After protest, Karnataka hikes stipend of resident doctors

Coronavirus

The stipends were last revised in 2015 and the doctors complained that their stipends were lower than those in the same role in other states.

Prajwal Bhat

In a relief for resident doctors, post-graduate students and house surgeons in Karnataka, the state government has decided to hike the monthly stipend to be paid to them after a campaign by them. The stipends were last revised in 2015 and the doctors complained that their stipends were lower than those in the same role in other states. Medical Education Minister Dr Sudhakar confirmed that the stipends for residents have been increased.  “The stipend for interns was hiked to Rs 30,000. For PG students of 1-3 years, we have hiked it to Rs 40,000, Rs 45,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively. We have also hiked the stipends for doctors doing their super-speciality,” Dr Sudhakar told reporters.Super-speciality doctors with experience of one, two and three years, will be paid Rs 60,000, Rs 65,000 and Rs 70,000 now.  Until now, interns are being paid Rs 20,000; PG students Rs 30,000, Rs 35,000 and Rs 40,000 in their first, second and third years respectively; and super-speciality doctors were paid Rs 45,000, Rs 50,000 and Rs 55,000 for one, two and three years of experience respectively.  Even though the last stipend revision was done in 2015, the fees were increased five-fold without warning in 2019. Many doctors, who are in their late-twenties, say they are being forced to scramble for financial aid due to this. Many resident doctors are also involved in the care of COVID-19 patients.  In particular, medical interns at JJM College complain that as many as 133 postgraduate doctors and 97 interns have not been paid stipends in the last 15 months since they joined the college in 2018. The doctors were serving at the Chigateri District Hospital and Women and Child Hospital in Davangere.  A similar issue was raised by 54 medical interns from Kasturba Medical College in Mangaluru serving in Wenlock District Hospital and Lady Goschen Hospital in February. But the issue was resolved after the college decided to pay the residents their pending stipends in one go. "We were paid Rs 2 lakh, the wages pending to be paid, after we protested in February," a resident doctor in Mangaluru told TNM.  Doctors at the JJM College however are yet to be paid due to a deadlock between the college management and the state government’s directorate of medical education.  

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Flash protest in Bengaluru after woman corporator alleges ‘harassment' by cop

Controversy

The corporator Nazima Khan was allegedly was blocked by a police official while she was returning from the hospital at night and was forced to walk home.

TNM Staff

A flash protest was held on Sunday morning in front of Chamrajpet Police Station in Bengaluru by supporters of KR Market ward corporator Nazima Khan after she was allegedly ‘harassed’ by a police official. The protesters, most of whom were women, sat outside the police station on Sunday morning after they came to know of the news that the corporator had allegedly been harassed by the station’s police inspector Kumaraswamy with regards to lockdown measures. According to a staff member of the office of the corporator, Nazima Khan was blocked by the police official on Saturday while she was returning from the hospital at night and was allegedly forced to walk home. “Yesterday, at around 10 pm, the corporator was stopped at the entrance of Tippu Nagar by the police when she was returning from the hospital where she went for treatment. She was forced to walk home as the police seized her two-wheeler. The police staff also misbehaved with her even though she had valid documents and was out only for emergency purposes,” the staff member told TNM. “The corporator did not tell anybody about the incident and wanted to clear the matter with the Deputy Commissioner of Police directly, but once her followers came to know about this incident, they hit the street in protest. They questioned what would happen to them if an elected leader herself is treated like that,” he added. The protests were withdrawn after the corporator appealed to her supporters after meeting with the jurisdictional Deputy Commissioner of Police and urged them to return home. Despite repeated attempts, TNM could not reach a police official for comment. According to present prohibitory orders, no persons are allowed to be outside their residence after 7 pm except for essential services or emergencies. However complete lockdown measures apply to containment zones and residents there do not enjoy any relaxations introduced since the third phase of the lockdown. Incidentally, the ward has six positive cases since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and has one containment zone

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53 new COVID-19 cases in Karnataka, state sees highest single day spike

Coronavirus

Over the last three days, the state health department has reported 142 new cases.

Soumya Chatterjee

The Karnataka government reported 53 new coronavirus cases on Sunday morning, the highest number of cases reported in a single day in the state since the first case was reported two months ago, on March 9.  The new cases were reported in Belagavi (22), Shivamogga (8), Bagalkote (8), Uttara Kannada (7), Kalaburagi (3), Bengaluru Urban (3), Chikkaballapura (1) and Davangere (1).  Among the new cases, two patients reported in Bengaluru and Kalaburagi have a history of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) while one patient, a 60-year-old man from Bengaluru, has a history of Influenza-like Illness. All other cases reported either have contact history or travel history within India.  Eight cases reported in Shivamogga are the first set of cases to emerge in the central Karnataka district. All eight patients have a travel history of visiting Ahmedabad in Gujarat, the state health department said. The patients who tested positive in Belagavi, Bagalkote and Davangere have travel history of visiting Ajmer in Rajasthan.  This spurt of cases in Belagavi makes it the second most-affected district in the state after Bengaluru Urban with a total of 105 cases.  With this, the total number of cases have rised to 847 in Karnataka. This includes 31 deaths and 405 recovered patients.  Over the last three days, the state health department has reported 142 new cases.  With the latest increase in the number of cases, the trend of having less number of active cases from the number of recovered patients is reversed for the first time since May 4. Now, the number of active cases is 411. The bulletin also confirmed the death of a 56-year-old woman who was admitted to a private hospital in Bengaluru. She was initially admitted on May 4 in a private hospital and  subsequently, was admitted to another private hospital on May 6 with complaints of SARI and was tested on the same day. While she succumbed on May 7, her test results came back positive on May 9. Incidentally,  Karnataka has tested over 1 lakh people, the government said on Saturday. The daily test numbers hover around less than 5,000 even as the state plans to reach a range of 10,000 tests daily by the end of the month.  

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Video: Bengaluru men kicked, beaten with log allegedly for performing bike stunts

Crime

The police said they are on the lookout for the man, possibly a policeman himself, who was seen kicking one of the men in the video.

TNM Staff

Screen grab

On Saturday, visuals of two young Muslim men in Bengaluru being assaulted emerged on social media platforms. In the video, a man wearing a police helmet and a handkerchief covering his face is seen questioning the two young men, who are standing near a two-wheeler. The man, who was in plain clothes, then orders them to sit down while the two look terrified; he then kicks one of the two young men on the shoulder, forcing him to sit down. Immediately, another man with a black face mask, who was standing along with the crowd watching the incident, starts hitting the two with a log, which he was already holding in his hand. Soon, a police official enters the frame and stops the man in black face mask, while the two young men are visibly in pain. This incident allegedly took place on Friday at Sahakara Nagar in Bengaluru.   Dear @cpblr A very sad video to wake up to this morning I never expected such blatant violation of human rights 4m Bengaluru police. @Sowmyareddyr @bsybjp @MohanDasari_ @VEERenuka @aapkaprithvi @siddaramaiah@WFRising @DarshanDevaiahB @AAPBangalore @prempanicker @Kanagalogy pic.twitter.com/q2qB0pGPwY — Kamran (@CitizenKamran) May 9, 2020   According to a report by the Deccan Herald, three men were allegedly riding triples on a scooter and performing stunts on their bikes in Sahakarnagar on Friday. While the third man is allegedly out of the frame, the other two were caught, questioned and assaulted. According to reports, the men were stopped after panic spread because of rumours that they were from Padarayanapura ward — a ward that has been sealed due to the high number of COVID-19 cases there. The DH report said that a case has been registered at Kodigehalli police station and the police are trying to verify if the man in the helmet is a policeman himself. Police officials were unavailable for comment when TNM tried reaching out. Bheemashankar S Guled, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North-East), told Deccan Herald the suspected police officer caught assaulting the men was not from the division. He assured that the police will take necessary action against him once he is identified. A case of assault has also been registered against the residents of the area. According to reports, the police have detained one of the residents to probe how the assault started. The policeman who stopped the assault took the men who were allegedly riding triples, to the police station in a patrol vehicle. Later, the three men were also taken to the KC General Hospital for a medical checkup. Commenting on the video of the incident, Sowmya Reddy, Congress MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) from Jayanagar, tweeted, “This kind of behaviour on a human being by our Bengaluru police is just not acceptable. Sir, I’m sure this has come to your notice. What action have you taken on these policemen who have behaved like this?”   @CPBlr @CMofKarnataka @BSYBJP @BSBommai @deepolice12 This kind of behaviour on a human being by our Bengaluru police is just not acceptable. Sir, I’m sure this has come to your notice what action have you taken on these policemen who have behaved like this? Kindly update. Thanks https://t.co/YgRqrqjpoa — Sowmya Reddy (@Sowmyareddyr) May 9, 2020 Read:  

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Karnataka govt launches helpline to address complaints of fee hikes by private schools

Coronavirus

This comes after a report said that several schools have hiked their fees despite a government notification to withhold hikes for the upcoming academic year.

Alithea Stephanie Mounika

Representational image/Pixcy

The Karnataka government has launched a new helpline to help parents and staff of private educational institutions to lodge complaints of harassment by school managements. While schools are normally allowed to have an annual fee hike of up to 10%, on April 25, the Karnataka government had issued an advisory to schools not to hike the fees keeping in mind the COVID-19 situation. However, some schools which had already issued hikes have not rolled them back. Parents have alleged that they are now being asked to pay the fees in full, and are being sent reminders about the deadline within which they needed to pay the hiked fee. This despite the fact that there is no clarity on whether schools will be allowed to open at all. Some staff members of various private schools have also said that management was laying off some of their employees. The Karnataka Education Commissioner Jagadeesh confirmed that the department will be launching the helpline from May 10. “Parents can use (the helpline) to point out harassment and fee hikes by schools during (the) lockdown," the Education Commissioner said. He added, “At this point, we are not thinking of any penalties. We will convince the institutions to be considerate, to take fees like the previous year. If we impose fine or penalty, the matter may go to court, which is not helpful for the parents. If at all an institution does not fall in line, then we have the option of taking action," he said. The helpline numbers launched are 080-23320311 (landline) and +91 6364728784 (mobile). Apart from the helpline numbers, there will also be an email ID for parents to lodge their complaints: centralhelplinesnr@gmail.com. The helplines will be working from 9.30 am to 6 pm on working days. Parents in Karnataka had earlier reported that schools are charging increased fees even though they have reduced the normal pay for their various staff members, including principals, drivers, and teachers of the schools, and amid reports that many employees are also being laid off.  With inputs from Geetika Mantri      

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3 Bengaluru cops including ACP suspended for allegedly taking bribe worth lakhs

Corruption

All three police officers — two inspectors and Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) — were posted in the Central Crime Branch.

TNM Staff

In an embarrassment for the Bengaluru City Police, three police officials, including an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) of the Central Crime Branch (CCB), have been suspended for allegedly taking bribes from tobacco dealers. The three officers were allegedly cracking down on activities related sale of tobacco during the lockdown in Bengaluru city and, in turn, took bribes from the distributors in exchange for allowing to carry on with their operations. The Hindu reported that the state Home Department suspended ACP Prabhushankar, who was working in the Frud and Misappropriation Wing in the CCB, after senior policemen had recovered Rs 25 lakh from him, which he had allegedly taken as a bribe.  Two inspectors — Ajay and Niranjankumar — were suspended by City Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao for allegedly colluding with the ACP rank officer. Deccan Herald reported these two inspectors were also posted in the same Economic Offences Wing of the CCB. A total of Rs 80 crore was allegedly collected as bribe by the two officers from five dealers, said the report. The issue came to light reportedly after two such dealers, who had already paid the bribe, approached the City Commissioner of Police, to complain against the ACP. The DH report further said that the ACP was probed by his own reporting officer, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime-2) Ravi Kumar KP. The DCP, in his probe, found the allegations to be true. The Hindu report said that this punitive action was preceded by a report prepared by the CCB to the state police chief Praveen Sood after they had recovered Rs 25 lakh from the ACP-rank officer accused of accepting the bribe. The paper quoted one senior policeman as saying the two inspections had collected the bribe allegedly at the behest of their senior officer and in return, got a share of the bribe amount. 

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FDA authorizes first coronavirus antigen test

The test, which involves swabbing the inside of the nose, can produce results in minutes.

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