Massive fire breaks out in Bengaluru godown, no casualties

Accident

Fire department officials had to work through the day to douse the fire at the Renuka Chemical Godown.

TNM Staff

A massive fire broke out at a godown housing chemicals in Bengaluru on Tuesday. At around 11.30 am, residents of New Guddadahalli, near the Deepanjali Nagar Metro Station, called the South Fire Station to report a fire at what they claimed was a “chemical factory” in their locality. As the fire broke out in Renuka Chemical Godown, employees were evacuated. Employees of Bhagyalaxmi Switch Gears, an electrical parts manufacturing factory, located next to the godown were also evacuated from the building. The Fire and Emergency Services personnel sent out 15 fire engines to contain the fire. By 11.45 am, the fire engines had reached the spot and began dousing the flames. "There have been no casualties as we know. We have been carrying out efforts to douse the flames since the last four hours,” said Regional Fire Officer Ramesh, who was a part of the firefighting efforts. Officers at the South Fire Station’s control room said that the factory was located in close proximity to several residential buildings. Their primary task was to ensure that the fire did not spread to other buildings. “We had to ensure that the fire did not spread to nearby buildings as the setbacks are very narrow. The building has been burned down completely. There’s nothing left. The firefighting efforts are still going on. We will be able to determine the cause for the fire only after this is complete,” RFO Ramesh added.  The fire department officials worked through the day to put out the flames. Even at 6 pm, the fire was yet to be doused completely. "We can estimate the damage only when the fire is doused completely. So far, we have not reported any injuries or casualties," added Ramesh. 

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RR Nagar, Sira polls: Many learning lessons for all three parties

Karnataka Bye-Polls

The verdict has come as a shock to DK Shivakumar, while the BJP opened its account in Sira after trying for three decades.

Naheed Ataulla

Results of the Raja Rajeshwari Nagar (RR Nagar) and Sira assembly bye-elections in Karnataka have demonstrated two aspects: voter fatigue for a candidate can mar all efforts of a party rallying behind a person and a people- friendly candidate can sail through irrespective of which political outfit he/she represents. Though the ruling BJP bagged both R R Nagar and Sira seats, these polls have learning lessons for all the three principal parties in Karnataka. The two bye-polls verdict will not change the tide of Yediyurappa's political fortunes unlike the ones in December 2019, where he had to win to make his minority government into a majority to continue in power, but adverse results would have given scope for the Congress and the JD(S) to attribute it to the ruling party's performance in handling three floods in the last 15 months and the pandemic COVID-19. Former deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara, who was in charge of Sira said: “It's not people's victory, but of money. A section of people got influenced by it. There is evidence on social media of the BJP indulging in electoral malpractices in both the constituencies, but no action was taken by the Election Commission,'' he claimed. The Congress losing the RR Nagar seat by a margin of 57,936 votes to BJP's N Muniratna for whom this is the third victory from the constituency in a row, is a setback to KPCC president D K Shivakumar and his brother DK Suresh, the MP representing Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha. The Congress candidate, H Kusuma, was Shivakumar's choice and RR Nagar is an assembly segment within Bengaluru Rural parliamentary seat. During the campaign, Shivakumar had sought votes saying the electorate should consider him as the candidate. Besides, Shivakumar who had caught the Congress high command's attention for his election management skills by ensuring the victory of candidates in the past was unsuccessful this time, though he is at the helm of the state unit now. Reacting to the electoral reverses he said, “I had not expected my party candidate to be defeated by such a huge margin in R R Nagar, while in Sira the performance was below our expectations. The party was sure of bagging that seat. I am being asked that when I managed to ensure victory of candidates in the past why not now? I entered the legislative assembly by losing my first election in 1985, but have won continuously after that,'' he maintained. In Sira, the Congress fielded former minister T B Jayachandra, who had been given the ticket nine times and won several times. However, voter fatigue for the candidate seemed to have set in, which had been pointed out to Shivakumar by AICC general secretary Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala. According to Congress sources, the state unit chose to renominate Jayachandra who had lost the 2018 assembly polls due to intra-party rivalry. “This was the best campaign ever in Sira as all worked unitedly. Former MLA K N Rajanna, who reportedly had remained active in 2018 campaigned as if it was his own election. We lost the by- due to money power and misuse of the government machinery by the BJP,'' SIra Congress campaign convenor S R Mehroz Khan said. The BJP's reasons for being jubilant is that it opened its account in Sira after three decades of attempts. Yediyurappa's son and state BJP vice-president BY Vijayendra camped in Sira and did a repeat of KR Pet in Mandya district. The BJP won the KR Pet constituency, a JD(S) bastion in December. Both are Vokkaliga dominated constituencies which were being represented by either the JD(S) or the Congress. It's learnt that Vijayendra tried to reach out to all voters in Sira in addition to party's candidate CM Rajesh Gowda, a radiologist by profession, whose family has represented the constituency in the past. In RR Nagar, though it was a proxy battle between Revenue minister R Ashoka, Shivakumar and former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy for establishing their supremacy among the Vokkaliga community, according to poll analysts, it was Muniratna's rapport with the voters, which helped the BJP to win. Most of the Congress former BBMP corporators and workers are said to have walked out with Muniratna, when he resigned in 2019 to join the BJP. R Ashoka, who is in charge of RR Nagar for the BJP had told TNM that it was a question of prestige and challenge to him as the by-poll battle was being fought proxy between Shivakumar and him. He had represented RR Nagar which was part of Uttarahalli assembly constituency prior to delimitation in 2008. Among the two constituencies the JD(S) had pinned its hopes on Sira, which was its stronghold as the by-poll was necessitated due to the death of party's sitting candidate B Sathyanarayana. The ticket was given to Sathyanarayana's wife Ammajamma on the premise of a sympathy wave, which was not there. Sensing this, the entire family of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda including him campaigned towards the end, but could not garner votes. With bye-polls over, Yediyurappa's problems are set to start now. Yediyurappa can no longer postpone  the cabinet expansion. Lobbying has already commenced with aspirants like MLCsA H Vishwanath and R Shankar visiting New Delhi to meet the central leadership. The CM will have to go in for a reshuffle by dropping some of the non-performing ministers if he has to accommodate the aspirants, some of whom are seniors waiting for a long time, besides his wish list of legislators. The bye-elections results seemed to have not deterred the Congress party. “We will pull up our socks and get ready for Maski and Basavakalyan assembly by-polls and the Belagavi Lok Sabha constituency,” Parameshwara said. Yediyurappa during his campaign in Sira had declared that a win in Sira will prove that the BJP can win any constituency in Karnataka.

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Bengaluru man exposes privacy loophole in state govt website to check COVID-19 results

Data Privacy

In the existing system, anyone can access sensitive information of persons who took the COVID-19 tests.

Soumya Chatterjee

Representational image

A delayed COVID-19 test result of a Bengaluru resident accidentally led him to expose a massive data privacy loophole in the Karnataka government website (https://ift.tt/35gj5XC is meant to check test results. After failing to get a response from the officials concerned, Shashi Kumar put out a series of tweets, where he explained how anybody can obtain sensitive data about patients undergoing COVID-19 tests in the state, with just Specimen Referral Form or SRF number, which is issued at the time of testing. DATA SECURITY IN OUR COUNTRY IS A JOKE! Karnataka Govt is leaking private info of those who got tested for COVID. In this thread, I will share my experience with the COVID test and how I learned about the way our Govt is exposing our personal data. — shashi (@devzoy) November 10, 2020 “While I had given my samples on October 24, I did not get my results via text message as promised by the volunteer. So, I decided to check online. When I keyed in my SRF ID, it said my result was still awaited. I thought the website was faulty; so I put the next digit in the serial SRF ID, and found the result of another person,” Shashi Kumar told TNM. He said that with the existing system, anybody can obtain sensitive details such as name, age and gender, among other specifics of a patient who had undergone a COVID-19 test by using their respective ID. If a patient is positive for coronavirus, his patient number and district ID are also given.  The discrepancy here is the 13-digit SRF ID, which is a serial number. This means that these numbers are assigned sequentially or incrementally, and not system-generated or randomised. So, any individual, who was issued a number after taking the COVID-19 test or has access to another person’s SRF ID, can access the sensitive information about other patients, using the trial-and-error method. At the time of publishing this story, TNM could also view test results of multiple patients by using the next serial numbers of existing IDs.  Although the phone numbers of the individuals are not visible instantly, one can still access it through a simple, one-step process. However, the phone number detail has now been removed from the database after TNM brought the issue to the notice of the authorities.  “Why should this happen? How can such sensitive information like health data be made public? This level of incompetence is appalling. This could have been avoided with a one-time password-based authentication. The problem is that one can get information about another person by manually trying every possible digit one can think of. Somebody who can write a simple code can get data of all the patients as the API (application programming interface) is public.”  My SRF ID was 2952502847151 so I thought let’s try for the next person to see if the site is actually working properly. It worked, the next person’s id 2952502847152 showed the following result. pic.twitter.com/HjRvUZMwbG — shashi (@devzoy) November 10, 2020 Shashi said that other than a breach of confidentiality, this can also lead to fraudsters misusing the data and targeting vulnerable people, especially senior citizens, in many ways, by claiming to be a government official.  Gagan Jain, the Chief Executive Officer of Cyber Safe Bangaluru and a cybersecurity expert, also agreed that there was a problem with how the data can be accessed. He said, "In India, currently we don't have a law specific to protecting individual's data. So, there is no legal concern, but certainly, this is an ethical issue,” he said.  "The issue can be solved by employing an authentication factor to it like an OTP or a password-based system. This would also prevent anybody from collecting data in bulk," he added. When TNM reached out to senior IAS officer Munish Moudgil, who is heading the COVID-19 War Room in the state, he acknowledged the issue and said, “We are examining the matter. The tech team is at it. We will fix the issue, if any.” Earlier in March, the Karnataka government was criticised for making addresses of those under home quarantine public. Read: Karnataka makes addresses of quarantined residents public, raises privacy concerns

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Trains in and around Bengaluru to get faster after recent track renewal

Railways

The SWR also posted a video of the 'no spill test', where a glass full of water was kept on a surface in a Londa-Miraj train, and not a drop was spilled.

TNM Staff

The speed limit for trains in many sections in and near Bengaluru has been increased from 100 km/hr to 110 km/hour by the South Western Railways (SWR) division. This decision was taken after the recent and ongoing track renewal works. The latest stretch which saw this upgradation was the section between Yelahanka and Chikkaballapur, which is around 50 km in length. A trial run on this stretch under the observation of the Commissioner of Railway Safety, Bengaluru Division was carried out on Monday, November 9.   The railways said that the section was opened in 1996, with trains running at 50 km/hr; the speed limit was increased to 75 km/hr in 2007. After a gap of 13 years, the section has been upgraded to run trains from 100 km/hr to 110 km/hr. The other sections in the SWR which have been upgraded to run trains at 110 km/ hr are: 1) Baiyappanahalli - Dharmavaram (177 km) 2) Penukonda - Sri Sathya Sai Prasanthi Nilayam- Dharmavaram (53 km) 3) KSR Bengaluru - Jolarpettai (Double Line) (281 km) 4) Yesvantpur - Tumakuru (Double Line) (128 km) 5) Birur - Chikjajur (68 km) 6) Londa - Miraj (186 km) 7) Sanvordem - Vasco da Gama (19 km) A statement from the SWR said, “All requirements for faster trains like increase in super-elevation at curves, correction of transition length, through tamping, attending points and crossings with track machines named UNIMAT have been completed. Recouping of Ballast to maintain cushion, recouping missing permanent way fittings are also being done to facilitate faster trains.” Ajay Kumar Singh, the General Manager of the Division said that the zone is focusing on eliminating speed restrictions to a minimum to improve the speed of trains. The SWR on Monday had also tweeted a video of a Londa-Miraj line passing the ‘no water spill’ test. Yet another route of South Western Railway clearing glass full of water challenge in firing colors. The route between Londa and Miraj is now fit for running trains above speeds of 125 Kmph. @RailMinIndia @PiyushGoyalOffc pic.twitter.com/IbjOWN4gMz — South Western Railway (@SWRRLY) November 9, 2020 This comes after Piyush Goyal, union Minister for Railways, at the end of October had tweeted one such video of a trial run of a track between Bengaluru and Mysuru. A glass of water, filled to its brim, was kept on the table of a coach. Even as the train was travelling at a high speed, reportedly over 100 kilometres per hour, not a single drop of water spilled out of the glass.

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Karnataka cabinet expansion by Nov 15, hopefuls begin lobbying for ministerial berths

Politics

Chief Minister Yediyurappa is expected to discuss the issue with national leaders by the end of the week, before a decision is made.

Theja Ram

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had said last week that a cabinet expansion would occur after the results of the RR Nagar and Sira bye-polls are announced. As the BJP won in both the constituencies, several BJP leaders, formerly with the Congress and JD(S), have begun lobbying for ministerial berths. BJP sources said that national leaders are considering reshuffling the cabinet too.  Chief Minister Yediyurappa had, during the poll campaign for RR Nagar, said that if the party’s candidate Munirathna Naidu won the polls, he would be made a minister. Yediyurappa had said that he would go to New Delhi after the results are announced and speak with the high command.  However, since August, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has been reluctant to agree to the reshuffle, fearing backlash and an increase in internal feuds. Sources with the BJP in New Delhi said that as a bargain for Minister CT Ravi’s recent resignation, the posts given to the three Deputy Chief Ministers must be reshuffled too.  “Yediyurappa is not okay with a reshuffle. Many leaders will rebel against the government. Especially, when there is speculation that the CM will be changed next year,” a senior BJP leader said, while adding that the expansion is likely to occur by November 15.  The Karnataka cabinet has 33 posts with six vacant posts. In addition, after Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa accepts CT Ravi’s resignation, one more berth will be vacant. CT Ravi was given the Tourism and Kannada and Culture portfolio.  BJP sources said that Yediyurappa was waiting for the bye-elections to conclude, in order to take up the issue of cabinet expansion as the fate of one of the 14 Congress turncoats — Munirathna, was to be decided. Yediyurappa had promised ministerial berths to the Congress and JD(S) legislators who resigned and helped bring down the coalition government in 2019.  On Sunday, Members of Legislative Council AH Vishwanath and R Shankar alias Pendulum Shankar, went to New Delhi to lobby for a ministerial berth. MLCs MTB Nagaraj and CP  Yogeeshwar are also hoping for a ministerial berth. If Munirathna Naidu wins the RR Nagar polls, he too is expecting a ministerial berth.  BJP sources said that the national leaders have offered Yediyurappa two options — to reshuffle the cabinet, including the deputy CMs or to reallocate portfolios to existing ministers and also include new ministers. Party sources said that Bijapur City MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal is also a major contender for a ministerial portfolio and is also vying for the post of the deputy CM. BS Yediyurappa’s long-time friend and Hukkeri MLA Umesh Katti is also expecting to be accommodated as promised by the CM in February this year.  Sources said that Minister for Social Welfare B Sriramulu is also hoping to be made a deputy CM if the high command decides to remove the existing people and offer the post to other aspirants.  The bye-elections in Maski and Basavakalyan are yet to be held and the dates are expected to be announced soon. Pratapgouda Patil, the BJP’s likely candidate for the bye-elections is also hoping to be accommodated if he wins the poll as he too had defected from the Congress to BJP when the coalition government fell in 2019. 

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Shocked by BJP win in Sira: Karnataka Cong chief DK Shivakumar after bye-poll defeat

Karnataka Bye-Polls

Shivakumar said that the party, which was also defeated in RR Nagar, had expected a loss but not by such a huge margin.

TNM Staff

The Congress defeat in the Raja Rajeshwari Nagar and the Sira bye-elections has come as a major setback for the party. State President DK Shivakumar held a press conference on Tuesday after the party’s defeat and said that he was “shocked” by the results in Sira. Shivakumar said that he had expected a defeat in RR Nagar, but had not expected it to be by such a huge margin. The BJP’s Munirathna Naidu swept the polls with 1,25,734 votes while Congress’s Kusuma H bagged 67,798. “In RR Nagar, I had expected a close fight with a difference of 15,000 votes. Keeping our calculations in mind, we had fielded Kusuma. She’s a good candidate,” the leader said. In Sira, Shivakumar said that the party’s leaders were stumped by the results, especially since the BJP opened its account in the segment for the first time. “We’d strongly believed we would win in Sira. We’re shocked that the BJP won. We’ll sit down and see what went wrong to ensure that our party can regain the confidence of the voters there. Several media persons have asked me: This is the first election you have lost. I will tell you, I lost my first election in 1985 and I have subsequently won. Failure is the foundation of success,” he said. Watch: DK Shivakumar addresses media after Congress' defeat in Sira and RR Nagar bye-elections Shivakumar said that he would not want to place the blame on anyone and accept defeat graciously. The Congress’s troubleshooter and election strategist said that the leaders would sit down and identify the mistakes made during the campaign and work to strengthen the party. “I’ll not blame others for the defeat and as the party president, I own the responsibility of the defeat. The Congress party is thinking about fielding fresh faces. We’re looking to field educated candidates. In the coming days too, we will field fresh faces in upcoming elections. I still believe we chose the best candidate for the RR Nagar elections,” he added. DK Shivakumar said that the party would continue to showcase the inconsistencies in the ruling BJP’s administration and work to prepare for the Assembly elections in 2023. He also said that despite the huge margin of victory for Munirathna, the Congress’s candidate, being a novice to politics, had managed to form a good connection with voters. “In the coming days, keeping our ideology in mind, we’ll continue to showcase to the voters the discrepancies in the administration of the current government. I can say that our candidate managed to form a good connection with the voters. The ruling government misused its power by distributing money, among other things. But that is secondary. We lost, the people did not give us as many votes as we had expected,” he said, while urging party workers not to be discouraged by the defeat.

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BJP breaches Congress-JD(S) fortress, wins Sira bye-election in Karnataka

Sira Bye-elections

BJP’s win is significant in breaching the Old Mysuru Region where the party has had a bad track record.

Theja Ram

It was a result that raised several eyebrows. A constituency that has for decades voted either Congress or JD(S) to power, this time round, Sira’s constituents chose the BJP. It was the first victory for the BJP in the Sira constituency. Its candidate Dr Rajesh Gowda came out with a thumping victory against the Congress’ old war horse TB Jayachandra and the JD(S)’ Anjamma B, the wife of the late JD(S) MLA B Satyanarayana. Rajesh Gowda won by a margin of votes against TB Jayachandra. Rajesh Gowda bagged 74,522 votes, while TB Jayachandra and Ammajamma bagged 61,573 and 35,982 votes respectively.  "This is a historic victory. The voters, hoped for change in leadership and whereever I went for campaigning, they had offered me praise. The people voted for me because I promised development in the region. The Chief Engineer of Minor Irrigation Department have inspected the spots. In the next three months, we will bring water to the dried up Madaluru tank," Rajesh Gowda said after the victory was announced.  Dr Rajesh Gowda, a radiologist and a close friend to former Chief Minister Siddramaiah’s son Yathindra, had not picked the BJP as his first choice to begin his political career. Dr Rajesh Gowda’s father CP Mudalagiriyappa, an octogenarian, was the Congress parliamentarian from the Chitradurga Lok Sabha segment, of which Sira is a part of. Mudalagiriyappa was the Congress MP in the 9th, 10th and 12th Lok Sabha.  ಶಿರಾ ವಿಧಾನಸಭಾ ಕ್ಷೇತ್ರದ ಉಪಚುನಾವಣೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಜಯಗಳಿಸಿದ ನಮ್ಮ ಪಕ್ಷದ ಡಾ. ರಾಜೇಶ್‌ ಗೌಡ ಅವರಿಗೆ ಅಭಿನಂದನೆಗಳು.#KarnatakaWithBJP pic.twitter.com/py7a3RcwDt — BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) November 10, 2020 As a son of a former parliamentarian, political life was not new to Rajesh Gowda. When the date for the bye-polls was announced, his first option was to approach the Congress. Rajesh Gowda had met Leader of Opposition of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, Siddaramaiah, and asked for a ticket to contest the polls as the Congress candidate. However, Siddaramaiah turned him down in order to stand by his long-time friend, the two-time MLA from Sira -- TB Jayachandra.  Siddaramaiah’s adamant stance on offering the ticket to Jayachandra had even ruffled the feathers of the party’s high command. Congress MLAs say that the party’s national leaders were in favour of Rajesh Gowda as their candidate. However, Siddaramaiah is believed to have convinced the leaders of Jayachandra’s capabilities.  Senior Congress leaders say that the electorate in Sira had been unhappy with TB Jayachandra’s inaction for two terms. The loss of face in the 2018 Assembly elections was not only attributed to anti-incumbency but also to the loss of respect. “Jayachandra had repeatedly promised constructing proper roads, and filling up the Madaluru and Hemavati tanks’ waters. Each time, these promises were not kept up. The constituents had no respect for him. This time around, the BJP had openly campaigned that only if the constituents vote for BJP would there be development as they are the ruling party,” a senior Congress leader said.  Rajesh Gowda too, had heavily relied on poll promises of comprehensive development of the constituency. His campaign had focused on the “blueprint of development” he had penned, which he promised would be implemented if he was elected. Rajesh Gowda had repeatedly said in his campaign speeches that the logical choice for the voters would be to choose him as the BJP is in power both in the Union and the state level. In a video, which had gone viral ahead of the polls, BJP cadre could be seen saying that if a leader from an Opposition party is chosen, then Sira would not witness any development as the government would release funds only to constituencies its MLAs are elected from.  With Rajesh Gowda’s victory, the BJP opened its account in a Vokkaliga-stronghold once again. The first time the BJP penetrated a Congress and JD(S) fortress was during the bye-polls in KR Pete with Narayanagowda’s victory in 2019. This time around, the party strategically fielded Rajesh Gowda, who is from the Kunchatiga Vokkaliga community, and was able to snag the votes that traditionally went to the Congress and JD(S) as he represented the community, who form the major vote bank in the region.  The BJP’s victory in Sira has once again proved that the appeal of old war horses wears thin over time and that political parties have to pick candidates strategically, rather than out of obligation to old friends. Perhaps the grand old party will take away this lesson from the loss in Sira. 

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