Karnataka Dy Speaker Krishna Reddy resigns ahead of no-confidence motion against him

Politics

Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri informed the House that he has accepted Krishna Reddy's resignation.

PTI

Deputy Speaker of the Karnataka Assembly M Krishna Reddy, elected to the House on a JDS ticket in the 2018 elections, quit from the post on Tuesday ahead of a no-confidence motion sought to be moved by the ruling BJP. Assembly Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri informed the House that he has accepted the resignation of Reddy, who won from Chintamani constituency. Noting that tabling of motion under rule 169 seeking removal of the Deputy Speaker was in the agenda for the day, he said he was withdrawing it. "...Deputy Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly M Krishna Reddy has submitted his resignation today, I have accepted it. So I'm dropping moving of the motion from the agenda," Kageri announced in the assembly. Kittur MLA Doddagoudar Mahantesh Basavantaray and others were scheduled to move the motion which read "Deputy Speaker has lost the confidence of the House" and it was part of Tuesday's list of business. According to reports, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had recently indicated to Reddy that he might have to step down as Deputy Speaker as he was elected to the post during the previous dispensation. He was elected as the Deputy Speaker on July 6, 2018, during the tenure of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government headed by H D Kumaraswamy. The coalition government had collapsed in July last year due to internal differences and paved way for BJP to come to power under the leadership of Yediyurappa. Savadatti BJP MLA Anand Mamani had recently expressed desire for the Deputy Speaker post.

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Thermal screening, video meetings: Union govt gives advisory for govt offices

Coronavirus

It also states that only visitors who have the permission of the officer they want to meet should be allowed into government offices after a proper screening.

Alithea Stephanie Mounika

The Union government on Tuesday put out an advisory for all government offices to protect their employees from contracting coronavirus.  The advisory details all precautionary measures that government offices are required to put in place. This is required for all ministries and departments. These include installing thermal scanners, installing sanitisers and more. It also outlines precautions for employees at higher risk. The measures outlined are:  > Install thermal scanners at the entry of government buildings, as feasible. Mandatory placing of hand sanitizers at the entry of Government buildings. Those found having flu-like symptoms may be advised to take proper treatment and go for quarantine, or go to the hospital for checking. > Discourage, to the maximum extent, entry of visitors in the office complex. Routine issue of visitors/temporary passes should be suspended with immediate effect. Only those visitors who have proper permission of the officer who they want to meet, should be allowed into the government offices, after being properly screened. > Meetings, as far as feasible, should be done through video conferencing. To minimize or reschedule meetings involving large number of people unless necessary. > Avoid all non-essential official travel. > Undertake essential correspondence on official email, and avoid sending files and documents to other offices, to the extent possible. > Facilitate delivery and receipt of “dak” (messages) at the entry point itself of the office building, as far as possible. > Close all gyms/recreation centres/creches located in Government buildings. > Ensure proper cleaning and frequent sanitization of the workplace, particularly of the frequently touched surfaces. > Ensure regular supply of hand sanitisers, soap and running water in the washrooms. > All officials may be advised to take care of their own health and look out for respiratory symptoms/fever and, if feeling unwell, should leave the workplace immediately after informing their reporting officers. They should observe home-quarantine as per the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India available at the Ministry website. > The leave sanctioning authorities are advised to sanction leave whenever any request is made, for self-quarantine as a precautionary measure. > The advisory takes note of special precautions for employees who are at higher risk, especially. older employees, pregnant employees and employees who have underlying medical conditions, to take extra precautions. The Ministries/Departments must take care not to expose such employees to any front-line work requiring direct contact with the public. Do's • To maintain personal hygiene and physical distancing. • To practice frequent hand washing. Wash hands with soap and water or use alcohol-based hand rub. Wash hands even if they are visibly clean. • Cover your nose and mouth with handkerchief/tissue while sneezing and coughing. • Throw used tissues into closed bins immediately after use. • Maintain a safe distance from persons during interaction, especially with those having flu-like symptoms. • To sneeze on the inner side of your elbow and not to cough into the palms of your hands. • To take their temperature regularly and check for respiratory symptoms. To see a doctor if you feel unwell (fever, difficulty in breathing and coughing). While visiting doctor, wear a mask/cloth to cover your mouth and nose. • For any fever or flu-like signs/symptoms, please call state helpline number or the 24x7 helpline number of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare at 011-23978046. Don'ts • Shake hands. • Have a close contact with anyone, if you're experiencing cough and fever. • Touch your eyes, nose and mouth. • Sneeze or cough into palms of your hands. • Spit in Public. • Travel unnecessarily, particularly to any affected region. • Participate in large gatherings, including sitting in groups at canteens. • Visit gyms, clubs and crowded places etc. • Spread rumours or panic.  

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Sudha Murty’s Infosys Foundation to give medical infra to treat coronavirus patients

Coronavirus

The government will handover a hospital to the foundation.

Prajwal Bhat

The Infosys Foundation, led by chairperson Sudha Murty, will provide medical infrastructure like ventilators and other equipment to prepare the 200-bed Broadway Hospital in Bengaluru to treat COVID-19 patients.  “Infosys has come forward to work with us. Broadway Hospital with over 200 beds will be handed over to infosys and they will provide facilities like ventilator and other basic facilities. We thank Sudha Murty,” Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar told reporters on Tuesday. Sources in the Health Department earlier told TNM that Sudha Murty and Narayana Health founder Dr Devi Shetty had demanded a government hospital with 500 beds to set up infrastructure to treat suspected and positive cases of COVID-19. “But we could find the Broadway Hospital in Shivajinagar which is under the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) so far,” the source said.  “In the coming days, one wing of the Bowring Hospital in Bengaluru will also be handed over to them. Other than that, they have asked for space in government buildings where they can set up isolation centres,” the source added,  The Infosys Foundation is the CSR (corporate social responsibility) arm of information technology major Infosys. It may be recalled that Dr Devi Shetty, who runs the Narayana Health group of hospitals and Sudha Murty had approached the government to offer help. Sudha Murty, in a meeting with Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Friday, suggested that a partial shutdown order be put in place in Karnataka. Sources with the health department further said that currently, various government hospitals in districts other than Bengaluru are short on ventilators.  "We have suspended all surgeries unless it is an emergency. This way, ventilators used for surgeries can be utilised for patients in isolation wards who are showing symptoms," the health department official said. An eleventh case was confirmed in Karnataka on Tuesday — a 76-year-old woman who is a resident of Bengaluru who returned from Dubai via Goa on March 9. She also suffers from chronic kidney disease. These 11 cases include the 76-year-old Kalaburagi man who succumbed to COVID-19 with co-morbidities. Among the other 10 cases, seven are from Bengaluru. One of them is a 20-year-old student who came from the United Kingdom. Three of them are three techies working in Dell, Mindtree and Google respectively. The others are the wife, daughter of the professional working in Dell and the other person was a co-passenger of the Mindtree techie on a flight from London to Bengaluru.  (With inputs from Theja Ram)

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Sale of chicken, eggs banned in parts of Mysuru city due to bird flu

Health

Officials in Karnataka added there is no reason to panic and the cases are sporadic in nature.

Soumya Chatterjee

Representational image

Amidst coronavirus pandemic in India, Karnataka government officials said bird flu has been detected in two districts: Mysuru and Davangere (central Karnataka). Samples of dead birds from Bengaluru have been tested negative.  In the neighbouring state of Kerala, there has been wide-scale culling of poultry birds in Malappuram and Kozhikode districts to contain the spread of the disease. However, officials in Karnataka said there is no reason to panic and the cases are sporadic in nature. Further, in most cases, there is no harm to human beings and the influenza spreads only from bird to bird.  Meanwhile, poultry farms and sellers are staring at a loss. With existing rumours on the spread of coronavirus, the price of chicken has reduced and now with news of bird flu, prices are expected to drop further. Birds to be culled in Mysuru, Davanagere Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G Sankar of Mysuru said one of the cases was detected from a back house poultry farm in Kumbarakoppal area of Mysuru city and another, a wild bird at a public burial ground near this house.  “Even though it is a sporadic incident and other birds owned by the same household were healthy, we have started culling all domestic birds (fowl or pets) within 1 km radius following the central government’s standard operating procedure, and in the outer 10 km radius. The owners are also cooperating with us. We are following proper burial and related sanitisation process. There will be compensation for every bird culled,” said the Deputy Commissioner.  All poultry shops in the outer 10 km radius, too, have been shut down temporarily. “So there won’t be any sale of eggs or poultry meat,” he added.  READ: Another coronavirus case in Bengaluru: 67-yr-old, who returned from Dubai, tests positive Similar steps have been taken in Davangere district after a farm in Harihara taluk confirmed a positive case of bird flu. All birds are being culled in the 1 km radius area. Bhaskar Naik, Deputy Director, Davanegere said, “We have stopped the sale of chicken and eggs in the 10 km area surrounding the epicentre. We will closely follow the developments.” No positive case in Bengaluru According to a senior official in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s Veterinary Department, “In the recent weeks, there were two-three cases of death of cranes and crows, which prompted us to reach out to the Department of Animal Husbandry of the state government as we don’t have the required expertise.” Speaking to TNM, KT Parameshwar, Deputy Director of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences Department, said, “We had already tested the samples from Bengaluru and it has tested negative. This is a regular exercise every month, where we send a few samples from different areas in the state to NIHSAD  (National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases) lab in Bhopal. With more frequent cases of bird deaths, we sent more samples than usual.” 

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Sale of chicken, eggs banned in parts of Mysuru city due to bird flu

Health

Officials in Karnataka added there is no reason to panic and the cases are sporadic in nature.

Soumya Chatterjee

Representational image

Amidst coronavirus pandemic in India, Karnataka government officials said bird flu has been detected in two districts: Mysuru and Davangere (central Karnataka). Samples of dead birds from Bengaluru have been tested negative.  In the neighbouring state of Kerala, there has been wide-scale culling of poultry birds in Malappuram and Kozhikode districts to contain the spread of the disease. However, officials in Karnataka said there is no reason to panic and the cases are sporadic in nature. Further, in most cases, there is no harm to human beings and the influenza spreads only from bird to bird.  Meanwhile, poultry farms and sellers are staring at a loss. With existing rumours on the spread of coronavirus, the price of chicken has reduced and now with news of bird flu, prices are expected to drop further. Birds to be culled in Mysuru, Davanagere Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G Sankar of Mysuru said one of the cases was detected from a back house poultry farm in Kumbarakoppal area of Mysuru city and another, a wild bird at a public burial ground near this house.  “Even though it is a sporadic incident and other birds owned by the same household were healthy, we have started culling all domestic birds (fowl or pets) within 1 km radius following the central government’s standard operating procedure,The owners are also cooperating with us. We are following proper burial and related sanitisation process. There will be compensation for every bird culled,” said the Deputy Commissioner.  All poultry shops in the outer 10 km radius, too, have been shut down temporarily. “So there won’t be any sale of eggs or poultry meat,” he added.  READ: Another coronavirus case in Bengaluru: 67-yr-old, who returned from Dubai, tests positive Similar steps have been taken in Davangere district after a farm in Harihara taluk confirmed a positive case of bird flu. All birds are being culled in the 1 km radius area. Bhaskar Naik, Deputy Director, Davanegere said, “We have stopped the sale of chicken and eggs in the 10 km area surrounding the epicentre. We will closely follow the developments.” No positive case in Bengaluru According to a senior official in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s Veterinary Department, “In the recent weeks, there were two-three cases of death of cranes and crows, which prompted us to reach out to the Department of Animal Husbandry of the state government as we don’t have the required expertise.” Speaking to TNM, KT Parameshwar, Deputy Director of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences Department, said, “We had already tested the samples from Bengaluru and it has tested negative. This is a regular exercise every month, where we send a few samples from different areas in the state to NIHSAD  (National Institute of High-Security Animal Diseases) lab in Bhopal. With more frequent cases of bird deaths, we sent more samples than usual.” 

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Another coronavirus case in Bengaluru: 67-yr-old, who returned from Dubai, tests positive

Coronavirus

The Karnataka Health Department has traced 21 high risk contacts of the woman including five family members.

Prajwal Bhat

Theja Ram

Representation Photo

Karnataka’s Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar on Tuesday said that another patient was tested positive for COVID-19, taking the state’s total tally of positive cases to 11. The 11th patient is a 67-year-old woman and a resident of Bangalore. She returned from Dubai via Goa on March 9 and had previous health-related ailments including chronic kidney disease. She was in home quarantine after she came back to Bengaluru. On March 16, she was admitted to a hospital and isolated. The Health Department has traced 21 high risk contacts of the woman including five family members. All 21 persons have been put under home quarantine.  As on Tuesday, a total of 943 people were tested of which 766 were tested negative. The results of the other patients are yet to arrive.  The first person to test positive in Karnataka was the 46-year-old techie, who worked in Dell. He travelled from Austin in Texas to New York’s John F Kennedy Airport. He left from JFK to Dubai and reached Bengaluru on March 1. He was admitted to Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest  Diseases in Bengaluru on March 8 after he showed symptoms of COVID-19. His wife and 13-year-old daughter were subsequently tested positive on March 10.  On March 11, a 50-year-old techie from MindTree, who had traveled from London to Bengaluru tested positive. On March 10, a 76-year-old man from Kalaburagi, who was suspected to have contracted the coronavirus, was brought dead to the Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences. He was tested positive after his death on March 12.  On March 11, an employee from Google in Bengaluru tested positive for COVID-19. The man flew into Mumbai from Munich on March 6 with his wife. They were returning from their honeymoon in Europe. The couple landed in Bengaluru on March 8. While the techie went home, his wife boarded a flight to New Delhi early on the morning of March 9 directly from the Bengaluru airport. She did not flee the city. He went to work on March 9 and when he fell sick, he visited RGICD. He was admitted to the hospital and subsequently tested positive.  On March 15, the daughter of the 76-year-old COVID-19 victim also tested positive. She was at the isolation ward in Kalaburagi’s ESI Hospital when the test results declared her positive. On March 16, a co-passenger, who travelled on the same British Airways flight as the techie from MindTree, tested positive for COVID-19. Subsequently, in the early hours of Tuesday, a 63-year-old doctor from Kalaburagi, who had treated the COVID-19 victim, was tested positive. The health department has so far traced 50 primary contacts of the doctor. Another 20-year-old student, who flew in from the UK was also tested positive. The department has traced 5 primary contacts, who are under home isolation.   

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Kalaburagi city in Karnataka shuts down after 3 COVID-19 cases

Coronavirus

The District Commission of Kalaburagi said that all non-essential activities would cease with immediate effect.

Alithea Stephanie Mounika

Kalaburagi is on lockdown. Image Courtesy: Wikicommons

Following the outbreak of coronavirus in the city, the Kalaburagi City Corporation has decided to put the city on almost complete lockdown. Reports said that the City Corporation has ordered all shops and commercial establishments to be shut. This includes street vendors, bakeries, restaurants, theatres, and non-essential shopping like footwear and clothing. “We are advising all people to stay at home and not go out even if they have work. Only if it is very urgent they are to go out, and if there is a need to buy some essential commodities, only one person should go out and shop for all necessary items, whether is it vegetables, milk, medicines or groceries. No other people are allowed to be outside,” the Kalaburagi District commissioner (DC), B Sharat told TNM. The official also said that all essential government offices would be functioning, such as the tahsildar, water, electricity and health department offices. "However, non-essential government services such as the Regional Transport Office (RTO) would not offer their services to the public, to avoid people congregating in these offices,” the DC added. The order follows the announcement of three confirmed close-contact cases of COVID-19 in Kalaburagi. These are all connected to the first case of coronavirus, reported there: a 76 year old man who had returned from Saudi Arabia. At first, he was being treated for his known respiratory illness, asthma, but doctors realised later that the older man was actually suffering from an infection of coronavirus. The sample came back positive only after the patient had already died. Read: India records first COVID-19 death: 76-year-old who died in Karnataka's Kalaburagi In the process, the 76-year-old man transmitted the virus to his daughter and to the doctor who was treating him. On March 12, the district authority had ordered the closure of all anganwadis, schools, other educational institutions, parks, shopping malls for a week. All public gatherings have already been banned. The district officials are in touch with the organisers of the Basaveshwara Yatra Samiti to postpone the event. All plays which were scheduled will also be postponed. All forms of government celebrations will also stand postponed. The previous order from March 12 was issued by Kalaburagi Deputy Commissioner B Sharath under Section 133 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Removal of public obstruction, Conduct of trade which is injurious to public health, etc).

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