Parmesh S Jain

Highlights:

*CM instructed for filling of potholes on 751.41km roads in the city within 15 days. Complete Tender Sure road works by March 31.

*Complete repair works on High Density roads by calling short term tenders.

*Ensure completion of maximum stretch of 950km road works in newly added 110 villages of BBMP.

*Complete the pending white topping works without inconveniencing the public.

*Speedy completion of Grade Separator works which are causing traffic snarls.

*Action to fill all vacant posts of Ward Engineer in all Zones of BBMP.

*Inclusion of Russel Market modernisation works under the Smart City project.Action to improve BVK Iyengar road.

*Greater priority for issues related to TDR and land acquisition.

*Take arterial road works under Amrith Nagarothana Yojane. Work in a planned way for comprehensive development of Bengaluru.

A Zonal level Coordination Committee comprising officials from civic agencies like BBMP,BESCOM BWSSB and various departments would be constituted to improve the synergy in executing civic works and a Monitoring Committee with a Coordinator at the state level would be constituted.

A government order in this regard would be issued in 2-3 days,Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.

Bommai who chaired a meeting of people’s representatives of Bengaluru and senior officials to discuss development issues of the city said, quality work should be ensured in storm water drains project in the city.

DPR for the project would be prepared professionally and Rs.1500 Crore would be provided for the purpose.

Bommai in his address wanted improvement in street lighting system in the city and said that necessary finances would be provided.

But the work should be taken up immediately and completed without any delay.Take measures to install new bulbs,he said.

About 7000 CC cameras would be installed in the city under the Nirbhaya programme,he said.

Road Map for comprehensive development of Bengaluru

Greater emphasis would be given for Comprehensive development of Bengaluru. Officials have been instructed to prepare a road map for the purpose, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.

“We will not allow haphazard growth of Bengaluru any more. A blue print should be prepared for comprehensive development of the city and it would be developed accordingly,” Bommai said.

Slack officials face CM’s wrath

Chief Minister Bommai turned the heat on slack officials with a go slow attitude at the meeting. He warned them of stringent action for any dereliction of duty.

Parmesh S Jain

There has been a spike in Corona,Omicron cases in the last one week.This is especially high in Maharashtra with Mumbai in the lead.

We have issued instructions for strict vigil in border districts as the region has high business interaction with Mumbai,Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said.

Speaking to media persons at Belagavi airport Bommai said,only those who have been double dose vaccinated and have RTPCR test report are being allowed to enter the state.

Not only the Belagavi check post,even other check posts around have been asked to tighten measures.

Border areas of neighboring Vijayapura district too has been asked to tighten its check posts. About 11 check posts have been put up in Vijayapura district.

Though the tight measures would cause a bit of inconvenience to passengers, it is inevitable in the interest of public health in Belagavi district, he said.

Vaccination Drive

A vaccination drive for children aged 15 to 18 years is being launched on January 3. Instructions have been issued to implement it in a systematic way.

Prime Minister Modi’s desire to bring the children within secure bio-bubble is being realised through the vaccination drive to be launched on January 3.

Vaccination would be held on January 10 for those who are over 60 years old with comorbidities, Bommai said.

Fully prepared to tackle Corona

We should be prepared to prevent the spread of Corona and also face any challenging exigencies. Oxygen supply companies have been contacted to ensure adequate timely supply unlike the shortages witnessed last time.

District and taluk hospitals have been instructed to get their oxygen plants ready to function. Action has been taken to keep 4000 oxygen beds ready.Indents are being prepared to procure adequate stock of medicines,he said.

Decision on extending night curfew after discussion

Replying to a question about any possibility of extending the night curfew, Bommai said, a decision in this regard would be taken after discussing about prevailing Covid situation and spread of the pandemic in Bengaluru.

When asked whether lock-down would be imposed if the people neglect the guidelines, Bommai said, the state government is very clear about it.

Strict measures have been taken in public interest. People should avoid creating a situation that could compel the government to impose lockdown by following the guidelines.

Parmesh S Jain

Karnataka Chief Minister,Basavaraj Bommai on Friday said stringent measures have been taken to control the Omicron cases, and more effective measures would be taken in the coming days to ramp up the health infrastructure facilities like supply of medicines and arranging ICU beds.

Karnataka on Friday reported 23 new Omicron cases, taking the overall caseload of the new Covid variant in the state to 66.

Speaking to media persons he said, Karnataka is among the 8 states in the country which are witnessing a rise in Omicron cases.State government has taken it seriously.

Replying to questions related to Hindu temples, Bommai said,Hindu temples would be freed from government control.

DK Shivakumar’s views on the issue reflect his perception against Hindu temples and Hindu devotees.

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday had said that the state government would bring a law before the Budget session in order to make temples independent.

Parmesh S Jain

Deputy Commissioners are the vital link between the government and people,Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said and instructed the Deputy Commissioners to be responsive in discharging their duties.

Speaking to media persons after the DCs’ conference, he said, DCs perform two types of roles-administration and implementation of government’s programmes at people’s level, and coordinating between the district level and government level to ensure smooth administration.They have a huge role in governance.

DCs would lose their eligibility if they fail to be responsive and work for the interests of a selected few.Officers have been instructed to work with responsibility,Bommai said.

The issue of regularisation of Gomala Lands(government grazing lands) under Akrama-Sakrama was discussed at the conference.

Appropriate amendments to rules would be brought in the coming days to implement it, he said.

The Revenue minister has announced the decision to bring new rules for conversion of land,especially preparation of master plan for land conversion.

Officials have been instructed to prepare the master plan within 3 months,Bommai said.

The Chief Minister wanted the officials to speed up survey of properties using drones under the Swamitra project. About 59% of the target for the year has been achieved so far.

Target could not be met with the available Drones from the union Ministry of Surveys, he said and instructed the officials to get additional drones from the state government.

State government is ready to provide Rs.20 cr needed for the purpose, he said.

He asked the officials to complete the pending Adhar linking of pension for 3 lakh beneficiaries within a month and ensure that the benefit is delivered through DBT.

Instructions were issued for effective implementation of Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka health insurance scheme and upgrading the medical infrastructure in districts to tackle Covid spread in the light of rising cases of Omicron variant.

Parmesh S Jain

The State government has released a second instalment of Rs 1007.18cr for the financial year under the PM Kisan Karnataka scheme under which state government is paying Rs.4000 additional amount for the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi beneficiaries in the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday released the 10th installment under the Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi.

A sum of Rs.685.28cr was released benefiting 34.26 lakh farmers in Karnataka.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai participated in the virtual event.So far 54.52 lakh farmers in the state have received atleast one instalment of the cash transfer.

So far union government has released Rs.8022.69cr and the state government has paid out Rs 2850.54cr.

Union government wants the payments to be made through Adhar based Direct Benefit Transfer(DBT) mode.

Karnataka has topped among the states in this task of linking the Adhar of the beneficiaries and has bagged the award for this good performance.

A grant of Rs.1.21cr was also released for 30 Farmers’ Producer Organisations in the state on the occasion.

Parmesh S Jain

A three year old boy was killed on the spot when an earth moving vehicle ran over him at a construction site on Dhanvantri road on Saturday morning.

The deceased has been identified as Simian,son of David John,a construction laborer by profession.

Senior officer told media persons,A three year old boy was killed on the spot when an earth moving vehicle ran over him at a construction site on Dhanvantri road on Saturday morning.

During preliminary investigation it was found that David John used to work as watchman at the construction site to take care of the vehicles and the construction material.He was staying at a makeshift house at the construction site along with his wife and child.

The accident occurred at around 5.30 am when David went out of the house to inspect the site as the workers had arrived.Simian who was sleeping got up and came out the shed and sat close to the earth moving vehicle and was playing .

The driver of the vehicle identified as Shankar Nayak failed to notice the boy started the vehicle and took reverse,crushing the child under the wheels .

A few laborers heard the cry and rushed to help but by then it was too late. The Upparpet police reached the spot and later arrested Shankar Nayak and booked him under death due to negligence and further investigation is on.

Parmesh S Jain

Police raided two resorts situated in the outskirts of the city for organizing parties for the new year, despite the ban and violating the night curfew on Friday night   .

The Nandagiri Dhama in chikkaballapura police arrested as many as 8 persons including the management staff of the resort for not only organizing the party but also arguing with the police who went to check .

Meanwhile the Ramnagar police under SP S Girish raided a resort for illegally partying with high decible sound of music and booked the owner and the staff of a resort near Kanva reservoir for organizing a new year party  .

The police found over 50 tents pitched in and around the resort to house the couple and guests who attended the parties and the DJ music was also part of the event  . 

The resort has organized the party and taken bookings online .

The police made an announcement that the party was in violation of the night curfew and asked them to wind up and go home .

Soon comotion prevailed for some time as the people  (mostly a couple ) rushed out of their tents and ran helter-skelter carrying their belongings,while the police were busy folding the tents and putting them into a van.

The police also booked a case against the resort owner and the management and arrested the owner Swami.

The police also booked cases against the owners of the resorts charging them under various sections of Epidemic Diseases and Disaster Management Act.

Meanwhile the city police seized as many as 318 vehicles including 280 bikes for violating the night curfew.

The police stepped up vigil in and around the CBD area to monitor the flow of people towards MG road and brigade junction where a large crowd was expected . 

Parmesh S Jain

A Police constable attached to Siddapura police station has been suspended for having links with the drug peddler who was arrested by the police recently .

Senior officer told reporters,The incident came to light when Siddapura police nabbed a drug peddler identified as Sanaulla in a drug case and analyzed his mobile phones . 

To their shock the police found that the accused was having contacts with the Head Constable Rahman regularly.

The police further verified the Call Record Details of Rahman to corroborate the facts before filing a detailed report with the DCP.

Taking a serious note the DCP, South, Harish Pandey suspended the head constable and initiated a detailed inquiry into the incident he added.

Parmesh S Jain

Posing as policemen,a gang of armed men barged into the house of a businessman and searched the house and robbed valuables of the inmates at gunpoint on Friday.

The incident occurred at around 5 pm when the gang barged into the house and introduced themselves as police from Tiptur town and said that they wanted to search the house in a case related to theft.

Senior officer told media persons,The gang accused the owner of receiving the property and searched the house and took away the valuables from the house and the family members at gunpoint.

The family took sometime to recover from the shock and later realized something was amiss and approached the police.

The Mahalakshmi Layout police cross checked to find that the family was robbed by fake cops and registered a case of robbery.

The police are now on the lookout for the accused and verifying the CCTV footage for clues and a case has been registered in Mahalakshmi layout police station and further investigation is on.

NEW DELHI: Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) across banks are all set to increase service charges per transaction from Saturday, following an order from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and customers will have to Rs 1 more beyond the permissible free transactions for cash as well as non-cash purposes.

However, the customers are eligible for five free transactions (inclusive of financial and non-financial transactions) every month from their own bank ATMs.

They are also eligible for free transactions (inclusive of financial and non-financial transactions) from other bank ATMs viz. three transactions in metro centers and five transactions in non-metro centers.

The last change in interchange fee structure for ATM transactions was in August 2012, while the charges payable by customers were last revised in August 2014.

The RBI has notified the changes from January 1, 2022, citing the increasing cost of ATM deployment and expenses towards ATM maintenance incurred by banks or white-label ATM operators.

Ashwani Rana, Founder of, Voice of Banking said, “The increase of service charges per ATM transaction will be charged from the customers beyond a number of transactions permitted by the respective banks. This increase is only Rs 1 plus Goods and Services Tax (GST), which is very nominal to customers against the maintenance charges paid by banks as earlier they were charging Rs 20.”

Nipun Jain, Chief Executive Officer, RapiPay Fintech clarified, “Consumers withdrawing cash using our Micro ATMs and Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) will not be affected with the recent RBI guideline to increase ATM transactions charges (applicable after the customers exhaust the free monthly limit).”

“We believe this will boost the already growing demand for cash withdrawal through AEPS and Micro ATMs at our direct business outlets and help us in achieving our goal of growing financial inclusion in deeper geographies and far-flung areas like North East, Kashmir, Ladakh, and Uttrakhand. We have sold over one lakh Micro ATMs since we began operations last year. Our average ticket size of withdrawal has climbed from Rs 3500 to Rs 3800, with a CAGR growth of 25 per cent in Micro ATMs in the last one year,” Jain added.