Bengaluru set to add 6,000 buses in phased manner, will double fleet

The move will lead to the number of buses in the city almost doubling in the city.

TNM Staff

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa announced that the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation’s (BMTC)'s fleet of buses will be increased with the addition of 6,000 buses in a phased manner.  The move will lead to the number of buses in the city almost doubling. BMTC currently operates around 6,500 buses in the city and is in the process of phasing out 1,000 old buses.  Speaking to reporters, Yediyurappa said that the state government is planning to lease buses as it would reduce the financial impact on BMTC. He added that the corporation was unable to invest thousands of crores for procuring buses and will instead operate them after leasing, reported The Hindu Activists in the city who have been demanding that the state government should revive the bus network in Bengaluru raised concerns about the decision to lease buses from private companies.  "We are concerned that we are leasing the buses and not purchase. We ask that there is a long term plan to purchase buses and strengthen BMTC else this will not work. What we need is for BMTC to be given more funds. We will then be sure to celebrate", Bus Prayanikara Vedike said in a social media post.  We are concerned that we are leasing the buses and not purchase. We ask that there is a long term plan to purchase buses abd strengthen BMTC else this will not work. What we need is for @BMTC_BENGALURU to be given more funds. We will then be sure to celebrate. @WeAreBangalore — BusPrayanikaraVedike (@BBPVedike) November 7, 2019 Yediyurappa also announced that 50% of the new buses to be added will be electric and they will operate on priority lanes. The state government has decided to start priority bus lanes in 12 areas of the city with high traffic.   

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FIFA-standard football complex opens in Bengaluru

Sport

The football complex, located within the HAL Sports Club, also has a full size natural grass grounds and artificial turf.

Prajwal Bhat

A football complex with artificial turf and flood lighting as per standards set by FIFA was inaugurated at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Sports Club, off Old Airport Road, on Wednesday evening.  The facility was developed by HAL to promote grassroots football in Bengaluru. "The aim is to spot and develop players of exceptional calibre and prepare them to be professional players for the tough domestic and international tournaments and provide the right kind of infrastructure that matches the international standards”, VM Chamola, Director (HR), HAL said.  The facility was inaugurated by former Indian football team captain Baichung Bhutia. Players from the Baichung Bhutia Football School (BBFS) are set to train at the facility. The football complex within the HAL Sports Club also has a full size natural grass ground, which means that players can now train in both artificial turf and natural grass.  On Sunday, a youth football league kicked off in the newly-built sports complex. The league, organised by Belgian football consultancy company Double Pass, aims to develop football talent development systems and improve grassroots football in the city. It invited football academies based in the city to face each other in the under-14 and under-16 age categories. HAL says that the new stadium is aimed at promoting grassroots football in the city. The facility will be used by the HAL Football Academy, which selects players from across the country for professional coaching with lodging and boarding facilities. The players have access to a gymnasium and a swimming pool inside the complex.  Before the emergence of Bengaluru FC in the last six years, HAL SC, a football club based in Bengaluru took part in the I-League, the then top-tier of Indian football in 2010. The club shared a decades-old rivalry with ITI, with matches between the two teams attended by thousands of fans.  

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9 yrs after murder of Dell techie Payal Surekha, gym trainer gets life term

Crime

The horrific murder of 29-year-old Payal had shocked the city back in 2010.

TNM Staff

Nine years after Payal Surekha, a software professional in Bengaluru was found murdered in her flat in a case that had shocked the city, a special CBI court sentenced James Ray, a gym trainer, to life imprisonment for the murder on Wednesday.  In the horrific murder, 29-year-old Payal was bound and stabbed 23 times by the accused James Ray, who worked at a fitness centre run by Payal's husband Ananth Narayana Mishra. Ray was sacked due to misbehaviour and alleged financial irregularities. James blamed Payal, a senior technical assistant at Dell in the city, for his dismissal and plotted for weeks to kill her at her apartment in JP Nagar in the city, the Times of India reported. James was also fined Rs 1 lakh.  SK Umesh, who was then the inspector of JP Nagar Police Station, arrested James and recovered a blood stained knife and a pair of goggles from him. James had reportedly used the goggles before hiding it in an isolated place in Puttenahalli. The police said that James committed the murder to take revenge on Payal, The Hindu reported. The murder had shaken the city back in 2010 and the case made headlines for weeks. Her family had even accused the husband Ananth of committing the murder. Payal's parents later approached the Supreme Court seeking a CBI enquiry into the role of their son-in-law Anantha Narayan Mishra in the murder. Supreme Court directed CBI to investigate the case in August 2013.The CBI re-examined the evidence and concluded that James killed Payal and tried to implicate her husband, who was in Cuttack at the time, in the murder. 

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Karnataka woman allegedly kills her 3-month-old baby, dumps body in Bhadra river

Crime

The woman may have mental health issues and a medical examination will be conducted.

Theja Ram

The Karnataka police on Wednesday arrested a 28-year-old woman from Chikkamagaluru district for allegedly throwing her three-month-old baby into a canal. The incident came to light when the baby's body was found floating in the Bhadra River on Wednesday.  Tavarakere Police, who are investigating the case, says that the woman may have mental health issues and that a medical examination would be conducted to determine the same. Early on Wednesday morning, residents of Bettatavarakere village in Karnataka's Chikkamagaluru district, noticed the body of a baby floating in the water. The village residents immediately informed the Tavarakere Police, who arrived at the spot to recover the child, named Tejas.  The investigating officers contacted Tejas' mother Kamala about her son's death. "The baby's mother came to the police station after we called her and confessed to killing the baby. She had also chopped off his tongue, she said," the Tavarakere Police said.  According to the investigating officials, Kamala and her mother-in-law had taken Tejas to a private hospital in Tavarakere when he fell sick three days ago. The baby was admitted to the hospital and was undergoing treatment. On Tuesday night, Tejas allegedly began to cry and was inconsolable.  "The mother, Kamala, tried to pacify the baby and she told her mother-in-law, who was asleep at that time, that she would take the baby out of the ward for a while to pacify him. She says that the baby did not stop crying and so she cut off his tongue," the Tavarakere Police added.  Kamala allegedly took Tejas to Haliyur, which was 4 km away from the hospital and allegedly threw the baby into the canal (Upper Bhadra project), which is currently under construction. Police say that Kamala then went back to the hospital and slept in the visitor's area. On Wednesday morning, Kamala allegedly called the Tavarakere police and informed them that her baby was missing from the hospital.  "When we got a call that a baby's body was found in the water, we called the woman, so she could come and identify the body. She confessed when she came to the station," the police added.  Tejas' body has been sent for an autopsy as the police are uncertain whether the baby was dead or alive before he was thrown into the canal. The Tavarakere Police have arrested Kamala and have booked her under section 302 (murder) of the IPC. She was produced before the magistrate and has been remanded to 14-day judicial custody.  In August 2017, a Bengaluru woman allegedly flung her daughter off the terrace twice, ultimately killing the child. It was later reported that the woman was ‘mentally unstable.’  In many cases like this, the accused have been found to have postpartum depression, which if left untreated, can manifest as postpartum psychosis. Postpartum depression is a condition caused after childbirth where a mother experiences symptoms of severe depression - which may be attributed to many reasons like post-delivery stress or hormonal changes. If left unchecked, postpartum depression may escalate into an episode of psychosis. 

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Why Democrats keep winning on health care

Here are four takeaways on how health care pushed Democrats over the top Tuesday night.

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New York judge tosses Trump administration's conscience rule

The rule allowed health plans to refuse to cover or perform any services they oppose on religious or moral grounds.

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For senior citizens, crossing Bengaluru roads between 6 pm-10 pm dangerous: Study

Accident

Two-wheelers accounted for 35% of all fatal crashes that pedestrians faced, a study on pedestrians deaths in 2018 has shown.

Soumya Chatterjee

Winter months and a four-hour window between 6 pm and 10 pm every day are the most dangerous times to be a pedestrian on Bengaluru’s roads, a new detailed study of pedestrian crashes in Bengaluru for the year 2018 has revealed. As many as 30% of the total fatal crashes that pedestrians suffered were reported during this period. Incidentally, the number of crashes reported during this time period was 84 per cent higher than the average crashes reported at any other time.  In Bengaluru, as many 276 people have died after being hit by vehicles while walking on the roads. Read: Over 40 per cent of road accident victims in Bengaluru are pedestrians The same study also found two-wheelers were the major (35%) cause of all fatal crashes pedestrians have suffered. An overwhelming 62% of the victims died were attempting to cross the road while another 25% died as they were walking on the roadside. These findings were consolidated by The Footpath Initiative, a community advocating pedestrian safety, based on RTI applications to all 44 traffic police stations. These figures are based on data provided by the traffic police about instances where a motor vehicle was involved. There is no official record of injuries due to bad footpaths and roads alone. Read: Broken ‘Pelican’ crossings shows lack of concern for Bengaluru pedestrians: Experts As earlier reported, both the figures for death and injury was lower compared to the previous three years. The same can be attributed to the increased vehicular congestion in the city. The number of pedestrian deaths in Bengaluru for 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 was 338, 320, 284 and 276, respectively. The corresponding figures for injuries to pedestrians in these years were 1254, 1292, 1346 and 1217. Out of the 274 cases of pedestrian crashes, 232 were attributed to “over-speeding and reckless driving”. A look at month-wise data will also reveal that the winter months are also the worst with December, January, February and March showing the most number of pedestrians affected. The data also establishes a correlation between better pedestrian infrastructure and lesser pedestrian injuries and deaths. As observed the city centre on a whole has better pedestrian infrastructure than the outskirts be the city. Even though the jurisdictional area of these police stations varies, the total pedestrian crashes reported in each of these jurisdictions confirm this trend. Pedestrian crashes varied between 7 each in Shivajinagar and High Grounds to 81 in KR Puram. Yelahanka reported the highest number of pedestrian deaths in 2018, followed by KR Puram and Chikkajala. Peenya was the location where the highest number of pedestrian injuries were reported, followed by KR Puram and Kamkshipalya. Pedestrian crashes were also found to be largely concentrated around arterial roads of the city. Hosur Road, Bellary Road, Mysore Road, Old Madras Road, and Outer Ring Road (ORR) saw a high number of crashes.  Age of the victims, type of vehicle Another revelation that stood out was that most of the victims were senior citizens and those above 45 years of age. 33% of all accidents involved victims aged 60 years and above. Next, was the age group of people aged between 45-59 that accounted for 28% of the victims.  The study also recorded the type of vehicles involved in injuring or killing pedestrians in 232 of the 274 cases. While 35% of these accidents involved two-wheelers, 26 % of them involved a car or a jeep hitting the pedestrian. Heavy vehicles— trucks and buses — contributed to 24% of all crashes.  “There has been no such change in our findings from 2017; the crashes have dipped by only 2%. This means we have not done anything in the past year. If you see, the victims, one-third of the victims are above 60 years old. The trends are mostly the same, that accidents are happening in arterial roads and mostly on peripheral areas of the city,” Anusha Chitturi, a member of Footpath Initiative, said.  “The notable change is the involvement of two-wheelers causing accidents. Last year the percentage was not as high as 35%,” she added.

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