Prof. Mahesh Chandra Guru jailed for insulting Sri Ram

Mysuru, May 15: The Temple Town of Nanjangud was till now treated as one unit or a Cluster Containment Zone and was put under complete lock-down as per the containment protocol listed under COVID-19 regulations and Disaster Management Act, 2005.

However on Friday, some of the restrictions have been lifted by Mysuru Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G Sankar who permitted certain activities as no fresh positive cases were reported from the cluster area. The Cluster Containment Zone was declared on March 29 following one employee of Nanjangud-based Jubilant Generics tested positive for the killer Coronavirus. As there were chances of the positive person spreading the disease to other employees of the factory, the cluster rules were enforced. Moreover, there were over 1,000 employees in the Pharma Company and a majority of them lived in and around Nanjangud.

The declaration of Cluster Containment Zone with complete lock-down and quarantining of all the Pharma Company employees proved a success to the District Administration as whoever tested positive – over 73 were later tested positive — had already been quarantined and the dangerous community spread phase was successfully prevented. To a major extent, the Corona virus curve has been flattened. As such, restrictions have been relaxed a bit on Friday.

Bengaluru, May 1: As Mumbai link surfacing in some COVID-19 cases in Mandya district in Karnataka, JDS leader and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy on Friday blamed the district administration for the situation, accusing it of not quarantining 7,000 labourers who 'returned' from the Maharashtra capital.

"The information we have is that there are about 16,000 labourers from Mandya were working in Mumbai of which 7,000 people reached the district. None of them was quarantined properly," Kumaraswamy told reporters in Bengaluru.

He claimed the district, a stronghold of JDS, was staring at a major spurt in cases due to the careless attitude of the district administration. "Government should initiate action against those who are responsible for the laxity," he said.

However, he did not specify when the 7,000 workers returned to Mandya. When asked about Kumaraswamy's claim, officials said they have to verify it. Of the eight cases reported from Mandya on Friday, three had a travel history to Mumbai, a major COVID-19 hotspot in the country, officials said.

A Health Department official said four of the fresh cases were contacts of a patient who tested positive on April 8 and admitted to a hospital. After weeks of coming in contact with him, the four were confirmed for COVID-19, an official said. The Three people with travel history to Mumbai had, in fact, brought the body of a man who died of a heart attack there on April 24, the official added.

Benglauru, June 14: Even as schools are divided over providing online education, the state Higher Education Department is stressing on continuing online education.

Deputy Chief Minister and Higher Education Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan has stressed the need for digital learning to eliminate educational inequalities.

Taking part in a Webinar on ‘Digitising Higher Education - Challenges and Opportunities,’ organised by the Padmashree Institute of Management, he asked educational institutions to give emphasis to digital learning.

“Digital learning is a means to ensure quality education to all sections of the society without discrimination on the basis of caste, region and religion. This is a solution to eliminate discrimination. Through digital learning, a student in a remote village will also get an opportunity to learn from an experienced and highly qualified teacher.”

In addition to this, students are getting study material in digital form. Keeping these important aspects in mind, all educational institutions should give stress to digital learning without wasting any time,’’ he said.

He, however, admitted that digital learning has its own challenges like - quality internet connectivity, laptops and mobile gadgets.

“We are trying to find a solution to it by raising funds through Corporate Social Responsibility or through government funds,” he said. “We are making efforts to provide 4G network across the State,” he said.