Siddaramaiah was planning to seek BJP’s help to become CM: Deve Gowda

Mangaluru, May 22: There will be complete lockdown in Dakshina Kananda from 7 p.m. on Saturday (May 23) to 7 a.m. on Monday (May 25). 

Announcing this today, Deputy commissioner Sindhu B Rupesh clarified that there would be no restrictions on sale of newspapers, vegetables, fish, meat, milk and medicine.

Other shops, hotels and bars will remain closed. Movement of private vehicles also banned during this period.

Under lockdown period, people are instructed to stay indoors and all non-essential activities are restricted. 

Under coronavirus lockdown, people can step out only for essential activities like medical supplies, grocery shopping, and hospital appointments.

Wedding with permission

If marriages have been scheduled already on Sunday, they will be considered as a special case. However, prior permission is must for scheduled weddings, said the deputy commissioner.

Marriages can be permitted by ensuring social distancing, capping the number of guests at 50 and strict compliance with all other guidelines.

No AC, no consumption of liquor and paan, no invitation to people aged above 65 and below 10 and also pregnant women are some of the guidelines to be followed for holding marriages or events.

Containment zones 

In the corona containment zones that have been sealed no one can step out, only home delivery of essential services are allowed. Only movement of medical vehicles will be allowed and no one will be allowed to perform any other activity. No one will be allowed to step out of their home even for essential services. The govt may take legal action if anyone is seen out of their home.

Mangaluru, June 13: Commending the Karnataka government move to ban the online classes for children up to Standard 5, Mangaluru MLA U T Khader has demanded to impose ban on all education apps that offer online coaching to school children.

"I welcome the government’s decision of banning online classes up to class 5. I would like to know why education apps of corporate companies are allowed to continue when schools are banned to conduct online classes. Why the government could not ban those education apps that offer online classes?” the former minister questioned.

He warned that private schools in the state may commence their online classes through such apps of corporate companies if the present situation continues.

Not all parents in the state can afford buying smart phones required for online classes, he said. "Only 30% of the school children in the state have access to smart phones. Most of the parents cannot afford to buy smart phones for their children. Government should take into consideration the mental stress of academically brilliant children among poor families. Those children may go under depression when they do not have access to online classes. The government can cancel some of the schemes like distribution of bicycles and reserve such funds to find solutions to the problems poor children face at present,” Khader said.

May 6: Congress general secretary KC Venugopal on Tuesday termed as "inhumane" the government's decision to "impose excessive costs" on NRIs and expatriates for bringing them into the country from COVID-19-affected nations.

He demanded that the central government fly in the poor and vulnerable free of cost while charge the others with normal fares instead of high costs.

"The central government's decision to impose excessive costs on NRIs flying in special flights from the Covid-affected countries is an inhumane act," he said in a statement.

Venugopal said it was due to protests by a large number of expatriates and their relatives as well as the general public over the past few days that the central government took the decision to bring back Indian citizens from abroad.

"However, it is cruel that the Central government has taken advantage of this plight of expatriates by increasing the price of air fares up to three times. This is inhumane," Venugopal said in his statement.

He urged the Centre to take urgent steps to provide free travel to the most vulnerable, unemployed, sick and pregnant women and to others on normal fare.

Air India will operate 64 repatriation flights for a week from May 7 while the Navy deployed two ships as India rolled out a massive evacuation plan on Tuesday to bring back thousands of its nationals stranded abroad due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

Those availing the repatriation flights will be charged, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told a virtual press conference in New Delhi. A passenger on a London-Delhi flight will be charged Rs 50,000 and on a Dhaka-Delhi flight Rs 12,000, he added.

From the Gulf countries to Malaysia and the UK to the US, the multi-agency operation christened 'Vande Bharat Mission' will see the state-owned airline operate the non-scheduled commercial flights till May 13 to ferry around 15,000 Indian nationals from 12 countries.