Watch: Residents in Karnataka village hold temple fair to ‘ward off coronavirus’

Coronavirus

The tehsildar and district administration say that they had no clue about the fair until it was over.

TNM Staff

Hundreds of residents of Kollagondanahalli in Ramanagara district’s Kanakapura taluk blatantly violated lockdown norms and gathered in huge numbers to conduct a religious fair “to ward off coronavirus”. Visuals of residents holding up plates of offerings at the Maramma Temple in Kollagondanahalli went viral on social media on Friday.  Although such a huge religious congregation took place in broad daylight on Wednesday morning, neither the officials nor the district administration claimed to have had prior knowledge of the goings-on at Kollagondanahalli. This village is located in Kanakapura taluk, the constituency of Karnataka Congress President and MLA DK Shivakumar. Both Shivakumar and the minister in-charge for the district Deputy Chief Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayan have received flak for allowing the fair to happen.  What happened in Kollagondanahalli? On the night of May 12, residents of the village began streaming out of  their homes in huge numbers failing to wear masks nor paying any attention to physical distancing norms as they shouted prayers for goddess Maramma. Several youth held wooden beacons and began a procession by shouting out prayers. In one of the videos of the religious fair that went viral, a youth, who is a part of the crowd, throws his wooden beacon. Luckily, the fire does not spread as the beacon falls on the road. The procession, however, continues unabated.  In another video purportedly shot on the morning of May 13, residents of the village can be seen crowding around the entrance of the Maramma Temple. Many are seen holding plates of offerings including fruits and flowers above their heads and chanting hymns.  Speaking to TNM, Kodihalli Police in Ramanagara said that by the time the police were notified of the religious gathering, the people had already dispersed and gone home. On the evening of May 12, the tehsildar of Kanakapura and the panchayat development officer Mahadev went to Kodihalli Police Station and filed a complaint stating that residents of the village had violated lockdown norms and congregated for a religious fair.  “We found that the temple priest had given everyone the idea that by holding the village fair, this time, it could help ward off the coronavirus. This religious fair is held every year. The people believe that goddess Maramma will cure them of any diseases or ill health. Many people come here from Tamil Nadu every year to offer prayers as well,” the investigating officer told TNM.  Kollagondanahalli is located on the border between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The village bordered Krishnagiri and police investigators say that the probe is on to find out if any of the residents’ relatives had also attended the fair.  Speaking to TNM, the Tehsildar of Kanakapura, Varsha Wodeyar said that she and the PDO Mahadev were in Kanakapura when the incident occurred. “The village accountant NC Kalmatt, was in charge of ensuring the lockdown is followed in the village on Tuesday and Wednesday. He has been suspended,” she added.  Investigators now suspect that the village accountant Kalmatt had helped the residents hold the religious fair. He has been suspended pending inquiry. Ramanagara Deputy Commissioner said that the incident had taken place without the knowledge of the district administration and no permission was granted to hold the religious fair.  The temple priest Chikka Bore Gowda was arrested on Friday afternoon and taken into police custody for questioning. He has been booked under sections 188 (disobeying order issued by a public servant) and 269 (negligent act leading to spread of infectious disease) of the IPC.  Deputy CM says action against those responsible Deputy Chief Minister and Ramanagara District In-Charge Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayan on Friday said that stringent action would be taken against those responsible for organising the fair.  “I totally condemn people responsible for conducting this kind of festival. Action should be taken against those people without any consideration. When people are not supposed to gather in crowds, they have come and done something like this. I will speak to district officials and the Deputy Commissioner. I will ask them for a report and instruct them to take strict action against those who are responsible. No one will be spared and this message has to go out strongly,” DCM Ashwath Narayan said.   

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Karnataka forest officer who was suspended for alleged corruption, returns to same post

Controversy

Environmental activists have slammed the government as the forest officer is still under probe.

Soumya Chatterjee

Representational image

A year after a forest officer in Karnataka was suspended for alleged corruption, the state government has returned him to the same post. The move has attracted criticism from environmental activists in the state as the officer is still under probe.  The officer in question is Range Forest Officer HR Nagabhusan who has been reposted as the RFO Mysore Paper Mills (MPM), Bhadravarthy in Shivamogga district (central Karnataka). Documents accessed by TNM have shown that Nagabhusan was posted on May 4 while he was suspended from the same post in May last year. As a result of the same order, RFO Muniraj who was earlier credited with the recovery of 500 acres of forest land from an influential politician has been transferred out.  While Nagabhusan is yet to get a clean chit, he has been reinstated to the same post from which he was suspended. A top former department official in the know of the development said this is not the usual practice that an officer under probe is put back in the same post. "I don't know why the government has decided to put him back there." he said. Activists allege that Nagabhusan has managed to secure the post again thanks to the influence of local leaders who are hand in glove in the illicit timber trade. Shashidhar Shetty, an activist based in the region, alleged, “Nagabhusan is working in the same region for some past 6-7 years and he was caught doing illegal activities. Among the illegal activities were the illegal felling of timber worth Rs 20 crore. An inquiry was held and it was prima facie found that he joined hands with the paper mills owner and now he is posted back again.” He added, “In contrast you see an honest officer like Muniraju has been transferred 15 times in 17 years. He is a very sincere officer and whenever he makes a large scale seizure of poached items or recovers forest land, he is transferred. This is the sad state of affairs in our Karnataka Forest Department.” Joseph Hoover, former member of the State Wildlife Board and convenor of activist group, United Conservation Movement, said, “It is disheartening that honest forest officers, like RFO Muniraj, who recovered 500 acres of forest which was encroached by a politician in Sirsi, is being punished and transferred for protecting our natural resources. Muniraj has been allegedly relocated at the behest of politicians.” He added, “Officers with dubious records have the blessings of the politicians and government. Encouraged and buoyed with political patronage, they continue to destroy our forests.”

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11 contacts of a patient in Bengaluru’s Shivajinagar test positive for coronavirus

Coronavirus

After a housekeeping staff at a private hospital tested positive earlier in May, 11 of his secondary contacts tested positive on Friday.

TNM Staff

PTI/Representation Photo

In Bengaluru’s Shivajinagar, 11 secondary contacts of a hospital staff tested positive for SARS-Cov-2 on Friday morning. The Karnataka Health Department said that the 11 patients were contacts of patient 653, a 34-year-old housekeeping staff at Shifa Hospital in the city.  Shifa Hospital was one of the first responder hospitals for COVID-19 cases that the government of Karnataka had approved in March this year. However on April 3, a resident of Hosahalli in Bengaluru South, a 42-year-old man with Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI), visited Shifa Hospital located on Queen’s Road in Bengaluru after he had trouble breathing.  Here, he visited the outpatient department, where a DNB (Diplomate In National Board) final year student treated him. He prescribed medicines to the SARI patient and sent him home. On April 4, the SARI patient tested positive for the coronavirus.  On April 9, the 35-year-old student doctor who had tested the SARI patient began showing symptoms. He and two of his colleagues went to Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases to get tested for SARS-Cov-2. On April 12, the doctor tested positive for the virus.  “Patient 196 went to Shifa Hospital as he had symptoms but he had no travel history abroad. In early April, we were still testing primary and secondary contacts along with those with travel history. We were also testing high risk categories like SARI patients. Since this doctor was a student, he says he was unaware of it being mandatory to report SARI cases to the government,” said BBMP South Zone Health Officer Dr Shivakumar.  Soon after P196 tested positive, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike officials had shut the hospital and had begun tracing contacts of the SARI patient. Soon after the doctor tested positive, the BBMP officials began tracing contacts of the doctor and all the staff on duty were quarantined.  On April 22, a nurse, who was on duty at the outpatient department at Shifa Hospital tested positive for SARS-Cov-2.  On May 5, one of the housekeeping staff, a 34-year-old man otherwise known as P653, who was a contact of the nurse, tested positive for the novel coronavirus. A blue collar worker, P653 was earning negligible pay and was living in an over-crowded building in Bengaluru’s Shivajinagar.  “It was a four-storey building. In one building 73 people were living. All of them are from a low income background. Since the rents were high, they were sharing the space,” said BBMP East Zone Health Officer, Dr Siddappaji.  On May 5, after P653 tested positive, 73 people living in the building were quarantined. Of these, 12 were primary contacts and the rest were secondary contacts. So far, 22 swab samples have been tested. Of these, 11 secondary contacts of the patient tested positive. The 13 primary contacts tested negative, Dr Siddappaji added.  On May 6, the BBMP sealed Chandni Chowk, where P653’s home is located. People living in over 100 homes in Chandni Chowk have been maintaining home quarantine since May 6.   

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20 people who returned to Mangaluru from Dubai in repatriation flight test positive

Coronavirus

All passengers who returned in the flight were quarantined in hotels identified by the district administrations in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada.

Prajwal Bhat

PTI : Image for representation

The Karnataka government has confirmed that 20 persons who returned to Mangaluru from Dubai in the in repatriation flight which arrived on Tuesday, have tested positive for COVID-19.  All passengers who returned in the flight were quarantined by the Dakshina Kannada district administration in hotels identified by them. They have now been shifted to designated hospitals in Mangaluru and Udupi.  Of the 20 patients, 15 patients are from Dakshina Kannada district while 5 patients are from Udupi district. Upon their arrival at the Mangaluru International Airport, people from Dakshina Kannada were quarantined in hotels in the district while people from Udupi were transported to Udupi and quarantined in hotels and hostels there.  The number of COVID-19 cases reported in Dakshina Kannada rose to 43 while the cases in Udupi rose to 8. This is the first time in 47 days that a coronavirus case has been reported from Udupi district.  In all, 179 passengers had returned to Mangaluru in the flight arranged on Wednesday including 38 pregnant women. 49 of the passengers were from Udupi district while 125 passengers were from Dakshina Kannada district.  Passengers from Dakshina Kannada were given the option of choosing between 4 budget hotels, 7 medium range hotels, 5 high range hotels, a hostel and two temple lodging facilities in Dharmasthala and Subramanya.  With the reports of international passengers returning positive, the number of coronavirus cases in the state rose to 1032. On Friday, cases were reported in Dakshina Kannada 16, Bengaluru Urban 13, Udupi 5, Bidar 3, Hassan 3, Chitradurga 2, Shivamogga 1, Kolar 1, and Bagalkote 1.  476 patients infected by the virus have recovered completely in the state while 35 patients who tested positive succumbed to death.   

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Karnataka’s first COVID-19 patient to undergo plasma therapy succumbs

Coronavirus

The 60-year-old man, who was admitted in Bengaluru’s Victoria Hospital, suffered a cardiac arrest and also had other comorbidities.

TNM Staff

Representational image/PTI

The Karnataka Health and Family Welfare Department authorities on Thursday confirmed that the first COVID-19 patient to undergo convalescent plasma (CP) therapy in the state has succumbed to his comorbidities. “He was having multiple comorbidities and was in a very critical condition. He couldn’t be saved,” Karnataka Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Jawaid Akhtar told TNM. The 60-year-old man admitted in Bengaluru’s Victoria Hospital suffered a cardiac arrest and had complex medical conditions such as pneumonia, hypertension, diabetes. With another death being reported from Dakshina Kannada where a 60-year-old woman succumbed to her comorbidities, the death toll in the state rose to 35. She hailed from Anantapur in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. However, health department officials do not want to call it as a failure of the plasma therapy experiment. As reported earlier, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has given permission to the Karnataka government to begin clinical trials for the use of plasma therapy on April 22. Officials had said that this would be done only for patients with high-risk comorbidities. Following that, health officials had said that it will be first used in Victoria Hospital in consultation with Bengaluru-based HCG Hospital. HCG had incidentally got a grant from Directorate General of Healthcare Services (DGHS), Government of India, to begin the clinical trials for the experimental treatment. In an interview with TNM, HCG's Associate Dean, Vishal Rao had said that through this experimental treatment, doctors will attempt to transfer a healthy person’s immunity with the help of transferred plasma to the critically ill patients. This form of treatment which is still at an experimental stage, involves injecting plasma of patients who have recovered from the disease to those who are still infected. This had earlier been used to treat patients suffering from Ebola and Spanish flu globally.

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Former underworld don Muthappa Rai dies in Bengaluru at 68

Death

The don-turned-activist succumbed to cancer after a years-long battle.

Alithea Stephanie Mounika

Former Bengaluru underworld don-turned-activist, and the founder of Jaya Karnataka, Muthappa Rai passed away on Friday morning after a year-long battle with cancer. He was 68. Muthappa Rai had suffered from brain cancer for years and was admitted to Manipal Hospital in Bengaluru on April 30, according to hospital officials. “After a prolonged illness and hospitalization, we regret to inform the demise of 68-year-old Mr Muthappa Rai. He breathed his last at 1.43 am today. Manipal Hospitals expresses condolence to his entire family in this moment of grief,” a hospital spokesperson said. The police had interviewed Muthappa Rai on April 15 at his residence in Bidadi, after the extradition of Ravi Pujari, as at that point too, he was unwell. Muthappa Rai was interviewed in connection with a builder’s murder which took place in Bengaluru in 2001. Rai had begun his professional career as a clerk in Vijaya Bank. Later on in his life, he came to Bengaluru to start his own business, and apparently had first taken to crime to protect his business interests.  He was also infamously held responsible for the murder of erstwhile Bengaluru don MP Jayaraj in 1990, which reportedly marked his entry into the underworld. His ascent in the criminal world subsequently even took him to Mumbai where he was linked with Dawood Ibrahim.  Later, the retired gangster set up a social services organisation, Jaya Karnataka, in the early 2000s, after an alleged attempt on his life in which his driver was killed. According to the Jaya Karnataka’s Facebook page, the organisation, “aims at improving the quality of life of the people of Karnataka. A truly democratic, non-political organization that has originated in response to the ever-increasing problems of the people of this state.” He had made headlines in 2018 when he held an Ayudha pooja for his weapons: a display of guns, knives and machetes, which resulted in the Central Crime Bureau sending him a notice over the display. In 2013, director Ram Gopal Verma met with Muthappa Rai for an entire day and had seemingly decided to make an Indian version of ‘The Godfather’ with Muthappa Rai’s story at the centre. However, the movie has not seen the light of day, even though Vivek Oberoi was cast to play Muthappa Rai in this film. He is survived by his wife and two sons. The last rites will reportedly be held on Friday afternoon in Bidadi.

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Mangaluru DC writes to airport director after repatriates from Dubai complain

Coronavirus

Some passengers who arrived in Mangaluru on board the first repatriation flight from Dubai have complained about 'lack' of proper arrangements for handling the returnees.

PTI

Some passengers who arrived in Mangaluru on board the first repatriation flight from Dubai two days ago have complained about 'lack' of proper arrangements for handling the returnees, prompting the Dakshina Kannada district administration to take up the matter with airport authorities. Referring to the inadequacies flagged by the repatriates, district Deputy Commissioner (DC) Sindhu B Rupesh has written to Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) Director VV Rao, urging him to personally oversee arrangements when passengers arrive in next special flights, official sources said on Thursday. Some of the passengers, who arrived by the Air India Express flight, later said the airport did not have sufficient staff to handle the repatriates, who included pregnant women and those who required medical support. Also, the procedures at the airport took a long time and the staff did not properly brief the returnees, they had alleged. In his letter, the DC referred to the inadequacies and said she had issued prior directions to the airport authorities to extend support to the passengers. She requested the airport director to personally oversee the arrangements during the next flight to make sure that such incidents do not recur and help the district administration in coordinating with airport authorities and the airlines in bringing the passengers. The first repatriation flight to Mangaluru from Dubai landed at the MIA late Tuesday night with 177 passengers, who included 38 pregnant women and 12 medical emergency cases. All the foreign returnees were screened as per the standard operating procedure to ensure they were asymptomatic for COVID-19 and then taken to their chosen place of accommodation in KSRTC buses for 14 days quarantine. Incidentally, 19 passengers who reached Bengaluru via special train from New Delhi on Thursday chose to return as they did not want to be put in institutional quarantine. This was made possible by attaching an extra coach to the train that was scheduled to leave for Delhi in the evening

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