Karnataka Rains: The coastal regions and the northern parts of Karnataka bordering Maharashtra and Kodagu have been particularly badly affected

Bengaluru: Karnataka Weather Update: The water level in many rivers is above the danger mark.

Heavy rains across several districts in Karnataka, especially areas near the coast, have led to water level rising in the rivers. The state government has opened the gates of a massive dam in Uttar Kannada district to release water and avoid flooding the banks of the Kalinadi and Kadra rivers. Water from other dams has been released too.

The water level in many rivers is above the danger mark. Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, who is being treated for COVID-19 infection in a hospital, has released Rs 50 crore for initial flood relief work amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The districts that saw heavy rains are Kodagu, Gokarana, Chickmangaluru, Hassan and Mysuru.

The coastal districts of Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi have been badly hit, with the adjoining Kodagu district also bearing the brunt of heavy rains. Belgavi, which borders Maharashtra, and other northern districts are also badly affected.

Several areas in Kodagu, the source of the Cauvery river, are flooded

More heavy rains and thundershowers have been forecast in the state.

Several areas in Kodagu, the source of the Cauvery river, are flooded. Landslides have been reported from the Goa-Karnataka border.

“Red alert has been announced in Udupi, Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada, Chickamagalur, Shivamogga, Kodagu and Hassan due to heavy rainfall in the region from last two-three days,” said CS Patil, director of India Meteorological Department.

Bengaluru: Four Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCP) in Bengaluru were among the police officers transferred in a routine reshuffle among the IPS (Indian Police Service) brass in Karnataka as announced on Monday. IPS officers MN Anucheth, D Devaraja, Dharmender Kumar Meena, and Harish Pandey are the new DCPs in Bengaluru. 

MN Anucheth, the DCP of Whitefield Division, was transferred to the role of DCP Bengaluru Central, replacing Chetan Singh Rathor. 

D Devaraja, an officer of the Select List of 2015, will now take charge as the DCP of the Whitefield Division.

Harish Pandey, who was Superintendent of Police (SP) Intelligence Bengaluru until now, has been posted as DCP Bengaluru South.

Rohini Katoch Sepat, DCP Bengaluru South, was transferred to the role of Superintendent of Police, CID (Criminal Investigation Department), Bengaluru. 

Nikam Prakash Amrit, who was the SP, CID, Bengaluru until now, will be posted as the SP of Raichur district.

B Ramesh, DCP Bengaluru West, was transferred to the role of  Superintendent of Police, CID, Bengaluru.

N Sashi Kumar, DCP Bengaluru North, was transferred to the role of Superintendent of Police, Wireless in Bengaluru. Dharmender Kumar Meena replaced Sashi Kumar as DCP, Bengaluru North. 

Meanwhile, Iada Martin Marbaniang was transferred from his role of SP, Kalaburagi, and posted as the SP of Anti-Naxal Force, Karkala, Udupi. 

Suman D Pannekar, a 2013-batch officer, will take charge as Deputy Director, Karnataka Police Academy, Mysuru. 

Among officers of the rank of Inspector General, IPS officer D Roopa of 2000-batch, who was posted as Inspector General of Police (IGP), Railways, Bengaluru has been made the IGP and Secretary to Government (PCAS), Home Department. She will replace IPS officer Umesh Kumar.

Umesh Kumar, who was until now PCAS, will be posted as Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), CID, Economic Offences, Bengaluru.

These transfer orders were along expected lines as the order for the transfer of the Bengaluru City Police Commissioner was made on Friday. While senior IPS officer Bhaskar Rao was transferred out from his position as Commissioner of Police for Bengaluru City, he was replaced by his 1990-batchmate, Kamal Pant. 

Bhaskar Rao has now taken charge of the ADGP Internal Security Division, Bengaluru.

Responding to a question on dropping the chapter in class 7, officials said it should be noted that the students study about Tipu Sultan from classes 6 and 10.

Chapter on Tipu Sultan dropped from class 7 social science textbook to reduce syllabus this year

The chapter on controversial 18th century Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan and his father Haider Ali are among those that have been dropped from the class 7 social science textbook, following the Karnataka government’s decision to reduce the 2020-21 syllabi due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the chapters on Tipu Sultan have been retained in the class 6 and 10 books, official sources told news agency Press Trust of India.

According to Nasheman news the revised syllabus uploaded on the Karnataka Text Book Society (KTBS) website shows that in class 7, social science text, chapter 5 that deals with Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan, Historical places of Mysore, and Administration of Commissioners have been dropped.

The Department of Public Instructions decided to reduce the syllabus for the year 2020-21 in view of the pandemic and disruption in the academic calendar for the year, that has been brought down to 120 working days.

Responding to a question on dropping the chapter in class 7, officials said it should be noted that the students study about Tipu Sultan from classes 6 and 10.

A couple of months ago, amid the growing clamour from some BJP leaders to remove a chapter in the textbook glorifying Tipu Sultan, the government had constituted an expert committee to look into it.

The committee however had recommended that the ruler cannot be ignored from the school syllabus.

Commenting on the development, Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar said that the BJP government was taking such decisions with a political agenda in mind.

Pointing out that Tipu Sultan was a historical figure, Mr Shivakumar had said “History is history…you cannot change history. We will not accept it. Congress will take it seriously by setting up a committee to look into it.”

Soon after coming to power, the BJP government in Karnataka had scrapped the birth anniversary celebrations of Tipu Sultan, an annual government event the party had been opposing since 2015 when it was launched during the Congress rule, led by Siddaramaiah.

The BJP and some other organisations have been strongly opposing Tipu Sultan, calling the erstwhile Mysore king a “religious bigot”.

Tipu Sultan was considered an implacable enemy of the British East India Company. He was killed in May 1799 while defending his fort at Srirangapatnam against the British forces.

Tipu Sultan, however, is a controversial figure in Kodagu district as Kodavas (Coorgis), a martial race, believe that thousands of their men and women were held captive during his occupation and subjected to torture, death and forcible conversion to Islam.

He was also accused of execution of Mandyam Iyengars at the temple town of Melkote in Mandya district on the day of Deepawali as they supported the then Maharaja of Mysuru.

However, the scale of such suppression is disputed by several historians, as they see Tipu Sultan as a ruler who took on the might of the British.

While BJP and some other organisations see Tipu Sultan as a “religious bigot” and a “brutal killer”, a few Kannada outfits call him “anti-Kannada”, saying he had promoted Persian at the cost of the local language.

Mangaluru: A private hospital in the city has been accused of not treating a man who was injured in an accident on the grounds that he was Covid-19 positive.

Siraj, 26, an auto-rickshaw driver, was injured in his right leg in the accident that occurred in Padu near Neermarga on July 15 and was admitted to the private hospital. He said that the doctors took a sample of his throat swab before treating him and assured that they would operate his leg after two days. On July 17, when his Covid-19 test report showed that he was infected, however, the doctors said that they would operate only after he recovered from Covid-19, said Siraj.

“The doctors did not give me anything to alleviate the terrible pain too. I was shifted to the District Wenlock Hospital when I requested, but I was still charged Rs 23,000,” he has complained.

He added that district hospital doctors are treating him for the Covid-19 attack. “The treatment will continue for 10 days, but they have cast my leg in plaster for now,” Siraj said.

District health officer-in-charge Dr. Rathnakar said that they could operate only after Siraj recovered from COVID-19. “This is a serious case of injury and requires us to take a lot of precaution while operating,” he explained.

“It is made mandatory that all hospitals registered under KPME (Karnataka Private Medical Establishment Act) in Karnataka State should display at the reception counter, a bed allocation display board,” the notification signed by Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar said.

Karnataka has made it mandatory for private hospitals to display bed allocation boards

Amid complaints of difficulty in getting beds for COVID-19 patients, the Karnataka government on Wednesday issued a notification making it mandatory for private hospitals to display a bed allocation display board.

“It is made mandatory that all hospitals registered under KPME (Karnataka Private Medical Establishment Act) in Karnataka State should display at the reception counter, a bed allocation display board,” the notification signed by Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar said.

It said the board should display details like – name of the hospital, total number of beds (as per KPME registration), total number of beds allocated for COVID-19 patients referred by BBMP (Bengaluru civic body – Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike), among others.

Stating that the data must corroborate with the data of the central bed allocation system of BBMP, the notification said the display board should be arranged by July 16 and non-compliance to the order will attract punishment under relevant sections of the Disaster Management Act 2005 and Indian Penal Code.

Earlier, in the notification issued by the state government dated June 23, it was mandated to reserve 50 per cent of the beds in private hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients referred by public health authorities.

However, some patients are finding it difficult to get beds even after the allocation has been made by the BBMP”s central allocation system and this is causing a lot of hardship to patients, according to the notification issued on Wednesday.

Mangaluru: Dakshina Kannada recorded 29 new Corona cases on Thursday including a one-year-old child, which raised the total number of infected to 494.

Of the new cases, 19 people had returned from Saudi Arabia, Muscat, Sharjah, and Qatar. Also, the cases include 11 women, a one-year-old child, and eight men.

A 35-year-old woman in the city was diagnosed with influenza-like illness. A 50-year-old woman was put under the ‘contact under tracing’ category. A 24-year-old man who had come from Mumbai on June 21 had been kept under quarantine. All the infected people are being treated at the District Wenlock Hospital.

Also, a 68-year-old woman died due to severe acute respiratory infection on Wednesday.

In a positive development, 43 patients were discharged on Thursday, following recovery. The number of recovered patients has gone up to 344. Most of the patients are also showing steady health conditions.

A 49-year-old man and a 57-year-old woman with multiple health disorders were both put under ICU with oxygen supply and ventilator respectively.

Nagamangala: In an incident reported from Nagamangala, two kids died after drowning in a lake when they had been to the lake to give bathe to their cattle here on Thursday. The incident took place at Bolloru in Navamangala Taluk in Mandya Taluk.

The deceased kids have been identified as Puneet (7) a second-grade student and Manu (13) a seventh-grade student. They along with another kid had gone to the lake to wash cattle when they slipped into the water and died of drowning.

Bolloru Tahsildar and police personnel rushed to the spot after they were informed about the incident.

Gadag: Three students who were returning home after writing the SSLC examination on Thursday sustained critical injuries when the bike they were traveling in was hit by a truck coming from the opposite direction.

The incident took place near Bagevadi village in Mundargi Taluk of Gadag District.

The injured have been identified as Sidappa Talwar, Eranna Badiger, and Mailari Yalavathi.

All three students’ condition is said to be critical.

According to the reports, the trio was on their way to their native after appearing for an exam at Kalakeri examination center at Mundargi Taluk when the accident took place. They were rushed to the Mundargi Government Hospital on Ambulance immediately after the accident.

Davangere: In a tragic road accident, two including a two-month-old baby died on Thursday near Nuggihalli cross near Santhebennur in Channageri Taluk here in Davangere District. The incident took place when a bike and car collided with each other here.

The deceased have been identified as Chandramma Srinivas Acharya (70) and Manvita (2 months), both residents of Ranibennur Taluk in Haveri District.

Manvita’s parents have sustained injuries in the accident and have been rushed to a local hospital for treatment.

A case in this regard has been registered at Santhebennur Police Station.