Mangaluru | 15-year-old boy accidentally drowns in Netravati

Mangaluru, Jul 23: A nurse who was serving as a frontline COVID warrior at the Wenlock Hospital in Mangaluru and has recently tested positive along with her 7-year-old son has complained to the Deputy Commissioner against the harassment meted out by some miscreants who have been spreading false rumours against her.

Health official said that some people in her area have given false complaints against her to government officials thus inflicting mental torture on her and her family.

In her letter, the nurse has stated that the attitude of the people forcing her to consider quitting the job. "I have served the people by treating my work as worship. Anti-social elements have been torturing me now. I am very much hurt," the she said. 

The nurse’s house at Moodbidri has been sealed after she was tested positive. However, her husband and younger child were tested negative.

Mangaluru, Feb 10: Life of a 40–year-old man, who suffered a massive cardiac arrest, was saved by an ambulance driver who covered 80-km distance between Dharmasthala and Mangaluru in just 40 minutes.

The patient, a Chikkaballapur native sustained a heart attack near Sakleshpur on Saturday while he was on his way to Dharmasthala. He was provided preliminary treatment at a private hospital in Ujire, where doctors advised his relatives to shift him to a hospital in Mangaluru immediately.

The patient’s condition was critical and the odds were completely against him. Moreover owing to the ongoing double lane project work, the road too had been dugout. Despite all this, ambulance driver Hameed drove at a fast pace and managed to take the patient to the hospital within 40 minutes.

Is it highly impossible to have flights to Mangaluru under Vande Bharat Mission to repatriate the stranded Mangalureans in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries? The present mood of the govt seems so are more politics and less actions are seen. 

Amidst covid-19 lockdown, thousands of people from Mangaluru and surrounding areas are stranded in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries. They include visitors, job redundants, people who need immediate medical attention, senior citizens, pregnant women, students and people who are eager to visit their ailing family members, especially aged parents back at home. They are all stuck over there seemingly with hopelessness.

It's reported that around Karnataka NRIs (KNRIs) have registered their names under the Mission in the Indian Embassy in Riyadh alone. A majority among them are apparently from coastal districts of Karnataka who are eagerly waiting for the flights to Mangaluru. 

The promises of elected representatives including MLAs, MPs, state and central ministers have remained unfulfilled so far. Now, things are being thrown from politicians to politicians and from politicians to the district authorities and vice versa. It's said that without proper quarantine facility in the district, the repatriation flights can't be approved to Mangaluru. 

Rumours are doing rounds that the hotels in Mangaluru are not ready to facilitate for the KNRIs quarantines; the hoteliers collectively snubbed the instruction of the district authorities. Now, they are, as informed, persuading the hoteliers to allow for the quarantine facility. 

If the hoteliers are stubborn to follow the instructions of the district administration, then why the authorities are not taking action against them under relevant statutory procedure including the revocation/cancellation of their licenses? Are they above the law or govt? For whom the authorities are waiting for? These questions are now being asked by the KNRIs and others. 

Considering this condition, the central ministers and MPs are simply giving evasive answers without any forward thinking. Each one is simply uttering the same dialogue "no quarantine; no flights to Mangaluru". 

A few KNRI businessmen in Saudi Arabia have already chartered flights to transport their stranded employees and others to Mangaluru with the approval of the govt of India. But, the inconsolable thing is that the govt didn't arrange this simple thing that too with the expense of the travellers. 

The people-especially then distressed NRIs still remember late prime minister V P Singh and then external affairs minister I K Gujral for the repatriation of the NRIs during 1990s Gulf war. Everything was free of cost and immediate special flights were arranged to airlift the NRIs in the affected countries. 

Now both Karnataka and India are ruled by the BJP. Then why the non resident Kannadigas, especially those in Saudi Arabia, are direly neglected at this point in time?. Why it's highly impossible for the govts to do this simple job for the KNRIs?  The NRIs are always big assets to the govt. Also, the KNRIs remit billions of rupees to the state in the form of foreign exchange. But, they are now simply ignored. The state govt should immediately look into this dire situation of the Kannadigas in Saudi Arabia and act immediately to schedule special flights to Mangaluru from Saudi Arabia.