Poojary holds Siddu govt responsible for SC's adverse directive

Bengaluru, Jul 9: Alarmed over surging COVID-19 cases, the Karnataka government has decided to divide this tech city into containment zones to curb the spread of the pandemic, a state minister said on Thursday.

"The city will be divided into red, orange and yellow zones in commensurate with the number of Covid cases in them for containing the virus spread on war footing," Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J.C. Madhuswamy told reporters here.

Cabinet ministers representing assembly segments in the city will be in-charge of the zones to ensure the cases are curbed with strict enforcement of lockdown guidelines, especially wearing mask and maintaining social distancing by the people in the confinement areas.

"Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has convened a meeting of ministers, MLAs, MPs and corporators of all the 198 civic wards across the city on Friday to discuss and draw an action plan to contain the pandemic," said Madhuswamy.

With 1,148 positive cases, the city''s Covid tally rose to 12,509 and active to 10,103, while 2,228 were discharged, including 418 on Wednesday, while 177 succumbed to the infection since March 9, with 23 in the last 24 hours.

"The Chief Minister ordered deploying more ambulances in the containment areas where cases have been spiking daily to rush Covid patients to the nearest hospital for immediate treatment," said Madhuswamy.

The city civic corporation -- Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) --has increased the containment zones to 3,181 due to more cases spiking, with southern and western suburbs accounting for most infections.

"The containment zones are concentrated more in the city''s southern and western suburbs. Active cases doubled over the last 8 days and shot up to a whopping 12,509 from 4,555 on June 30," an official said.

Refuting graft charges by opposition Congress leader Siddaramaiah in the purchase of medical equipment for treatment of Covid patients, Madhuswamy said the state government had not spent more than Rs 600 crore so far.

"We are running a government. Not a private office. We will give account. He (Siddaramaiah) is welcome to check the accounts and verify the documents," asserted the minister.

In a related development, the cabinet also approved an ordinance to increase the state contingency fund to Rs 500 crore from Rs 80 crore for the Covid-19 induced economic relief measures announced by the chief minister in June.

Jeddah, Jul 9: Karnataka NRI Forum Jeddah, a registered charitable organization under Government of Karnataka & Indian Consulate Jeddah - Saudi Arabia, helping the Kannadigas overseas and in Karnataka state as well, has initiated played its role in helping stranded Kannadigas to travel back to home under Vande Bharath Mission. 

The first flight which was departed to Bengaluru from Jeddah through this mission had 155 passengers. The forum had helped hundreds ofstranded Kannadigas in reaching their destinations with majority passengers were on emergency medical issues and pregnant women.  Still hundreds of Kannadigas are looking ahead for the help to fly back.

Now, the forum has organized two separate charter flights with Spice jet for Mangaluru (IXE)on16TH July 2020 & for Bengaluru (BLR) on18TH July 2020 from Jeddah (JED) airport respectively, with the support of Indian Consulate Jeddah and the Karnataka State Government.

As the huge demands from Kannadigas having very limited seats availability, the passengers (from Karnataka Only) can book and confirm their tickets by submitting their booking data under the link given below. Priority will be given to passengers with critical needs. 

https://forms.gle/BGvFFXoNSxVmrpRh9

Note: The passengers already booked tickets with KARNATAKA NRI FORUM JEDDAH shall not reapply, you will be receiving emails / calls from the Forum shortly.

For further information you can send emails to [email protected] or by calling to below given numbers.

Mohammed Mansoor (President): +966 50459 4752
Shaikh Saoud (Chief Coordinator): +966 55978 3092

Bengaluru, May 5: Karnataka Education Minister, S Suresh Kumar on Monday announced that the SSLC exams will be held as soon as possible, the officials have been asked to be prepared.

The guidelines have been given by the Primary Education Minister to all Deputy Directors of Education departments.

"Sanitisers, masks, screening, and all guidelines will be followed at exam halls," said Kumar in a statement.

Meanwhile, Karnataka has reported 651 COVID-19 positive cases so far, said State Health Department said on Monday.