'Ask high command': BS Yediyurappa to disgruntled leaders

Politics

Yediyurappa on Wednesday expanded his 17-month-old government by inducting seven new Ministers and dropping Excise Minister H Nagesh.

PTI

IMAGE FOR REPRESENTATION: PTI

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Thursday asked BJP leaders, who are airing their discontent about missing out on a cabinet berth, to take up the matter with the national leadership. He also urged them to refrain from making any remarks which will affecting the party’s image. The chief minister had expanded his cabinet on Wednesday after much deliberations and the exercise already saw some aspirants who could not make it publicly air their displeasure. "If the BJP MLAs have any objection they can go to Delhi, meet our national leaders and give them all the information and complaints they have. I won't object to that but I ask them not to damage the party's reputation by talking ill," Yediyurappa told reporters in Bengaluru. Noting that the central leaders will take a call on their complaints, he said the seniors in the party are aware of the facts. Later, speaking to reporters in Davangere, he insisted he could do what was within his limits, on the matter and warned those speaking ill about him. Yediyurappa, however, did not respond to queries on the non-induction of Rajarajeshwari Nagar MLA Munirathna, a former Congress man who joined the saffron party, despite the former's promise to induct him in his council of ministers. Yediyurappa on Wednesday expanded his 17-month-old government by inducting seven new Ministers and dropping Excise Minister H Nagesh. The other aspirants-- Basanagouda Patil, M P Renukacharya, Sathish Reddy, Thippa Reddy, S A Ramadass and A H Vishwanath, who could not make it have been quite vocal in expressing their displeasure. Yatnal in particular has been critical of the chief minister and even alleged his family of 'hijacking' the party. He had requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to end dynastyic politics from Yediyurappa's family in Karnataka, which has a chief minister, an MP (B Y Raghavendra) and a BJP state vice president (B Y Vijayendra). "The CM has made those who are blackmailing him as Ministers. Three people- one political secretary and two Ministers have been blackmailing with some of Yediyurappa's CDs for three months. One who is becoming Minister today along with CD blackmail was also involved in payment of money to Vijayendra (CM's son)," Yatnal had said. Vishwanath on Thursday called upon people to discuss the 'Son Stroke', a jibe seen as targeting the chief minister's family. "Let the discussion start from Raichur. The topic is Son Stroke. I hope you understand it," Vishwanath said in an apparent reference to Yediyurappa allegdly giving prominence to his children and family members in the party. He said the Janata family was decimated in the 1990s due to 'son stroke', whether it be Ramakrishna Hegde, S Bangarappa, J H Patil or H D Deve Gowda, apparently referring to family politics involving these leaders. "Now the same son stroke is hitting the BJP. If that continues in the state there will be son stroke in Karnataka," Vishwanath said. He had earlier switched over from the JD(S) to BJP and resigned from the Assembly in 2019 leading to the toppling of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, headed by H D Kumaraswamy. The dissenting MLAs were upset that region wise, Bengaluru and Belagavi got more prominence in the cabinet. In terms of caste equation, the Veerashaiva-Lingayat and Vokkaliga legislators got more representation.  

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Yelachenahalli-Kanakapura road Bengaluru metro line inaugurated by CM Yediyurappa

Transport

Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri participated in the event from New Delhi through video-conferencing.

TNM Staff

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Thursday flagged off the metro extension line between Yelachenahalli and Silk Institute over the Kanakapura Road in south Bengaluru. This extension covering 6.3km will have five more stations.  The public can use the service starting from Friday. Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri participated in the event from New Delhi through video-conferencing. "The extended service is part of the metro project's second phase, covering more areas in the tech city for commuters living in the southern suburb," said an official. The extended service project is two-year behind schedule for various reasons, including land acquisition, shifting of utilities and displacing houses and shops that were on the route. "The service will be open for the public from Friday after its inauguration on Thursday. As the service is being operated under Covid-induced guidelines, the frequency will be regulated to prevent crowding in the six-car coaches," said the official. Metro service resumed on September 7 in phases after remaining suspended since March 25 when the lockdown was enforced to contain the virus spread Besides wearing a face mask, commuters have to maintain social distancing and use only smart cards with online re-charge to avoid physical contact through tokens. "Though the six-coach train has capacity to carry 1,800 commuters, only 400 are allowed in each ride till further order," said the official. Similarly, about 50 commuters are permitted to be on the platform for the next train at a time to avoid crowding and maintain social distancing. "The trains run at a frequency of five minutes during peak hours and 10 minutes during non-peak hours," added the official. As the most popular transport mode for its punctual, efficient and cleaner service in air-conditioned coaches, the metro was ferrying over 4-lakh commuters on the twin routes, covering 42.3km across 40 well-lit stations during the pre-Covid days. Commuters are screened at the entrance to ensure only those who are negative enter the station, with face mask or face shield. Sanitisers are kept at the entrance of the stations for hand-washing by commuters. Spaces have been earmarked on platforms and inside coaches to maintain physical distancing between commuters to sit or stand while travelling.The Bengaluru metro rail service on the north-south corridor (green line) would be extended from Thursday covering 6.3km and five more stations, an official said on Wednesday.

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Bengaluru metro: Feeder services on 4 routes on new Kanakapura Road corridor

Transport

Two out of the four new services will originate at Silk Institute metro station.

TNM Staff

IMAGE FOR REPRESENTATION: PTI

The Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) said on Wednesday that it is extending its metro feeder services to the Yelachenahalli-Silk Institute line, which will be inaugurated on Thursday and commence operations from Friday. In a notification, the BMTC announced four new routes for metro feeder buses, and two of these routes will originate on the Silk Institute station. The Kanakapura Road section of the metro i.e. the Yelachenahalli-Silk Institute is the first corridor under phase 2 of Namma Metro that will become available for public use. Phase 2 was sanctioned in 2014 and was supposed to be completed by 2018, but got delayed. This extension of the existing green line of the metro is an elevated 6.4 km long section. In the notification, Bengaluru Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) said that the metro feeder services on the Yelachenahalli-Silk Institute corridor will begin from January 14 (Thursday), and the new routes will be operational from the next day. The new metro feeder routes are: “Currently, the BMTC is operating 944 trips with 107 schedules towards Jambusavari Dinne/Anjanapura, 451 trips with 63 schedules towards Vasanthapura from Konanakunte Cross and 1,134 trips with 121 schedules on Kanakapura Road to different areas,” BMTC said in its notification. The metro corridor along the Kanakapura Road is set to connect residents with Majestic, Yeshwanthpur, Vijayanagar, MG Road and Baiyappanahalli, among other places in Bengaluru. The corridor will be opened after several delays. After the 2018 deadline was missed, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation had said that the line would open in August last year. However, attributing the delay to COVID-19, the opening was postponed, until now.

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20k doses of Covaxin reach Bengaluru, to be used alongside Covishield

COVID-19

The state had already received 8 lakh doses of Covishield from the Pune-based Serum Institute of India since Tuesday

IANS

The first batch of Covaxin from Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech of 20,000 doses meant for healthcare workers and other frontline workers, as part of the first phase of vaccination, arrived in Bengaluru on Thursday morning as scheduled. The state had already received 8 lakh doses of Covishield from the Pune-based Serum Institute of India since Tuesday. "The state will soon receive 20,000 doses of Covaxin from Hyderabad by air and these will be used to inoculate 16 lakh frontline warriors across the state in phase one from January 16 onwards," Karnataka Health Minister Dr Sudhakar K had said earlier in a statement. "Covaxin has 5ml vaccine in a vial as against 10ml vaccine in Covishield vial. We can vaccine 20 people with one vial on average," he added. The second consignment of 1.5 lakh doses of Covishield reached Belagavi from Pune by road in refrigerated vehicles. The Serum Institute sent 6.5 lakh doses of its vaccine by air cargo to Bengaluru on Tuesday for distribution in 8 districts in the region. "The doses are packed in 14,700 bottles, with each bottle having 10 units (ml). The vaccine will be administered twice with a 28-day gap between first and second dose," said a state health official. The vaccines have been stored in cold chambers at 3 degree Celsius temperature. About 36,000 doses have been allotted for frontline warriors in Belagavi district. The department has trained about 28,000 health workers to inject the vaccine at 180 centres in the state's northwest region spanning Bagalkot, Dharwad, Gadag, Haveri, Koppal, Uttara Kannada and Vijayapura districts. The vaccine will be administered at 235 sites across the state, and cold chains have been set up to store them in all the 30 districts. Task forces have been formed to supervise the exercise. The state will get 13.90 lakh doses of vaccine in the first phase.

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Even lockdown didn’t save Bengaluru from traffic woes: Sixth most congested in world

Transport

Only Mumbai in India fared worse according to the TomTom Traffic Index 2020 released on Wednesday.

TNM Staff

Representational image/PTI

Bengaluru has yet again made it to the not-so-enviable list of the world's most congested cities, despite days of continuous stringent lockdown. The TomTom Traffic Index 2020 released on Wednesday said that Bengaluru has the world’s the sixth-worst and India’s second-worst city in terms of traffic. Mumbai is the second-worst in the world, according to this list preceded by Moscow and followed by Bogota, Manila and Istanbul.  Among the 416 cities spread across 57 countries, India capital New Delhi fares slightly better at the eighth position in the pandemic year. However, thanks to the COVID-19 induced lockdown, there has been an improvement of 20% from 2019. In 2019, the same index had found Bengaluru to be the worst among 416 cities. Following the global trend of decreasing congestion, Bengaluru too saw a dip of traffic jams by 20%. Incidentally, the report said that while the dip was 35% in the morning, it was slightly lower at 32% in the evening. There were 147 days of low traffic with April being the least congested and January being the most congested month. While congestion levels in Bengaluru were 70% for January and February, it dropped to 50% in March as the city was put under lockdown. The monthly congestion level saw a major dip in April and saw a steady increase since July as lockdown regulations were eased. The data for the index is generated through 600 million connected devices which the company says is an authoritative indicator of people movement, economic activity levels, among other activities. Ralf-Peter Schäfer, TomTom’s Vice President of Traffic and Travel, said, “Last year, we announced that global congestion levels in 2019 had increased for the ninth consecutive Traffic Index. In 2020, we saw a vastly different picture. From lockdowns to closed borders, people movement changed – and it changed very fast.” You can check the interactive index here.  

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Karnataka to increase property tax in urban areas, excluding Bengaluru

Tax

Recently, a 2% transport cess was levied on property tax for Bengalureans.

TNM Staff

Representational image

The Karnataka Cabinet on Wednesday decided that property taxes across all municipalities except Bengaluru will be hiked. This was done with the Cabinet, led by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, deciding to tweak the  Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act, 1976. It may be recalled that Bengaluru, which was earlier under the purview of  Karnataka Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, is now governed by the recently passed Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike Bill, 2020. Reports said that currently, all residential and commercial property in the state are being taxed between 0.3% and 1% of the guidance value and the Cabinet has decided to hike it up to 0.5% and 1.5 %. While 50% of the guidance value of the property is considered capital value for tax calculation now, reports suggested that now it will be changed to 25% of guidance value. Further, vacant sites which are now exempt from property tax will be subjected to property tax with these new changes.  Speaking on this, Law and Parliamentary Minister JC Madhuswamy, said that these changes in the state’s tax structure have been done according to the Union government’s guidelines. By making this change, he said the state government will be able to borrow another 0.25% of the state’s gross domestic product. He also added that union government guidelines have also suggested that the user fee of the properties be also hiked. But the state government is not going to change that for the time being. This decision by the state government comes after it had recently approved a 2% ‘road transport cess’ on their property tax in Bengaluru.  In other decisions taken in the cabinet meeting, Rs 5 crore will be spent to deal with a severe shortage of police quarters. A 325-ft bronze statue of Basaveshwara will also come up in Chitradurga district in n Murugharajendra Mutt.

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Biden’s Covid board in the dark on final vaccine plan

On the eve of Biden's vaccine rollout, board members of his Covid-19 response team are largely in the dark about the plan’s details, according to three people familiar.

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