3 NRIs including newlywed from Dakshina Kannada killed in Saudi road accident

Bengaluru, May 26: The Karnataka government has decided cancel summer vacation for undergraduate and post-graduate students and universities during the 2020-21 academic year in the wake of severe academic loss due to COVID-19 lockdown.

Keeping in mind the loss of academic days due to the lockdown to contain the pandemic, the Higher Education Department has decided to go in for ‘Zero Vacation’. 

The state government decided to cancel all holidays particularly the summer holidays after holding a series of meetings with the Vice Chancellors and other academicians from various parts of the state.

The decision was also communicated during the review meeting of the Higher Education Department held by CM Yediyurappa on Tuesday in Bengaluru.

Bengaluru, Feb 13: 'Karnataka Bandh' call given by various Kannada organisation demanding implementation of Sarojini Mahashi report for ensuring job reservation to local people (Kannadigas) in the Private and government organisation, including industries, evoked mixed response in the State on Thursday.

The Bandh call was given by the “Karnataka Sanghatanegala Okkoota”, comprising a few factions of “Karnataka Rakshana Vedike” (KRV) and was backed by Ola-Uber Cab Drivers’ Association, a few auto unions, farmers’ associations, street vendors association, trade unions and transporters’ associations.

Meanwhile, Airport Taxi Services also supported the Bandh which forced flight passengers to find it difficult in finding the transport for reaching their destination in time. Fortunately, BMTC bus services at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) was available at the Airport.

Bengaluru, May 20: An Air India flight from Dammam in Saudi Arabia landed here with 161 passengers, including 85 for Karnataka and 76 to Hyderabad, an official said on Wednesday. Among Karnataka passengers there were both Bengalureans and Mangalureans.

"AIC-1910 (Airbus A321-211) landed at the city airport at 8.45 p.m. and 85 passengers, including 9 women and one infant alighted here, while 76 will fly to Hyderabad," the airline official said. 

The flight was 45 minutes behind schedule to Bengaluru.

The airline staff and the state government officials received the returnees in the arrival terminal and gave them masks to wear and sanitizer to wash hands.

All the passengers would be screened with thermal device to read their body temperature though only asymptomatic were flown back.

After completing formalities, including immigration check and filling the self-declaration form, the returnees were taken in state-run buses in batches for 14-day institutional quarantine in hotels and resorts across the city.

Passengers have to download the mandatory Quarantine app on their mobile phone before leaving the airport for contact tracing later.

Another evacuation flight from Kuala Lampur in Malaysia to Bengaluru has been cancelled due to Amphan cyclone over the Bay of Bengal that hit the Odisha and West Bengal on the east coast.

The service was the fourth to the southern state in the second phase of Vande Bharat Mission, the national carrier and its Express arm are operating to repatriate thousands of Indians, including distressed workers, migrants, students, senior citizens and tourists, stranded overseas since the government suspended international flights on March 23 and enforced an extended lockdown on March 25 to combat Covid-19 spread.

The first flight in the second phase landed on Monday night at Mangaluru on the state's west coast, with 177 passengers from Dubai in the UAE.

The second flight to the southern state from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia landed here (Bengaluru) on Tuesday evening, with 94 passengers.

The third flight from Muscat in Oman landed here at 6.31 p.m. on Wednesday evening and at Mangaluru on the state's west coast at 8.01 p.m.

The remaining flights to Karnataka will land in Bengaluru and Mangaluru over the next 13 days till June 3 from 12 more destinations the world over.

In the first phase of the mission from May 7-17, the airline and its arm flew 6 flights to the state from May 11-15, bringing in 800 passengers, including 623 to Bengaluru and 177 to Mangaluru from London, Singapore, San Francisco and Dubai.