at the rate of Rs 900 per seat per quarter.

He said it is also proposed to levy vehicle tax on new model sleeper coaches which are granted permits under section 88 (9) of MV Act 1988 at the rate of Rs 4,000 per sleeper per quarter.

Noting that a target of Rs 7,100 crore revenue collection is expected to be achieved in 2019-20 in transport sector, he said for 2020-21 revenue collection target has been fixed at Rs 7,115 crore.

He said the revenue collection target for 2019-20 under stamps and registration was fixed at Rs 11,828 crore and against this Rs 10,248 crore has been collected till the end of February 2020 which is 87 per cent of full year target.

While the revenue collection target for 2020-21 under stamps and registration is fixed at Rs 12,655 crore.

Malappuram (Kerala), Feb 19:  children of a couple in a span of nine years has raised suspicion among police personnel here who have registered a case following a complaint after a three-month-old child of the family died on Tuesday and was buried.

Police exhumed the body, which was buried in the morning, and took it to the district hospital at Tirur for post-mortem.

The infant was the sixth child of the couple, police said.

"A case has been registered (for unnatural death) in the matter to verify the death beyond any suspicion raised by locals since five other children of the couple had died in the past nine years," a senior police official said.

The couple had three boys and three girls of which the third girl child lived till the age of four and the rest died before turning one.

"The post-mortem will take place today itself.We are collecting the medical records of the children who had passed away earlier.

We will identify the cause of death after analysing the records and discuss the matter with forensic doctors," Tirur Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) said.

However, relatives claimed that there was nothing suspicious in the death of the children and that doctors have said it was due to some genetic disease.

"The post-mortem of the third child was conducted and the doctors said the death was due to some genetic problems. They said they were helpless," a relative said, adding that the family was ready to face any probe.

According to the locals, the couple had claimed that the children have died due to epilepsy.

Sources said the baby was taken to a hospital but was dead prior to reaching the hospital early this morning.