Power bills to get expensive in Bengaluru and rest of Karnataka

Power

KERC has approved a hike for all electricity supply companies in the state.

TNM Staff

Representational image/PTI

Bengalureans and people living in the rest of Karnataka are set to pay more for their monthly electricity bills as the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) has approved a hike of 40 paise per unit for all electricity supply companies in the state like BESCOM (Bangalore Electricity Supply Company). According to officials, this would mean on average, electric bills for an will increase by a little more than 5%. Officials said the cost has been increased as a measure to strike balance between the rise in demand and cost of supply. The 40 paise hike has been granted by the KERC at a time when BESCOM and other suppliers had sought a hike of Rs 1.26 per unit. The hike also comes at a time when a section of Bengaluru residents have been complaining about BESCOM overcharging its customers. In February, the Bangalore Political Action Committee (BPAC) had pointed out that many consumers are made to pay for BESCOM’s inefficiency. Bescom had reported a revenue deficit of Rs 5,872 crore in the previous year. BPAC said that Bengaluru had the highest transmission and distribution losses in the country at a loss of 16.42%. This at a time when other places like Delhi have a much less transmission and distribution loss at less than 9%. BPAC said this was due to a huge amount of electricity consumption that goes unbilled and BESCOM has done nothing to counter this power theft over the years. BPAC also pointed out that there is often leakage of power subsidy given to farmers where the subsidy is misused by others, leading to further losses for BESCOM. Further, they stated that BESCOM’s inability to collect dues on time leads to cash deficit and constantly borrowing for operational expenses making it prone to debt servicing.  

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27.3% of Karnataka’s population exposed to COVID-19 in September: Sero-survey

COVID-19

The survey was carried out from September 3 to 16 across 30 districts in the state.

TNM Staff

Representational image/PTI

Body 2: 

(PTI inputs)

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Four men arrested by Bengaluru police for duping customers on OLX, Quikr

Crime

The four men, who hail from Rajasthan, posed as police and military officials online.

TNM Staff

The Central Crime Branch of the Bengaluru City Police has gained custody of four persons accused of impersonating police and military officers, to dupe people of money on online selling platforms. The men ran their operations from Bengaluru. However, they were involved in another similar scam in Telangana, for which they were held in Hyderabad’s Chanchalguda Central Prison. The Bengaluru Cyber Crime Police obtained a body warrant for the accused, and brought them to Bengaluru on Wednesday.   The accused have been identified as Wajeeb Khan (30), Sahil alias Mauj Khan (20), Shahid (28) and Umeer Khan (31), who are residents of Bharatpur, Rajasthan. The Bengaluru police have uncovered 30 to 40 cases of similar frauds so far. According to police, the four men would put up pictures of two-wheelers and cars for sale on platforms such as OLX and Quikr, while posing as police and military officials. They allegedly did so in order to gain buyers’ trust. Buyers were promised by the men that they would send the vehicles directly to their homes, and requested money to be transferred to various bank accounts for the same. However, the buyers would never receive the vehicles, nor get their money back. Incidentally, in late October, four others from Bharatpur in Rajasthan were arrested by Karnataka CID’s Cyber Wing for running a different online scam. Read: Bengaluru cyber crime cops arrest 4-member Rajasthan gang for duping people online According to police, Ansar, Saddam, Balvinder Singh, Saini and Shakeel (who is absconding) would create fake Aadhaar cards in order to obtain a large number of duplicate SIM cards, by bypassing the verification process. They would also collect photographs and information of public figures and government officials, including police officers, through social media accounts in order to create fake profiles. After that, they would send 'friend requests' to those already on the officers’ friend lists. After their request was accepted, the group would ask those persons to transfer money to various e-wallets/bank accounts, citing an urgent need for the money.

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COVID-19: How Karnataka has managed to lower its fatality rate

COVID-19

Karnataka has a COVID-19 case fatality rate of 1.4%, which is better than India's national average.

Soumya Chatterjee

File image

As of November 2, the case fatality rate (CFR) among COVID-19 cases in Karnataka stands at 1.4%. The case fatality rate is measured as the percentage of deaths per 100 COVID-19 positive cases. The national average is at 1.5%.  According to a section of experts, a lower CFR is a better indicator of COVID-19 management than the number of positive cases, as flawed testing strategies may ignore asymptomatic cases or simply, low testing may yield a lower number of cases. Karnataka had a CFR of 1.8% in July and since then the state has seen a steady decline in its mortality rate. According to the State War Room report issued on November 2, the CFR for Karnataka is on the decline over the last 15 days, with the state recording an average CFR of 1.2%. The Union government has fixed a target of 1% CFR across the country. TNM spoke to a few experts to understand how Karnataka has lowered its fatality rate. All of them agreed that high number of testing was one of the key reasons. Dr Pradeep Rangappa, an intensive care expert at Columbia Asia Hospitals and member of Karnataka’s Critical Care Support Team (CCST) said that the only large state that is doing better is Andhra Pradesh having a CFR of 0.8%. “The numbers often tell the story. We can see that they (AP) are doing around 1.56 lakh tests daily, while we are doing something around 1.25 lakh. Otherwise, comparably Karnataka is doing well. We can’t really compare Karnataka with Kerala given that Kerala does not have a big city like Bengaluru with a dense population. So a large part of why Karnataka’s number looks good is due to the good work done in Bengaluru,” he told TNM. He said a multilateral approach like good containment measures, high testing, tracing and standardised treatment protocols has seen Bengaluru achieve a much lower CFR compared to other metro cities in India.   “Even now, increasing the number of tests, tracing, tracking and containing still remains the quintessential part of pandemic management. All these are interlinked. Once we get a positive case, effort has to be put to find the vulnerable (elderly and persons with comorbidities) contacts first so that we can detect and treat them first and prevent any causality,” he added. He explained that if a 20-year-old person tests positive, his parents and grandparents get the priority in terms of testing and treatment over his friends who are likely to be of the same age group. “This has been the part of our strategy where we are aggressively targeting the vulnerable population and this has been our ‘mantra’ and this has been reiterated time and again in our task force meetings,” he further said. Dr Trilok Chandra, a senior IAS officer heading the COVID-19 Critical Care Support Committee, said, “Early reporting of cases has led us to treat patients early and increase the recovery rate. Moreover, treatment modalities had been fine tuned to a large extent throughout the state by April and constantly updated.” Dr Trilok Chandra, as part of his role, is overseeing a tele-ICU (intensive care unit) facility run by the CCST who guide treatment of critical COVID-19 patients across the state. “All the hospitals in the state including in Bengaluru were brought under this tele-consultation protocol through which both doctors and nurses were guided by an expert team to treat critical patients where every nuance was looked into and updated as we gained experience through the course of the pandemic,” he added.  Dr Sachinand, Vice Chancellor, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, who is heading the COVID-19 death audit committee in the state, reiterated that the ramped up testing has given the state its intended dividends. “Early detection of cases has ensured that some cases never went to the critical stage and were treated successfully when they were mild,” he said. He added, “ Monitoring of inflammatory parameters of the blood and according usage of steroids, adequate oxygen arrangements across the state has helped us lower the deaths.” 

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Karnataka mulls banning fireworks this Deepavali to safeguard COVID-19 patients

COVID-19

Karnataka Health Minister Dr Sudhakar said a final decision is yet to be made by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa.

TNM Staff

Representational image

Following states like Rajasthan, Odisha, West Bengal and Haryana, the state government in Karnataka is also mulling a ban of fireworks this Deepavali. This as firecrackers which a re known pollutants are slated to severely impact already infected COVID-19 patients. However, speaking with the Times of India, Karnataka Health Minister Dr Sudhakar said a final decision is yet to be made by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa. The  New Indian Express  quoted a senior health ministry official saying a round of meetings have already been held between the government and members of the technical committee appointed for COVID-19 management. The committee has told the government including the CM that COVID-19 is known to affect lungs of patients and leave them vulnerable even in the post-recovery period. While the patient’s respiratory system is affected due to the disease, immune responses of patients are also left in a bad state. This comes as Karnataka has seen an improvement in the positivity and fatality rate for COVID-19 cases over the past two months.  Incidentally, on Tuesday, Karnataka reported 2,756 new cases and 7,140 recoveries across the state in a single day. With these, the number of cumulative positive cases in the state rose to 8,32,396. The bulletin said, "Positivity rate was 2.91% and case fatality rate 0.94% for the day across the state," Earlier this week Dr P Raghu Ram, President, The Association of Surgeons of India told NDTV there is strong evidence to link air pollution and severity of COVID-19 infection. He said the rate of people getting infected with COVID-19 were higher in number in places with more polluted air. He added that effects of air pollution also put those who have recovered of COVID-19 at a higher risk of other related ailments. Further research has shown that higher exposure to polluted air can be linked with higher COVID-19 mortality, he said.

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Karnataka bye-polls: 45.24% polling at RR Nagar, 82.31% at Sira

Politics

In view of the pandemic, the standard protocol of face masks was made mandatory for voters as well as the polling staff.

PTI

Polling for the Rajarajeshwari Nagar and Sira assembly bye-elections in Karnataka held under the shadow of coronavirus concluded peacefully without any major glitches on Tuesday. Poor voter turnout marked the Rajarajeshwari Nagar bye-poll with a polling percentage of only 45.24, whereas it was 82.31% in Sira, according to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar. The death of Sira JD(S) MLA B Satyanarayana in August and resignation of RR Nagar Congress MLA Munirathna from the assembly last year led to the bye-polls. The highest percentage of 94.3% was recorded in a polling booth at Saluparahalli, followed by Seebi 93.15% and Byadarahalli 91.17%, all at Sira. The office of the Chief Electoral Officer said that the two constituencies have a total electorate of 6,78,012, including 3,26,114 women. They exercised their franchise in 1,008 polling stations, comprising 678 in RR Nagar and 330 in Sira, Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar said in a statement. In view of the pandemic, standard protocol of face masks was made mandatory for voters as well as the polling staff. Arrangements were made for thermal screening and hand sanitisers made available at the polling stations. Among the voters, 42 were coronavirus infected people, including 38 in Sira. The sources said 17 of the 38 COVID-19 patients who voted had fever. Besides them, there were five primary contacts of COVID- 19 infected persons. Tension prevailed for a while in RR Nagar when a few para-military personnel reportedly wore saffron masks. Soon after the Congress objected, senior officials got them removed and gave them other masks, said Congress sources. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (city corporation) had made separate arrangements for coronavirus-infected people to cast their votes in RR Nagar. There are 31 candidates in the fray in the bye-polls— 15 in Sira and 16 in RR Nagar, including those from the Congress, BJP and the JD(S). In RR Nagar, BJP has fielded former Congress MLA Munirathna, whereas the Congress has given the ticket to H Kusuma, wife of former IAS officer late D K Ravi in the seat traditionally held by the party. The JD(S) has fielded V Krishnamurthy. In Sira, the BJP, Congress and JD(S) have fielded radiologist Dr Rakesh Gowda, former minister T B Jayachandra and former (JD-S) MLA B Satyanarayana's wife Ammajamma respectively. In the 224-seat assembly, BJP has 116 MLAs minus the speaker, Congress 67 and JD(S) 33, BSP one and there are two independents. There is also a nominated member.

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Karnataka government to finally provide pending dry ration kits to school students

Policy

From June to October, lakhs of students in the state were deprived of the food they would otherwise receive through the mid-day meal scheme.

Prajwal Bhat

Representative image

The Karnataka government on Tuesday issued an order to distribute dry ration kits, that have been pending since June, to students studying in government and aided schools. From June to October, lakhs of students in the state were deprived of the food they would otherwise receive through the mid-day meal scheme. The government will now disburse al the kits in one go.  The order issued by the state government said that dry rations will be released to be distributed to students in the government and aided schools in the state for five months from June to October. The order stated that rice, toor dal, and oil will be provided for students of Classes 1 to 10.  "The funds needed to implement the mid-day meal scheme - Rs 44,984.87 lakh - will be released," read the order.   It also stated that the Commissioner of Public Instruction will issue guidelines for precautionary measures to be followed while distributing the dry ration in schools. Accordingly, funds will be released district-wise for providing dry rations. Rs 2,276.53 lakh will be released to Bengaluru Urban district while Rs 1,749 lakh will be released to Mysuru district. The funds will be provided for schools which will procure the ration items to be given to students.  Last week, a letter sent to the state government by a collective of citizens and activists in Karnataka said that the Karnataka government's decision would worsen the nutrition crisis among children in the state. Responses from three districts — Kolar, Davangere and Tumakuru — to an RTI query by independent researcher Siddarth Joshi had found that dry ration kits were not provided to students since June. Concerned citizens also pointed out that dry rations were not provided in other districts in the state too.  Read: Activists say K'taka govt’s delay to give dry ration to students will worsen nutrition crisis

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