McDonald’s and other eateries in Bengaluru fined for hygiene issues and using plastic

Hygiene

BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar said that he has asked health officers to carry out such surprise raids across the city.

Soumya Chatterjee

Health inspectors of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) on Wednesday fined multiple fast-food chains, including a McDonald’s outlet in Shantinagar, and other eateries located in prime localities on Wednesday. Other than fines for poor hygiene, BBMP officials are also carrying out raids at restaurants for using plastic, which has been banned since 2017.    Samrudh Veg in the upscale Cunningham Road was imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 for serving unhygienic food. According to officials, the vendor was storing rotten fruits, vegetables as well and even rodents were found in their kitchen.  McDonald’s was slapped a fine of Rs 25,000. Other establishments that were raided and fined include Hotel Crazy 4 Food in Jayanagar, Ganjananda Bar and Restaurant in Chamrajpet and Bowring Institute.   Tweeting about the same, BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar said that he has asked health officers to carry out these surprise raids. A #BBMP Health team fined a restaurant on Cunningham Road Rs.10,000 for serving unhygienic food, having an expired trade licence & for stocking rotten fruits & veggies. Rodents were also found here. Have asked officers to pay surprise visits to #Bengaluru restaurants. #BBMPCOMM pic.twitter.com/CJLUj4jAKG — B.H.Anil Kumar,IAS (@BBMPCOMM) October 16, 2019 This is not the first time that the BBMP has taken action against restaurants and known names in the food industry.  Speaking to TNM, BBMP Chief Health Officer Vijayendra said that these raids are periodic and are carried out by the health department. “All medical officers and health inspectors across all eight zones of the city are authorised to carry out these raids. ON Wednesday, we raided six restaurants in the city,” he told TNM. “Officers also fine them for violating the plastic ban. The fine amount varies according to the Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act and also based on the quantity of plastic seized as well,” says Vijayendra.    TNM had earlier reported how during enforcement drives carried out in May, the BBMP had cancelled the trade licenses of 15 dine-in and take-out restaurants in the city as the outlets were unhygienic and had dirty kitchens.  The outlets, which faced action then included Box 8, Andhra Ruchulu, Annan Mess, Ruh and Punjabi Nawabi. In March, the BBMP had fined top brands like KFC, Cafe Coffee Day and others for using plastic for packaging.

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'Teachers beku!': Mangaluru govt school students protest transfer of staff

Education

If you walked into this government school Mangaluru on Wednesday, you’d have seen at least 100 kids sitting outside under a tree. It wasn’t for an outdoor study session.

Prajwal Bhat

If you had gone to Government Model Higher Primary School in Kasaba Bengre in Mangaluru on Wednesday, you would have found scores of children sitting under a tree on the premises. No, it wasn’t an outdoor study session. It was a protest.   “Teachers beku! Teachers beku! (We want teachers!)”, about 100 students from class 1 to class 7 chanted. "Namma teachers namage beku! (We want our teachers!) Beda beda vargavane beda!" (We don’t want transfer!)” What prompted this protest was the shock the students experienced when they returned to school after Dasara holidays and found out that five of the eleven school teachers had been transferred elsewhere. The protests are backed by the School Development and Monitoring Committee (SDMC) and the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI).  “The school will not be able to manage with just six teachers when there are over 400 students studying here," says Rizwan, a member of the SDMC. The dearth of teachers at the school was caused by the compulsory transfers of five school teachers - Millie Carmine, Shubha, Sunita Flavia D'Souza, Veronica J D'Souza and Veronica I D'Souza. All five teachers were transferred to schools in Puttur taluk of the district.  According to the Mangaluru Block Education Officer (BEO), the Education Department will replace the teachers who were transferred with guest teachers until the end of the academic year and finalise permanent replacements by March 2020.  "The Department spoke to the school officials and agreed to arrange for qualified guest teachers to fill in this academic year. We also told the SDMC that the vacancies will be filled before March and to be patient until then. But the school was insistent that they either want the same teachers to be reinstated in the school or have permanent, experienced teachers to replace those transferred," says Manjula, BEO, Mangaluru. They rejected the proposition of guest teachers filling in at the school, Manjula added. There have been issues with appointments of teachers earlier as well. "For the last three years, one of the teachers at the school had taken charge as the headmistress since no one was posted after her predecessor’s retirement in 2016. We have also not had a physical education teacher for the last two months," says Rizwan.  Activists say that transfer of teachers during the academic year adversely affects the studies of students and urged the Education Department to revoke the transfer of the teachers. "Unlike transfer of IAS officials, here we are talking about teachers who are interacting with young students who are impressionable. The students have a close rapport with teachers and any changes made during the year will affect the students and their studies. They are not robots to quickly adapt to a new set of teachers," explains Arun Prasad, an activist.  The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 states that the pupil teacher ratio for upper primary schools should be 35:1, and for primary schools, it should be 30:1. At Kasaba Bengre, the pupil teacher ratio at present is 66:1.    

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Railway users take to Twitter to demand additional Bengaluru-Hampi daily train

Railways

At present, there is only one daily train connecting the state capital and Hosapete, the gateway to Hampi.

TNM Staff

A section of people living in Karnataka’s Ballari and Bengaluru, who have for long been demanding an additional train between Hosapete in the mining heartland and the state capital, took to Twitter over the last few days over the issue. The citizens reiterated their demand after the much delayed re-introduction of a passenger train between Harihar and Hosapete on Thursday. The passenger train which connects Hosapete and Harihar via Kotturu is being launched 25 years after such a train last ran on the route. The Harihar-Hosapete train services were stalled since 1994 as the tracks between the two places were being upgraded from narrow to broad gauge, but trains could not be relaunched due to several technical issues and delayed infrastructural work. The #hampibengaluruintercity hashtag was also trending on Twitter among the top 3 Indian topics for some time on Thursday.   This is very helpful to tourist to reach pride heritage #hampi , Dear @PiyushGoyal @SureshAngadi_ we all know #hampi is rich hindu culture heritage,please provide daily base intercity train to #hospet from Bangalore. @CTRavi_BJP @BSYBJP@drmsbc @KARailway#HampiBengaluruIntercity pic.twitter.com/Eo0rCILBVl — ಗಣೇಶ್ గణేష్ ગણેશ ഗണേഷ് (@GaneshM_Arun) October 16, 2019   We being demanding for #Hosapete - #Bengaluru intercity express train Via guntakal from 2007.please introduce this train as soon as possible #HampiBengaluruIntercity — Hosapete Rail Users /Hampi (@HospetRailUsers) October 16, 2019   To boost Hampi Tourism and #Ballari, #Hosapete commercial activites need direct intercity train between Hosapete - #Bengaluru via shortest and quickest route i.e. via Guntakal#HampiBengaluruIntercity — Balakrishna Gudi (@bggudi) October 16, 2019

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According to regulars, the only train now connecting Bengaluru and Hosapete, Hampi Express, is always fully booked. With this, passengers are forced to rely on bus services, which usually cost double the train fare and are less comfortable. Other than this, there is the weekly Garib Nawaz Express and other interstate trains over the week that pass between the two cities.

Activists said that apart from benefitting regular travellers, an additional daily train will be a boost for tourism to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Hampi. They also point out that the train can be launched easily as the tracks between Yelahanka to Dharmavaram have been recently doubled and electrified.

Users requested that the new train run via Ballari-Guntakal and Gauribidanur so as to benefit local businesses as well.

Krishna Prasad of the Karnataka Railway Vedike member (users forum) said, “There is a big demand for the train during daytime, as we all know Hosapete is a tourist gateway as people can go to Hampi and other places from there. And Ballari being an industrial hub with thermal power plants and mineral extraction units, there are a lot of business travellers between the cities. If the train is launched, it will benefit a lot of people.”

The Karnataka Rail Users Forum also cited a 2011 commercial justification report in which the Railways itself had found the additional train to be viable. The report had proposed the introduction of a Jan Shatabdi train connecting the two important cities

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Resignation of former Bengaluru DCP Annamalai accepted by Karnataka govt

Police

Sources close to the former Bengaluru (South) Deputy Commissioner of Police have claimed that Annamalai has an ambition to enter politics.

Prajwal Bhat

Photograph via: TEDx Talks Youtube

Former Bengaluru (South) Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Annamalai K's resignation has been accepted, more than four months after the police officer submitted his resignation. Annamalai was relieved of his duties effective September 15 and the letter to that effect was issued on Wednesday. Annamalai had resigned in May.  "After about eight years with the Indian Police Service, post my resignation on May 28th, 2019, I got formally relieved yesterday by the government of Karnataka. It’s been a privilege wearing my khaki and serving you all as a humble servant of our great nation," Annamalai said in a tweet. After about eight years with the Indian Police Service, post my resignation on May 28th, 2019, I got formally relieved yday by the Govt of Karnataka. It’s been a privilege wearing my Kakhi and serving you all as a humble servant of our great nation. — K.Annamalai (@annamalai_k) October 17, 2019 He cited personal reasons for his resignation but he has hinted that he will take up ‘a new challenge’ in the next six months. Sources close to the officer have claimed that he has an ambition to enter politics. "I personally have the highest respect for all our Indian Civil Services and they truly are the pillars that hold our nation together. But, I felt I needed a new set of challenges that are more basic, raw and developmental that will keep me energized for the foreseeable future," Annamalai added. While there has been speculation that Annamalai is set to join politics in his home state of Tamil Nadu, the former IPS officer has vehemently denied that he has made a decision to join a political party.  Read: B'luru DCP 'Singam' Annamalai quits, says IPS officer's death made him 're-examine' life Known as an upright officer, Annamalai entered the police service when he was posted as  Assistant Superintendent of Police, Karkala sub-division in Udupi district in 2013. He was later promoted as the SP of Udupi on January 1, 2015. During his tenure as the SP of Udupi district, he earned a reputation for cracking down on criminal activities. He was referred to as the 'Singam of Udupi' by the public, a nickname that stayed with him until his resignation.  Annamalai frequently interacted with students, particularly in the student town of Manipal, where he implemented strict rules restricting nightlife. Bars and restaurants were forcibly closed at 11:30 pm and students found on roads or public spaces were asked to identify and explain themselves if they were caught by the police after midnight.  He took charge as SP of Chikkamagaluru district in 2016 before he was made DCP of Bengaluru (South) in 2018. He received acclaim from the public in Chikkamagaluru, particularly for his handling of the sensitive Baba Budangiri issue and for the crackdown on gambling dens in the district.  The 2011 batch IPS officer is a graduate from PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore and Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow.  

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Indian-origin techie takes corpse to US cops, allegedly confesses to killing 4 relatives

Crime

Police suspect that Shankar Nagappa Hangud killed four victims within a span of a week in California.

TNM Staff

Linkedin

A 53-year-old Indian-origin IT professional was arrested on Monday after he walked into a police station in northern California along with a dead body in his car and allegedly confessed to have killed three other people at his apartment, US media reports stated. Driving a red Mazda6, Shankar arrived at the police station in Mount Shasta with a corpse in his car. He allegedly told officers that he had killed three other people in his apartment in the Placer County city of Roseville, over 350 kms away, prompting police officials to investigate the incident. Placer County District Attorney Ronald Scott Owens filed a criminal complaint against Shankar Nagappa Hangud suggesting that the four victims were allegedly killed over the span of a week. While two victims were allegedly killed on October 7, the third victim is believed to have died a day later. All three were found dead at Shankar's apartment in Roseville, 350 km away from the police station where he turned himself in.   The three victims included two adults and a juvenile who are all relatives of Hangud, investigating officials told the LA Times. According to the complaint, the fourth victim, another relative, was allegedly killed on October 13 in Siskiyou County which is where Mount Shasta is located. Shankar turned himself into the police a day later at the Mount Shasta police department. He is in custody at the South Placer Jail after he was brought back from Mount Shasta on Monday. The 53-year-old faces four charges of murder.  US media reports that Shankar, who is believed to be the sole suspect, has been taken back to Placer Counter, where he is now lodged in jail. “There are crime scenes that have been processed, the suspect has been interviewed, but there’s a lot of stones that have been unturned that these detectives still need to look into before making a real determination about what the motivation was, what led the suspect to do the things that he did,” Roseville police captain Josh Simon said at a press conference reported by Oxygen.com Shankar was a data specialist and he worked for many companies in the Sacramento area. He previously worked at a company named Social Interest Solutions in Sacramento in the role of ETL Architect and Manager, according to his LinkedIn profile.

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Bengaluru city to be remapped as latest ISRO pics suggest inaccurate property records

Governance

The civic body has recently entered into an agreement with the city-based ISRO for using its Cartosat-2 remote sensing satellite images.

IANS

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, the Bengaluru civic body has decided to remap the tech hub landscape after latest satellite images from the ISRO exposed chinks in its outdated property records, an official said. "We are soon going to re-map the city with the help of the latest satellite images from the Indian space agency, which used geospatial technology in mapping accurately all the properties that have come up exponentially over the last decade," a senior official told IANS. Though the civic body drew the maps based on satellite pictures a decade ago, the latest images reveal the fault lines in its property records, including open/lung spaces and commercial/residential buildings that have mushroomed in all its 198 wards due to reckless and explosive growth of the city. "As the old maps were drawn on the images available then (2009-10), the property records do not reflect the ground realities, which have changed dramatically due to rapid urbanisation, infrastructure development, housing and civic amenities," recalled the official. To boost property tax collection and increase revenues from its assets, the civic body has decided to use the high resolution satellite pictures from the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for creating digital maps to show each and every property, spanning residential, commercial and industrial. The civic body has recently entered into an agreement with the city-based ISRO for using its Cartosat-2 remote sensing satellite images to identify the various properties spawning the garden city for bringing them under its tax net. As one of the cosmopolitan cities in Asia, Bengaluru's growth in terms of area, reach and population (110 lakh) has been phenomenal, putting pressure on its woeful infrastructure, utilities and civic amenities. Even lakes, open and lung spaces have vanished due to monstrous construction activity. "The latest satellite images of the space agency will enable us to know the way Bengaluru has been growing, where the population density is increasing and houses are being built in which area," noted the official. The civic body will train its revenue staff to re-map the expanded city with the help of the 1-metre resolution images. "The re-mapping will also enable us to update the property records, rectify mistakes that would have occurred during the last 10 years," reiterated the official, but declined to be named. The civic body plans to develop an app (application) to facilitate its revenue inspectors update the property records in their smartphones or hand-held devices after assessing their value on the spot. The space agency has super-imposed new structures on old pictures, showing the dramatic changes in the city's topography. The civic body is mulling to give a hardcopy of the data to its field staff or upload it in an app for smooth integration with its software. "The re-mapping work will commence in a week and take two months to complete the mammoth exercise," said the official. As India's knowledge capital, Bengaluru is said to be the first city using the satellite data to map its civic wards. "This is our (BBMP) initiative, as we are the first to seek ISRO's domain expertise in re-mapping the city," added the official.

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Former VC of Alliance University allegedly hacked to death in Bengaluru

Crime

Ayyappa’s body was found in a pool of blood around 6 am on Wednesday morning.

TNM Staff

Alliance University via Facebook

D Ayyappa Dore, the former vice-chancellor of Alliance University, was found dead on Wednesday after he was allegedly hacked to death at RT Nagar's HMT Ground. According to the police, Ayyappa left his residence in RT Nagar on Tuesday night for a walk after dinner at around 11:30 pm. His body was found in a pool of blood around 6 am on Wednesday morning at the HMT Ground, which is less than fifty metres away from his residence and from the jurisdictional police station.    “His wife went to bed, and realised that he had not returned home only the next (Wednesday) morning. She went out to search for him. By then, the police on patrol duty had discovered the body. It was part of his daily routine. He would take the house keys with him as he often returned late and didn’t want to disturb his wife,” said a senior police officer speaking to The Hindu.  Investigating officials said that they suspect he was attacked from behind as soon as he set out for his night walk and that the killers might have tracked his routine and knew that he used to take late-night walks at the playground near his home.  Ayyappa is the former VC of Alliance University and an RTI activist. He is survived by his wife Pavana Dibbur, two daughters and an eight-year-old son. He also had political ambitions and had floated the Jana Samanyara Party in 2017 and unsuccessfully contested in Muddebihal constituency in Vijayapura district in the 2018 Assembly elections. He was also involved recently in a tussle with a revenue officer. “Recently, Ayyappa and an RTI activist had collected some information about the officer. They accused him of raising fake bills. The officer denied any wrongdoing, but when they threatened to share documents with television channels, he agreed to meet them,” a close associate of Ayyappa told the Times of India.  The meeting was set to take place next week outside the KPSC (Karnataka Public Service Commission) office. 

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