Parmesh S Jain

A godown of furniture manufacturing unit in JP Nagar was gutted due to accidental fire that broke out in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Seven fire tenders were pressed into the service to put out the fire and no one was injured in the fire,a Senior fire officer said.

The incident occurred at around 5.30am when passers by notice the fire and alerted the control room.

The fire engulfed the godown and soon spread to the adjacent scrap dealer shop.A team of fire personnel rushed to the spot and doused the fire after 3 hours of operation.

Goods worth Rs 10 lakh suspected to have been gutted in the mishap.

The owner of the furniture shop said that raw materials were kept inside the godown and an electrical short circuit could be a reason for the mishap he added.

A case has been registered in Puttenahalli police station and fire experts are inspecting the spot and after investigation the reason behind the fire will be ascertained he added.

Karnataka CM Basavaraj Bommai

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday said the time has come to revisit the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act as it creates more disputes than resolving them.

The Chief Minister spoke virtually at the inaugural of the ‘PM Gati Shakti’ southern zone conference chaired by Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari.

“There are some legal interventions that are necessary. Delay is the most costly affair which has been affecting our infrastructure. The delay in our irrigation projects are bogged down by the Inter-State Water Disputes Act. In fact, it creates more disputes than resolving them,” Bommai said.

He said the time has come to revisit the legislation and see to it that the multifold levels of addressing the inter-state water disputes are removed at one single stage.

“Especially on the basis of maximum utility of a river basin capacity and using technology, and giving away all political considerations, a win-win situation for all riparian states can be the solution. Let us start thinking anew on that. The structure and content in resolving these issues has to be re-addressed by the Government of India, he added.

The Chief Minister’s statement has come at a time when the state has locked horns with neighbouring Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Goa and Andhra Pradesh regarding inter-state water disputes concerning Cauvery, Mahadayi and Krishna rivers.

Also, the state is pushing for clearances, especially environment-related ones, with regards to the Mekedatu project across the Cauvery to which Tamil Nadu is opposed.

Noting that some “basic impediments need to be removed, referring to problems such as environmental and forest clearances at the central government level, Bommai said, We have to maximise the scale of investment and relax certain rules in the finance sector, so that more investments can come through for infrastructure development.”

He also stressed on the need for common Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) rules for all-round development of the entire Indian coastline, instead of each state with a coastline having its own.

Highlighting the need for a Bengaluru-Mysuru-Hyderabad high-speed rail line, the Chief Minister said upgrading of the 453 kilometre lane will bring new economic activity between the two states.

On the much-awaited suburban rail project for Bengaluru worth Rs 15,000 crore, Bommai said, Bengaluru is an international city that contributes 40 per cent of the country’s IT/BT exports. It needs better infrastructure in terms of transportation, hence the suburban rail project needs more impetus and speed.”

Bommai also requested Gadkari for central support to regional airports at Ballari, Shivamogga, Vijayapura and Hassan.

For tourism, heliports at Chikmagalur, Madikeri and Hampi are coming up, he said, adding, Hampi, which is a UNICEF site, Badami and Vijayapura can be one circuit. Mysuru, Shravanabelagola, Belur and others can be another circuit. These should be on the national tourism map.” 

Davangere: Amidst the weekend curfew in the state in the wake of surging COVID-19 cases, one of Karnataka’s BJP MLA celebrated his birthday on Sunday with a bash.

MLA SV Ramachandra on Sunday organized a birthday bash in front of his house with hundreds of people attending the event to wish and congratulate the MLA.

Interestingly, the local cops, who were supposed to impose the weekend curfew were also present at the event but with bouquets in their hands to please the ruling party leader. In one of the videos that is doing rounds on social media, police officials are seen wishing the MLA by giving bouquets and saluting him on the stage.

Bengaluru: The Hanumanthanagar police reportedly arrested the co-accused in the ganja case after shooting him in the leg, while he attempted to flee at Bengaluru. 

Reportedly, the police had left during early hours to carry out an arrest operation to apprehend rowdy sheeter, Rahul. At the time, the accused allegedly assaulted the police personnel identified as Ningappa and attempted to flee from the site, as a result, Hanumanthanagar sub-inspector Basavaraj Pateel shot the accused on his leg and apprehended him.  

It is learned that the arrested accused had several cases filed against him, along with pending warrants for his arrest. In the background of this, the Hanumanthanagar PSI Basavaraj Patil put together a team under his leadership to undertake an operation for the accused’s arrest. 

Based on the verified information obtained by the police on Monday morning, the law enforcement was able to locate his whereabouts and confirm that he was at the uninhabited area at Konakunte Narayananagar, it is learned.

Bengaluru: Karnataka on Sunday added 34,047 fresh infections and 13 deaths to its COVID-19 tally, the Health Department said. The number of new cases so far is 32,20,087 and the death toll 38,431.

A bulletin said 5,902 people were discharged and took the total number of recoveries to 29,83,645. Active cases stood at 1,97,982.

Bengaluru urban district saw most of the cases with 21,071 infections and five deaths.

Other districts too saw fresh cases: 1,892 in Mysuru, 1,373 in Tumakuru, 1,171 in Hassan, 782 in Dakshina Kannada, 722 in Bengaluru Rural and 709 in Mandya.

There were two deaths in Dakshina Kannada and one each in Chikkaballapura, Hassan, Kalaburagi, Mandya, Mysuru and Ramanagara.

There were zero fatalities in 23 districts.

The positivity rate for the day was 19.29 per cent and the case fatality rate 0.03 per cent.

A total of 1,74,470 samples were tested in the State and they included the 1,42,652 RT-PCR tests today. This took the cumulative number of specimens examined so far to 5.9 crore.

There were 37,086 people who got inoculated and they took the total vaccinated till now to 9.14 crore, the department said.

Parmesh S Jain

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has greeted the people on the occasion of Makar Sankranti.  

On this auspicious occasion of the Sun making a transition(Sankramana) in his trajectory from southern to northern hemisphere, I wish that all the hopes, aspirations and dreams of the people may come true, the Chief Minister tweeted  on the occasion.

May the occasion of  Sankarmana bring good tidings in the life of every one in the state, Bommai has said and called upon the people to fight unitedly against Corona and eradicate it from Karnataka and India, the Chief Minister has said.

Once again wishing you all a happy Sankranti, the CM has tweeted.

Parmesh S Jain

Karnataka has effectively leveraged technology in Covid battle and so far about 2.5 lakh healthcare and frontline staff have been trained through online platforms so far.This is model to the entire country, said Health and Medical Education Minister Dr.K.Sudhakar.

Dr.Sudhakar inaugurated the virtual training program being conducted in association with StepOne for about 10,000 medical, dental and ayush students to train them in home isolation care and addressed the students.

During the first wave it was necessary to provide training to healthcare workers about the new virus.

But due to lockdown and other reasons when it was not feasible to conduct physical training we trained about 2.5 lakh healthcare and front line staff though online with the help of RGUHS.Even Central govt had appreciated Karnataka’s efforts to leverage technology.

StepOne has partnered with state govt in mobilising volunteers and doctors and training them in tele-triaging.

This has led to effective home isolation care in Karnataka. Even Niti Ayog has appreciated the home isolation process in Karnataka and the technology deployed for it.

Medical students, doctors of Health Dept and faculty of medical colleges have played a great role in home isolation management, said Dr.Sudhakar.

“10,000 medicos deployed”

We have a process to regularly monitor the health of those under home isolation.We are utilising the services of about 10,000 medical,dental and ayush students.

About 500 experts are supporting the system. During the second wave about 1.33 crore tele-consultations were done including 42.57 lakh doctor consultations.About 36,000 people were provided mental health counseling.

Several people seek hospitalisation due to panic, even if they are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic.If proper counselling is provided though phone,we can reduce unnecessary burden on our health infrastructure.

KOLAR/CHIKKABALLAPUR: Police officers and policemen of Kolar, KGF and Chikkaballapur who were deputed on bandobast duty for the Congress’ Mekedatu padayatra have tested positive, and so have their family members. So far, 55 police personnel tested positive, and the numbers are expected to go up.

Central Range IGP M Chandrashekar told TNIE that instructions have been given to all district SPs to arrange separate accommodation for their isolation and treatment immediately. Those who were on padayatra duty will also be isolated until their reports come negative. 

On condition of anonymity, a policeman’s father said the family is disturbed and worried after his son got infected, though he has taken two doses of vaccination and is healthy. According to sources, of 110 police personnel from Kolar, so far 43 were tested and 25 came positive, of 110 personnel on duty from KGF, 60 personnel were tested and 20 turned positive, whereas from Chikkaballapur, of 125 cops, 10 tested positive.

Parmesh S Jain

Chief Minister,Basavaraj Bommai has appealed to Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah and KPCC President DK Shivakumar to give up their plans to continue the Mekedatu Padayatra.

The Chief Minister in a press release has expressed his readiness to take all necessary measures for the Mekedatu project taking opposition leaders also into confidence.

Pointing to the prevailing situation Bommai said, “the third wave of Corona which is proving to be severe has affected the people,especially the children.

Under the prevailing circumstances it is not appropriate in the interest of public health to conduct programmes like Padayatra by gathering the people.

Already the Honourable High Court too has strongly expressed a similar view and it is also the public opinion,Bommai said.

“Therefore I appeal to you to give up the continuation of your Padayatra. Let us together face the Corona and in the coming days all of us shall unitedly take measures for the implementation of the Mekedatu project,” Bommai said.