Sudden closure of Karnataka garment factory stitching H&M clothes leaves workers stranded

Labour Rights

Labour activists are urging Gokaldas exports to reopen the factory and provide the workers the wages they are owed.

Prajwal Bhat

Lakshmamma, a garment worker in Karnataka’s Mandya district, is an expert sewing operator who helps make jackets, shirts and blazers for fashion brands like H&M.  But since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, her factory - Euro Clothing Company -II - attached to Gokaldas Exports, a major apparel and clothing exporter in India, has seen a decrease in orders placed by international retailers.  On June 6, the factory unit in Mandya, with around 1,300 workers, was shut down. An announcement was made through a notice stuck on a wall inside the factory telling its workers that they no longer had their jobs and that they would be paid half of their wages.  The notice said that the reason for laying off the workers was due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the manufacturing activity of the exporter. Almost three weeks after the unit was shut down, the factory workers, mostly women, are steadfastly protesting their dismissals. “We are living on borrowed money,” Lakshmamma says. “We have been unable to get other jobs because of the coronavirus pandemic. We have to borrow money to pay our rent and feed our children,” Lakshamma adds. After her husband suffered a stroke, Lakshmamma is now the family’s lone earning member and she has a son who is studying in class 9.  Workers like Lakshmamma who were laid off earlier this month turn up at the factory premises every day and sit in protest till the evening hoping to hear from officials at Gokaldas Exports that they can have their jobs back. They say they are yet to receive assurances from officials.  “We are valued only if we are working but when the work stops, we are not valued.” The ECC-II unit is located in Srirangapatna in Mandya and the exporter - Gokaldas Exports - manufactures clothes of brands from leading Indian retailers as well as brands from Europe and the United States. The workers in the factory were paid half of their wages in April and returned to work on May 4, when the stringent lockdown restrictions in India were lifted.  Workers say they were laid off without warning on June 6 following which a tripartite negotiation process involving the Garment and Textile Workers Union (GATWU), officials from Gokaldas Exports and labour department officials in Mandya was started.  Officials from Gokaldas Exports declined to give a response, and did not clarify details about the layoffs. “We have not taken any decision and we are not discussing the details of the negotiation with the media. We will be sharing the statement once the talks are finalised,” Sireesh Kumar, Deputy General Manager of Compliance at Gokaldas said.  Both the factory workers and labour department officials in Mandya said that the layoffs were announced without warning. Labour activists say that they were in violation of section 25M of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. In the run up to the dismissals, labour unions had sent letters to the state labour department on June 1 pointing to Gokaldas’ decision to remove machinery from the factory unit without offering explanations. Officials in Karnataka’s labour department told TNM that officials from Gokaldas had cited the reduction of orders due to the coronavirus.  Read: 1,300 garment factory workers in Karnataka lose their jobs overnight Lakshmamma says that the workers in the unit that was shut down often made products for Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M), a globally recognised clothing retailer. Labour activists told TNM that in 2019, a majority of the products manufactured in the Euro Clothing Company - II unit were H&M products.  Officials in H&M told TNM that they have been following the developments and that the retailer was in close dialogue with both the workers and the supplier to resolve the conflict. They also said that H&M is fulfilling the payments for orders placed by it with the supplier - Gokaldas Exports. “We are deeply concerned about the developments and are acutely aware that garment workers are in an extremely vulnerable situation. However, at this point, our orders at this specific supplier are on similar levels as during the same period last year. We are also fulfilling our payments for goods in accordance with contracts, on time and at the originally agreed price,” an H&M spokesperson wrote to TNM. There are 20 factories in the area, but the unit in Srirangapatna is the only one that was closed. H&M said that the conflict between the workers and factory officials was due to ‘different interpretations of Indian laws’.  “The conflict between the supplier and the trade unions is about different interpretations of the national law. We are in close dialogue with both parties to help them resolve the conflict peacefully and reach an agreement that is acceptable to both parties,” the spokesperson added.  Garment workers protesting in Euro Clothing Company - II factory unit in Srirangapatna, Mandya However, labour activists questioned H&M’s silence and their unwillingness to take responsibility for workers who made their products. “Is H&M admitting they have no responsibility for workers who make their clothes? H&M cannot reduce the conflict to interpretations of national law and hide behind its supplier. It needs to take responsibility for workers rights and abuses in its supply chain. There is a legal process to be followed by the government. The company (Gokaldas) has to pay back wages and reopen the factory,” Gautam Mody, General Secretary of the New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI) of India told TNM.  A worker aware of the discussions stated that Gokaldas was exploring the possibility of relocating workers from the Mandya unit to its factory in the neighboring Mysuru district. “We were told that those unwilling to relocate will be paid retrenchment compensation and let go. But the workers have not agreed to this,” a worker told TNM. The same worker told TNM that the factory unit in Srirangapatna was targeted to punish workers engaged in union activity. “Many workers in this factory unit are union members and we have struggled for our payments even before the coronavirus pandemic hit,” the worker added.  Garment workers protesting in Euro Clothing Company - II factory unit in Srirangapatna, Mandya In 2018, the Karnataka government had issued a notification recommending a 35-40% wage hike for skilled and unskilled workers in the state. The notification was withdrawn and RTI documents revealed that around the time it was rolled back, three companies - Shahi Exports, Gokaldas Exports and Himmath Singhka Seide Limited - had made representations to the state government asking for a change in the notification due to a ‘slowdown’ in the textile industry. One of the letters addressed to the state labour department also suggested that factories would be relocated to a neighbouring state in an apparent attempt to pressure the government.  Read: A fight for minimum wages: K'taka garment workers rekindle 18-month protest In an industry where workers are paid low wages and made to work in poor conditions, practices to disrupt unionsing is not new and has been a problem for decades. Labour activists say that The Minimum Wages Act, 1948, mandates a revision of wages by state governments every three to five years but workers in the garment industry of Karnataka argue that their wages were revised only five times in over 40 years.  The coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the workers’ struggles. The Karnataka government recently withdrew a controversial notification which extended the maximum working hours from 8 to 10 per day and from 48 to 60 per week for factory workers in the state.  The state labour department is mediating the negotiations between the protesting workers in Mandya and officials from Gokaldas. Sources in the department told TNM that Gokaldas had sought one more week’s time. It has been nearly three weeks since the firings were announced and protests began.  “We will come here (to the factory) every morning and leave every evening (protesting). It has been 19 days already and we will go on until we are paid our due wages and the factory is reopened,” Lakshmamma adds. 

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COVID-19 price cap for private hospitals: Docs, public health experts, patients slam K'taka govt

Coronavirus

They argued that it is imperative on the government to ensure free treatment to all COVID-19 patients not just as a matter of right but also as prudent public health policy to curtail the pandemic.

TNM Staff

Representational image/PTI

A day after the Karnataka government fixed the prices for COVID-19 treatment in private hospitals, 26 civil society organisations (including doctors, public health professionals and patient rights groups) have criticised the lack of transparency in the process. Some of the signatory groups to this statement include Drug Action Forum - Karnataka (DAF-K), All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN), Naavu Bharathiyaru Karnataka and Campaign for Dignified and Affordable Healthcare (CDAH). The joint statement said the organisations are extremely concerned about why the government took the decisions to cap prices based solely on discussions with private hospitals and the Association of Healthcare Providers (AHPI), leaving public health professions, patient groups, and civil society out of the loop. According to a notification by the Karnataka government, for patients referred to a private hospital by a public health authority, the cost per day for general ward will be Rs 5,200; for high dependency wards it will be Rs 7,000; for isolated intensive care units (ICUs) will be Rs 8,500; and the same with ventilator support will be Rs 10,000. For other patients who directly go to private hospitals, general wards will cost Rs 10,000; high dependency wards will cost Rs 12,000; isolated intensive care units (ICUs) will cost Rs 15,000; and the same with ventilators will cost Rs 25,000. All these costs are on a per day basis. The statement opposing these prices said, “The AHPI is a lobbying front for large corporate hospitals that operates solely for economic benefit of private hospitals, pandemic or no pandemic.” The statement argued that even though the AHPI was earlier criticised for having conflict of interest and methodological flaws, it has not stopped them from creating proposals for package rates that are “flawed and clearly intended to hike up costs for patients/government.” They argued that due to the prevailing public health crisis and economic hardships faced by people, it is imperative on the government to ensure free treatment to all COVID-19 patients not just as a matter of right but also as prudent public health policy to curtail the disease.  Calling the government action of taking over 50% capacity of private hospitals long overdue, the signatories added it falls short of ensuring financial protection. "The notification has not provided the specific number of beds that will be made available in each hospital under each category. This provides leeway for private hospitals to reserve the more expensive and profitable beds, i.e. the ICU beds with and without ventilator support,” the statement added. Further, the fixed rates do not cover the costs of unforeseen complications, surgeries, other comorbid conditions, pregnancy. This is a worrying issue, the statement said, given these are the most high-risk patients. To keep a check on the private hospitals and due to lack of a grievance record mechanism, the joint statement said that a nodal officer be appointed for the same. Their list of demands have been reproduced in full: 1. In taking decisions related to requisitioning capacity of the private healthcare sector, pricing and setting rates, and healthcare provisioning during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government must ensure that all actors and stakeholders, including public health professionals, patient’s groups, civil society and people’s groups are included in the consultations. The consultation process should be transparent, and minutes of meetings should be made publicly available.  2. In order to successfully curtail the pandemic, a whole health systems approach is sorely required. This is missing in the current approach where provision of healthcare is seen in a segmented manner. There is a dire need to bring public, private, charitable, medical colleges, corporation facilities under a single umbrella with transparent and well-functioning referral and reporting mechanisms. The government could use the COVID-19 situation as a good opportunity to improve the reporting and assisted referral mechanisms from the various public as well private facilities so that the patients are not distressed going from one hospital to another. 3. The treatment given to COVID-19 patients must be in strict adherence to Standard Treatment Guidelines which should be issued by an appropriate government agency.  4. The government needs to ensure that a transparent oversight mechanism is set and enforced to ensure that differential quality of treatment is not provided to patients referred by the government, those paying fixed rates out of pocket, and those paying full rates through their private insurance.  5. A nodal officer has to be appointed for monitoring functioning of private hospitals and addressing grievances. The contact details of the officer must be made publicly available. Strict action must be taken against hospitals found to be violating the fixed rates, providing differential quality of care, violations standard treatment guidelines, or denying anyone care.  6. The fixed rates for private patients mentioned in point 2(b) of the Notification dated 23 June 2020 should be extended to patients covered by private insurance.  7. Co-morbidities should be included as part of the package for private patients of COVID-19, especially for those requiring ICU and ventilator support. The rationale for the treatment should be documented in detail.  8. Many seriously affected patients often require lengthy admissions of several weeks combined with critical interventions like oxygen and ventilator support. Even at the prescribed rates for private patients, the cumulative cost over several days could make treatment unaffordable for many families. Moreover, many patients would require access to experimental treatments that can be highly priced. The government has not catered for measures to protect them from financial adversity.  9. Just stating percentages of beds is not sufficient. Private hospitals need to mention the exact number of beds allocated, in each category - general ward, DHU, ICU without ventilator, ICU with ventilator, within each private hospital to be made available and regularly updated. This must be reported on a daily basis and made publicly available for the general public to identify the bed availability.  10. The government needs to urgently take control of the situation and invoke its powers to bring part or all of select private hospitals, facilities and services under common public health command, at its own terms and conditions, and delegate tasks to them. In this respect we welcome the Circular issued on June 23, 2020, directing certain corporate/charitable hospitals to each ready one of their branches for converting into a dedicated COVID hospital. The government must requisition further capacity in private hospitals, particularly of critical care facilities, as the need arises.  11. Payments to private hospitals for patients referred by the government should be made within a stipulated and reasonable timeframe (e.g., two weeks) in order to ensure the full cooperation of the private sector. There have been extensive complaints from private hospitals about pending payments under various government schemes. During a national health emergency, the government needs to ensure provision of healthcare services without any disruption. Therefore, in order to ensure cooperation and viability of service provision through the private hospitals, the government must ensure that reimbursements for COVID-19 treatment are done regularly within a stipulated time frame. It may be advisable for the government to also clear the backlog of previous pending payments to hospitals.

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With masks and temperature checks, 7.7 lakh Karnataka class 10 students write exams

Education

The English and Kannada second language exams saw a turnout of 98.3%.

Prajwal Bhat

As many as 7.71 lakh students studying in class 10 in Karnataka appeared for their Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC) board exam on Thursday, three months after they were postponed due to lockdown restrictions. The English and Kannada second language exams saw a turnout of 98.3% of the 7.85 lakh students who had registered to write Thursday's exams in the state.  Unlike other years, students faced a series of tasks to reach their seats.  Even though the examination began at 10:30 am, students arrived at their schools as early as 7:30 am in the morning under the scrutiny of teachers and even police officials and media personnel stationed in schools in the state.  Students were asked to wear masks and maintain distancing, and were subjected to a temperature check before they could sit down in their respective rooms to write the examination. Examinations were held in 2289 exam centres across the state. Some students travelled by boats since the exams are being conducted when the southwest monsoon is active in the state while others had to cross state borders under the watchful eyes of nodal officials who received them at the border.  As many as 367 students from Kerala writing the exam in Dakshina Kannada district were transported in buses from Talapady and dropped to their exam centres.  In all, 555 out of 614 registered students from Karnataka's five neighboring states - Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and Maharashtra - wrote the examinations on Thursday. Two examination centres were in Goa state and officials from the state collected the bundles of question papers from the border to conduct the exams. Usually, the students would travel south to Karwar to write the exams but due to the coronavirus outbreak this year, it was decided to open exam centres in Goa itself.  201 students in the state turned up with symptoms of COVID-19 and wrote exams in a separate room. Similarly, 998 students in the state had turned up from containment zones and were made to write exams in a separate room.  Students who shifted to their home town during the prolonged lockdown have been allowed to write exams from the nearest centre. In a tragic incident, a 53-year-old father of a student writing his exam died after an accident.  In another incident, Abhijit, a student from Madhugiri in Tumakuru had to skip the examination after it was found that his mother had returned from Andhra Pradesh recently and had developed symptoms of COVID-19. Meanwhile, in Shirahatti in Gadag district, police officials gave a lift to students writing the exams due to a lack of public transport buses available.  While states like Tamil Nadu and Telangana decided to cancel their board examinations this year, Karnataka decided to go ahead with caution. The state had to submit SOPs of the examination guidelines to the High Court and Supreme Court to ensure that there are no legal hurdles for conducting the exams.  The state government, particularly Education Minister Suresh Kumar, now hopes that the remaining examinations go off without trouble in the state.   

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Investing in Bengaluru's buses with safety measures can help revive economy: Experts

Public transport

Experts say that increasing the number of buses plying at this time can boost confidence in public transport and also prevent crowding.

Soumya Chatterjee

As Bengaluru, along with the rest of the country began its gradual exit from the COVID-19 lockdown, public buses resumed services in the city from mid-May. And with the Namma Metro services yet to resume and the suburban rail services running at skeletal capacity on select routes, buses are presently the only public transport for intra-city city commuting. However, like many other public activities, what needs to be done to make public transport safe as well as viable during the pandemic? TNM spoke with the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC, the state government operated bus company), citizen activists and transport experts on the same, and how public transport is crucial to enabling livelihoods. Who needs public transport? While public buses are running in Bengaluru, some public surveys seem to indicate that many will not be availing public transport over coronavirus fears. One such survey was done by Bangalore Political Action Committee, or B.PAC, where around 70% of the 1,072 respondents said that they wouldn’t be using public transport in the next three months. Surveys like these could deter the government from continuing or increasing BMTC services. However, Tara Krishaswamy, co-founder of Citizens for Bengaluru, an activist platform which advocates for better public transport in the city argues that those who can afford to will prefer using private vehicles. But it is people belonging to the economically disadvantaged section (mostly informal workers) who do not have options other than walking who will use buses. “When it comes to public perception, it is often the dominant upper middle class’s voice that tends to overshadow the masses, given the former’s influence and presence on social media. So, the notion that the public will shun government buses is biased because the surveys are filled by the upper middle-class lens. But unfortunately, governments tend to get inordinately swayed by that. Other than the poor, the majority of the population who travel in buses are often women. This is because on average, ownership of vehicles among women is negligible,” she says. “We must remember that even now, the majority of the population do not have any other choice other than to rely on public transport or lose their livelihoods. So, the government must invest in making it accessible,” she adds. Invest in BMTC While BMTC is government owned, as the ‘corporation’ in its name suggests, it is run like a company and expected to generate profits while getting little financial support. Additionally, it is subjected to more than 10 forms of direct and indirect taxes. Pawan Mulukutla, a Bengaluru-based urban mobility expert says that the BMTC should seek a viability gap funding in the tune of Rs 500 crore for the current and next financial year in addition to the relaxation of the taxes. VGF is funding support given by the government where it bears a certain percentage of the cost of the project that is economically justified but isn't financially viable. Further, to attract more passengers, Pawan adds that ticket prices on the most commonly travelled distance brackets should be made cheaper, and the validity duration of bus passes should be made more flexible to make them more attractive than buying daily tickets. “Beyond the daily, weekly, and monthly, can they introduce maybe a 10-day pass or a 15-day pass and bring down the price for the same. Nobody needs a pass for 30 days, so there should be more flexible options to make it attractive to more people,” he says, adding that he is not in favour of blanket reduction in fares. He emphasised, “BMTC will have data of dominant travel patterns (distance stages) and thereby lower those fares selectively to make it more affordable and also attracting new passengers.” For the sake of livelihoods Tara states that it is not only for the economically backward sections that public buses should be backed, but also to restart economic activity. “The economy can only be back on its feet when the woman who works in a mall as well as a domestic worker can go back to work, and has money to spend. The government should understand it can’t kickstart the economy by just letting the IT crowd work and everybody else loses livelihoods. So, the government should not cut down bus services,” she says. She adds that poor women losing their livelihoods also impacts public health. “It is often that the women’s income provides children with nutrition and in these difficult times, you are much more likely to fall sick if your nutrition is affected.” Tara emphasises that all this should be done without compromising safety issues for the staff and the commuters. Retaining the gains of lockdown A small silver lining of the COVID-19 lockdown has been the environmental gains worldwide, such as the drop in air pollution. The same has been true for Bengaluru as well, given that vehicular pollution is one of the major causes of the city’s poor air quality. In the pre-lockdown period, BMTC on average clocked a daily ridership of over 35 lakh. While the city’s population has increased over the years, BMTC ridership has come down in recent years from 50 lakh in 2013-14, according to its own data. Even then, its ridership is much higher than the metro which is around 5 lakh daily across the two functional lines. Now with life inching back to normalcy, despite the spike in COVID-19 cases, bus ridership is feared to go down further. “Rather than cutting services, they should double the number of services and by doing this they will be sending a message to the public that since there are so many buses, there won’t be incidents of crowding. If BMTC announces that the frequency of the buses will be increased, then even people who have the option of using private transportation will think of using buses,” Tara says. Precautions taken by BMTC BMTC resumed operations with due precautions like sanitising buses from May 19. While BTMC provided protective gear for its own crew, it was made compulsory for commuters to wear masks. To minimise contact between staff and commuters, a QR code-based fare collection system and flat fare has been put in place as well. Speaking to TNM, BMTC Managing Director, C Shikha, an Indian Administrative Officer (IAS), said, “To avoid crowding amongst people travelling at a time, we have put restrictions on the maximum passengers per bus. This has led to a drastic reduction in revenue collection for BMTC. While cost of operation has remained the same, earning per bus is reduced to one third of what it was earlier.” She added, “To make up for this loss in revenue, we have taken some measures. A proposal has been sent to the central and state governments to extend exemptions from various taxes. In addition to that we have reduced operations during non-peak hours and are also trying to cut costs on various fronts.”

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Great Indian Bustard habitat under threat in Karnataka Forest Minister’s district

Conservation

Civil works by forest officials was causing disturbance to the bustard in Siruguppa, one of the critically endangered bird’s roosting and breeding habitats.

Girisha

Pic by Dr Samad Kottur

At a time when the Supreme Court has expressed concerns about the declining numbers of the Critically Endangered Great Indian Bustard (GIB), one of its roosting and breeding habitats – in Siruguppa of Karnataka’s Ballari, home turf of the state’s Minister for Forests and Environment Anand Singh – is under serious threat, conservationists fear. Forest officials are carrying out civil works such as construction of watch towers, anti-poaching camps (APCs) and water holes causing disturbance to the birds. Anand Singh represents the Hospet Assembly seat in Ballari district and is the district in-charge minister. The GIBs have moved away owing to the disturbance from the civil works in its habitat (grasslands) in Siruguppa, spread over around 250 acres in five patches, fears former honorary wildlife warden of Ballari district Santosh Martin. Martin explains that around 150 GIBs survive in the country and about 15 of them are in Siruguppa. He says that the construction of five water holes in its core habitat is totally unwanted since GIBs do not need a great amount of water to survive. Coexisting with GIBs in Siruguppa are Black bucks, who also don’t need much water and have adapted to survive without water even in harsh summers. The conservationist is also worried since the anti-poaching camps and watch towers have been built in the GIB’s breeding sites. He fears that the breeding sites may be lost if forest officials do not bring the structures down. Pointing out other instances where GIBs disappeared, Martin says that similar civil works taken up in Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh forced the bustards out of their habitats. Yet the Ballari officials don’t seem to have learnt a lesson. Forest officials, on condition of anonymity, said that the civil works were taken up based on directions from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and that water holes were dug to make sure that there is water supply for animals such as hyenas, jackals, among others. Moreover, the officials said the GIB’s habitat in Siruguppa is surrounded by agricultural fields and these critically endangered birds are safe in the grasslands that form their habitat, brushing aside fears of any danger to the GIBs due to the civil works. They added that anti-poaching camps were being constructed to check poaching activities in the area since poachers from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh came to hunt deer for meat, while watch towers were to help keep tabs on the movement of poachers. The officials also denied that GIBs have moved away from the area and claim that they recently sighted four GIBs near the anti-poaching camps. Forest officials added that GIBs have continued to stay in the grasslands despite huge water tanks that were built in the vicinity by the zilla panchayat under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA), among other disturbances. However, conservationist Dr Samad Kottur says he has not sighted a single GIB on his last four visits to the area after the civil works started. Dr Kottur is a member of the Advisory Committee on the Great Indian Bustard appointed by the Supreme Court to facilitate the flow of information about these critically endangered birds from the state. He attributed the lack of sightings to the enormous human activities in the breeding and roosting habitat of the GIB in Siruguppa. Among the many suggestions made by Santosh Martin and Dr Kottur to forest officials is the demolition of anti-poaching camps and water towers, and the removal of electric poles in the GIB’s habitat. Besides, they said no planting of saplings should be undertaken in order to conserve the grassland ecosystem for the long-term conservation of GIBs in Siruguppa. “If the erected structures are demolished, then we can hope that the GIBs will come back to their habitat,” says Martin. Ballari Deputy Conservator of Forests Siddaramappa on Tuesday said a committee has been formed involving experts on GIBs and forest officials to work closely to conserve the birds. “As of now, we have stopped all civil works in the GIB habitat. Pits dug up to plant saplings have been refilled with mud,” Siddaramappa stated and expressed confidence that all concerns would be addressed. State Minister for Forests and Environment Anand Singh could not be contacted for comment. Girisha is a freelancer who writes on wildlife and the environment. All pictures by Dr Samad Kottur

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Four staff members at BS Yediyurappa's official residence Krishna get COVID-19

Coronavirus

This comes after the husband of a woman staffer at BS Yediyurappa’s official residence, tested positive on June 19.

TNM Staff

Four staff members of Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s official residence Krishna, tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Thursday. Three security personnel including two police constables and one fire and emergency service personnel tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The fourth person is an electrician, who is part of the maintenance staff.  Health Department officials said that the four staffers had last come to work at Krishna over a week ago and had not come into contact with anyone, who came directly into contact with Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa. “These people worked on shift basis and did not come into contact with the CM at the time they were deployed for duty in Krishna,” the official added. Yediyurappa and his family members, however, live in their home at Dollar's Colony in Bengaluru and the Chief Minister uses Krishna only for official purposes.  Swab samples of all staff members at Krishna were taken on Tuesday after a woman constable’s husband tested positive for the virus on June 19. The results came back on Thursday after which the four staff members were sent to isolation. The Chief Minister’s official residence was shut earlier on Monday for sanitisation as a precautionary measure.  Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, was slated to hold a meeting at Krishna at 1 pm on Thursday along with Additional Chief Secretary of the Health Department Jawaid Akthar, members of the expert committee for COVID-19 and several ministers to discuss whether another lockdown should be imposed. However, the meeting was pushed to 3 pm and the venue was shifted to Vidhana Soudha after the staffers tested positive, a spokesperson from the Chief Minister’s Office said.  Soon after the woman constable’s husband tested positive for the coronavirus on June 19, BS Yediyurappa had decided to hold all meetings at Vidhana Soudha instead of Krishna until the sanitisation process was complete. However, sources with the CMO said that Yediyurappa will now hold meetings at Vidhana Soudha either in the meeting room 313 or the conference room 332 henceforth until Krishna is once again sanitised.  On June 18, a staff member at the Food and Civil Supplies Department in Karnataka's Secretariat Vikasa Soudha tested positive for the virus. The building was shut the day after for sanitisation.  

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Sandalwood actor Darshan’s wife Vijayalakshmi dismisses rumours that she has COVID-19

Coronavirus

Vijayalakshmi issued a clarification after local media reported that she had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

TNM Staff

Vijaylakshmi/Twitter

Sandalwood actor Darshan Toogudeepa’s wife Vijayalakshmi on Thursday clarified that she does not have COVID-19. Vijayalakshmi issued the clarification via a tweet after local media reported that she had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Two days ago, local media reports suggested that Vijayalakshmi had contracted COVID-19. “If you have heard any rumours that I’ve been tested covid positive, this is to let you know I’m perfectly fine. Everyone stay safe during these hard times (sic),” Vijayalakshmi tweeted. Darshan and Vijayalakshmi were married in 2003 and have a son. However, in 2011, Vijayalakshmi had filed a complaint with the Bengaluru Police stating that she was being abused by her husband. In her complaint, Vijayalakshmi had alleged that one evening in September that year Darshan had slapped her, beat her with his slippers and burnt her body with cigarettes. She had also alleged that Darshan had tried to strangle their son Vineet and had pointed a pistol at her, while threatening to kill her. Vijayalakshmi was dropped off at her friend Vidya’s residence after the incident and the police had then said that she had several injuries on her body and that her ears were bleeding. The police arrested Darshan and he was lodged in jail for 14 days. However, after being released, he had issued a public apology. However, this did not seem to stop the abuse because in 2016 once again his wife accused him of domestic violence. Ever since the issue of domestic violence surfaced once again in 2016, Vijayalakshmi separated from Darshan. In 2019 too, local media had reported that Darshan had physically abused Vijayalakshmi and her mother at their Bengaluru residence. However, Vijayalakshmi had tweeted stating that it was only a rumour.

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