Tricolour unfurled at 10,000 mosques across Kerala on R-Day

Bengaluru, May 30: Health Minister B Sriramulu banned the consumption of chewing tobacco in public places on Saturday, which is marked as World Tobacco Day. The ban would include chewing paan masala and spitting in public places.

In June 2013, the state banned the manufacture, storage, sale, or distribution of gutka and paan masala containing tobacco or nicotine as ingredients to reduce the prevalence of tobacco use. On October 26, 2016, the state proscribed all kinds of chewing tobacco, containing tobacco or nicotine or both in accordance with the Supreme Court order.

Karnataka is the second state in India to ban e-cigarettes. The state also prohibited single cigarettes. Until September 2019, the state counselled 15,698 patients in tobacco cessation centres set up in private dental colleges.

Bengaluru, May 28: In a first of its kind initiative, the Karnataka government will soon launch 'Statewide Health Register', a project to maintain the health database of all its citizens, announced Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar on Wednesday.

The project will kick start from Chikkaballapura and Dakshina Kannada districts.

"With a vision to efficiently deliver quality healthcare to every citizen, Karnataka will soon have a Statewide Health Register. The pilot project will be implemented in Chikkaballapura & Dakshina Kannada dist shortly and completed in 3-4 months. @CMofKarnataka @PMOIndia @JPNadda," tweeted the Minister.

The government plans to get the data collected with the help of a team of Primary Health Centre (PHC) officials, revenue officials, Education Department staff and ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers.

"They will visit each household and collect health data of all the members of the family. This will not just help the government to provide better health care facilities, but also build an efficient resource allocation, management and better implementation of various citizen-centric schemes in the state," the minister added.

Sudhakar also said that the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the necessity of having a robust, real-time public health system.

"Very few countries in the world have taken such an initiative. It is a futuristic project which will include 50 per cent partnership of private hospitals. It would be a cumbersome process but if we do this and digitise it, the data could be used for multiple purposes. The data would help us prioritise healthcare based on geography, demography, and other targeted measures. It would also help medical professionals and scientists for innumerable studies," he said.

"We have consulted all specialists from 18 different departments, and taken their advice into account," said the minister.

Bengaluru, May 17: Amidst mounting demand form Kannadigas across the world for repatriation flights in the wake of covid-19 lockdown, Dr Arathi Krishna, former Deputy Chairman of the NRI Forum of Karnataka government, has written to Hardeep Singh Puri Minister of Civil Aviation to operate more special flights to Gulf repatriate Kannadigas from gulf countries. 

Dr Arathi Krishna’s first request in the letter was to add flights from Kuwait, Bahrain and Jeddah to Bengaluru as many (from Karnataka) are stranded in these cities in precarious situations.

In addition, she also requested for a couple of flights from Dammam and Riyadh to Bengaluru as there are more than 3780 Kannadigas registered to return from Saudi Arabia and members of Bearys Chamber of Commerce and Industry are requesting the same. Any number of flights from Dubai to Bengaluru and Mangaluru will also help the stranded people, the letter stated. 

“Old and sick people, pregnant women and others are in urgent need to connect with the world are looking up to you for getting flights from different comers of the world. Indian communities are hopeful that you will use your position to help them to get the much needed mobility at this time,” the letter stated. 

She also said that the people in Karnataka are grateful to you (Mr Hardeep Singh Puri) for adding two flights from Dubai to Bengaluru in the last two schedules and one flight each from Riyadh, Dammam, Muscat and Doha.

Dr Arathi Krishna is currently serving as the Chairman of the NRI Cell of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee and Secretary of Indian Overseas Congress.