Bengaluru, Nov 26: Karnataka has reported 1,505 new cases of COVID-19 and 12 related fatalities, taking the total number of infections to 8,79,560 and the death toll to 11,726, the Health department said on Thursday.
The day also saw 1,067 patients getting discharged after recovery.
Out of 1,505 fresh cases reported on Thursday, 844 cases were from Bengaluru Urban alone.
As of November 26 evening, cumulatively 8,79,560 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 11,726 deaths and 8,42,499 discharges, the Health department said in its bulletin.
It said, out of the 25,316 active cases, 24,907 patients were in isolation at designated hospitals and are stable, while 409 are in ICU.
As many as 7 of the total 12 deaths reported on Thursday were from Bengaluru Urban, followed by Bengaluru Rural, Kodagu, Kolar, Mysuru and Tumakuru (1 each).
All the dead were with a history of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI).
Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Bengaluru Urban accounted for 844, followed by Mysuru (101), Dakshina Kannada (57), Hassan (51), Tumakuru (38), Bengaluru Rural (34), Chikkamagaluru (33), Belagavi (31) and others.
Bengaluru Urban district tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 3,67,077 infections, followed by Mysuru (50,448) and Ballari (38,169).
Among discharges too, Bengaluru Urban tops the list with a total of 3,44,138, followed by Mysuru (48,802) and Ballari (37,334).
A total of over 1,06,90,557 samples have been tested so far, out of which 1,20,398 were tested on Thursday alone, and 17,990 among them were rapid antigen tests.
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Alappuzha (Kerala) (PTI): The Congress on Friday sharply reacted to the Income Tax Department's notice to the grand old party to pay a penalty of over Rs 1,750 crore and said the officials were being used as the "gundas" of the ruling BJP.
Addressing the media here, AICC general secretary in-charge of the organisation, K C Venugopal, lashed out at the Narendra Modi-led BJP government and accused it of trying to "financially strangulate" the opposition parties during the election time.
Venugopal said the Modi government was trying to make the Congress party bankrupt.
The Income Tax Department has served a notice to the Congress to pay over Rs 1750 crore, hours after the Delhi High Court had rejected its petitions challenging the tax reassessment proceedings against it.
"Usually, the political parties are exempted from paying taxes. However, this penalty is in the name of delay in filing returns. The Narendra Modi government is doing this with the specific purpose of bankrupting the Congress party at a time when we are facing elections," Venugopal said.
He said a nationwide protest will be held tomorrow and the day after as the BJP was "exploiting" the central agencies to target the opposition parties.
"They are attacking the opposition parties using the government mechanism. This is a move to butcher democracy," Venugopal added.
He also claimed that the BJP too has not paid any returns, but they were safe from IT Department notices.
"Our accounts were freezed earlier and now our funds have been blocked. The BJP regime is exploiting the government machinery to target the main opposition party as they know that they will face a huge setback in the upcoming elections," he said.
Venugopal said as per the notice, the Congress has been asked to pay Rs 1076.35 crore as penalty and Rs 692 crore as interest.
The Delhi High Court on Thursday rejected petitions by the Congress challenging the initiation of tax reassessment proceedings against it for a period of four years by tax authorities.
The High Court said that the pleas were dismissed in terms of its earlier decision refusing to interfere with the opening of reassessment for another period.
The present matter pertained to the assessment years 2017 to 2021.
In the earlier petition, which was dismissed last week, the Congress party had challenged initiation of reassessment proceedings pertaining to the assessment years 2014-15 to 2016-17.
On March 22, the high court, while rejecting those pleas, said that the tax authority had prima facie collated "substantial and concrete" evidence warranting further scrutiny and examination.