1,169 people booked for drunken driving in three hour-drive by Bengaluru police

Crime

The drive was conducted at around 196 checkpoints across the city between 11 pm on Saturday and 2 am on Sunday.

TNM Staff

Representative image

In a big crackdown against drunk driving in Bengaluru, the traffic police have filed cases against 1,169 people in a special drive conducted on Saturday from 11 pm to 2 am on Sunday. The drive, conducted under the P Harishekaran, Additional Commissioner of Police, (Traffic), was conducted against riders and drivers driving under the influence of alcohol. The police also checked auto-rickshaws in the city and seized 63 auto-rickshaws that did not have display cards.  According to a TOI report, while usually around 80-100 checkpoints are checked on daily drives, Saturday’s checks were conducted at around 196 checkpoints across the city. Bengaluru Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic North Division, Sarah Fathima tweeted that 92 cases were registered from various places on Bellary Road alone. The maximum number of cases were booked in the west zone (519), followed by east (400), the report added.  The TOI report added that around 3,000 traffic police personnel, including four inspectors, seven ACPs and DCPs from every division, were deployed across important junctions and on the outskirts.  According to statistics, this is the highest number of cases booked in a single night. In 2017, Bengaluru saw a whopping 73,741 registered cases of drunk driving, with over 10,000 arrests in December 2017 itself. In 2018, in total, the Bengaluru traffic police had registered 53,092 cases of drunken driving. Till May 30, 2019, over 20,671 cases of drunken driving have been registered. In Bengaluru, if a driver is caught driving a vehicle with alcohol in his/her blood exceeding 30 mg per 100 ml, or he/she is under the influence of a drug to such an extent that he/she is incapable of exercising proper control over the vehicle, he/she faces imprisonment up to 6 months or fine up to Rs 2,000. If the offence is repeated, the accused faces imprisonment up to 2 years or fine up to Rs 3,000, or both.

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KR Ramesh Kumar steps down as Karnataka Speaker as state gets new govt

Politics

Ramesh Kumar had found himself at the epicenter of the political crisis in the state when rebel MLAs from the Congress and JD(S) submitted their resignations to him.

Soumya Chatterjee

PTI

Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar resigned from his post on Monday, less than an hour after Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa passed the trust vote in the House. Ramesh Kumar handed in his resignation to Deputy Speaker Krishna Reddy, who then adjourned the House until 5pm. Deputy Speaker Krishna Reddy of the JD(S) is also expected. The resignation was on expected lines as the Speaker is usually from the ruling side as per convention and the BJP had hinted it would move on a no-confidence motion against him. “I request the members of the Assembly to look into the issue of the Tenth Schedule seriously. We all know that it needs to become stronger in order to avoid a situation that we faced recently,” said Ramesh Kumar. His resignation also comes a day after he had disqualified 14 legislators from the Congress and the JD(S). On Friday, Speaker Ramesh Kumar had disqualified three other rebel MLAs until the expiry of the current term of the Assembly. As it stands, his order means none of the rebel legislators will be allowed to be inducted into Yediyurappa’s cabinet.    Ramesh Kumar is likely to be replaced by BJP's KG Bopaiah, who has served as the Speaker of the Karnataka Assembly from 2009 to 2013, sources further said. Speaker Ramesh Kumar found himself at the epicentre of the political crisis in the state, when 13 rebel MLAs from the Congress and JD(S) submitted their resignations to his office on July 6. However, the Speaker was not present when the MLAs came to his office, and later insisted that the MLAs come and meet him personally in order for him to assess whether their resignations are genuine. Last week, he disqualified all 16 Congress and JD(S) rebels, and also Independent MLA Shankar, from contesting elections until 2023. Ramesh Kumar first became a Speaker in the Assembly in 1994 when Deve Gowda was Chief Minister. A product of the socialist movement, Ramesh Kumar was a protege of Devaraj Urs. Ramesh Kumar was part of the Janata Party for over a decade, and later with the Janata Dal. He moved back to the Congress at the turn of the millennium. He is believed to be close to former CM Siddaramaiah. During the political crisis and Kumaraswamy's trust vote proceedings in the Assembly, Ramesh Kumar kept the mood lively with his usual wit. However, as the trust vote dragged on, he was upset and even kept a resignation letter in his pocket on the day of the trust vote -- to put in his papers if the vote was not held that day. An actor, a law student who didn't complete his course, and a science graduate, Ramesh Kumar has worn several hats in his career. In February, Ramesh Kumar callously compared himself to a rape survivor, in context an audio tape that was released. In a part of the tape, the person alleged to be Yeddyurappa had claimed that the BJP had ‘booked’ the Speaker for Rs 50 crore. “The rape has happened only once. If the rape victim had been quiet, it would have gone away,” he said.  

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BS Yediyurappa wins floor test in Karnataka Assembly

Politics

With the magic number reduced to 105, BJP won the floor test comfortably by a voice vote.

Soumya Chatterjee

Karnataka BJP president BS Yediyurappa, who took oath as Chief Minister of Karnataka for the fourth time on Friday, won the floor test on Monday without any hitch. With only 208 MLAs present in the House. Yediyurappa won comfortably by a voice vote, with all 105 BJP MLAs voting for him. Though the Governor directed Yediyurappa to prove his majority within a week’s time, he decided to do it by Monday so that he could get the Finance Bill passed before it lapses on July 31. Speaking in the Assembly, Yediyurappa said, "As I take charge as Chief Minister once again, I promise that i will not practice any form of hate politics. When Siddaramaiah was the CM and when HDK was the CM, they never indulged in politics of revenge. In the next few months I expect to work towards development. We all know how the state of affairs is right now and I want to rectify it. I do not want to indulge in politics of revenge. I believe in forgive and forget. I have the backing of my party high command and JP Nadda. We have to pass the finance and appropriation bill. Hence we had to act with efficiency. The state is reeling from drought and we must be prepared to work for it. For that reason I took oath as CM before the state went into a limbo." Monday’s development also cements the position of the new government in the state after days of political uncertainty since July 6, with 16 rebel MLAs of the Congress-JD(S) holed up in a Mumbai resort which resulted in the collapse of the government. Former CM HD Kumaraswamy had tendered his resignation on July 23 after losing the floor test. All the rebel MLAs now stand disqualified as Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar announced his decision on the 14 dissidents on Sunday after already having disqualified three MLAs on Thursday. This reduced the strength of the House to 208, with the magic number at 105. The BJP on its own has 105 MLAs. The disqualified MLAs are ST Somashekhar (Yeshwanthpura), BC Patil (Hirekerur), Shivaram Hebbar (Yellapur), Prathapgouda Patil (Maski), K Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout), AH Vishwanath (Hunasuru), Narayana Gowda (Krishanarajapete), Munirathna Naidu (RR Nagar), Roshan Baig (Shivajinagar), Byrathi Basavaraj (KR Puram), MTB Nagaraj (Hoskote), K Sudhakar (Chikkaballapura), Shrimant Patil (Kagwad) and Anand Singh (Vijayanagara). The MLAs who were disqualified on Thursday were Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak), Mahesh Kumathall (Athani) and R Shankar (Ranebennur). While Speaker Ramesh Kumar observed that they cannot re-contest elections until the expiry of the current Assembly term due to the disqualification, the rebel MLAs are set to contest the Speaker’s order in the High Court or the Supreme Court. If the Speaker’s verdict is upheld by the court, the rebels’ prospects of becoming ministers in the BS Yediyurappa government is out of contention. However, in the recent case of 18 AIADMK MLAs, who were disqualified in September 2017, they were allowed by the apex court and the Election Commission to contest the bye-elections held six months later. With bye-elections due in the 17 seats, according to political observers uncertainty might resurface in state politics again if the BJP fails to match the magic number of 113 MLAs in the full House. And if the rebels make their way back to the Assembly on BJP tickets, Yediyurappa will find it hard to accommodate them in ministries. Noted political analyst Mahadeva Prakash said, “It would be very difficult for the BJP to manage the affairs following this. There will effectively have close to 20 MLAs of the outgoing government including two independents. All these MLAs have to be accommodated, and there are already factions within the BJP. So it will be a very ticklish situation for Yediyurappa to run the government safely.”

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Protest against Bengaluru metro authority over move to build on All Saints Church land

Protest

Activists want BMRCL to make minor changes to safeguard the environment and heritage of the All Saints Church.

TNM Staff

File image

Members of All Saints Church Congregation Welfare Association and other city residents held a protest on Sunday to persuade the Bangalore Metropolitan Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) to stick to their original plan.   According to the original plan, the station was to be built on Hosur Road. Instead, now BMRCL wants to build the station on the church land, after demolishing a school for children with learning and cognitive disabilities as well as an old age home. Many also fear that the construction activity will impact the heritage church structure itself. “As per the DPR (detailed project report), the track and station box were planned under Hosur Road. The BMRCL has violated it. The BMRCL will leave behind a land with only three feet deep soil of no use. No rainwater can percolate, resulting in flooding of the church premises,” Ronald Fernandez, one of the protestors, told Deccan Herald. The land which is inside the church premises according to the current plan will be primarily used by BMRCL to keep machinery and other equipment required which will be used for construction of Namma Metro’s Phase II project.  The All Saints Church Congregation Welfare Association and other residents want the BMRCL to use a vacant army land in the vicinity instead of cutting hundreds of trees inside the 150-year-old compound. Even the city’s Tree Committee, in its correspondence to the BMRCL, has asked the body to use the vacant military land for the purpose. The protesters also demand that the planned station be moved 75 meters to the left and move the track under the road as originally planned in the detailed project report. These changes, activists argue, will help save the natural environment, human health, heritage and the city’s future. They have threatened to go to court if BMRCL does not pay heed to their demands, threatening to slowing down the entire construction process of Gottigere-Nagavara Line as part of the Reach 6 of Phase-II.

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Karnataka BJP issues whip for trust vote on Monday

Politics

About 100 of the saffron party's 105 legislators have been staying at a private resort in the city's northern outskirts since July 12.

IANS

Karnataka's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday night issued a whip to all its 105 legislators to attend the Assembly on Monday from 11 a.m. when the trust vote will be moved by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa for proving majority, a party official said. "The whip was issued at our legislature party meeting in the presence of Yediyurappa and all the MLAs at a hotel in the city. All the legislators have been told to be present in the Assembly by 11 a.m.," BJP spokesman G Madhusudan told IANS.. About 100 of the saffron party's 105 legislators have been staying at a private resort in the city's northern outskirts since July 12 when the 10-day monsoon session of the Assembly commenced and the month-long political crisis led to the fall of the 14-month-old JD-S-Congress coalition government on July 23 after its Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy lost the trust vote. "Though the Governor (Vajubhai Vala) directed the new Chief Minister to prove majority by July 31, Yediyurappa had announced on Friday that he would face the floor test on July 29, as the Finance Bill had to be moved later in the day and passed by July 31." With the Assembly strength reduced to 208 from 225, including a nominated member after Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar disqualified 17 Congress-Janata Dal-Secular rebel legislators, 105 is the new halfway mark for simple majority, which the BJP has. "With the support of Independent H. Nagesh, our party's strength is 106, one more than the halfway mark to win the trust vote," Madhusudan said. If Congress legislator B. Nagendra, who is in a private hospital here for treatment, and Bahujan Samaj Party member N. Mahesh abstain from the Assembly as they did on July 23, the effective strength for the floor test will be 206, with 104 as the magic figure for proving majority. Post-disqualification, the strength of the Congress has reduced to 64 from 78, excluding the Speaker and that of JD-S to 34 from 37. On July 23, with 20 legislators - 15 rebels, two sick Congress MLAs, two Independents and the BSP member - absent, the Assembly strength was 205, with 103 the mark for majority. The JD-S-Congress coalition lost the motion as their combined strength was 99 against 105 of the BJP.

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Arrested for allegedly killing wife, undertrial found dead in Bengaluru Central Prison

Accident

He was arrested on July 14 from his hometown in Dharmapuri.

TNM Staff

A 35-year-old man, who was arrested and undergoing trial for allegedly murdering his wife, was found dead inside the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison on Sunday morning.  Reports said that he killed his wife suspecting she was having an affair. Following the crime, he had fled to his hometown Dharmapuri from where the police arrested him. He was working as a scrap dealer in the city. Deccan Herald reported that the prisoner identified as Chinnaswamy had slipped to death from a barrack he was staying at. His fellow prisoners found him lying in a pool of blood after which they alerted the prison officials.    He was soon rushed to the prison hospital and then taken to Victoria Hospital where doctors declared him brought dead. Preliminary investigation has found that Chinnaswamy had suffered an epileptic attack. Parappana Agrahara Police have registered a case of unnatural death and are awaiting the post-mortem report.   According to police, the deceased who lived in Someshwara Layout in Bengaluru, was arrested on July 14. He was suspected of killing his wife by hitting her with an empty LPG cylinder on her head on July 12. “We learnt he was suffering from epilepsy and he might have collapsed due to his health issues. The autopsy report will give us the exact cause for his death,” a policeman told the Times of India.  This incident comes to light two months after a jail warden and others were booked in connection with the unnatural death of another undertrial prisoner Syed Fairoz. Syed Fairoz, a 21-year-old man, was lodged at the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in Bengaluru in January 2018. Fairoz was undergoing trial for possession of marijuana. On January 19, Fairoz was rushed to the prison hospital as his right leg had developed an infection. On January 21, when his condition worsened, he was taken to Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru where he succumbed to his injuries two days later.  The Karnataka State Human Rights Commission had even recommended the Criminal Investigation Department to probe into the alleged police brutality that led to the death of the undertrial.  

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After moderate success in trial run, Karnataka to begin cloud seeding from Monday

Weather

Cloud seeding is a weather modification experiment to induce rainfall from rain-bearing clouds using chemicals.

Soumya Chatterjee

screengrab

The Karnataka government’s trial cloud seeding exercise to mitigate drought conditions in the state has seen moderate success. The Rs 91 crore-worth cloud seeding exercise will start on Monday and go on for the next three months, as the state is witnessing deficit rainfall and has seen three consecutive years of drought. There is a 19% deficit in rainfall for the state this year, with 50% of the taluks witnessing deficient rainfall.   Cloud seeding is a weather modification experiment to induce rainfall from rain-bearing clouds using chemicals. However, its success rate has remained debatable, given the astronomical costs involved. For Karnataka, flares of sodium chloride and potassium chloride will be used to trigger hygroscopic cloud seeding. Previously, the state government carried out cloud seeding in 2017, which saw considerable success. Following that, experts from the Indian Institute of Science, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune, National Aerospace Laboratories and the Indian Meteorology Department suggested that the Karnataka government carry out this exercise every year. The first such trial run took place with two aircraft taking off from the HAL Airport in Bengaluru and flew over to Kanakpura and Chamarajanagar areas.  “Our trial run was done on Thursday in areas of Ramanagara, Kolar and we will continue this every day. We will do cloud seeding all over south Karnataka, to begin with, as most of the deficiency is in interior south Karnataka. Another factor to keep in mind is cloud density. Both of these factors will lead to our decision. So next we will look at Chitradurga and Tumakuru as they are the worst affected,” said LK Atheeq, the Principal Secretary of Rural Development & Panchayat Raj. “So far we have been moderately successful in the trial run,” he added. According to data released by the Karnataka State Disaster Monitoring Centre, the majority of the areas under the cloud seeding zone received rainfall in both areas where trials were conducted.

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