Stop dumping boulders into sea; give us new houses: Residents tell UT Khader

Bengaluru, May 19: Containment zones in Karnataka will be much smaller in size under the latest lockdown norms. However, rules and loopholes will be tightened and action against violators will be stringent in order to check the spread of the disease.

Revised guidelines issued by the Centre to the state, reveal containment zones are delineated based on mapping of cases and contacts. Intensive action will be carried out in these areas with the aim of breaking the chain of transmission. Therefore, the area of a containment zone should be appropriately defined by the district administration/local urban bodies with technical inputs at local level.

The health department is considering shrinking the size of containment zones from the existing 100 metres to open up more space for economic activities. Medical education minister K Sudhakar, also a member of the Covid taskforce, said additional chief secretary (health department) Javed Akthar will issue a new definition of a containment zone after the Covid-19 taskforce holds its next meeting.

“We are planning to further shrink it and restrict containment zones to an apartment complex, independent house or even a lane where the Covid-19 patient resides,” Sudhakar said. He went on to say bigger containment zones will impede businesses and normal activities in the vicinity, something which the government wants to avoid.

The minister said Karnataka will also do away with colour-coding districts. “With restrictions being relaxed for almost all activities, it does not make sense to pursue with colour codes. It is either containment zone or outside containment zone,” he said.

In rural areas, the minister said containment zones will be identified by the taluk heads. Government sources say it is difficult to restrict activities to certain areas or smaller location in rural areas as farmers and people will have to travel to the outskirts of their villages for their livelihood.

An official said, a containment operation (large outbreak or cluster) is deemed successful when no case is reported in 28 days from the containment zone.

Thiruvananthapuram, Jun 15: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan''s daughter Veena married top DYFI All India president Mohammed Riaz at the chief minister''s official residence in the presence of selected guests.

Riaz and Veena became husband and wife at a solemn function held under Covid protocols with not more than 50 people present.

This was the second marriage for both, as their first ones ended in divorce.

Riaz has two children, while Veena has a son from their respective previous marriages.

Riaz is a lawyer by profession and had contested the Kozhikode Lok Sabha seat in 2009 but lost to the Congress'' M.K.Raghavan.

Veena runs her own software company in Bengaluru.

While the marriage has already been registered recently, the wedding event was a closed door affair, with just very close relatives of the couple besides a few senior party colleagues of Vijayan.

Hubballi, May 14: South Western Railway (SWR) has so far ferried about 54,000 passengers, including migrant workers, students and stranded people to 11 states to reach their home towns by Shramik Special trains.

So far 40 Shramik Specials were run one each from Kabakaputtur in Mysuru and Hubballi and remaining 38 from Chikkabanavara/Malur from Bengaluru area. About 54,000 passengers were ferried to different parts of the country. Maximum Shramik Specials trains train services were run to Lucknow (9) and Danapur (7).

Shramik Specials were run to Bihar (Bakora, Danapur, Baruni, Darbhanga), West Bengal (Purila, Bankura, New Jalpaiguri), Jharkhand (Hatia, Barkakana), Rajasthan (Jaipur, Udaipur), Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow, Gorakhpur), Orissa (Bhubaneswar), Madhya Pradesh (Gwalior), Uttarakhand (Haridwar), Himachal Pradesh (Una), Tripura (Agartala) and Jammu and Kashmir (Udhampur).

SWR is transporting passengers to their destination as per the demand of the State Government with proper protocol and the receiving State Government is ready to accept them.