Karnataka to write to Centre to drop Bengaluru rural district from COVID-19 red zone list

The Karnataka government has decided to appeal to the Centre to drop Bengaluru rural district from the list of COVID-19 red zones as there are no fresh cases of coronavirus infections there, Revenue minister R Ashoka said on Saturday. "Presently there are no cases of COVID-19 in Bengaluru Rural district.

So we will write to the centre not to incorporate the Bengaluru rural district in the list of red zones," Ashoka said at the end of a high level meeting chaired by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on easing COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. Senior ministers, officials and deputy commissioners attended the meeting through video conferencing. He said suggestions were made that Bengaluru urban district should be divided into various zones and wherever there are no COVID-19 cases, restrictions must be eased.

Ashoka said construction related activities will be allowed and shops dealing with trading construction materials such as sanitary ware, tiles, steel, plumbing and hardware will be allowed to operate. Though malls and markets will not be opened, the sale of essential commodities such as vegetables will be permitted in the market, he added.

In the meeting, it was decided that the labourers should be allowed to undertake one-way trip to their home district by the state road transport bus. These labourers who travel to their districts should be quarantined. Inter-district travel passes will be issued to the passengers stuck in other districts for travelling (one-way) to their districts.

The government directed the district authorities to carry out economic activities as per the guidelines issued by the Centre. Economic activities should be permitted in those areas which are out of the containment zone, the chief minister told deputy commissioners,the minister said. A detailed discussion took place with the deputy commissioners of Bengaluru urban, Bengaluru rural, Vijayapura, Bagalkote, Mysuru, Belagavi, Dakshina Kannada and Kalaburagi and a set of directions were given to them to contain COVID-19.