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Bengaluru, May 4: Booze lovers ushered in the resumption of liquor sales in a spirited fashion in Karnataka onMonday thronging stores hours before shutters went up at severalplaces and made no secret of their celebratory mood.

At some places, they flocked liquor shops even before day-break and performed "special prayers" with flowers, coconuts,incense sticks, camphor and crackers in front of the stores.

Liquor outlets had been shut in the State from March 25 following the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Excise revenue loss during the period was about Rs 2,500 crore, according to government sources.

About 4,500 standalone liquor outlets (CL-2 and CL- 11licence holders), which comprise wine stores and those owned bystate-run Mysore Sales International Limited, outside containmentzones were allowed to be opened from Monday from 9 am to 7 pm withsome restrictions.

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These include customers compulsorily wearing of facemasks andmaintaining social distancing with not more than five people inside liquor shops.

Many customers were indeed well-prepared.

At many places, they came with umbrella, raincoat, newspapers and books and queued up as early as 3 am.

At a liquor shop in Salegame Road in Hassan, the tipplers lit the traditional lamp and incense sticks, performed 'aarati'with camphor and decorated the store with the garland of flowers.

With folded hands, they all performed 'special prayers'.

In Mandya, the tipplers queued up before Martaanda liquor shop before dawn.

An hour before the sales were to resume, a few people burst crackers in celebration.

Some tipplers in Belagavi were more "enterprising."

They wentto a liquor store on Sunday night itself, performed special prayersand placed their "representatives" in the form of slippers, bags and stones in the "social distancing boxes" they themselves had drawn sothat they don't have to stand in queue in the morning.

An elderly woman Dakamma was the centre of attraction in Shivamogga.

The bent body did not bend the determination of this spirited lady, claimed to be 96-year-old, who was heard saying "liquor is goodfor health."

At the taluk headquarters town of Brahmavara in the coastal Udupi district, the queue of the booze lovers was reported to be almost half-a-kilometre.

Long queues were seen at liquor stores at Mariyappana Palya and K R Puram, among others, in Bengaluru.

The store managers too were no less cautious while dealing with customers in the COVID era.

They let the customers enter after spraying sanitisers in their hands, and allowed only those who hadworn masks and maintained social distancing.

To maintain law and order, authorities had deployed policemen in good numbers at these stores and they were seen on duty ensuring  that customers maintained social distancing.

Bengaluru, Jul 7: There seems no impact of Covid-19 on kharif crop sowing in Karnataka with the current year actually being ahead of previous years, according to an official here on Monday.

"In agriculture, as far as sowing is concerned, there is no impact of COVID-19," Agriculture Commissioner Brijesh Kumar Dikshit told IANS. One of the reasons, according to Dikshit, is that people in rural areas are aware, but not scared of the pandemic.

"In rural India, coronavirus is there. People are aware, not scared. They are taking precautions, but don't have any phobia," he said.

Another reason was that by June the number of infections in Karnataka was not as high as other states, when a lot of sowing was done, he said.

By the end of June, Karnataka saw 15,242 Covid-19 cases. Of that, 7,074 were active.

The sowing is ahead of previous year as it's mostly dependent on weather. "It's ahead of previous years. Agriculture is directed by weather and rains had been slightly earlier this year," he said.

According to Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, at 185 mm the state received 14 mm less rain in June against the normal 199 mm. "It's like a normal year, or slightly a good year," he said.

Some crops will be sown in the last fortnight of July and few more will extend up to August 15. "The last two weeks will be critical and on July 31 we should be able to tell whether we are short or ahead," he said.

According to preliminary indications, the Commissioner said the area under agriculture is increasing this year, which could also be because that labourers might have come back.

Mangalore, Feb 17: The Popular Front of India (PFI) on Monday took out a march in Mangalore's Deralakatte without seeking permission, police said.

"They were only given permission for a programme but they took out a march from Madaninagar to Deralakatte," said ACP Kodanada Rama.