K’taka village defies distancing norms to celebrate annual festival, organisers booked

Lockdown

After being denied permission, the organisers had decided to hold a small symbolic procession on Thursday which quickly grew into a massive affair attracting thousands.

Prajwal Bhat

The residents of Haveri district's Karjagi village hold an annual three-day fair around this time every year on the occasion of 'Kara Hunnime’, a festival to mark the end of summer and the beginning of monsoon. But this year, the organisers were denied permission by the police due to physical distancing norms in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The tehsildar had also written to the Deputy Commissioner of Haveri on May 26, requesting that the procession should not be held since it would be difficult to follow distancing norms.  Therefore, the organisers decided to forgo the festival this year, and instead hold a symbolic procession on Thursday evening to pay their respects to the Brahmalingeshwara deity. However, the small bullock cart procession to be attended only by the organising committee members quickly grew into a massive affair with thousands of devotees gathering at the venue in Karjagi village. Visuals of the event show the annual procession being attended by the village residents with hardly anyone wearing masks or maintaining physical distance.  "A case has been registered against members of the fair's organising committee. We had discussed with the committee and asked them to refrain from celebrating the festival this year. The organising committee members were of the belief that they still wanted to go ahead and hold a fair symbolically with only the committee members present," says Haveri Superintendent of Police KG Devaraju.  Even though prohibitory orders under section 144 of the CrPC (disallowing gathering of more than five people at a public place) were put in place, the annual festival attracted thousands of people from in and around Karjagi.  "It is their age-old belief and it was very difficult to convince them of the dangers of the coronavirus outbreak and the need to follow physical distancing norms. We cannot treat this as a law and order problem and disperse the gathering using force. We can only appeal to them. But we will be initiating a case against the committee members now," KG Devaraju added.  Haveri Rural Police have now booked 69 people under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897. "We will be writing to the judge and an enquiry will be conducted as per the judge's order," KG Devaraju said. The festival held annually in Karjagi village is attended by over 50,000 people according to police officials in the district. 

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Spate of elephant deaths in Karnataka sanctuaries worry conservationists

Wildlife

Forest officials, however, say that there is no foul play suspected and that elephant deaths are not out of the ordinary this time of the year.

Girisha

A series of elephant deaths in Male Mahadeshwara (MM) Hills Wildlife Sanctuary and Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary in Karnataka’s Chamarajanagar district since April this year has caused apprehensions among conservationists and animal lovers.  So far, 10 elephants have died in the given period. However, forest officials say it is normal for elephants to get intestinal infections at this time of the year, which can lead to their deaths, among other natural reasons. Officials also rule out any threats to elephants from poaching. Deaths in MM Hills Wildlife Sanctuary The MM Hills Wildlife Sanctuary, spread in about 1,000 sq kms of area, reported the death of an elephant, first of five deaths in the sanctuary, on April 7.  The carcass of a female elephant aged around 29 years was discovered at Changadi beat. Forest officials attributed the death to the elephant possibly slipping into a deep gorge and breaking its legs. The very next day, the carcass of a 25-year-old elephant was found at Chikkamaruru beat; the forest officials say this male elephant died of natural causes. Since the tusks were intact, forest officials ruled out a poaching incident.  Then, on May 28, a carcass of a male elephant was found in MM Hill range, followed by the discovery of a female elephant’s corpse in Hanur beat on June 2, and then another dead elephant was traced on June 9 at Martalli beat of the sanctuary. Deputy Conservator of Forests of MM Hills Wildlife Sanctuary V Yedukondalu says that they came to know through wildlife veterinarians that intestinal infections are common in pachyderms during the beginning of monsoon, leading to death of elephants in the wild. “However, the exact cause of death will be known after results come back for a carcass’s sample sent for laboratory tests in Wayanad in Kerala,” he adds. Conservationists' concerns However, a wildlife conservationist familiar with terrain of both Cauvery and MM Hills is not so sure about the samples shedding light on the cause of death. Alleging that the forest guards discovered the carcasses as late as 20 days, he says the samples taken from a decomposed carcass will not be revelatory. “If lab tests are to be conducted on the carcass sample, a clear picture of the exact cause of death will be available only if the sample is fresh and extracted within 24 hours of its death. But since the carcasses were decomposed, nothing can be established about the elephant deaths from these.”  He adds that forest guards nowadays skip on-foot patrolling in forests beats which makes it difficult to track carcasses. If that is done effectively, most of the carcasses - particularly those of elephants – will be discovered in time, which will help in timely extraction of samples to ascertain the cause of death.  However, DCF Yedukondalu says, “Out of five deaths, we detected fresh carcasses within 12 hours of death in the sanctuary and samples have been sent for lab tests.” The DCF points out that similar cases of elephant deaths were reported in the sanctuary last year as well. He adds that similar cases of jumbo deaths might be happening in other parts of the state too but have not been made public. Similar deaths in Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary Sharing boundary with MM Hills is Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary, which is spread over about 1,000 sq kms. Its Deputy Conservator of Forests Ramesh says that his sanctuary has reported five elephant deaths recently as well, including one by electrocution. In another case, a pregnant jumbo slipped and died a week before it could deliver a calf, while another was washed away. Except for the electrocution death of a tusker, he says, all four other cases were natural deaths in his sanctuary. To find the exact reasons for the jumbo’s deaths, Ramesh says he sought expert opinion from Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Bengaluru scientist Surendra Verma who also made spot inspections where jumbos died. Surendra Verma will file his report soon. Ramesh says that every year, there is some percentage of natural deaths among elephants. Despite this, he says that his sanctuary has a healthy number of elephants. He too ruled out any foul play in the elephant deaths in Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary. Girisha is a freelancer who writes on wildlife and forests. 

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Aarogya Setu not mandatory for travelling by flight or train: Centre to Karnataka HC

Court

The counsel stated that a self-declaration will have to be given, but downloading the application was advisable.

TNM Staff

Contact tracing app Aarogya Setu is not mandatory for those travelling by flight or train, the Centre told the Karnataka High Court on Friday. The government said that using the app was voluntary. Additional Solicitor General MB Nargund informed the court that a self-declaration will suffice.  "A person can travel by air without having downloaded the Aarogya Setu app and the same thing applies for travel by railways. A self declaration though will have to be given by the passenger. It is advisable to download the Aarogya Setu application. If they (passengers) want to have it ;if they don't want to have don't have it,” he said, reported Livelaw.  Read: Govt makes Aarogya Setu app open source amid privacy concerns The petition filed by Anivar Aravind, a board member of the Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC), was heard by Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice S Vishwajith Shetty. The counsel for the petitioner argued that making Aarogya Setu mandatory fundamentally violates the Right to Privacy.  The petitioner had stated that Aarogya Setu was mandatory for offices, flights and airports, and trains. The Union of India stated that Aarogya Setu was made voluntary for flights, and the same thing applies for trains. The Airports Authority of India also said that Aarogya Setu was made voluntary.  The lawyer for Anivar argued that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare made it mandatory to install Aarogya Setu for employees in offices. However, while issuing guidelines for Lockdown 4.0, this has been watered down to have been done on “best effort basis”, and wasn’t mandatory.  Also read: ‘Why force download of Aarogya Setu app?’ Private sector employees ask The petition had also mentioned that while other democratic countries have also gone for similar solutions for contact tracing, the usage of those apps was voluntary and further, those apps were mostly using Bluetooth signals as opposed to India, which uses both Bluetooth as well as location services. The petition will later be taken up on July 10. The hearing will also delve into questions raised by the petition including if the app is supported by law, and if central and state governments can make the use of Aarogya Setu mandatory to access public offices.  The government will file its response for the same. Also read: In lockdown 4.0 guidelines, govt softens stand on mandatory download of Aarogya Setu

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Karnataka preparing to face worst case COVID scenario: Minister K Sudhakar

Coronavirus

The Medical Education Minister said an expert committee report has indicated that a peak in coronavirus cases would take place in August this year.

TNM Staff

The Karnataka government is preparing to face the worst case COVID-19 scenario, as infections are expected to surge by August end, the Karnataka Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar said on Friday. "As per the expert committee report, the number of cases will increase by August end and the state government is preparing for the worst case scenario," Sudhakar said, adding the committee had studied COVID-19 transmission patterns in other countries and states. People with symptoms of ILI (influenza like illness) and SARI (severe acute respiratory infection) are more vulnerable to COVID infection and must immediately get tested for COVID-19, the Medical Education Minister said. He added that as monsoon has set in, people aged more than 60 years and suffering from ILI and SARI type symptoms must take extra precautions and get themselves tested at nearby fever clinics. There are more than 3,000 active cases in the state and more than 97% of them are asymptomatic. The Minister was holding a review meeting at Vijayanagara Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) at Ballari where Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa is slated to inaugurate a trauma care centre on July 15. Sudhakar said employees at VIMS will be given monthly targets which have to be achieved. On the court stay on recruitment at the institute, he said the necessary clearance will be taken to raise staff count. Sudhakar told Medical Education Director Girish, to ensure centralised supply of medicines and drugs to the hospital. He also warned of strict action against the hospital doctors who work at private clinics. Ballari in-charge Minister Anand Singh and MLA Somasekhar Reddy were also present at the review meeting. VIMS is serving more than 3,500 patients per day and should have claimed more ABRK (Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka) funds to develop its infrastructure, Dr Sudhakar added.

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Karnataka govt withdraws notification allowing for longer working hours

Court

The High Court had earlier told the government that if it does not withdraw the notification, the court will issue a stay on it.

TNM Staff

The Karnataka government in a submission to the High Court on Friday stated that it has withdrawn the May 22 notification which increased the working hours of workers in the state from nine hours to ten hours per day and from 48 hours to 60 hours per week.  The Karnataka High Court had earlier told the government that if it does not withdraw the notification, the court will issue a stay on it.  "Having examined the provisions further, the Government of Karnataka now intends to withdraw the said notification Therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred under Section 5 of Factories Act, 1948 (Act No. 63 of 1948), the Government of Karnataka hereby withdraws the notification," stated a notice by Sandhya L Nayak, Deputy Secretary of Labour Department. The High Court was hearing a plea filed by Maruthi H, an activist who works with construction workers and pourakarmikas, against the increase in work hours.  The court had during an earlier hearing stated that the lockdown is not a ‘public emergency’ as per Section 5 of the Factories Act, which allows the state to exempt any factory or class or description of factories from all or any of the provisions of this Act. According to the Act, “public emergency” means a grave emergency whereby the security of India or of any part of the territory thereof is threatened, whether by war or external aggression or internal disturbance. In its earlier notification, Karnataka had said Section 51 and 54 no longer apply to factories.  The provisions of section 51 states that no adult worker can work for more than eight hours per day and section 54 sets the maximum working hours at nine hours per day. The All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU) had criticised the government decision, accusing it of driving workers to the path of bonded labour.  Previously, the BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh government too had withdrawn a similar order increasing work hours for labourers. 

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Siddaramaiah flays Karnataka govt for opening up agri land purchase to all

Land use

The former Chief Minister said that this will pave way for the land mafia.

TNM Staff

File photo

Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday slammed the BJP government in Karnataka for its decision to allow non-agriculturists to purchase agricultural land in the state. The Karnataka government on Thursday decided to repeal certain provisions of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act to allow non-agriculturists to purchase agricultural land and removed the ceiling on income from non-agriculture sources. This move will benefit high-salaried professionals in Bengaluru, particularly in the Information Technology sector, to buy land in Karnataka. Many such IT professionals had turned to buying land in other states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh due to the inflexible laws in Karnataka, Economic Times reported. The previous Siddaramaiah government in 2015 had amended the Karnataka Land Reforms Act and increased the income limit from non-agricultural sources to purchase farmland, from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 25 lakh. This was done by the Siddaramaiah government to prevent the misuse of agricultural land. Siddaramaiah on Friday convened a meeting with senior Congress party leaders to deliberate on the consequences of the decision taken by the government. "The BJP government in the state has gone ahead to make provision that only the 'haves' should own agricultural land. The government wants to introduce some amendments to the KLRA," said Siddaramaiah. He said former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and former Chief Minister D Devaraj Urs had made provision that those who till should own the land but now the BJP government wants only "the haves to own the land." Siddaramaiah expressed his apprehension that the amendment will pave way for land mafias and realtors to rule the roost as they will develop land banks. It will eventually spell doom for the marginal farmers who will be reduced to labourers, he added. Read: Karnataka to allow non-agriculturists to buy farmland

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Why virtual care will outlast the pandemic

With millions of people suddenly video chatting their doctors, there's pressure on Washington to make telehealth a permanent option.

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