Will you cleanse every place I visit, Prakash Rai to BJP

Bengaluru, May 26: Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa has been urged to cancel the proposed SSLC examinations in Karnataka and allow “mass-pass” for every student in the wake of covid-19 crisis. A group of intellectuals and educationists have put forth this demand.

In the letter released by educationist VP Niranjan Aradhya, said that they were listing the scientific reasons to the CM for cancellation of exams which are slated to be held from June 25 to July 4th.

In the letter, the intellectuals have elucidated a number of reasons for cancelling the upcoming exams. “There are close to 8.5 lakh students and 2.5 lakh staff involved. If we include parents who would drop their kids at the exam centre, around 30 lakh people will be involved in the process, making it a risky affair. Though the government has said that it will separate the students with fever or other ailments, will students admit to having fever? What if they consume paracetamol and come to write exams?” asks the letter. 

Added to this, the question papers have to be sent from the district and taluk centres and there may be chances of transmission.

“Even if we conduct exams, then what about the students who have failed? Every year, around 2.5 lakh students fail in the exam. Will the government conduct the supplementary exams again? The whole process of conducting exams comes at a huge cost of Rs 20 cr to Rs 25 crore. Hence, we are suggesting that the government cancels the exams and pass the entire group of student en masse,” said the letter.

Bengaluru, May 23: It was a stampede-like situation near Palace Grounds in Bengaluru on Saturday afternoon. The incident took place after hundreds of migrants gathered and jostled to gain entry. The situation raises concerns as no social distancing norms were followed.

According to Chetan Singh Rathore, DCP Central, the reason behind the stampede-like situation was an en masse message. "What we heard was that an en masse message has been conveyed to the people of Manipur and Odisha that they would be able to go home on trains on Saturday. The message did not consider the capacity of the train which is only 1500 seating capacity for Manipur train and 1500 for Odisha train," he told media.

Singh further added, "But the people gathered were around 3000 in number for the Manipur train and 5000 for the Odisha train. Passengers with tickets and requisites were allowed to travel while others were asked to return home and wait for their turn to travel back home."

The state of Karnataka has eased lockdown restrictions across, allowing state transport services to run. Lately, the government has been running special Shramik trains from Karnataka to ferry migrant workers back to their hometowns.

Bengaluru, Apr 8: In another incident of health staff involved in coronavirus containment facing trouble, two ASHA workers were allegedly manhandled at Kudachi in Belagavi district in Karnataka on Tuesday while undertaking a survey following detection of four COVID-19 cases with Tablighi links in the area, police said.

The district authorities have intensified door-to-door survey in Kudachi after four people who had attended the Tablighi Jamat religious conference in New Delhi last month tested positive for coronavirus in nearby Raibagh.

“Today when two ASHA workers went to Kudachi, some miscreants snatched away their phones. We are investigating whether they were beaten up also,” a police officer investigating the matter told PTI.

A few days ago, four ASHA workers here were manhandled when they went for a door-to-door survey and police have arrested five people from a minority community. They have been remanded to judicial custody by a court.

Former prime minister H D Deve Gowda had on Monday condemned incidents of attacks on doctors and health department workers and sought protection for them.