Sexual abuse of 6-year-old girl: RSS worker remanded in judicial custody

Manglauru, Jun 1: The southwest monsoon has made an onset over Kerala, marking the commencement of the four-month long rainfall season, the India Meteorological Department said on Monday.

"The southwest monsoon has made an onset over Kerala," IMD director general Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said.

The four-month monsoon season from June to September accounts for 75 per cent of rainfall in the country.

Private forecaster Skymet Weather on May 30 had declared arrival of monsoon, but the IMD had differed, saying conditions were not ripe then for such an announcement.

Orange alert

Meanwhile, coastal Karnataka’s Dakshina Kannada district, which is receiving sporadic rains for past couple of days, is on orange alert.

Deputy Commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh declared the orange alert following IMD’s prediction of heavy rainfall in the region.

Bengaluru, Jul 24: A government doctor who was turned away by three private hospitals because he could not produce a coronavirus test result passed away today in Bengaluru. Dr Manjunath, who was a frontline COVID-19 doctor, was allegedly turned away by hospitals when he was extremely ill and struggling to breathe.

Dr Manjunath worked in the state Health and Family Welfare department and was based in Ramanagara district, around 50 km from Bengaluru.

D Randeep, a Special Officer with the Bengaluru municipal body BBMP, said that the hospitals that had refused to admit Dr Manjunath would be reported to the health department.

In June-end, Dr Manjunath went to Rajashekhar Hospital in JP Nagar, BGS Global Hospital in Kengeri and Sagar hospital in Kumaraswamy Layout. All three demanded to see his COVID-19 test result but those were still not in at the time, according to his family. His brother-in-law Nagendra is also a doctor with BBMP and in charge of allotting hospital beds, yet he was completely helpless when it came to his own relative.

He was finally admitted to Sagar hospital on June 25 when his family sat in protest on the footpath outside the Dayananda Sagar campus. He was placed on ventilator and later shifted to the Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, where he died earlier today. The hospital says Dr Manjunath was discharged on July 9 because he wanted plasma therapy.

Six members of his family, including a 14-year-old, tested COVID-19 positive. Most of them have recovered.

Bengaluru has seen several cases of patients being turned away from hospitals in the city. Hospitals say they need Covid test results to know whether to admit patients in the coronavirus ICU or in the general section and to understand treatment protocol.

Mr Randeep said hospitals have been instructed to admit patients even without such a certificate. Notices have been sent to hospitals that fail to comply. The OPD of two private hospitals was sealed for 48 hours when they refused to admit a patient.

Kolar, May 7: A 38-year-old man has been arrested for biting a snake and peeling off its skin at Mustur village in Kolar district of Karnataka.

Mulbagal range forest officer KN Ravikeerthi said forest officials nabbed Kumar, a construction worker, at Mustur on Wednesday and booked him under the Wildlife Protection Act. He was under the influence of alcohol.

Ravikeerthi said Kumar's offence is non-bailable and attracts a jail term of up to three years. The remains of the snake were collected and sent to a lab to ascertain its species. Forest officials said the snake Kumar bit was not a viper as was reported earlier but a rat snake.

On Tuesday, Kumar was riding back home after buying liquor when the snake ca me under his bike's wheels. He tossed the injured snake around his neck, bit it and peeled off its skin. Kumar said the snake had troubled him in the past.