Karnataka Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar gives push, Dharwad opens up

BENGALURU: Starting Monday, additional lockdown relaxations will come into effect in many districts of Karnataka. The new norms that applied to 16 districts will now be extended to Dharwad as well, with the State government issuing fresh orders upgrading Dharwad to ‘Category 1’ status on relaxations.

The push to ease restrictions in Dharwad came at the behest of Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar.

“The unlock process is based on the positivity rate of a district in the past 10 days. While calculating the same for Dharwad, the district administration has noticed that the positivity rate has been at 4.5 per cent, and hence our district is eligible for easing of restrictions. I have brought this to the attention of Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa and Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar and requested that Dharwad also be considered for lockdown relaxation,” the former chief minister said. 

Within hours, fresh orders were issued to include Dharwad on the list of districts with the most relaxations.

“After considering the declining trend in the case positivity rate of Dharwad district, and also taking into account that the district has consistently recorded less than 5 per cent case positivity rate since 14-06-2021, Dharwad district is hereby included under Category I districts. Consequently, all additional activities permitted for Category I districts from 6 am 21-06-2021 until 5 am 05-07-2021 will be applicable for Dharwad district also,” read an order by N Manjunatha Prasad, Principal Secretary, Revenue Department.