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Bengaluru, Mar 4: CM BS Yediyurappa may reconsider plans to hike taxes and curtail populist schemes in his budget on Thursday as the Centre released part of GST compensation it owes the state. Officials said the Centre released the first instalment of the bimonthly compensation for October-November amounting to Rs 2,013 crore.

"This is welcome relief as the government has been scrambling to mobilise funds," said BT Manohar, member of GST consultative committee, government of Karnataka. The second instalment of Rs 1,523 crore is also expected to be released soon.

The CM, in his seventh budget, is expected keep the focus firmly on farmers and give top priority to irrigation, agriculture and welfare schemes.

The irrigation sector is expected to land the lion's share with an allocation of at least Rs 25,000 crore, followed by agriculture. Former CM Kumaraswamy had allocated over Rs 17,000 crore for water resources.

The bulk of funds is likely to go to the Upper Krishna (UKP) and Upper Bhadra projects, as it will help backward Kalyana Karnataka and central Karnataka regions. The two are also significant political blocs. The government will also seek assistance from the Centre for the UKP project in the erstwhile Hyderabad-Karnataka region, which enjoys special status under the Constitution owing to its backwardness. P4

Yediyurappa is also expected to spell out populist schemes for the poor.

Former CM HD Kumaraswamy had allocated Rs 17,212 crore in the previous budget for water resources and Yediyurappa is likely to go well beyond that figure. "Priority will be given to irrigation and farmers," Yediyurappa had said recently. "I am making efforts to present a budget within the financial constraints."

he amounts are released once every two months, but the Centre had fallen behind on payments. PX

"There are indications that another payment will be made."

The state's optimism stems from the fact that the Centre's GST collection crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore-mark for four successive months till February.

However, the CM could still hike tax rates marginally. At a pre-budget meet on resource mobilisation where Yediyurappa is learnt to have expressed willingness to borrow funds, officials from the finance department advocated raising tax rates instead.

Bengaluru, Jun 15: After a three-month delay, seven-time MLA and former state minister DK Shivakumar, who has been appointed as the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president, will take charge on July 2 at a simple function at the new party office here.

Mr Shivakumar was appointed as KPCC president on March 11.

Party sources said on Monday that Shivakumar plans to take charge of the party through a “pratijna dina” (pledge day) ceremony that would be telecast live to 7,800 locations across the state and over 10 lakh party workers are expected to attend it virtually.

Bengaluru, Jun 11: Most COVID-19 deaths in Karnataka occur when infected elderly people, those with Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) or any other symptoms delay reaching designated hospitals, a top official said.

Munish Moudgil, chief of COVID-19 War Room in the state, said most of those infected with the virus are brought to COVID-19 designated hospitals at a very late stage and recovery then becomes extremely tough.

He said about 65 per cent of those killed suffered from SARI and are aged above 60.

The death rate due to SARI is 43 per cent for those in the 40-60 age group, he said, releasing data on coronavirus deaths, to reporters.

In the same age group, the mortality due to Influenza Like Illness (ILI) was 17.4 per cent, whereas it is 11.1 per cent among people aged above 60 .

He said 25 per cent of symptomatic patients aged above 60 die due to the virus, while it was 10.7 per cent in the 40-60 age group.

The fatalities among those aged 60 is high even if they are asymptomatic, Mr Moudgil, who is secretary in the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, said.

He said the average number of days spent at these hospitals by those who recovered is about 15 days, compared to 3.5 days for those who died of the virus.

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"Hence persons who are elderly and who have comorbidities or who have SARI must reach designated Covid hospitals at the earliest," Mr Moudgil said.

As of date, Karnataka has reported 69 COVID-19 deaths As many as 6,041 people have tested positive for COVID-19, including 2,862 discharges and 3,108 active cases.