Treasure hunt held during Mangalore Physiocon 2018

Bengaluru, Feb 3: The Karnataka government on Monday ordered high alert across border districts after neighbouring Kerala reported the second confirmed case of dreaded n-CoV Coronavirus. District administrations in Kodagu, Mangaluru, Chamarajanagar and Mysuru that share boundary with Kerala have been put on high alert over the movement of people with suspected cases.

In a statement released on Monday, the Health and Family welfare department said that these districts have been directed to immediately report to the State Surveillance Unit (SSU) if they come across any suspected cases of people infected with Coronavirus.

Currently, about 51 people who returned from Coronavirus-affected regions have been identified and 46 are under home isolation across Karnataka. So far, 44 samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune for analysis and out of which 29 samples have revealed negative results. Yet, the state government has put in all possible measures to check the spread of the virus in any part of the state.

Bengaluru, Mar 5: Karnataka is facing unprecedented economic difficulties following a Rs 8,887 crore reduction in the state's share in central taxes, cut in allocation under 15th finance commission and a Rs 3,000 crore hit in GST compensation, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa indicated on Thursday.

Presenting the state budget for 2020-21 in the Assembly, he said Karnataka's share in central taxes has come down by Rs 8,887 crore in 2019-20 as per the revised budget estimates of the central government. Therefore the state's revenue resources have been reduced. Apart from this, Rs 3,000 crore GST compensation will also be reduced as collection from the GST compensation cess is not as expected, the Chief Minister said. "With all this it has become difficult to reach to reach the 2019-20 budget targets and to manage this situation within the bounds of the Karnataka Fiscal Responsibility Act, an inevitable situation has arisen this year to cut down the expenditure of many departments," he added.

As per the interim report submitted by the 15th finance commission, there is a reduction in the state's share of central taxes to 3.64 per cent compared to 4.71 per cent fixed by the 14th finance commission. In view of this, there will be a reduction of Rs 11,215 crore in the state's share of central taxes in 2020-21 budget, when compared to the previous one.

He, however, noted that the allocation recommendation of the 15th finance commission is limited to one year only and the complete report for the period 2021-22 to 2025-26 will be submitted in October 2020.

"Our government will soon submit a revised memorandum to the commission to set right the loss caused to the state with regard allocation for the year 2020-21 and give more allocation for the remaining period," the Chief Minister said. He also said, when compared to the previous year, there is an increase of approximately Rs 10,000 crore for 2020-21 with regards to government employees salary, pension and interest on government loans, but there is no proportionate increase in resources as compared to committed expenditure. "Due to this reduction of the state's share of central taxes as per the 15th finance commission report and other developments, serious difficulties are being faced in resource mobilisation efforts of the state," Yediyurappa said. "This magnitude of economic difficulties was never faced in the previous years by our state," he added.

However, the state's own tax revenue collection is excellent during this year, he said. As compared to the previous year, there is a growth of 14 per cent in State GST collection. "Based on this, in the new budget, efforts are being made to manage the reduction in the share of central taxes by stabilising the state's own resources more", the Chief Minister said.

Karnataka recorded a gross state domestic product growth rate of 7.8 per cent in 2018-19 and Yediyurappa said for the current financial year it is estimated to be 6.8 per cent.

Bengaluru, Jul 1: Karnataka registered a record 1,272 Covid positive cases to breach the 16,000- mark to take the states tally to 16,514, while seven people succumbed to the dreaded virus, an official said on Wednesday.

"New cases reported from Tuesday 5 p.m. to Wednesday 5 p.m. 1,272," said a health official.

In the past 24 hours, seven people have succumbed to the virus, two each in Bengaluru Urban and Bidar and one each in Dakshina Kannada, Belagavi and Hassan, taking the state''s death toll to 253.

Of the record number of cases in the last 24 hours, Bengaluru Urban bore the brunt with 735 infections, taking the city''s tally rise to 5,290, out of which 4,649 are active cases.

Among the new cases, excluding Bengaluru, Ballari accounted for 85, followed by Dakshina Kannada (84), Dharwad (35), Bengaluru Rural (29), Vijayapura and Hassan (28 each), Uttara Kannada (23) and Udupi (22).

Chamarajanagar witnessed 21 cases, followed by Bagalkote (20), Tumkur (19), Davangere (16), Chikkaballapura (15), Kalaburagi and Ramanagara (14 each), Koppal (13), Raichur and Chitradurga (12 each), Yadgir, Bidar and Belagavi (8 each), Kodagu (7), Mandya and Kolar (5 each), Shivamogga (3), Gadag (2) and Chikkamagaluru (1).

Of the 1,272 new cases, 1,068 or 84 per cent are contacts of earlier cases while domestic returnees accounted for 42 cases or 3 per cent.

On Wednesday, 145 people got discharged from different hospitals, elevating the total number discharges to 8,063.

Of the 16,514 cases in Karnataka, 8,194 are active cases.