Amid rumblings in the state BJP unit against the leadership of Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, the party’s national general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, Arun Singh, arrived in Bengaluru Wednesday, and said leaders with complaints should come to him and not talk to the media.
READ | As Karnataka BJP leaders bicker, gen secy arrives, says ‘talk to me, not to media’
Karnataka, in preparation of an anticipated third wave, is upgrading its infrastructure, including oxygen generation units and plants and is also increasing the number of covid beds, says Covid task force in charge and Deputy Chief Minister Dr Ashwath Narayan C.N.
READ | Karnataka ramping up infrastructure to battle third Covid wave
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Veteran Karnataka cricketer B Vijayakrishna died at a private hospital in Bengaluru on Thursday due to multiple organ failure and cardiac arrest, family sources said. He was 71.
The former Karnataka all-rounder was admitted to the hospital two days ago due to health complications and breathed his last on Thursday morning. In a career spanning 15 years, Vijayakrishna featured in 80 first-class matches, picking up 194 wickets and scoring 2,297 runs including two centuries.
The left-handed batsman and spinner played a key role in many of Karnataka's victories in the 70s and early 80s. He was part of Karnataka's first Ranji Trophy triumph in the 70s.
After hitting new record highs on Wednesday, petrol and diesel prices were steady across the country on Thursday, June 17, 2021. The auto fuel prices had touched record highs on June 16, when petrol rose 25 paise per litre and diesel inched up 13 paise in the national capital.
In Bengaluru, petrol is priced at Rs. 99.89 per litre while diesel costs Rs. 92.66 per litre.
At a time when the public spat between Twitter and the Centre has intensified, it has come to light that cops from Delhi Police’s special cell had gone to Bengaluru on May 31 to question the microblogging site’s India MD Manish Maheshwari over posts by BJP leaders alleging a “Congress toolkit plot”.
Following a complaint lodged by the Congress, police have summoned Twitter officials, and the Grand Old Party’s social media head Rohan Gupta and spokesperson M V Rajeev Gowda, who had filed the complaint. However, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra is yet to be called in for questioning.
A senior officer said the New Delhi Range of special cell had approached Maheshwari days after they visited Twitter India’s Delhi and Gurgaon office to serve a notice in the case. However, they couldn’t locate the Gurgaon office, and the one in Delhi was locked.
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The Karnataka High Court has granted default bail to 115 people arrested over the East Bengaluru riots last year.
The riots were triggered by a Facebook post by a nephew of Pulakeshinagar MLA, R Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy. The mob damaged police stations and Murthy’s house.
The high court set aside a special court’s order giving the National Investigation Agency (NIA) an additional 90 days for completing the investigation. The court said such extension of time without the accused being notified is legally unsustainable.
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The Karnataka health department, in a circular, stated that the second dose of Covishield vaccine can be provided after 28 days of the first dose to people who are travelling abroad. This category includes students travelling abroad, those travelling abroad for work and athletes taking part in the Tokyo Olympics.
"According to the direction of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the following groups of people can be vaccinated 28 days after (the first dose of vaccination),” the statement said.
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Amid rumblings in the state BJP unit against the leadership of Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, the party’s national general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, Arun Singh, arrived in Bengaluru Wednesday, and said leaders with complaints should come to him and not talk to the media.
Speaking to reporters, Singh maintained that “all Karnataka BJP leaders are together and there’s no difference of opinion”. He added: “If anyone has any issue, let them come and talk to me and not to the media.”
Singh, who landed in Bengaluru on Wednesday afternoon, is scheduled to meet state cabinet ministers at the BJP head office in Malleshwaram in the evening.
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Security has been stepped up in some areas on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border following information that Maoists will infiltrate Tamil Nadu via Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve Forest area, police said on Wednesday.
Armed police personnel have been deputed on the border police stations of Thalavadi, Hassanure, Bhavanisagar, Kadambur and Burgur.
The police also provided additional armed guards at ten Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border checkposts in the forest area alone and round the clock monitoring is being done to prevent entry of any Maoists into Tamil Nadu via Erode district forests, police said.
According to V. Sasi Mohan, Superintendent of Police, ten specially trained commando personnel have been selected among the Armed Reserve Police and they will be sent to the forests along with armed policemen to keep vigil. (PTI)
The Karnataka High Court has granted default bail to 115 people arrested over the East Bengaluru riots last year.
The riots were triggered by a Facebook post uploaded by a nephew of Pulakeshinagar MLA, R Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy, on August 11, 2020. The mob had damaged police stations and Murthy’s house.
Police arrested hundreds of people after the incident under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). The NIA later took over the probe.
The high court set aside the special court’s order giving the National Investigation Agency (NIA) an additional 90 days for completing the investigation. The court said such extension of time without the accused being notified is legally unsustainable.
The Karnataka unit of the Congress on Wednesday alleged that the BJP government in the state has suppressed the number of Covid deaths.
The party further alleged that the government, instead of giving Rs 4 lakhs as mandated under the National Disaster Management Act, has decided to pay only Rs 1 lakh to below poverty line families who lost their sole earning member to Covid-19.
Addressing reporters, Congress’ Maharashtra in-charge and former minister H K Patil said till June 14, as many as 33,033 people had died of Covid as per the government’s records. “But, between January 1, 2021 to June 13, 2021, 3,27,985 deaths have taken place, according to state government’s records. The point here is that there is a huge gap between 33,033 and 3.28 lakh. Have so many natural deaths taken place in the state? This seems unlikely,” Patil said.
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Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Wednesday inaugurated three Centres of Excellence in the state under the Indo-Israel Agricultural Project.
According to the government, these centres will help farmers choose and adopt technology that suits them best with the goal of doubling their income.
Karnataka will now have three operational Centers of Excellence, one in Kolar for mango, second in Bagalkot for pomegranate and third in Dharwad for vegetables.
A tigress aged around nine years was found dead in Bandipur Tiger Reserve in Karnataka late on Tuesday.
According to forest department officials, an examination of the carcass indicated that the tigress was badly injured in a fight with Indian Gaur.
"The post-mortem examination of the carcass also indicated the presence of wounds likely to have been inflicted by a gaur," officials added.
The carcass was incinerated as per the National Tiger Conservation Authority protocol.
Karnataka on Wednesday reported 7,345 fresh infections and 148 deaths, taking the tally to 27.84 lakh and the death toll to 33,296.
Bengaluru reported 1,611 cases and 19 deaths. The day also saw 17,913 discharges, showcasing the continuing trend of outnumbering the fresh cases. With this, the total number of recoveries in the state so far stands at 25,99,472.
According to the health department bulletin, the total number of active cases in the state is 1,51,566. While the positivity rate stood at 4.35 per cent, the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) was 2.01 per cent on Wednesday.
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Scientists in Karnataka are studying genomic sequences of the SARS-CoV-2 virus among children infected in the second wave in order to ascertain if infections are being caused by the existing variants of the virus or newer ones.
A technical advisory committee advising the state government on the Covid-19 crisis has tasked the nodal officer for genome sequencing in the state, Prof V Ravi, a former professor of virology, to study gene sequences in samples of children who tested positive for Covid. “Samples are now being collected and they need to be processed. We should have data and information in about 15 days,” he said.
“We have discussed the issue of infections among children and some additional work is required to study the genomic sequencing of viruses from samples of children,” said Prof M K Sudarshan, a public health expert and chairman of the state technical advisory committee.
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