Bengaluru: Conceding that the delay in installing LED streetlights in Bengaluru has created “dark spots” in the city, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday said three lakh such streetlights will be installed by December.

The Chief Minister, who is also in-charge of Bengaluru City Development, was replying to a question raised by Dasarahalli JD(S) MLA R Manjunath in the state assembly on the delay caused in the project to replace all street lights with energy-efficient LEDs, and the inconvenience caused to people at night due to dysfunctional streetlights.

The project to replace all streetlights with LEDs was approved in 2019, and the government entrusted this work to BSPL, a consortium of Shapoorji Pallonji, SMC Infrastructure and Samudra Electronics Systems, under a public-private partnership.

“This issue came up when I reviewed projects relating to Bengaluru after taking over as the Chief Minister. I had clearly said during the review that there is a delay in starting the work, it has to start immediately. They (company) have said the project will be completed in five phases, and it is decided that by December 31, three lakh LED bulbs have to be installed,” Bommai said.

He said the work has begun in some places, while it is yet to start in a few places due to various reasons.

As per the project pact, 4.85 lakh street lights in the city’s municipal limits are to be replaced with LEDs in five phases, and the work was to be implemented in 30 months.

It is said that the project will lead to energy savings of up to 85 per cent.

Responding to Manjunath’s question as to what action will the government take in case of failure on part of the company, Bommai said, as per the clause of the agreement the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in case of delay or damage can impose a penalty of Rs 1 lakh per week.

Senior Congress MLA from BTM Layout Ramalinga Reddy, noting that it is the issue of all the 28 assembly constituencies in Bengaluru, pointed out that for the last three years, constituencies have not received any grants for streetlights citing the global tender for the LED project. “You can ask any MLA from the city.” BJP MLAs Ravi Subramanya (Basavanagudi) and Arvind Limbavali (Mahadevapura) seconded Reddy’s statement.

The Chief Minister, conceding that two years of the project went into approvals and contracts, said “This was not right. This has created several dark spots in all the wards under BBMP limits.” “I have asked officials to take up all five phases at once immediately and in case of delay, measures will also be taken to re-examine the contract. I will also issue instructions to the BBMP to do repairs and maintenance of existing streetlights,” he added.

Bengaluru: In protest against the “imposition of Hindi”, Kannada organisations on Tuesday held a twitter campaign and picketing in front of banks in several parts of Karnataka, on the occasion of Hindi Diwas.

The Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) has organised a Twitter campaign with hashtag “#StopHindiImposition” from 10 am to 10 pm on Tuesday, while its activists staged picketing in front of banks in different parts of the State.

KRV has tweeted pictures of its activists staging picketing in Sedam, Chincholi, Ron, Hungund, Hiriyur, Pandavapura, Bengaluru, Vijayapura, Kalaburagi, Chikkaballapura, Thirthahalli, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, Kolar, Mandya and Dharwad, among several other places.

They submitted a petition to managers of the banks urging them to stop alleged Hindi imposition and to provide services in Kannada.

According to Arun Javgal, state organisation secretary of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV), the intention behind conducting protests in front of nationalised banks is also to raise awareness among the masses and thereby tell the people of Karnataka about the way, “Hindi Imposition” has snatched thousands of jobs from Kannadigas in Banks operating in the state.

“Using the Taxpayers money from across the country and yet, giving undue importance only to Hindi in a multilingual country like India is something KRV opposes vehemently,” he said in a tweet.

KRV state President Narayanagowdru T A termed Hindi Diwas celebrations as “anti-democratic and immoral”.

“It (Hindi Diwas) is against the intent of the constitution which says all citizens are equal ,” he said, as he called on all non-Hindi speaking communities and those Hindi speakers, who believe in equality, to oppose it.

Coming in support of voices against Hindi Diwas celebration, JD(S) leader and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy in a tweet said “Kannada is first in Karnataka. Hindi Diwas celebration is unnecessary. Let’s not disturb the peace in multilingual India by imposing Hindi.” Several other organisations like Karnataka Janaadhikaara Paksha observed it as ‘Black Day’.

Bengaluru: A research scholar at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science here, allegedly died by suicide at his hostel room in the campus, police said on Tuesday.

The victim, hailing from West Bengal, in his twenties was having some health issues.

As there was no response to the repeated knocks on the door of his room on Sunday, the IISc authorities with the help of police broke open the door and found him lying dead. According to IISc officials, the student committed suicide by consuming poison.

Later, the institute in a press release said, “It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of a student by suicide on 12 September 2021 at IISc. The student was pursuing PhD from the Department of Organic Chemistry. We express our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the student.”

BENGALURU: Demolition of religious structures has taken a twist with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Tuesday directing officials across the State not to demolish temples in a hurry. Bommai said he will answer the issue of demolition of temples in Mysuru district on the floor of the House. 

After legislators from all parties and Hindu organisation protested against the demolition of Hucchagani Mahadevappa temple at Nanjangud in Mysuru district, the State Government on Tuesday decided to halt all demolitions across the state.

Revenue Minister R Ashoka told The New Indian Express that the Supreme Court order on the demolition of places of worship, including temples, constructed unauthorisedly, is not new as the directions came 12 years ago. “Officials in Mysuru have taken action based on the court order. But at the same time, people’s sentiments should have been respected,” he added.  

“The apex court order states that temple authorities should be allowed to shift places of worship on their own. Officials were supposed to convince them. But without doing that, officials in Mysuru proceeded to demolish the temple, which is not right,” he said. 

“They should follow the same guidelines for all places of worship, including temples, churches and masjids. The court kept asking about the number of illegal structures demolished and that might have put pressure on the officials,” Ashoka said.

The government cannot appeal before the Supreme Court as it is the final order. “We can relocate temples that were constructed after 2009. We will take a decision on that soon,” he said. Chief Secretary P Ravikumar directed deputy commissioners to file an affidavit before the High Court on their action plan on illegal religious structures.

The Supreme Court has asked the Karnataka High Court to monitor the demolition of illegal structures. “DCs should identify these structures on government properties, tell the High Court what is their action plan, how many are demolished and what the status is, ‘’ he added.

In Mysuru, Deputy Commissioner Dr Bagadi Gautham said that the demolition of illegal religious structures will be stopped temporarily and the district administration will wait for government orders. On the demolition of Hucchagani Mahadevappa temple in Nanjangud, he said, “The government has sought a report from us.”

Recently, the Hindu Jagaran Vedike had announced that it will launch a protest against Mysuru district administration officials on September 16. Senior JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy said, “In the name of Supreme Court order, Mysuru administration is gearing up to demolish 92 temples. BJP is behind this. If the government decides, it can stop demolitions. Let the government file an affidavit before the Supreme Court and call an all-party meeting.”

In 2009, the Supreme Court had ordered the demolition or relocation of illegal religious structures in public places. In 2019, the Karnataka High Court took up a suo motu petition to supervise the state government’s implementation of the apex court order. Last year, the High Court had rapped the state government for not implementing the Supreme Court’s order.

46 places of worship to be removed in Belagavi, says DC
Belagavi Deputy Commissioner MG Hiremath on Tuesday said that there are 46 places of worshi situated over roads in Belagavi city limits that have been identified for removal. Among these, 17 have already been removed, the DC said. “We are taking all precautions to remove and relocate these temples, ensuring that they don’t suffer any damage duirng the process,” Hiremath said.

BENGALURU : In a shocking murder that was committed in broad daylight, a rowdy-sheeter was chased and hacked to death by a gang of armed assailants inside a referee’s room at the Bangalore Football Stadium in Ashoknagar on Sunday afternoon. 

Following the murder, the Karnataka State Football Association’s (KSFA) Sporting Planet Trophy Prospective Women’s ‘A’ Division league — the second match of which was about to commence at 4 pm when the shocking incident occurred — was postponed by a few days.

After the match, he was drinking juice with his friends by the roadside when the gang attacked him. Trying to escape, Aravind ran across the road into the KSFA Stadium and went into the stands. But the assailants chased him inside the stadium.

“Aravind escaped from the stands too and got into a referee’s room before locking himself inside. The gang, however, broke open the door and hacked him to death with deadly weapons. They immediately escaped from the spot,” the police said. The police are verifying the CCTV footage to identify the killers. DCP (Central) MN Anucheth said a murder case has been registered at the Ashoknagar police station and two special teams have been formed to nab the assailants.

Aravind was a rowdy sheeter of Bharathi Nagar police station and had 13 cases, including two attempts-to-murder, registered against him at various police stations. 

Cops suspect rival’s role in murder

Aravind had been detained by the Bharathi Nagar police under the Goonda Act in May and was released two months ago. The advisory board which approves detention under the Act had given him relief as there were no suf ficient grounds to detain him under Goonda Act.

The police investigating the case suspect the role of another rowdy-sheeter Stanley behind Aravind’s murder. Sources said Stanley, also a rowdy sheeter in Bharathi Nagar, had an ongoing enmity with Aravind. Meanwhile, KSFA Secretary Satyanarayan clarified that neither the deceased nor the killers had any connection with the association.

BENGALURU : As the ten-day monsoon session of Karnataka legislature kicks off on Monday, opposition parties, especially the Congress, plans to corner the Basavaraj Bommai government on price rise of essential commodities, handling of the Covid situation, lack of vaccine supplies, National Education Policy and other issues.

The government, on the other hand, plans to get 18 bills passed during the session, including the all-important amendment to the Karnataka Police Act, 1963, to ban online gambling. Asked if the time allotted for the session was enough, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy said, “Ten days of session is sufficient to discuss the issues, provided the opposition does not disrupt the proceedings and stages a walkout.” 

On the first day of the session, Leader of Opposition and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president DK Shivakumar are planning to arrive at Vidhana Soudha on bullock carts to make a dramatic point about the increase in fuel prices.

The opposition has also planned to rake up law and order problem in the coastal region over religious issues and alleged sexist remarks of Home Minister Araga Jnanendra in the Mysuru college girl’s rape case. 

Opposition to target govt over NEP

DK Shivakumar said that Congress will corner Higher Education Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayana on NEP, saying that the policy has been introduced without a debate among stakeholders. Public Accounts Committee Chairman and Congress leader Ramalinga Reddy alleged that the government has hidden Covid death figures to avoid paying compensation to the kin of the deceased, and he would raise it on the floor of the House. JDS, which is still to decide whether to support Congress or BJP in the Kalaburagi Municipal Corporation, has not revealed what stand it would take during the session.

For Bommai, this is the first session after assuming office as CM. Political circles are curious as to how he will handle the opposition demand to release the caste census conducted by the backward classes commission, demand of Panchamashali-Lingayats for 2A tag and other issues.

BENGALURU : For three days in a row, Karnataka has reported less than 1,000 Covid-19 cases. On Sunday, it was 803, pushing the positivity rate down from 6.55% to 6.53% and taking the state tally up to 29,61,735. There were 921 discharges which increased the recovery rate from 98.16% to 98.17%.

There were 17 deaths which took the total fatalities to 37,504, despite which the mortality rate stayed the same at 1.26%. Active cases decreased from 16,672 to 16,656. On Saturday, the state saw 801 cases, and on Friday, 967 cases. 

Bengaluru: Karnataka on Thursday reported the lowest number of deaths due to COVID-19, since the beginning of the second wave, with 4 fatalities, taking the toll so far due to the pandemic to 37,462, the health department said.

The state logged 1,074 new cases of corona infections taking the total number of cases so far to 29,59,164.

The day also saw 1,136 discharges, taking the total recoveries in the state to 29,04,683.

“Karnataka records the lowest death tally in the 2nd wave today,” Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar said in a tweet sharing the details of today’s COVID bulletin.

COVID second wave had begun in Karnataka, during the mid of March.

Out of 4 deaths reported on Thursday, 3 are from Bengaluru Urban, and one in Hassan.

Out of 1,074 new cases reported on Thursday, 343 were from Bengaluru Urban, and the city saw 251 discharges.

Total number of active cases in the state is at 16,992.

While the positivity rate for the day stood at 0.63 per cent, case fatality rate (CFR) was at 0.37 per cent.

Among the districts where the new cases were reported, Bengaluru Urban accounted for 343, Dakshina Kannada 176, Udupi 126, Hassan 81, Chikkamagaluru 68, followed by others.

Bengaluru Urban district tops the list of positive cases, with a total of 12,40,653, followed by Mysuru 1,76,735 and Tumakuru 1,19,567.

Among discharges too, Bengaluru Urban tops the list with 12,17,401, followed by Mysuru 1,73,542 and Tumakuru 1,17,813.

Cumulatively a total of 4,49,07,570 samples have been tested in the state so far, out of which 1,69,448 were tested on Thursday alone.

BENGALURU: The Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has been adjudged the best among research institutions, while the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras retained the top spot for third consecutive year among institutes across India, as per the Union Ministry of Education’s National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings. The sixth edition of the rankings was announced by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday. 

Seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) — IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur, IIT Guwahati and IIT Roorkee — figured in the top 10 in the overall rankings, while Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Banaras Hindu University (BHU) were ranked ninth and tenth. 

The IISc also bagged the top spot in the ‘Universities’ category followed by JNU and BHU. Calcutta University, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Jamia Millia Islamia, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Jadavpur University, University of Hyderabad and Aligarh Muslim Univeristy bagged subsequent positions.

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, IIM-Bangalore and IIM-Calcutta retained their first, second and third ranks, respectively among B-Schools in India.

With the category of ‘Research’ being added for the first time, the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) in Bengaluru and the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) were ranked 19 and 42, respectively in this category. Among the ‘best medical colleges’ in the country, NIMHANS has retained the fourth position.

Topping from Bengaluru is also the National Law School of India University among the country’s best law colleges. Among top 10 engineering college is the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, ranked 10, also ranking 32 among overall best institutes. A total of seven engineering colleges have been listed from Karnataka among the top 100.

Also, 10 universities from the state have been listed under the top 100 universities in India in the NIRF rankings. Appreciating Karnataka’s medical colleges, engineering colleges, management institutions and research institutes, Higher Education Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan took to Twitter congratulating the institutions and posted, “Proud to see so many institutions from Karnataka acing the #NIRFRankings.”

BENGALURU: The state government on Sunday announced that Ganesh Chaturthi festivities will be allowed for five days at public places with strict restrictions. While a gathering of more than 20 people at the same time is not allowed, the public celebration is prohibited in border taluks that have more than 2 per cent Covid positivity rate. No cultural programmes and processions will be allowed this time.

“In urban areas, Ganesh pandals will be allowed one per ward and the local administration can decide on the numbers in rural areas. However, taluks that share borders with neighbouring states and have more than 2 per cent Covid positivity rate cannot allow public celebration,” he added.

He said that cultural or entertainment programmes, like orchestra and DJ music, as part of the festival are strictly prohibited. “No processions will be allowed while bringing the Ganesh idol or immersing it. A provision will be made to erect pandals of 50×50 feet and organisers should ensure that not more than 20 people are at the pandal at a time and devotees should adhere to all Covid-appropriate behaviour.

Permission is given to keep idols only for five days. The rules also apply for celebrations at apartments,” he said. Only eco-friendly idols will be sold and they must be immersed only at designated places like ponds identified by the local administration and mobile tanks. He stressed that celebrations should not be organised at schools and colleges. 

Festivities must end before 9.00 pm

“Members of committees that organise pubic celebrations must carry Covid-negative certificates and should be compulsorily vaccinated. Local authorities will hold vaccination drives near pandals and jab those not vaccinated,” the minister said. He specified that idols that are kept at public places should not exceed 4 feet while those at home should be 2 feet.

“Organisers must obtain permission from agencies concerned before erecting pandal s and wind up the celebrations before 9 pm, as night curfew will be in force,” Ashoka said. The guidelines stated that pandals must be sanitised every day and devotees must be allowed after providing sanitiser and checking their temperature.

State records 8 deaths, lowest in second wave
Bengaluru: The state reported just eight Covid deaths on Sunday, the lowest since April 2 and 3 when six were reported dead on each of those days five months ago. Of the eight deaths, five are from Bengaluru, while the rest three are from Mysuru, Belagavi and Dakshina Kannada. However, despite the low deaths, the mortality rate has remained constant at 1.26 per cent for exactly a month and the positivity rate fell to 6.66 per cent. 

WHAT’S ALLOWED AND WHAT’S NOT

Only one pandal is allowed per ward in urban areas

Idols should be under 4 feet for public celebrations and 2 feet at homes

No public celebration in border taluks with more than 2 per cent Covid positivity rate

No celebrations in schools and colleges

Celebrations allowed only for five days, and must wind up before 9 pm

Gathering of more than 20 devotees at a time is prohibited

Organisers must carry Covid-negative report and get vaccinated

Cultural and entertainment programmes as well as processions completely prohibited