Youth dies as motorbike rams into bus in overtake bid; another critical

Bengaluru, Feb 18: Veteran actress Kishori Ballal, 82, best known for playing Kaveri Amma in Ashutosh Gowariker’s Swades, passed away on Tuesday. She was suffering from age-related health issues and breathed her last at a Bengaluru hospital.

Kishori, who hailed from Mangaluru, made her debut in Kannada film 'Evalentha Hendathi' in 1960.

In a career spanning five decades, she went on to act in movies like Hani Hani, Kahi and Suryakanthi. A Bharatnatyam exponent, she was also a part of Hindi films like Lafangey Parindey, Ek Alag Mausam and Gair Kanooni.

Kishori Ballal played the role of Kaveri Amma, the nanny of Shah Rukh Khan (Mohan Bhargav) in Swades.

Bengaluru, Jul 9: Alarmed over surging COVID-19 cases, the Karnataka government has decided to divide this tech city into containment zones to curb the spread of the pandemic, a state minister said on Thursday.

"The city will be divided into red, orange and yellow zones in commensurate with the number of Covid cases in them for containing the virus spread on war footing," Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J.C. Madhuswamy told reporters here.

Cabinet ministers representing assembly segments in the city will be in-charge of the zones to ensure the cases are curbed with strict enforcement of lockdown guidelines, especially wearing mask and maintaining social distancing by the people in the confinement areas.

"Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has convened a meeting of ministers, MLAs, MPs and corporators of all the 198 civic wards across the city on Friday to discuss and draw an action plan to contain the pandemic," said Madhuswamy.

With 1,148 positive cases, the city''s Covid tally rose to 12,509 and active to 10,103, while 2,228 were discharged, including 418 on Wednesday, while 177 succumbed to the infection since March 9, with 23 in the last 24 hours.

"The Chief Minister ordered deploying more ambulances in the containment areas where cases have been spiking daily to rush Covid patients to the nearest hospital for immediate treatment," said Madhuswamy.

The city civic corporation -- Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) --has increased the containment zones to 3,181 due to more cases spiking, with southern and western suburbs accounting for most infections.

"The containment zones are concentrated more in the city''s southern and western suburbs. Active cases doubled over the last 8 days and shot up to a whopping 12,509 from 4,555 on June 30," an official said.

Refuting graft charges by opposition Congress leader Siddaramaiah in the purchase of medical equipment for treatment of Covid patients, Madhuswamy said the state government had not spent more than Rs 600 crore so far.

"We are running a government. Not a private office. We will give account. He (Siddaramaiah) is welcome to check the accounts and verify the documents," asserted the minister.

In a related development, the cabinet also approved an ordinance to increase the state contingency fund to Rs 500 crore from Rs 80 crore for the Covid-19 induced economic relief measures announced by the chief minister in June.

Bengaluru, May 30: A city corporator in Bengaluru was sent into quarantine on Saturday after he tested positive for the coronavirus infection, officials said.

"Yes, I have tested positive," Padarayanapura municipal ward corporator Imran Pasha told some news channels.

The JDS corporator said he would quarantine himself as per the regulations.

The entire area where Pasha lives was cordoned off.

Health workers reached there in an ambulance and gave him a personal protection gear to wear and he was taken to a designated hospital.

Reacting to the development, Karnataka Revenue Minister R Ashoka claimed Pasha hardly paid heed to the COVID-19 regulations.

"He rushes to all those places wherever there are positive cases...," Ashoka told reporters.

Padarayanapura was declared as a containment zone earlier with a few cases coming to the fore.

It was in this area where some policemen and health workers were attacked when they went to quarantine a few primary and secondary contacts of a COVID-19 patient about a month ago.

Following the incident, about 125 people were arrested, and later quarantined after a few of them tested positive.