Karnataka cabinet likely to decide on lockdown-like curbs on all days of the week on Monday
Bengaluru, Apr 25: A decision on imposing lockdown like restrictions on all days of the week in Karnataka, which is facing a huge spike in COVID-19 cases, is likely to be taken by the state cabinet on Monday.
While ministers on Sunday said a decision in this regard was likely during the cabinet meeting, official sources said another one on the matter of free of cost vaccinations might also be taken.
"Weekend curfew restrictions are in place till May 4 and as per the guidelines, it will be there next Saturday, Sunday also.
Discussions are on whether to enforce curfew on weekdays, whether to go for complete lockdown or not," Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar said.
Speaking to reporters in Dharwad, he said it would be discussed at the cabinet meeting tomorrow, following which Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa would announce the decision.
"We are not in favour of lockdown, but the situation is such that we have to impose restrictions to bring things under control...we have to break the chain, it is a matter of 10-12 days, let's see... once the numbers (cases) come down, restrictions will also reduce," he added.
The state cabinet is scheduled to meet at 11 am on Monday.
According to COVID-19 guidelines that are in place from April 21 to May 4, night curfew has been imposed in the entire state from 9 pm to 6 am every day and there will be weekend curfew from Friday 9 pm to Monday 6 am.
During the weekend curfew that began on Friday night, Bengaluru and most other parts of the state wore a deserted look with businesses and restaurants remaining shut and vehicles staying off the roads.
Barring the 6 am to 10 am period when the public were allowed to purchase essential items like milk, groceries and vegetables, among others, people largely stayed indoors and cooperated by following the restrictions.
Stating that no decision has yet been taken by the government on lockdown, Deputy Chief Minister C N Ashwath Narayan said it would discuss and take take a decision, based on what the CM or the Health Minister places before the cabinet on this issue.
He said suggestions have been put forward for "Janata curfew", wherein people voluntarily decide not come out unnecessarily.
However, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said "such proposals (lockdown) did not come during yesterday's meeting.
So I don't want to comment on speculations. For now things will continue as it is."
The state government had last week imposed night and weekend curfew amid intense speculation that it may go for lockdown like restrictions in Bengaluru and few other places, with former Chief Minister and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy too demanding for it.
State Congress President D K Shivakumar had subsequently said it seemed that the government,which had planned to impose lockdown last week, changed it, after Prime Minister Nardendra Modi's address to the nation, during which he requested states to use it as a last resort.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
