Friday’s rain took a toll on citizens of South Bengaluru, with homes and roads flooded and vehicles damaged.

BENGALURU:  Friday’s rain took a toll on citizens of South Bengaluru, with homes and roads flooded and vehicles damaged. The residents blamed BBMP officials for not desilting drains leading to flooding. 
With rain lashing for over five hours, from 1.30 pm to 7 pm, many localities in Rajarajeshwari Nagar were flooded up to 3 feet high. Water from the nearby Vrishabhavathi Valley entered people’s homes, causing damage to their electrical appliances and furniture. It took hours for residents to bale out water.

The frustrated and angry residents blamed BBMP officials for not cleaning up the stormwater drain and removing encroachments along rajakaluves. Hosakerehalli, Nayandahalli, Basavanagudi, Bommanahalli, Kengeri, Rajarajeshwarinagar, Bommanahalli and surrounding areas were the worst affected in Friday evening rain. The residents shared pictures with BBMP engineers and joint commissioner, who helped in flushing out water in some areas. “But they attended to only some localities and ignored many others. A few hours after the rain, water level receded and flooding came down in the night. We could not step out of our house till Saturday morning,” a resident said. 

Residents of apartments at RK Colony in Bilekahalli on Bannerghatta Road have complained to the BBMP about overflowing drain since May, but officials have failed to address the issue. When sheets of rain fell on Friday evening, the existing problem only got worse, making the lives of residents miserable. 

The residents alleged that the underground drainage system has not been done properly and even a short spell of rain causes flooding. Suresh Prakash, a resident, said, “When we complained about the drain, officials said that they had to desilt the lines, that go to Madiwala Lake. It has been six months since we complained, and the officials are yet to address the problem.”He said, “On Friday, the whole place started to stink and it was difficult to even breathe. We had to wait till rainwater to drain by itself. Children and adults are at a high risk of contracting diseases.”

MYSURU: The Covid pandemic has cast a pall of gloom over enrolment of students in schools in the backward Chamarajanagar district.Many parents, fearing the safety of their wards, have not even got their children admitted to higher classes. Though the government had set a deadline of September 30 for admission and then extended it till October 16, around 4,605 students are still missing from the rolls in the current academic year.

Worried about the trend, officials are trying to convince parents to enrol their children in schools. According to sources, the number of admissions has come down by 129 in government schools, 1,164 in aided schools and 2,582 in unaided schools. The student strength in Chamarajanagar for 2020-21 is 1,22,389 as against 1,26,994 for 2019-20.

Parents say that they are ready to lose a year rather than put their children at risk, and seem to think that the government will promote their children like last year. A parent, pleading anonymity, said his daughter wants to join school, but poor financial condition has tied his hands. “I will get her enrolled as soon as I get some money,” he said.

Somanna, a teacher, said parents confessed that they don’t have money to get their children admitted. “Many parents have no money to pay the fee or buy books as they are not getting assured income for the last 6-7 months,” he said. Many children are assisting their parents to supplement the family income.
DDPI Javare Gowda said over 4,000 students have not enrolled to schools so far.

“Block education officers have served show-cause notices directing private schools to enrol students, but the numbers have not improved. We have appealed to parents to get their wards admitted to the nearest government school if they find it difficult to pay fee,” he said.Gowda said over 700 students have switched form private to government schools, and BEOs are authorised to give transfer certificates to students to enable them to join schools of their choice.

He said that the BJP will win both Sira and R R Nagar bypolls.

TUMAKURU: Amid the ongoing campaigning for the Sira Assembly bypoll, Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi on Friday dropped a bombshell, saying five more Congress MLAs are ready to quit the party and join the BJP.“Since they have realised that Congress has no future in Karnataka, the MLAs have made up their mind to quit,” he claimed while campaigning for BJP candidate Dr C M Rajesh Gowda at Tavarekere village.  

He said that the BJP will win both Sira and R R Nagar bypolls. “Besides this poll debacle and five more MLAs joining the BJP, the Congress situation will only get worse,” he added.He claimed that Karnataka State Apex Bank chairman and former MLA K N Rajanna of Congress has a good rapport with him. 

“By admiring Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration, he helped Tumakuru BJP candidate G S Bavasaraju win the 2019 Lok Sabha election against H D Deve Gowda. But in Sira now, he has been campaigning for the Congress candidate because of some pressure,” Savadi said, sending feelers to voters of the ST Nayaka community, to which Rajanna belongs.

The Karnataka High Court has granted bail to P Naveen, who was arrested for allegedly putting up a derogatory post on Facebook that allegedly led to the riots in Bengaluru.

BENGALURU:  The Karnataka High Court has granted bail to P Naveen, who was arrested for allegedly putting up a derogatory post on Facebook that allegedly led to the riots in DJ Halli and KG Halli police station limits in Bengaluru on August 11. Justice BA Patil granted bail recently imposing conditions that the accused should execute a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh with two sureties of the like sum, not to tamper with the evidence, not leave the jurisdiction of the court without prior permission and not indulge in similar criminal activities.

On the apprehension of the prosecution that there is a threat to the life of the accused if he is released on bail which may create unrest in society, the judge said that rejecting bail on merely these grounds will affect the fundamental rights of the accused.

The DyCM had said this will be confirmed after a meeting with Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa,  which is scheduled in three days, a source said.

BENGALURU:  While there is no official announcement yet about the start of the academic year offline for college students, top officials from the education department have indicated that colleges will reopen offline in the first week of November, and preparations for the same are on.Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, who is also Higher Education Minister, told reporters on Monday that the department is preparing to reopen colleges in November. UGC has come out with an advisory for state governments to reopen colleges, he said.

The DyCM had said this will be confirmed after a meeting with Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa,  which is scheduled in three days, a source said. A top source from the department confirmed to TNIE that the department is looking to open colleges in the first week of November. However, students will be given a choice between offline and online classes, the source added.

A committee of current vice-chancellors of universities, that met on Saturday, also reportedly suggested that classes be held on Sundays too, if need be.“The committee can only recommend how colleges can be opened, and not the schedule, which has to be decided by the UGC and government. A hybrid model of education, instead of going completely offline, will help decongest the campus and hostels,” a vice-chancellor told TNIE.

In the meantime, the department has also mandated Covid-19 tests for teaching and non-teaching staff in private, aided and government degree colleges that come under the ambit of the state education department. Personnel in the office of the joint director have also been asked to undergo the test.The official said there is no confirmation whether students will be subject to it before commencement of offline classes. Meanwhile, AICTE has allowed engineering colleges to start the academic session from December 1. It was earlier scheduled for November 1.AICTE has also extended admission deadlines for first-year courses in engineering colleges to November 30. This is owing to “prolonged emergent conditions and requests from state governments and ongoing admission processes of IITs and NITs”.

BENGALURU: The State Election Commission (SEC) has moved the Karnataka High Court seeking directions to hold elections to 198 wards of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and not wait till the delimitation process is over.The SEC has sought the direction in its application before the court, pleading to add additional facts and prayer to the public interest litigation which was filed in January 2020 seeking directions to the state government to hold elections before the BBMP Council term expired. With this, the SEC has questioned the state’s decision to postpone the elections. 

The SEC said that the final delimitation notification was issued on June 23 and draft reservation notification on September 14 to hold elections to 198 Wards. The same arrangement should continue and the state government should be directed to issue the final reservation notification, irrespective of the Karnataka Municipal Corporation (Third Amendment) Act, 2020 — amending Sections 7 and 21 of the Act to increase the number of Wards from 198 to 243, the SEC prayed before the court. 

The SEC pleaded that the state government requires at least 12 months to issue delimitation and reservation notification for 243 Wards if it starts the process after receiving recommendations from the Delimitation Commission constituted recently. After that, 4-5 months will be needed to prepare and finalise fresh electoral rolls for new wards. The election process that has already started cannot be postponed as it would amount to flouting the mandate of the Constitution, the SEC argued. 

Similar arguments were placed by the other petitioners also. After hearing them, the bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Ashok S Kinagi directed the state government to file its response by November 7 explaining why it was delaying the election process. The hearing was adjourned till November 10, 2020.

Bengaluru: The COVID-19 tally in Karnataka rose to 7.70 lakh with the addition of 5,018 new cases while the death toll mounted to 10,542 as 64 more people succumbed to the disease, the health department said on Monday.

The day also saw 8,005 patients getting discharged after recovery.

As of October 19 evening, cumulatively 7,70,604 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed in the state, which includes 10,542 deaths and 6,53,829 discharges, the department said in its bulletin.

The active cases stood at 1,06,214 with 1,05,282 of them in stable condition in isolation wards of designated hospitals while 932 were being treated in the intensive care units.

As many as 17 of the 64 fresh deaths were from Bengaluru Urban followed by Dakshina Kannada (6), Bengaluru Rural and Chamarajanagara (5) and others with most of them either had a history of Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) or Influenza-like illness (ILI).

Bengaluru Urban accounted for 2,481 of the fresh positive cases, taking its infection count to 3,10,021.

Tumakuru 253, Chikkaballapura 193, Ballari 186, Bengaluru Rural 173, Mysuru 151, Mandya 130, Dakshina Kannada 107, Chitradurga and Koppal 106 were among the districts that shared the remaining fresh cases.

Among discharges too, Bengaluru urban tops the list with a total of 2,41,942 recoveries, followed by Mysuru 37,319 and Ballari 33,442.

A total of over 67,46,358 samples have been tested so far, out of which 78,581 were tested on Monday alone.