Sushant Singh had posted heartbroken message after Udupi girl Disha Salian's death

Bengaluru, Jun 15: As the central government has not allowed reopening of gyms in the country amid COVID-19 pandemic, many gymnasiums in Bengaluru are on the verge of closing or sale.

Rakshith Gowda, a gym owner and secretary of gym owners association told ANI that they are not even able to pay rent of the premises which is Rs 60,000 to 1 lakh per month.

"The condition of the owners of the gym have worsened. We have to pay a minimum of Rs 60,000 - 100,000 rent of the building and for past 4 months we couldn't pay the rent, salary to trainers and cleaners, EMI," Gowda said.

"I urge the government to take necessary steps to bring up the gym sector as they have allowed opening up of shops, temples, malls. We urge the government to take proper steps in the interest of gyms," added Gowda.

Mahesh, a gymer said that he had to participate in a competition and due to lockdown he could not work on his bodybuilding.

"I was building my body for one year and due to lockdown I couldn't do the workout, I had to take part in a competition, now I need at least another one year to build my body back," Mahesh said.

Prasad, international bodybuilder said, "Most of the bodybuilders and gym owners are running gyms by taking loans, they are not in the situation to pay their loan EMIs."

"It's very important for us to reopen gyms and run them with all precautions and guidelines but the government is not allowing us to pay our loans and many gym owners and trainers are facing a tough time to earn living. We have requested Deputy Chief Minister Govind Karjol and cabinet ministers to allow us to open, but the government hasn't taken the decision in the interest of gyms which is creating more problems for us," Prasad said.

The euphoria over the claim that around 3,000 tonnes of gold reserves, worth Rs 12 trillion, have been discovered in Uttar Pradesh’s Sonbhadra district could not last even 24 hours, with the Geological Survey of India (GSI) clarifying on Saturday there had been no such discovery.

The GSI, headquartered in Kolkata, rebutted the claims of the Uttar Pradesh Directorate of Geology and Mining (UPDGM), and said “miscommunication” must have led to the wrong reporting of facts.

M Sridhar, director general of the GSI, said nobody in the agency gave any such data. He said 52,806 tonnes of gold ore was found in Sonbhadra district during the exploration work in 1998-2000. From this reserve, only 160 kg of gold can be extracted.

“There must have been some miscommunication of facts because of which the gold ore deposits have been overestimated. We have written a letter to Uttar Pradesh (UPDGM), stating the facts. The GSI has not estimated such kind of vast resource of gold deposits in Sonbhadra,” Sridhar said.

ALSO READ: 2,900-tonne gold mine found in Sonbhadra, 4 times that of India's reserves

The UPDGM had said on Friday that gold deposits were found in Son Pahadi and Hardi areas of the district. Sridhar said while gold ore was found in the area during the GSI’s exploration work in 1998-2000, it had told the state government about the discovery in November last year.

Under the new regulation, which came into effect from 2015, the GSI has to inform the state government when ore deposits are discovered. Earlier, no such action was mandatory. In its report, the GSI estimated that only 3.03 gm of gold can be extracted from a tonne of ore. It also clarified that even the extraction amount was tentative and could not be established for certain.

Moreover, Sridhar said the deposits were spread across only 0.5 sq km in forest land, which made the mining of ore economically unviable. “When there are several mines nearby, we can club it into a block and then it makes sense to mine the ore. But in this case, the deposits are too small to make it viable for any company to mine it,” he said. The GSI usually prioritises its exploration work based on the needs of the Centre. While strategic minerals like tin, cobalt, lithium, beryllium, germanium, gallium, indium, tantalum, niobium, selenium, and bismuth are atop the list in GSI exploration, gold is another commodity on its priority list.

According to the World Gold Council, India has reserves of 630 tonnes of gold.

Udupi, Jun 16: A young software engineer died on board a bus bound for Udupi’s Kundapura from Bengaluru due to suspected cardiac arrest this morning.

The deceased has been identified as Chaitanya (25), son of Vishnu Murthy, a resident of Kumbri in Koteshwar in Kundapura taluk. He was working for a software firm Bengaluru.

Chaitanya had boarded a ‘Durgamba’ bus from Bengaluru at 9 pm on June 15. At around 6.30 am on June 16, he called his father and informed that the bus had reached Barkur.

When his father called Chaitanya again at around 7.30 am, the bus driver answered the call and told him that his son had fallen ill and been taken to Vinaya hospital in Kundapur.

Vishnu Murthy rushed to the hospital, but was informed by the doctors that Chaitanya was declared brought dead.

A case has been registered at Kundapura police station. Even though it is suspected that he died of cardiac arrest, the exact cause will be known only after the post-mortem.