Lockdown eases, Bengaluru traffic cops collect Rs 2.14 crore in fines in a week

Traffic

There was no drastic reduction of road accidents and traffic violations even during the lockdown.

Soumya Chatterjee

PTI

As a consequence of the easing of COVID-19 lockdown regulations, the number of traffic violations in Bengaluru have shot up. In fact, the Bangalore Traffic Police has collected Rs 2.14 crore of penalty fines from a total of 48,141 traffic violation cases recorded between September 13 to September 19. This number of traffic violation cases in a week is close to one-third of the average weekly cases recorded by Bengaluru police (152,406) in 2019. A total of 79,25,134 violations were recorded in 2019, while in 2018 the number was 82,74,663. Till August 2020, traffic police had recorded 4,39,1370 violations. Bengaluru Traffic Police had stopped physically enforcing traffic rules and collecting fines since March, fearing COVID-19 infection. Traffic challans were sent remotely to offenders who were caught on camera in some busy junctions of the city. The fines have been collected for offences ranging across reckless driving, over speeding, jumping signals, riding without helmets and parking in non-parking zones, among others. Drinking and driving is not counted as part of these, as fines for the offence are to be paid in court. TNM has earlier reported how, despite the lockdown put in place, there was no drastic reduction of road accidents or fatalities in Bengaluru. In fact, there were instances of multiple road safety violations with incidents of over speeding, reckless driving and wheelies and other stunts on empty roads during the lockdown. In one incident, three young men died after they attempted to perform stunts on their motorbikes. In the incident which took place on June 21, two bikes collided while performing stunts near the Jakkur AirField, resulting in all the three dying on the spot. As per data, till the end of June, a total of 309 persons have been killed in road accidents in 2020 in Bengaluru. The death toll for 2019, 2018 and 2017 were 766, 684 and 642 respectively for the entire year.

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COVID-19: All Bengaluru zones record more recoveries than cases on Tuesday

Coronavirus

Bengaluru reported 3,082 coronavirus cases on Tuesday, while the number of recoveries crossed 4,100.

TNM Staff

Image for representation/PTI

Bengaluru has been reporting 3,000 COVID-19 cases almost daily save a few days in the recent past, and on Tuesday too, it reported 3,082 new patients. However, the city recorded a higher number of recoveries than new cases at 4,145 on this day. All of Bengaluru’s zones recorded a higher number of recoveries than coronavirus cases, with Bomannahalli showing the steepest difference – while around 200 COVID-19 patients are from there, the zone saw over 500 recoveries. While Bengaluru west and Yelahanka accounted for 16% of the new cases each – the highest – Bengaluru east and south recorded 15% and 14% respectively. Bomannahalli accounted for 13%, RR Nagara 11% and Dasarahalli for 4% of cases. A majority of the patients continue to be in the 30 to 35 age group. The same group saw the most recoveries as well. Of the 26 deaths, a majority were in the 60 to 69 age group. Over the last 10 days, Bengaluru’s west zone has accounted for 18% of the COVID-19 cases, south zone for 16%, east zone 15%, Bomannahalli 13%, RR Nagara and Mahadevapura 12% each, Yelahanka 9% and Dasarahalli for 5% of the cases. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has not updated its containment zone numbers for at least three days now. So the number of active containment zones as per the last update remains at 21,558, while 11,582 (35%) have returned to normal status. Most of the active containment zones are in RR Nagara. The total number of containment zones in the city is at 33,140. The recovery rate in Bengaluru is at 78.73%, while the active rate is at 19.92%. Positivity rate is pegged at 13.80%, and the fatality rate due to COVID-19 is 1.35%.  

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Karnataka Assembly passes Bill approving 30% pay cut for ministers, MLAs

COVID-19

Congress leader HK Patil said the state government should have included high court judges, bureaucrats and other stakeholders too.

IANS

Representational image

In the wake of resource crunch caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Karnataka Assembly on Monday passed a bill to cut the salaries of its legislators, including the Speaker, Deputy Speaker and ministers, by 30%. Most of the legislators from the ruling and Opposition parties gave their consent with an oblique resistance. Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy proposed the Karnataka Salaries and Allowances of Members, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly (Amendment Bill), 2020 on Tuesday, the second day of the six-day monsoon session. According to provisions of the bill, there will be a salary cut of 30% of all the legislators for a period of one year starting April 1. The objective of the bill is to utilise the savings to fight the COVID-19 pandemic in the state. The Amendment Bill proposes a 30% salary cut for state Assembly members, including the Speaker, Deputy Speaker, ministers, and the Leader of Opposition. While extending his support for the bill, senior Congress leader HK Patil said that it could have been more comprehensive had the state government included high court judges, bureaucrats and other stakeholders too. He quickly added that the Congress has been supporting the bill right from the start, but "we also suggest and recommend the state government to practice austerity measures in other quarters also".  "We suggest the government should curb their extravagant splurging of public money in celebrations and events," he said. The six-day monsoon session of the Karnataka Assembly began on Monday. Due to the pandemic, the House has been allowed to function without any public spectators. Around 32 bills will be tabled in the House during this session. Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who is the Leader of Opposition, had initially sought an extension of the monsoon session to debate contentious legislations.

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Farmer groups to decide on having Karnataka bandh on September 25

Strike

Earlier on Monday, the farmers had held a huge protest rally in Bengaluru against contentious land and agri-reform laws.

TNM Staff

File image

The Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Aikya Horata Samithi, as well as other farmer organizations and allied outfits, are likely to hold a state-wide bandh on Friday (September 25). The talk of a strike comes as a massive rally by the farmers was conducted in Bengaluru against the BJP which is in power in both state and Union governments. The farmer groups have said they will block the national highway too.  As widely reported, many farmers in Karnataka are against the contentious ordinances passed by the state government on land and agricultural issues— namely the  Karnataka Land reforms (Amendment) Ordinance 2020, Karnataka Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation and Development) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020. The farmers have also been opposing the similar Farm Bills passed in the Rajya Sabha on Sunday amid uproar and opposition. A final call on holding the stir will be decided by farmer leaders later on Wednesday. So far, many labour organisations, Peace Auto and Taxi Association, Bharath Vehicles drivers Union, Ola, Uber and Taxi for Sure Owners and Drivers Association, Lorry Owners Association and others have already announced their support to the farmers. Among other provisions of these laws, the protesting farmers are opposing the easing of norms which will allow non-agriculturalists of any income group to purchase agricultural lands and retrospectively decriminalises those who bought farmlands illegally till now. They fear this will lead to land hoarding as the laws also propose an increase in land-owning ceilings. It may be recalled that from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), a BJP's ally, Harsimrat Kaur Badal has also resigned from the Union Cabinet in protest against three farm sector bills. She was Union Food Processing Industries Minister. SAD has also called for a similar strike in Punjab. 

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Karnataka Deputy CM Govind M Karjol tests positive for coronavirus

COVID-19

Though the Deputy Chief Minister is asymptomatic, he has been hospitalised on the advice of doctors.

TNM Staff

File image

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Govind M Karjol on Tuesday said he has tested positive for coronavirus. "The COVID-19 test has confirmed me to be positive and I have been hospitalised on the advice of a doctor even though I had no symptoms," Kajol, who holds the portfolio of public works department and social welfare, tweeted soon after attending the assembly proceedings. He appealed to those who had come in contact with him to exercise caution, undergo tests and get themselves quarantined. He also exuded confidence that he would soon recover from COVID-19. Karjol has tested positive even after many precautionary steps were put in place ahead of the start of the Monsoon Session. Speaker Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri had made it mandatory for all legislators to get a negative RT-PCR test result 72 hours before the start of the session. Like in the Parliament, in the Karnataka Assembly too, legislators were made to sit in fibre-glass enclosures which separated them from their adjacent seats. While the session was originally planned for eight days, it was curtailed to six days on Tuesday by a unanimous decision. This is because at least 100 members of Vidhana Soudha secretariat staff, as well as ministers, had already tested positive for the coronavirus. As part of Tuesday’s proceedings, primary opposition Congress led by ex-Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President DK Shivakumar demanded a judicial probe against alleged misappropriation of funds by the state government in procuring medical equipment in light of the pandemic. Prior to Karjol, CM Yediyurappa and a host of ministers, including another Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai, Forest Minister Anand Singh, Tourism Minister CT Ravi and Agriculture Minister BC Patil, had tested positive for coronavirus and later recovered. 

Body 2: 

(PTI inputs)

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New scam in Bengaluru? Rs 4,000 cr works awarded without tenders, alleges BNP

Civic

The Bengaluru NavaNirmana Party said blanket use of Section 4(g) of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements (KTPP) Act has led to inflated costs.

Soumya Chatterjee

File image

Alleging wide-scale misuse of public money in carrying out civic works by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (or the BBMP), the Bengaluru NavaNirmana Party (BNP) on Tuesday came out with what they call the ‘4g’ scam. This, as they found the BBMP and the state government to be misusing Section 4(g) of the Karnataka Transparency in Public Procurements (KTPP) Act to award contracts to Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Ltd (KRIDL) without any tender process.  BNP said that while Rs 10,018 crores worth of ward-level work has been executed or is under execution starting from 2015, Rs 4,721 crores worth of work has been given to KRIDL without any tender process. Section 4(g) of the KTPP Act states: The provisions of Chapter II (Regulation of Procurement) shall not apply to procurement of goods and services in respect of specific procurements as may be notified by the government from time to time.” Sidhartha Shetty, Padmanabha Nagar zonal leader of BNP, said, “We are calling this the Bengaluru 4g scam as Clause 4(g) in KTPPA was intended to give exceptions to the tendering process for specific type of procurements which might have some kind of specialization. However, this clause has been completely abused by successive BBMP Councils to give blanket exemptions to KRIDL to execute all types of projects including roads, drains, cameras, lights, etc.” While KRIDL is a government agency, the allegation of misuse of money has been levelled as the KRIDL receives a commission ranging between 3% and 10% for subcontracting the work without providing any technical inputs. Elaborating on their allegations, Srikanth Narasimhan, general secretary of BNP, said, “While the BBMP is anyway engaging with contractors, what is the point of wasting money on commissions for KRIDL which will again subcontract the work? Even if we consider that there is a flat commission rate of 3%, then also crores of rupees are given to the KRIDL which could have been otherwise used for civic works in the city.” When there are already question marks about the existing tendering framework and the alleged nexus between politicians and contractors, the process of bypassing the tendering process creates a black box where there is no scope to find out if project costs have been inflated or not, said the party. BNP, a newly-founded political outfit, is set to contest the upcoming civic polls in the city and claims that they are the only party in the country to solely focus on issues related to governing a city.

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How abortion groups on both sides are mobilizing after RBG's death

Conservatives have historically done better firing up their base on abortion. But this time they’ll be confronting the grief and rage of abortion-rights supporters.

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