The document claims to be authorised by Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar, but does not include any signatures of officials.
On Monday, an eight-page document labelled ‘Guidelines to prevent transmission’ was widely circulated. The document, attributed to the Karnataka government, claimed to have been authorised by Karnataka Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar and was circulated without any signatures. However, the Chief Minister’s office confirmed soon after that the document is fake.
“The guidelines being circulated on social networking sites are fake and the government has not issued any such guidelines. Leaders of the Opposition and the Honorable Chief Minister will hold a meeting after which the Chief Minister will issue new guidelines or regulations,” the message from the CMO read. The document was circulated right after a meeting on COVID-19 situation concluded in the Vidhana Soudha.
The fake document claimed that the new guidelines will be in effect from 9 pm on Monday, April 20, till 6 am on May 3. It also claimed that the night curfew in place will be extended and movement of public without valid reasons will be banned. It also says, “All cinema halls, shopping malls, gymnasiums, sports complexes, stadia, swimming pools, entertainment parks, theatres, bars and auditoriums, assembly halls and similar places,” will not function. Detailed guidelines for agriculture, fisheries, industries and animal husbandry sectors too have been written.
The Twitter handle of the Karnataka Health Department too issued a clarification saying, “GoK has confirmed that no circular has been issued regarding COVID-19 guidelines and the article circulated is FAKE”.
While there were speculations that the official-looking fake document was actually a draft of the guidelines to be issued on Tuesday, the same was categorically denied by a source in the CMO.
The Karnataka government had earlier announced a night curfew between 10 pm to 5 am in eight cities across the state — Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Udupi-Manipal, Mysuru, Kalaburagi, Bidar and Tumkur — from April 10 to April 20 in light of the surge in COVID-19 cases.
On Tuesday, an all-party meeting called by the CM will discuss measures to tackle the growing COVID-19 numbers in the state, and guidelines regarding the same are expected to be issued by the CM after.
