Two months after Karnataka floods, Centre releases interim relief of Rs 1200 crore

Karnataka Floods

Karnataka has requested for a total flood relief of Rs 35,161 crore, as 103 taluks in 22 districts were affected in which 91 people died and 7 lakh people were displaced.

TNM Staff

It has been two months since the floods ravaged several districts of north Karnataka and the central government has finally released funds for flood relief. The Union government on Friday released Rs 1,200 crore as interim flood relief to the state. In late August, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had submitted a memorandum to Union Home Minister Amit Shah seeking Rs 8,790.25 crore interim relief; a fourth of the total amount of Rs 35,161 crore the state had requested as 103 taluks in 22 districts were affected by the floods in which 91 people died and seven lakh people have been displaced. “Keeping in view the severity of flood situation and fund positions in the SDRF accounts of the state of Karnataka, Home Minister Amit Shah has approved advance release of Rs 1,200 crore for Karnataka,” a statement by the Union Home Ministry reads. On Friday, former Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka, Dr G Parameshwara had said that the Centre was unlikely to release funds for flood relief and had indicated that there were discrepancies in the assessment made by the state government. In August this year, both the state and the Centre had conducted an assessment on the money required for flood relief. The state government had submitted a memorandum stating that the region would require anywhere between Rs Rs 35,161 crore to Rs 38,451 crore. The central and state’s assessment were not tallying due to which the Union government had stopped the release of funds, TOI reported. Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had visited Belagavi, one of the worst affected districts. During a press interaction, he had admitted that the state government’s treasury is empty. “Where is the money in the treasury?” he had said when asked why the funds were not released for flood relief works. Yediyurappa said that of the 69,381 houses that had collapsed, including those that were partially damaged, compensation has been given to owners of 26,077 houses. He further stated that the state government needs Rs 11,193 crore for flood relief and rehabilitation works in Belagavi alone. However, the state government has only managed to released Rs 867 crore towards compensation for flood victims.    

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Karnataka govt set to introduce board exams for class 7 students

Education

The Primary and Secondary Education Department is also mulling doing away with the rule that students cannot be held back until the end of class 9 if they fail.

TNM Staff

Following in the footsteps of Tamil Nadu, the Karnataka Department of Primary and Secondary Education is set to introduce board exams for students in Class 7. Speaking to the media on Friday, Primary and Secondary Education Minister Suresh Kumar said that the exams would be introduced from the current academic year. “We are introducing public exam (board exam) for class 7 students from this year. A technical committee will be set up to look into the feasibility of this,” Suresh Kumar said. The department is also mulling doing away with the rule that students cannot be held back till the end of class 9 if they fail. “We need to ensure that the students are learning what is being taught and not being passed without learning anything. The quality of education is getting affected because of this rule and we will likely remove it,” Suresh Kumar said. Speaking to TNM, a senior official with the Primary and Secondary Education Department said that so far, the state government has decided that if board exams are introduced for students in class 7, then SSLC would have the responsibility of preparing the question papers and answer keys and the papers would be corrected at the district level. “Sometimes, teachers just end up giving more marks to students in the final exams to show that they are scoring good marks even though they are not. To put an end to such practices, we are thinking of introducing the board exam so that students and teachers take education seriously. If we are not able to introduce the exam this year, we will do it for the upcoming academic year,” the senior official said. Education is a part of the concurrent list and earlier this year, the state government amended Section 30(1) of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009, which states that children should not be required to face any board exam till the completion of elementary education. This paved the way for the government to initially think about introducing board exams for both class 5 and 8. However, officials have decided to go back to the previous practice of conducting board exams for class 7.  

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NRC in Karnataka? Inside the detention center for illegal immigrants 40 km from Bengaluru

NRC

Sources told TNM that the preliminary list includes around 800 people from as many as 20 countries who do not have proper travel documents.

Prajwal Bhat

The daunting appearance of 10-feet high walls, barbed wires and overlooking watchtowers in two corners of the compound gives the detention centre built in Sondekoppa in Nelamangala, around 40 km from Bengaluru, the appearance of a jail. But authorities tasked with managing the centre are quick to claim that despite its appearance, it is not a jail. “It is a movement restriction centre. Any foreigner without travel documents, including passport or visa, will be sent here and their movement will be restricted,” an official from the Bureau of Immigration says. The detention centre work on which started during the JD(S) Congress regime is yet to be opened, and will be used to detain illegal immigrants found staying in Bengaluru. Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai confirmed that the department is collecting information on illegal immigrants and that the National Register of Citizens (NRC), first implemented in Assam, is being studied with a view of implementing it in Bengaluru. “We (government) have started the preliminary exercise to prepare the ground to introduce NRC in Karnataka by collecting necessary information (about illegal immigrants). After this, we’ll discuss it with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and take a final call in a week or two,” Basavaraj Bommai said on Thursday. Bommai’s statement on Thursday hints at an exercise in Bengaluru to identify illegal immigrants. It is unclear if all identified illegal immigrants will be detained in the facility in Nelamangala, but according to the Bureau of Immigration at least few of them will be detained there on a case-by-case basis. The building in Nelamangala was originally built as a hostel in 1992 for SC/ST and Other Backward Classes (OBC) students but after the strength of the students housed in the hostel continuously decreased, it was eventually shut down in 2008. The building was re-purposed to be used as a detention centre last year. The hostel building was retained, while two watchtowers in either corner and a security room at the entrance were constructed. Barbed wires run atop the compound walls on all four sides. In the main building, there are six rooms where illegal immigrants will be housed, along with a common kitchen and a common bathroom. Inside one of the rooms, stacks of kitchen supplies like utensils, utilities like beds and buckets, are kept. “They were kept recently and we were told that this facility is opening soon though this time it is not a hostel,” says the caretaker of a Karnataka Electricity Board (KEB) substation that is adjoining the centre. The guidelines for the use of the centre are yet to be determined. It is not known whether detainees will be allowed to freely use their phone, if they will be allowed visits by family members or if medical or mental health help will be available. The first hurdle for authorities is to determine who can be detained in this facility. The building will be used for the next five years by the Home Department and the Foreigner Regional Registration Offices (FRRO) under the Bureau of Immigration, which are in the process of compiling a preliminary list of illegal immigrants. Sources told TNM that the list includes around 800 people from as many as 20 countries who do not have proper travel documents. The NRC has been a contentious issue for long; those left out of the list could possibly be rendered stateless, unless the country from which the ‘foreigners’ are originally said to be from accepts them to be citizens. India doesn’t grant citizenship by birth, and as per NRC those who are required to prove their citizenship have to show that their ancestors are Indians, and also have to prove their relationship to their ancestors as well. In Assam, all residents were asked to produce documents proving that they or their families lived in India before March 24, 1971, and in the final list published more than 19 lakh residents were excluded. These residents will now face Foreigner Tribunals (FT) and housed in detention centres. Home Minister Amit Shah declared that this exercise will be implemented in other parts of the country as well. Previously, BJP leaders PC Mohan and Arvind Limbavali had discussed measures to drive out illegal immigrants, specifically Bengali Muslims, in their constituencies in Bengaluru. Three categories of people are declared foreigners by the Bureau of Immigration. This includes those registered with the office and whose visa or passport have expired, those who are not registered with the office and have overstayed in Bengaluru after arriving on a different visa like a tourist visa, and those foreigners involved in criminal cases and facing deportation after court proceedings are completed. “If a foreigner is in judicial custody, then they will not be detained at the detention centre. This centre will be used to detain foreigners facing deportation after court proceedings have been completed. There is usually a period of time in which documents like passport, etc. are arranged and in this period, they will be detained at the centre,” adds an official from the Bureau of Immigration. Sources in the Bureau of Immigration stated that the highest number of illegal immigrants in Bengaluru are from African countries, who are found overstaying in the city. Members of the city’s African community say that implementing a rule like this is welcome but also add that it should not be used to crack down on African nationals in the city. “There are genuine cases in which people from our community are found without documents and are involved in criminal activities but it is not just Africans who are involved in criminal activities. Africans are being targeted over other nationalities, like those from European countries. A rule like this will affect us. It should be implemented in a balanced manner,” says a student from an African country studying in Bengaluru, who did not wish to be identified. Political leaders from both BJP and Congress have also claimed repeatedly that there are a large number of Bengalis, mostly Muslims, from neighbouring Bangladesh working in Bengaluru. Many Bengali Muslims are working in various daily-wage sectors in Bengaluru, particularly in the city’s waste recycling network. They mostly reside in shanty settlements in the city’s outskirts and they now fear that their status of residing in the city they consider home is now down to the finer details of paperwork. “I know this is nothing but a ploy to plot people against people and hatred for Muslims. I know what has happened in Assam, where many people have been left out even though they are very much Indians. They want to create fear among people,” says a migrant worker from West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, who now works for an online services aggregator company after working as a construction labourer in the city. “We all know what happened in Assam and if it is implemented here it is a cause for fear for all. There will be unnecessary panic for us although there is no such development here,” says another migrant worker from West Bengal’s Nadia district who now works as a bus driver in the city.  In spite of the fears over the implementation of an NRC-like exercise in Bengaluru, the state government is set to hold further meetings and discuss the information collected by the Home Department and the FRRO about illegal immigrants staying in the city. The detention centre, 40 km from the city, is ready to be opened and it appears there is little resistance, political or otherwise, to the state and central government’s plans of identifying and detaining illegal immigrants living in the city. “We will first start with Bengaluru and we are wary of genuine and practical problems of foreigners in the city so we will be keeping this in mind while implementing the rules against illegal immigrants,” says the official from the Bureau of Immigration.  

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Five years on, Bengaluru transport body finally floats tenders for 300 electric buses

Transport

These 300 airconditioned buses are set to be deployed in both airport and non-airport routes.

Soumya Chatterjee

File image

After five years of delay, the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has finally floated a tender to induct 300 electric buses. The BMTC has been promising to induct electric buses into its fleet since 2014 but no concrete action had been taken in the past to make this a reality. The BMTC had conducted a pilot project in 2014.  BMTC also recently lost Rs 75 crore of central government subsidy for its indecisiveness. According to BMTC officials, the e-buses are likely to hit the roads sometime around the beginning of 2020.  Another 100 buses, which will be leased as part of the same tender contract, will be given to Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) and North Western Karnataka Road Transport Corporation (NWKRTC). Both will receive 50 e-buses each. Officials in the know said that since the buses are being leased, it will be charged on a per-kilometre basis, although the bus fare will remain constant.  Read: With smarter routes, cheaper tickets, buses could be lifeline to fix Bengaluru’s traffic mess “We have floated the tender and are looking at a rate of around Rs 40/km, which is almost half of the cost at which we run our Volvo AC buses,” an official said. These 300 airconditioned buses are set to be deployed in both airport and non-airport routes. This procurement will be done as part of ‘Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid and) Electric vehicles (FAME)’-II subsidy scheme by the Union Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises. The subsidy covers Rs 1 crore for every AC bus and Rs 73 lakh for non-AC buses. The BMTC had earlier missed the Rs 75 crore subsidy as it failed to utilise the first phase of FAME scheme, which expired on March 31. This was due to an apparent disagreement with former Transport Minister DC Thamanna and former Managing Director (MD) of BMTC.  Read: Study finds travelling in a bus in Bengaluru more expensive than Delhi, Mumbai   While the BMTC MD had initially mooted the idea of leasing electric buses owing to the low financial burden, then Transport Minister DC Thamanna pushed for purchasing the buses, which led to a conflict within the organisation in November 2018.  This also meant that the fleet of the BMTC has not increased over the years after the National Green Tribunal has banned the purchase of buses with Bharat Stage (BS) IV emission standard (norms to regulate output of air pollutants from vehicles) and asked BMTC to buy only electric or CNG buses. Even the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board has asked the BMTC to phase out its existing BS-III buses. Compared to CNG buses, the maintenance cost of electric buses is lower, thus ensuring better revenue compared to the current diesel buses. An Indian Institute of Science (IISc) study has also found that replacing a diesel bus with an electric bus reduces up to 25 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission annually. While the introduction of electric buses was well-received by the public, there is also an opinion that priority should be given to non-AC buses for cheaper intra-city transport when bus fares in Bengaluru are already the highest in the country. Sandeep Anirudhan, the founder of Citizens Agenda Forum, said, “There are talks that all normal BMTC buses are going to be retrofitted with electric motors. That will make all buses noise-free and efficient.” He also questions the need to make these buses airconditioned. “Think about how much money can be saved by investing in normal buses instead of AC buses, and how many more buses can be purchased and enhance public transport. Besides, AC buses further emit heat into the surroundings and destroying our city's ambience,” he says.  

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BJP issues notice to its MLA in Karnataka for questioning the Centre on flood relief

Politics

MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal had told the media said that the BJP was not taking the issue of carrying out relief and rehabilitation works in Karnataka seriously.

TNM Staff

The BJP’s disciplinary committee has issued a show cause notice to its legislator from Bijapur City Basangouda Patil Yatnal for speaking against his own party. The member secretary of the committee, Om Pathak, in the notice, accuses Basangouda Yatnal of insulting sand denigrating the “herculean efforts” made by the BJP to provide relief to flood-affected victims. Basangouda Patil Yatnal had on October 2 told the media said that the party was not taking the issue of carrying out relief and rehabilitation works in the state seriously. “This is beyond politics. This is about the emotions of the people. Even after the state suffered devastating floods, Modi didn’t tweet for us, but he did for the people of Bihar. People will ask if Modi tweeted for Bihar just because elections are approaching there. Is this what people get for voting the BJP? The party should take it seriously. Or else, it will lose its ground in south India,” he had said. Following this, the show cause notice has been issued. The notice states that Basangouda Patil Yatnal threatened the party and its leaders by suggesting to the people of Karnataka that the party leaders must be taught a lesson. “As a sitting MLA of the Bharatiya Janata Party, you have given public interviews to TV channels… Threatened the party and its leaders by suggesting to the people of Karnataka and inciting them to teach party leaders a lesson by trashing them, thus calling for physical violence and causing unrest amongst people by spreading,” the notice states. Om Pathak accused Yatnal of spreading lies and making allegations against the BJP leadership, calling them “power centres”. “Your intent utterances and allegations against the party and its leaders constitute a serious breach of the party discipline as defined,” it states. Basangouda Yatnal had said that the 25 BJP MPs from Karnataka must speak up and demand funds for flood relief. “BJP has 25 MPs from Karnataka. They should speak up. It is their duty to protect people's interests. The country is above the party, then comes our state, then our people, the party comes last. We as individuals come after that. The MPs should bring it to the Prime Minister's notice. The Prime Minister should also take it seriously. Otherwise, it sends a wrong message to the people of Karnataka,” Yatnal had said.     

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With an overwhelming mandate, Roger Binny has his task cut out as KSCA president

Cricket

Binny and his team have a challenging journey to retain the Karnataka State Cricket Association's standing as one of the more vibrant cricketing units in the country.

Ramakrishnan Kaushik

Roger Binny (second from left)

Anything other than a landslide win for Roger Binny in the race to become the president of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) would have come as a massive shock. The former India all-rounder, who had twice previously served as the vice-president of the state body, is synonymous with integrity. Well-liked and respected across the spectrum, Binny’s off-field leadership skills will now have to express themselves as he and his team embark on a challenging journey to retain the KSCA’s standing as one of the more vibrant cricketing units in the country.  The trust of the electorate manifested itself in the form of an impressive tally of 943 of the 1,069 votes polled as the 64-year-old Binny comfortably beat back the challenge of Capt MM Harish. As expected, Binny’s team was unstoppable at the hustings, making a clean sweep of the 12 seats for which elections were held. With this overwhelming mandate comes massive responsibility. In his first remarks after being elevated to a position held in the past by such luminaries as M Chinnaswamy, Dr K Thimmappiah and leg-spin legend Anil Kumble, Binny spoke about infrastructure development and the need to have a strong club culture. Karnataka has long been an excellent supply line to the national team, and it was perhaps fitting that Mayank Agarwal made a spectacular 215 against South Africa in the Visakhapatnam Test on the day of the polls. The new administration will be keen to keep that robust feeder system going, which will necessitate not just structural enhancement but also quality coaching and transparency when it comes to team selections at age-group and senior levels.  In the lead-up to the elections, allegations of corruption had been levelled against certain decision-makers by the opposition Swatch Cricket group. While it might be tempting to sweep those charges under the carpet as the desperate claims of an aspiring set of office-bearers, it is imperative that whatever misgivings there might be are addressed and all potential roadblocks in the further blossoming of Karnataka cricket removed in an inclusive rather than iron-fisted manner. What is encouraging within the new set-up, with the overt backing and encouragement of former KSCA secretary Brijesh Patel, is the number of cricketers who have been elected to their respective posts. New vice-president J Abhiram and VS Thilak Naidu played first-class cricket with distinction, while Shantha Rangaswamy, the former India captain, has become the first woman to break into the Managing Committee. Rangaswamy’s inputs will be especially vital for Karnataka to make the most of the great interest generated by India Women’s impressive outings over the last two years on the global stage. The wealth of cricketing experience these names bring to complement Binny’s wisdom should augur well from a cricketing perspective, more so with former international umpire Shahvir Tarapore too in the mix. Administratively, support will come from first-time secretary Santosh Menon and treasurer Vinay Mruthyunjaya. With Binny as the glue that binds the group together and the driving force given his pedigree and his reputation, cricket in Karnataka should logically build on the gains of the past and aspire for a brighter future.  In saying that, the first examination of Binny’s governance won’t be too long in coming. The recent arrest of Ali Asfak Thara, the owner of Belagavi Panthers, by the Central Crime Branch on charges of betting, and potential match-fixing, during Karnataka Premier League (KPL) 2019 has opened the proverbial Pandora’s Box. The franchise has since been suspended by the KSCA, but that can’t be an end in itself. While the KPL has unearthed talent from across the state, its sustainability within the existing framework will come under greater focus in light of the developments of the last few weeks. It might be true that there are only a few bad eggs, but in this era of perception, it is essential that the trust factor of the primary stakeholders is kept intact. Whether that means making minor but meaningful tweaks to the structure as it is, or going in for a wholesale overhaul while retaining the core identity of a tournament that has run for eight editions, is something Binny and his trusted band will have to decide. Maybe not immediately, but soon enough. Binny has captained his state on the park with dignity and poise. He will again have to lead from the front in a field – administration – where he has great experience, if not necessarily as the designated top man until now. Few men have come to office with such groundswell of support and goodwill. Binny has the same opportunity to make an impact on governance as he did at the 1983 World Cup, when his tournament-high 18 wickets was pivotal to Kapil Dev’s men going all the way.

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Why did IIM Bangalore host ‘pseudo science workshop’ on brain activation, asks rationalist

Controversy

The organisers claimed that the children’s ability to see thing blindfolded was a result of mindfulness techniques, or ‘neuroplasticity’.

Dr Nimeshika Jayachandran

Theja Ram

An 8-year-old boy from Mysuru walks up the stage and introduces himself before he is blindfolded. He is asked by Kamlesh Patel, the speaker on stage, to state the colour of the ball in front of him. He correctly states the colour of the small plastic ball. Following him, an 11-year-old boy comes up on stage and performs a similar feat. This kind of a programme, which is about ‘activating the brains and cognitive abilities’ of children, has been controversial and contentious. However, this time, the protest to the event has arisen from the fact that it was organised at Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Management by two private companies -- Heartfullness Institute and Brighter Minds, between August 1 and 3 this year. The invite to the event states that other than the two private companies, Professor Ramnath Narayanswamy, faculty at IIM-B, was a conference director. Under the watchful eyes of a large audience gathered at IIM-B’s auditorium, the organisers claimed that the children’s ability to see things while being blindfolded, was a result of mindfulness techniques, or ‘neuroplasticity’. Kamlesh D Patel, the man behind the Heartfulnness Institute can be heard saying that with ‘creative training’ one can even read the contents of a folded letter. Rationalist Narendra Nayak, who has on several occasions debunked this concept, has written a letter to the director of IIM Bangalore, and has slammed the institute for allowing such an event to be held at the esteemed academic institute.   “There are a number of tall claims made in the video which includes claims like children being able to read folded letters etc. none of these claims are supported by evidence or any objective tests. These claims are supported by resorting to examples from mythology. The main reason for these people to claim that only children between the ages of 5 to 15 can have such abilities is to pre-empt any examinations under fraud proof conditions by claiming that the children will be upset by rigorous tests. Besides, the children are also conditioned to lie,” he writes in the letter.  In addition, he has also stated that IIM should conduct a study into such claims.  “I am just appalled that such false claims are allowed in an august academic body like the Indian Institute of Management. In fact, a body like IIM should launch a study into such and how a lie like seeing without light from the object falling on the retina be perpetrated on a whole country by a bunch of frauds in the name of culture and ancient abilities. I am willing to lend you full co-operation in this matter,” writes the rationalist.  On several occasions, he along with others from the same school of thought, have taken to exposing those who indulge in such practices.  In 2015, the rationalist came into the spotlight after announcing that he would give Rs 5 lakhs to any individual who could demonstrate that a child could read blindfolded as per ‘mindfulness practices.’ This challenge was taken up by Vinoj Surendran from Kollam, Kerala. Vinoj ran the Ingenium India organisation which claimed to offer ‘mind empowerment’ courses for children. However, days before the public challenge, Vinoj backed out.  Furthermore, several others have also voiced that such programs were mere scams to fool parents who wanted their children to “be geniuses.” When TNM contacted IIM-B, the institute said that it had nothing to do with the event and maintained that Heartfullness Institute, a USA-based organisation and its branch in Bengaluru, had conducted the event. It however added that a professor was part of organising the event. “There are several events, conferences and lectures that are hosted at IIM Bangalore, and many of them are also open to the public to attend. However, it may be noted that not all programmes are sponsored by the Institute. Many such initiatives are individually driven by faculty and students who are keen to bring together multiple perspectives for wider discussion and debates. In this particular instance, the video is being propagated by an external entity and the Institute has nothing to do with it. We shall certainly take note of any specific concerns that may be raised pertaining to events hosted at the Institute,' said Kavitha Kumar, Head of Communications, IIM-B.   Brighter Minds denied that the event involved mid-brain activation, but called it ‘neuroplasticity’, a ‘developing science’. "Brighter Minds along with Heartfullness Institute had organised this program to show that brain training can help improve cognitive abilities in children. This has nothing to do with midbrain activation or anything paranormal. This is a developing science. Some children develop a strong sense of intuition through brain training and these methods help enhance cognitive abilities like focus, observation, comprehension, memory, and intuition. It is based on neuroscientific principles," said NS Nagaraja, Director, Program, at Brighter Minds. Refuting Brighter Minds' claims, Narendra Nayak said that the organisers used terms such as ‘elevated consciousness’ and ‘neuroplasticity’ in order to mislead the audience. "I am not buying that this is a developing science. If you see the children who are blindfolded and asked to guess the colour of the ball in their hands, that is what such people have claimed to be midbrain activation for over a decade. These people are not using that term anymore because if someone googles the term, they will know that it's all a sham," he said.  Narendra Nayak also added that this business had to stop. “Blindfold or neuroplasticity and then some "brain games" to improve memory and intuition. It is a big business right now so it won't be easy to stop. Innocent people are falling for this hoax.”

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