Prabhu Chavan underwent a test after his car driver, his gunman and personal assistant had contracted the infection and the result came out positive.

BENGALURU: Karnataka Animal Husbandry Minister Prabhu Chavan has tested positive for COVID-19, official sources said on Thursday.

The Minister underwent a test on Wednesday after his car driver, his gunman and personal assistant had contracted the infection and the result came out positive.

Officials said Chavan had been under home quarantine in Bidar after his staff tested positive on Tuesday.

The Minister’s office has requested all those who had come into contact with him recently to undergo tests and take precautions.

Chavan is the new addition to the list of Ministers in the B S Yediyurappa cabinet who had tested positive for coronavirus.

Recently Labour Minister A Shivaram Hebbar, Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K S Eshwarappa and Women and Child Development Minister Shashikala Jolle had tested positive for COVID-19.

Last month, Yediyurappa, Health Minister B Sriramulu, Tourism Minister C T Ravi, Agriculture Minister B C Patil, Forest Minister Anand Singh were among those who had tested positive and have now recovered.

Sriramulu said that the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission has submitted its recommendations to the state government and we are optimistic on getting the 7.5 per cent reservation to tribals.

DAVANGERE: Health Minister B Sriramulu maintained that the state government is committed to providing 7.5 per cent reservation for the Scheduled Tribes.

Speaking to media persons at Valmiki Gurupeet in Rajanahalli village on Sunday, Sriramulu said that the Justice Nagmohan Das Commission has submitted its recommendations to the state government and “we are optimistic on getting the 7.5 per cent reservation to tribals”.

Stating that there is no issue of stepping back from the demand of increasing the reservation from 3.5 per cent to 7.5 per cent, he said that the commission has recommended the increase of the reservation to 5 per cent, whereas constitutionally it should be 7.5 per cent and we would pressurise Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa to increase it.

The pandemic has deferred the implementation of the Justice Nagmohan Das Commission recommendations, however, now with most of the government departments running full time, it would be easy to get the reservation enhanced, he added.

Sriramulu also said all the MLA’s of the community have given him the responsibility of bringing pressure on the government and we are going to meet again when the assembly session begins.

HUBBALLI: With increasing demand to set up a plasma bank in North Karnataka, Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS) in Hubballi has been acting as a substitute for the last month.Critical Covid patients from neighbouring districts like Gadag, Haveri, Uttara Kannada, Bagalkot, Ballari, Koppal, Belagavi are being shifted to the hospital for treatment.Till now, more than 50 convalescent plasma therapy procedures have been conducted at KIMS and other private hospitals in Hubballi city alone. However, due to a lack of donors, most hospitals have been struggling to get plasma units.

A senior doctor from KIMS said they recently got an Apheresis machine and license from the DGCI. “We can store 200 units of plasma for a year. KIMS can distribute plasma to other hospitals,” he added.However, plasma collected at KIMS is not sufficient to treat in-house patients. “There is need to create awareness among recovered patients to donate plasma,” he said.Dharwad DC Nitesh Patil said plasma extraction costs around Rs 10,000 and hospitals are doing it for free. “To encourage donors, we are giving Rs 5,000,” he said.

Despite Dharwad seeing a steady increase in Covid-19 cases and fatalities, the district administration seems relieved that the doubling rate has increased.

HUBBALLI: Despite Dharwad seeing a steady increase in Covid-19 cases and fatalities, the district administration seems relieved that the doubling rate has increased.

But a lack of proper strategy in containing the virus and laxity among the authorities concerned is clearly visible as cases are sprouting across rural and urban areas.

The district took 24 days for cases to double from 5,773 on August 8 to 11,512 on September 1. Earlier, cases doubled once in 15 days and the worst being nine days.

Officials now surmise that the district is flattening the curve and Covid cases would taper in the coming weeks.

But there is panic among people as the district is seeing 200-300 cases every day over the last few days. People complained that though the authorities claim that they are taking steps to break the chain of infection, little impact is seen on the ground.

According to data from the district administration, July and August were the worst hit with 7,227 and 3,742 cases, respectively.

The two months contributed 10,969 of the total 11,512 cases so far.

Experts said that this surge in positive cases is because of laxity on the part of authorities.

During the initial days of the pandemic, they followed the basic principles of battle against coronavirus – test, trace and isolate. But with a sudden surge, they lost their way, resulting in primary and secondary contacts not being traced and isolated.

A senior official in the district administration claimed that two staffers, either from the Health, Education or Women and Child Welfare departments, are deployed in every part of every ward across the district, to trace and isolate contacts.

Even in testing, Dharwad is among the top districts, he added.

Karnataka CM Yediyurappa has decided to conduct a one-day aerial survey, accompanied by a couple of cabinet ministers

BAGALKOT/VIJAYAPURA: Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa will visit flood-affected areas in North Karnataka on August 25. Heavy showers in the Western Ghats, basins of Krishna and its tributaries (Ghataprabha, Malaprabha, Marakandeya, Dhudganga and Vedhaganga) have led to floods in parts of Belagavi, Bagalkot, Gadag, Dharwad and Vijayapura for the second consecutive year, affecting over 20,000 hectares of farmlands and damaging infrastructure in many villages and highways in the region.

Amidst the surging COVID-19 cases, the CM has decided to conduct a one-day aerial survey, accompanied by a couple of cabinet ministers.  

According to the tour programme released by Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), the CM will leave Bengaluru at 9 am and will reach Sambra Airport of Belagavi at 10.15 am.

He will hold a review meeting with officials and elected members of Belagavi and Dharwad before leaving for an aerial survey of the region. Around 12.30 pm, he will arrive at Almatti and preside over a review meeting with respective district ministers of Bagalkot, Vijayapura and Gadag elected members. Later, he will conduct an aerial survey before leaving for Bengaluru via Belagavi.

Officials of Krishna Bhagya Jala Nigam Limited (KBJNL) are making arrangements for the Bagina programme at Almatti Dam on August 25 though there is no mention of it in the itinerary released by the CMO. Last week, Yediyurappa had offered Bagina at KRS.  

RP Kulkarni, Chief Engineer of KBJNL, told TNIE, “In the tour programme, it has been clearly mentioned that the CM will visit Almatti Dam, but not about Bagina. The CMO will communicate with Vijayapura District Administration and not KBJNL. We are not taking chances and making all the arrangements for the Bagina programme.”

However, Deputy Commissioner P Sunil Kumar said, “The CM will visit Almatti Dam and then hold a meeting with the elected representatives and officials of the three districts before heading for an aerial survey. There will be no Bagina programme.”

While the recovery rate has shot up to 68.23 per cent, the mortality rate has dipped to 1.68 per cent, according to the state war room.

BENGALURU: Karnataka seems to have taken a better turn on the COVID front, despite recording 7,000-8,000 new cases daily over the past few days. While the recovery rate has shot up to 68.23 per cent, the mortality rate has dipped to 1.68 per cent, according to the state war room.

The recovery rate was a poor 35.29 per cent on July 20. From one of the worst recovery rates among the states almost two months ago, Karnataka has made a turnaround, almost equalling the national recovery rate of 68.45.

Moreover, Karnataka with a mortality rate of 1.68 per cent has bettered the national average of 2.02 per cent. Experts say a mortality rate of below 2 per cent is the norm to be maintained to keep deaths at the minimum. The state’s mortality rate had gone up to 2.08 per cent in the third week of July, and hovered around that till the last week of July, after which it has been steadily dropping.

But the positivity rate has been increasing, from 3.32 per cent on July 5 to 11.50 per cent on Sunday evening. This compares poorly with the national average of about 7 per cent. Dr Giridhar Babu, head of Lifecourse Epidemiology at the Public Health Foundation of India, and member of the Karnataka expert committee in the COVID task force, says, “Test positivity rate will increase as a function of increasing proportion of population getting infected and fewer tests done.

To decrease test positivity, it is important to expand testing following a syndromic approach for case detection—identifying and treating a syndrome with minimal or no requirement for lab support.” The state has conducted 24,13,951 tests, of which 6,61,791 are rapid antigen tests and 17,52,160 RT-PCR tests.

Cases see a dip at 5,000 plus positives

Bengaluru: Covid transmission in the state showed a slight dip on Sunday, registering 5,938 positives, as opposed to the usual trend of 7,000 to 8,000 daily cases. The state’s tally now stands at 2,77,814. Bengaluru reported the major chunk of new cases with 2,126, followed by Ballari (406), Davanagere (265), Koppal (256) and Shivamogga (246).

There were 68 fatalities, taking the toll to 4,683 cases. The number of critical cases saw a jump with 60 new patients admitted in ICU. With 4,996 patients walking out of hospitals on the day, the total recoveries is 1,89,564, with active cases at 83,551. ENS

DK Shivakumar had on Friday expressed doubts that his phone was being tapped, catching the government on the wrong foot.

BENGALURU:  Bengaluru Rural MP DK Suresh on Sunday demanded a proper investigation into KPCC President DK Shivakumar’s phone allegedly being tapped, and said the BJP is obstructing individual freedom. “It has been brought to the notice of the police department. For 10-15 days, there has been a lot of disturbance during phone calls,” he said.

Shivakumar had on Friday expressed doubts that his phone was being tapped, catching the government on the wrong foot. Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar and Union minister Pralhad Joshi had rushed to the government’s rescue, and reminded Shivakumar in not too polite terms that he had been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate and IT officials and sent to prison, and is out on bail. Hence, he should not talk about phone-

Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai had rubbished Shivakumar’s claims. Congress working president Saleem Ahmed said Shivakumar was arrested after he “safely housed” Gujarat MLAs whom the BJP later poached, a price he paid for remaining loyal to the party.

Shivakumar’s phone was being tapped after the Jana Dhwani programme was launched to expose government corruption, he said, and claimed he had heard disturbances and echoes on the line, indicating that it was being tapped. Suresh said, “BJP is an expert in this… Instead of talking about what happened during our time (Congress govt), talk about what you are doing. It is the government’s duty to investigate it.” Last August, the BJP government ordered a CBI probe into alleged phone-tapping during the Congress-JDS government.

Minister, Yogeshwar meet Nadda to push for DyCM post

BELAGAVI: While the top BJP leadership and Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa continue to keep party aspirants to the cabinet on tenterhooks about the upcoming reshuffle, a group of legislators headed by Water Resources Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi is exerting pressure on the BJP high command for inclusion of at least three leaders from the Jarkiholi group into the cabinet.What Jarkiholi insisted before BJP national president J P Nadda is the inclusion of MLC C P Yogeshwar as Deputy Chief Minister. Sources said that Jarkiholi and Yogeshwar met Nadda in New Delhi two days ago, mainly to clarify the advantages the BJP will reap if Yogeshwar is  elevated to the top post.

Jarkiholi’s group has not conveyed to the party directly on who Yogeshwar should replace as DyCM, but it is said that the target is Laxman Savadi, Jarkiholi’s political bete noir in Belagavi politics. Both of them have been at loggerheads politically in some locally crucial elections, including the DCC Bank polls.

Sources close to Jarkiholi said both the minister and Yogeshwar are not on good terms with KPCC president D K Shivakumar. It was to promote Yogeshwar as another potential leader in Shivakumar’s Vokkaliga turf, that Jarkiholi joined the actor-turned-politician in Delhi to meet Nadda and push his case.Yogeshwar is also keen to find a crucial break in Vokkaliga turf to revive his fading political career.

However, the BJP is unlikely to remove Savadi to accommodate Yogeshwar, but may promote Yogeshwar to tackle Shivakumar politically, sources said. Jarkiholi had demanded the position of DyCM before he switched to the BJP along with his disgruntled MLAs, but settled for the high-stakes Water Resources portfolio. If sources are to be believed, Jarkiholi wants the BJP leadership to induct MLCs AH Vishwanath and MTB Nagaraj into the cabinet, and is lobbying for them strongly in New Delhi.

The party and Yediyurappa are expected to drop some ministers in order to accommodate Jarkiholi’s associates.With BJP caught badly in internal politics in the state, sources said it remains to be seen how Yediyurappa will tackle the situation to make way for a smooth cabinet reshuffle.

Meanwhile, Fisheries Minister Kota Srinivas Pujar was also in New Delhi to meet Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday.

BENGALURU: A minister from Karnataka is pushing for setting up of the Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation in Mysuru, cheerfully unaware that the heritage city is home to the Oriental Research Institute for decades. And neither did he check with his party colleague from the area about the grand plan.

Mysuru-Kodagu MP Prathap Simha, left quite out of the loop, said that digitising of the manuscripts has already been taken up. “We were not informed by the minister. We don’t know about the meeting in Delhi,” Simha said.

Asked whether he knew about the Oriental Research Institute, Ravi said the new heritage centre will give the state national status. “The Indian Institute of Heritage and Conservation was announced in the Union budget by FM Sitharaman. Many states are also trying to bag this institute, which comes under the tourism department. It will provide job opportunities for locals. Mysuru is a heritage city and having the institute in Mysuru will be apt,” he said.

He will also be meeting Tourism Minister Pralhad Singh Patel to urge him to set up the centre in Mysuru. Since Nirmala Sitharaman is a Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka, the memorandum was also submitted to her. Ravi said that land was recently allotted for a Kannada Classical Language study centre.

He also reportedly met Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, and appealed for the construction of a full-fledged stadium at Chikkamagaluru, his hometown. He appealed to Sitharaman to announce a special package for distressed cardamom and pepper growers of Chikkamagaluru. The FM reportedly assured him that she would hold a webinar with the growers and take a decision.

Meanwhile, Fisheries Minister Kota Srinivas Pujar was also in New Delhi to meet Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Tuesday. He discussed the proposed sea food park at Udupi, Karwar and Mangaluru, and sought grants for the same.