Karnataka CM mulls paid parking in Bengaluru, proposes other changes

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Among other proposed changes, possession of parking permits may be made mandatory for all vehicles.

IANS

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/VINCENT BLOCH

In a bid to move from chaotic to organised parking in Bengaluru, Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Tuesday directed Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar to review and revise the draft Parking Policy 2.0 before submitting it to the cabinet. A senior official from the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) told IANS that the draft Parking Policy 2.0 comprises three prominent components -- moving from chaotic to organised parking; moving from free parking to paid parking system; and making possession of parking permits mandatory for all existing and new vehicles across the city. "The last of the three seems to be the biggest stumbling block in implementing this policy, as not many politicians are willing to bite this silver bullet," the official claimed. During the meeting, the officials apprised the CM about the need for a parking policy as in the last seven years, the number of vehicles has doubled in the city. "We have nearly 80 lakh vehicles for a city of 1.2 crore population. Therefore, we need a controlling mechanism and tech-based parking system to regulate traffic as well as parking," the official added. Besides this, the Parking Policy 2.0 also suggests that most of the wholesale markets need to move  from central areas in the city to peripheral areas. "Freight vehicles will have to be banned from parking on the street for loading and unloading during the day. Lorry terminals and warehousing facilities will have to be established for this," the official added. He further said that the CM has insisted on reviewing and revising the draft parking policy. Knowing these implications, the BBMP has already taken a lead in collaborating with a private company to help Bengaluru residents opt for a tech-based parking system. "We have developed the Namma Bengaluru Smart Parking App and identified as many as 85 roads within the CBD (Central Business District) area," the official said.

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Ex Karnataka Minister abducted in Bengaluru, released on paying Rs 48 lakh ransom

Crime

Varthur Prakash paid Rs 48 lakh ransom, which was arranged by a friend, to his abductors after he was physically tortured.

TNM Staff

Former Karnataka Minister Varthur Prakash was allegedly abducted in Bengaluru by eight people on November 25. According to the police, Prakash was released near Hoskote on the outskirts of Bengaluru on November 28 after a friend of his paid a ransom of Rs 48 lakh. "Prakash has stated that he was abducted along with his driver by a gang of eight people when he had gone to his farmhouse in the Kolar Gold Fields," a source said, adding the former minister was allegedly driven to a secluded place and tortured. Prakash lodged a complaint with the Bellandur police station after returning home, police sources said. When reporters sought to know about the incident, Prakash said, "I will let you know." Prakash had twice won as Independent MLA from Kolar constituency and was a minister in the BJP government in Karnataka from 2012 to 2013. He had founded his own political party -- Namma Congress -- in 2017 but he lost the 2018 Assembly Election to K Srinivasa Gowda from Kolar. Deccan Herald reported that the assailants had initially demanded Rs 30 crore as ransom. The report said that two special teams of police have been formed to identify and take the suspects into custody. DH quoted Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) D Devraj saying that the assailants had covered their faces with masks and their identity is yet to be established. Police are relying on CCTV footage of nearby areas to track the movement of the car they came in. DH said according to the FIR (First Information Report) registered by Bellandur police, the former minister and his driver were thrashed by the abductors after being kidnapped. While Prakash initially refused to arrange ransom money, he eventually gave up after being tortured. This is when Prakash asked his friend Nayaz to bring Rs 48 lakh which the abductors took. However the gang continued to torture the two until his driver fell unconcious following which they were let go. Both of them are recovering at a private hospital. (PTI inputs)

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Bengaluru residents to be charged Rs 200 per month for garbage collection from Jan 2021

Civic

The BBMP has introduced a plan to implement the bylaws for Solid Waste Management, which will require residents to pay for daily garbage collection from their doorstep.

Sanjana Deshpande

File image

Residents of Bengaluru will be charged Rs 200 user fee per month by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) for door-to-door collection of garbage from January 2021. The BBMP Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad, in a letter to the government, proposed to use Bescom’s (Bangalore Electricity Supply Company) infrastructure to ensure a smooth collection process. Levying the fee with the electricity bill will cause the monthly bill to inflate.  “Bescom already has a wide reach amongst domestic households and commercial establishments. Most electricity consumers are also waste generators and hence it is logistically feasible to utilise the Bescom collection machinery for this purpose,” said the commissioner explaining the rationale to availing the help of Bescom in levying the user fee. The Commissioner also clarified that the user fee is not “garbage cess”; but Solid Waste User Fees levied for the specific service of solid waste collection from the doorstep of the waste generator, provided by BBMP. “Bescom will collect user fees on behalf of BBMP and remit it into the BBMP account. The user fee will be charged and collected on a monthly basis, unlike the property tax, as per the sold waste management byaws 2020,” added the Commissioner. Such monthly collection is to ensure consistent cash flow to BBMP which will help them pay their solid waste service providers and for operation and maintenance of solid waste processing plants. The sources at Bescom said, “We are discussing the nitty-gritty of the matter with the software developers. The talks are still in the incipient stage. If need be, we will also approach the Energy Department and Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) for clearance.”

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Resume providing milk, milk powder to govt school kids: 77 activists to K’taka CM

Health

The group was prompted to make the plea because of the rising incidence of malnutrition among children from marginalised socio-economic backgrounds.

Sanjana Deshpande

Seventy-seven nutritionists, doctors, lawyers, activists and citizens have jointly written to the Karnataka government asking it to resume the provision of milk/milk powder to the pupils of government/government aided schools under the Ksheera Bhagya scheme.  The group was prompted to make the plea because of the rising incidents of malnutrition among children — who majorly belong to economically and socially marginalized communities like Dalit, Adivasi and Other Backward Classes — due to the complete shutdown of supply of milk/milk powder due to the pandemic-induced closure of schools. The only way nutritious meals were accessible to them was through the mid-day meal and Ksheera Bhagya schemes, the group said in their plea to the Chief Minister Yediyurappa. The reason behind halting the scheme was a note by the Finance Department, the letter to the CM states. The note had reportedly stated that under the Public Distribution System and Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, ration was being supplied already. “The above note overlooks the fact that milk is not being provided under either the PDS system or under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana. Several media reports show that ‘sufficient ration’ is not at all being provided to many families and even those who have received rations, have only received cereal, specifically, rice. Additionally, these two schemes can be accessed by only those having BPL cards while Ksheera Bhagya covers children of several families who do not have BPL cards,” the letter adds. “If the worsening situation of child malnutrition is not addressed immediately, it could even reverse the limited progress made in the last few years by us towards a malnutrition-free Karnataka. Hence, in the interest of children studying in government-run and government-aided schools, we urge you to ensure that milk/milk powder should be provided to the school-children under the Ksheera Bhagya scheme of the state government for all pending months since June and on a regular and prompt basis for the subsequent months till the opening of the schools,” the signatories have say in the letter. The Ksheera Bhagya scheme was started in the year 2013-14, aimed at combating malnutrition in Karnataka. Although the government has resumed the supply of ration, the suspension of the five months might have already done the damage, fear public health experts. 

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Experts fear rise in child malnutrition due to Karnataka govt inaction

Health

Recently Vani Vilas Hospital in Bengaluru saw around 30 children admitted at their Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre for malnutrition.

Soumya Chatterjee

Representational image

Public health experts in Karnataka are worried that many children of lower socio-economic populations in the state could have malnutrition symptoms and related ailments in the coming months. This, due to the reduction in government’s efforts to provide nutrition during the COVID-19 induced lockdown and subsequent economic distress, which, experts fear, could undo improvements in children’s nutrition made in the last decade. As reported by TNM earlier, the state government had issued an order at the beginning of November to distribute dry ration kits pending since June to students studying in government and aided schools. From June to October, lakhs of students in the state were deprived of the food they would otherwise receive through the mid-day meal scheme. Activists have also pointed out that the Ksheera Bhagya Scheme under which milk was given to school children was also withdrawn with the onset of the pandemic. This, at a time when milk powder is rotting in government godowns, public health experts say.  Dr Sylivia Karpagam, a public health researcher who was conducting a health camp in Lingarajapuram in Bengaluru in the last week of November, found a nine-year-old girl child having phrynoderma or "toad skin" disease. The disease is associated with a deficiency of vitamin A or essential fatty acids.  Health experts and activists have been writing to the government to take proactive steps to help disadvantaged populations with their nutrition needs since the first lockdown. Dr Sylivia said, “Before the pandemic, school-going children in Karnataka’s government schools were getting Vitamin A drops every six months along with a deworming tablet. During the lockdown period – since mid-march till now – the schools have remained closed and there have been no such activities for the children. There is no drive from the government to check for or bridge nutrition gaps at the community level.” She added, “A girl suffering from phrynoderma shows the extent of malnutrition as no one will have isolated deficiency of Vitamin A. The child is likely to have protein, minerals and vitamin deficiencies. So, while my camp was mostly for senior citizens, I was getting children with symptoms of malnutrition. This is happening as many underprivileged children are having only rice and pickle or with little lentil and no other nutritious food. It is not that before the lockdown we had great nutrition levels, but the pandemic has worsened a bad situation.” She said that experts and activists like her fear that in the coming months, malnutrition-related diseases which had been under control for some years now will again resurface. “Ailments like scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) and rickets (vitamin D deficiency) are likely to come back, apart from the risk of respiratory illness and diarrhoea in undernourished children.” Bengaluru-based independent researcher Sidharth Joshi, who is part of food rights organisation Ahara Namma Hakku, filed an RTI that found that students were not provided any midday meals and dry rations in the state. He said that although the problem is there, the true extent can only be determined through large scale surveys which the government may not be keen to carry out. He said, “Other than the midday meal scheme, the functioning of anganwadis has also been largely affected by the pandemic and resultant lockdowns. While the anganwadi activities did not completely shut down, there are issues involving lack of volunteers. So, the monitoring is not happening as it used to be. Earlier children were weighed every month, along with a need-based follow up where they were taken to the primary health care centre and so on. This process has been affected quite a lot across Karnataka.” He added, “A portal that was started to keep a tab of growth of children between 6 months to 12 months has been down for a long time now. In any centre, the exercise of recording weight and height of children has not been done.” Siddharth pointed out that dry rations are a poor substitute for cooked meals. “The Union government has asked state governments to consider reopening anganwadis from November 11 but the state government is yet to take a decision on this.” Dr Sylvia and her colleagues’ fears are not unfounded.  Recently Vani Vilas Hospital within the Victoria Hospital campus saw close to 30 children admitted at their Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre and nearly 100 others who were found to be suffering from severe acute and moderate acute malnutrition.

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Karnataka govt doctor, nurses arrested for allegedly selling a newborn girl

Crime

The Koppa Police in Chikkamagaluru arrested the doctor, two nurses and also the woman who bought the baby. The baby has been rescued.

Theja Ram

Screenshot Yennews/YouTube

The Karnataka Police on Tuesday arrested a government doctor, two nurses and a woman in Chikkamagaluru for allegedly intimidating a mother and selling her newborn child for Rs 55,000. The Koppa Police arrested Balakrishna, the chief gynecologist at the MSDM Government Hospital after the hospital administrator filed a complaint stating that he and two nurses Reshma and Shobha allegedly manipulated the hospital registry and had not registered the birth of the girl child at the hospital. She said that a probe by the Child Rights and Welfare Committee had found that Balakrishna and the two nurses allegedly sold the newborn girl to a woman named Prema from Sringeri for Rs 55,000.  On the night of March 14, 20-year-old Kalpana, a resident of Shivamogga’s Teerthahalli was admitted to the MSDM Government Hospital after she went into labour. Kalpana was initially taken to the government hospital in Teerthahalli. With no attending doctor present, the family brought her to the hospital at Koppa in Chikkamagaluru. The chief administrator of the MSDM Government Hospital, Dr Ganavi BS, said that Kalpana had conceived the child when she was unmarried. Dr Balakrishna, who was the attending gynecologist at the time of the baby’s birth, allegedly threatened Kalpana that the police would arrest her since she was an unmarried woman who had conceived a child.  “The woman is not well educated and the doctor threatened to get a police case registered against her. He told her that she was not capable of taking care of the baby and that she should leave the newborn girl in the hospital. This was one of the findings in the probe conducted by the Child Rights and Welfare Committee (CRWC),” Dr Ganavi said.  Watch: Chikkamagaluru hospial administrator speaks about the crime Kalpana was in the hospital for six days as Dr Balakrishna allegedly refused to discharge her. He allegedly informed Kalpana that a person would buy the baby for which she would be compensated Rs 5,000. Dr Balakrishna is believed to have sold the baby for Rs 55,000. He gave Kalpana Rs 5,000 and allegedly retained the remainder of the cash.  The Koppa Police said that Dr Balakrishna enlisted the help of nurses Shobha and Reshma to manipulate the hospital’s registry. When Kalpana was admitted to the hospital, the nurses had not entered her admission in the hospital’s registry. However, on March 20 this year, the day the baby girl was allegedly sold, an entry was made in the registry that a woman named Prema gave birth to a girl child. The CRWC’s probe revealed that Prema was in possession of Kalpana’s child. She had given a statement alleging that Dr Balakrishna had told her she would be able to get a child without the hassle of going through the adoption process, if she paid him Rs 55,000.  “The CRWC came to know of the incident when the mother (Kalpana) was taken to Ujjwala NGO as she had become very depressed since she was forced to give away her baby. Ujjwala approached the CRWC after which a probe was undertaken,” the Koppa Police said.  The CRWC submitted its report to the hospital in Koppa and directed Dr Ganavi to register a complaint with the police. The Koppa Police registered an FIR against the four accused persons -- Dr Balakrishna, nurses Shobha and Reshma, and the buyer Prema from Sringer under sections 370 (punishment for buying or selling a person), 465 (punishment for forgery), 466 (forgery of public register), 109 (pursuance of conspiracy by administrators), 197 (signing a false certificate), 114 (abetment to an offence), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention of the Indian Penal Code. They have also been booked under the relevant sections of the Juvenile Justice Act.  On Tuesday the Koppa Police arrested Balakrishna, Shobha, Reshma and Prema. The baby, who is now nine-months old, has been housed at the Chikkamagaluru Balamandira. “We will produce the baby and the mother in front of the CRWC and the magistrate. The magistrate has to order the handover of the child,” the Koppa Police said.   

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Bengaluru residents suffer as water pipe breaks and stops road repair works

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BWSSB said that they have repaired all the leaks that they have found till now and have given clearance for the asphalting to continue.

Shishir Rao

For long, residents of Bengaluru’s Whitefield have been complaining that the Channasandra Main Road is full of potholes and the manhole lids are so high that it makes it difficult and dangerous to drive over it. They were hopeful when the repair work on the road finally began in November. However, it was short-lived. Periodic leaks in the pipes laid by the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSS) has been disrupting the road repair work. As a result, according to the residents, the state of the road continues to remain the same as it has been in the last two years. They alleged that the BWSSB did a shoddy job whenever they made ad-hoc repairs. “Recently, the BWSSB said they have completed all the work of laying water pipes and the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) started the asphalting. However, after they asphalted the road for a stretch of 100 meters, the very next day, on November 12, there was a major leak in the water pipe and undoing the work done by the BBMP. To correct this, the BWSSB has dug up the road again,” said Amit Sharma, a resident of Whitefield.  He further added “The BWSSB officials had orally assured that the issue was fixed and the BBMP said they did not receive any written information or any proof that the work has been completed properly. On Monday, too, the water started leaking and the asphalting was stopped.” BWSSB said that they have repaired all the leaks that they have found till now and have given clearance for the asphalting to continue. Speaking to TNM, Mirza Anwar, Assistant Executive Engineer of BWSSB, said, “We should understand that in Bengaluru, the development works keep happening and if the excavation is constantly done in and around the same area, the soil gets loosened and shifting pipes causes leakages. All the pipes are underground and a leak somewhere else could result in a water leak in another area. All methods we use to detect a leak are non-intrusive and don’t cause damage. The leakage on Monday is not a perineal leakage and it has been sorted out by our team. Also, this leak, as I understand, is near an already asphalted road and shouldn’t cause problems to the asphalting process.”

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