BENGALURU: Acting on the Centre’s directive to lockdown districts with confirmed Covid-19 cases, Karnataka government announced near lock down of nine districts including Bengaluru starting from Monday.The districts that will go into lockdown mode are: Bengaluru urban, Bengaluru rural, Mangaluru, Mysuru, Kalaburgi, Dharwad, Chikkaballapur, Kodagu and Belagavi.The government said that buses, trains and metros will not operate in these districts. However, auto rickshaws and cabs will continue to ply. There will be a ban on commercial activities, but shops selling essentials like grocery, medicine, vegetables will remain open. The lockdown will be in force till March 31, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.In other parts of the state, lockdown will be in place only on Monday. The government has also decided to stop AC bus services across the state till the end of this month.Amid an overwhelming response to Janta Curfew, Karnataka reported three new cases of Covid-19 on Sunday. Details of the new cases are awaited. The state’s count of total number of cases is 23.