Mangaluru, Dec 21: The Karnataka government will bear the further expenses for the treatment of Purushotham Poojary, the autorickshaw driver who was injured in the cooker bomb blast in the city on November 19.

Poojary is being treated at a private hospital here. So far, the expenses were borne by his daughter using her ESI benefits. The hospital has now informed that further treatment will not come under the ESI scheme.

"The treatment should be continued from the hospital without pressurising the family to pay the expenses. Hence, the amount which was paid through ESI till now, will be paid by the government henceforth," an order from the Dakshina Kannada district administration said here Wednesday.

Poojary, who was injured in the auto rickshaw cooker blast along with Mohammed Shariq, the prime suspect in the terror case, was admitted to the private hospital on November 19. Shariq has now been shifted to Bengaluru by the authorities.

Poojary has to undergo treatment for another 15 to 20 days at the hospital for plastic surgery.

Karnataka Home Minister Araga Jnanendra had handed over Rs 50,000 while district-in-charge Minister V Sunil Kumar gave Rs 25,000 to Poojary in their personnel capacity during his treatment.

The DK district administration has sent the proposal to the government seeking compensation for Poojary and a response is awaited, official sources said.

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Melbourne (PTI): Australia skipper Pat Cummins' chances of playing at next year's T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka are "quite grey at the moment" as he battles a back stress issue that has affected his participation in the ongoing Ashes series against England.

Cummins returned to play the third Ashes Test in Adelaide after missing the opening two matches, picking up six wickets to help Australia clinch the series 3-0.

However, the Australian Test and ODI skipper will take no further part in the series and even his participation at the T20 World Cup is also uncertain. All-rounder Mitchell Marsh is Australia's T20I captain.

"Looking forward to the World Cup, whether he will be there or not, I can't really say. It's quite grey at the moment. We're hopeful," head coach Andrew McDonald was quoted as saying by 'ESPNCricinfo'.

The fast bowler was diagnosed with a lumbar stress reaction during Australia's tour of the West Indies in July. He underwent rehabilitation before being cleared for a carefully managed return in Adelaide.

"He's pulled up fine. He won't play any part in the rest of the series and that was a discussion that we had a long time out around his return," McDonald said.

"We were taking on some risk and people that reported on that would understand the risk associated with that rebuild. We've now won the series and that was the goal.

"So, to position him for further risk and jeopardise him long-term is not something that we want to do and Pat's really comfortable with that," he added.

The T20 World Cup is scheduled to begin on February 7 across India and Sri Lanka with the summit clash set for March 8.

Australia's first match is on February 11 against Ireland at Colombo. Although Cummins captains the Test and ODI teams, all-rounder Mitch Marsh leads Australia in the shortest format.