What was once a black spot and dumping ground has now been turned into a serene green space for senior citizens in Domlur.

BENGALURU:  What was once a black spot and dumping ground has now been turned into a serene green space for senior citizens in Domlur. It took the residents and the authorities two long years to transform this space into the Ajja-Ajji (grandfather-grandmother) Park.

Dr Hemant Kumar Agarwal, a paediatrician and the man who initiated the cleanliness drive, said, “Eight years ago, this spot was a cesspool of diseases. BBMP used it as a garbage dump. I tried creating awareness among residents.”

It was only after the residents teamed up with the NGO The Ugly Indian that the garbage dump started taking the shape of an urban park.

BBMP and the Resident Welfare Association then joined hands to make a green lung space.

Domlur Corporator Lakshmi Narayan C R said, “The road was once inhabited by rodents, dogs and cows that fed on garbage. Now it has been transformed into a beautiful park, which elderly citizens can use.”

A representative of The Ugly Indian said, “The Ajja-Ajji park is one of the best examples of how residents and authorities can come together to convert a dirty trash dump into a lung space. The park is properly lit at night too.”

Balasubrahmani G, a resident, said, “The park is a peaceful place now. My wife and I go there to spend our evenings without being bothered by traffic.”

Waste disposal in the ward has been addressed too. Madhumathi G, a homemaker and a resident, said, “Earlier, people in the area openly dumped their garbage in this spot. But now, we have a proper waste disposal method where the auto tippers collect garbage regularly. Organic waste and animal manure are used as compost for the plants.”

A group of seven person has been arrested in Bengaluru by Yeshwanthpur police for their pranks,which the residents alleged could have turned dangerous in night time. Donning white gowns,wigs and red paint resembling blood,the members of the group had dressed like “ghosts”and went around scaring people on the intervening night of Sunday Monday in Sharieffnagar area of Yeshwanthpur,police said.
The Yeshwanthpur police rushed to the spot and caught,Shaan Malik,20,Naveed, 20,Saji Mohammed,21,Sakib,20,Syed Nabil,20,Yusif Ahmed,20,all residents of RT Nagar and Mohammed Ayub,20,a resident of Nagawara,and brought them to the police station. The
accused are students of city colleges. The police said the accused made prank videos and uploaded them on social media for attraction. As per the plan,one of the accused,wearing a long white kurta and a wig and splashing red paint on his shirt to make it look like blood,started confronting motorists,pedestrians and people sleeping on pavements,and created panic for some time. The police said the pranks had turned into a menace as many residents in north Bengaluru were scared.

Videos on YouTube”:
Investigation revealed that they would upload these videos on YouTube under the title ‘Ghost Prank in Bengaluru’. They tried to scare people the same way early on Monday when they were caught.
DCP,North,N Shashikumar told reporters,last night around 2.30 am, we received a complaint from the Yeshwanthpur area Sharieffnagar residents saying a group of people were pranking the pedestrians and troubling them in the region. Based on complaint,Yeshwanthpur inspector and his crime staff rushed to the spot and detained all the seven and we have arrested seven of them.After all the legal procedures.He even said that even though they were only pranking the people,but the way they portrayed themselves as ghosts in the middle of the night was dangerous.What if they had tried to stop a two-wheeler that was moving on high speed? There could have been an accident,DCP said.

We questioned them to ascertain the motive and later summoned their parents to the station.The accused were made to give an undertaking and let off on bail after a stern warning.The accused had even tried to scare the police personnel in mufti without realising that they had come to secure their custody,Mr.Shashi Kumar said.

Agency raided 15 locations of officers and IMA entities and found incriminating documents and digital evidences

BENGALURU: In another huge embarrassment to the state bureaucracy, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday raided the residential premises of two serving senior IPS officers – Inspector General of Police (IGP) and Additional Commissioner of Police (Administration) Hemant Nimbalkar and Superintendent and Commandant, State Reserve Police, 1st Battalion Ajay Hilori in the alleged multi-crore I Monetary Advisory (IMA) ponzi scheme. The CBI had earlier searched the residence and official premises of Additional Director General of Police and former Bengaluru city police commissioner Alok Kumar in the illegal phone tapping scam.

The CBI raided 15 locations of officers and IMA entities and recovered “various incriminating documents, property documents, material objects and digital evidences in an ongoing investigation of a scam”, a CBI official said.

Besides Nimbalkar and Hilori, CBI sleuths conducted searches at the premises of suspended IAS officer and former deputy commissioner, Bengaluru Urban, B M Vijay Shankar; former assistant commissioner, Bengaluru North subdivision, L C Nagaraj; former chief engineer, Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA), P D Kumar; and former village accountant, Bengaluru North subdivision, Manjunath. The CBI also raided the premises of former deputy SP, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), E B Sridhara; then police inspector and station house officer, Commercial Street, M Ramesh; and former sub inspector, Commercial Street, Gowri Shankar.  

The CBI has conducted searches at 15 locations – 11 in Bengaluru; one each in Mandya, Ramanagara, and Belagavi districts and one in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.Nimbalkar was then IGP, Economic Offences Wing, CID, and Hilori was posted as DCP Bengaluru (East) then.  

The CBI stated: “These public servants had conducted inquiries against the IMA Group entities, furnished favourable reports and given clean chits to them. As a result, no action was allegedly initiated against IMA and the fraud continued unhindered due to the clean chit reports given by these officers despite the fact that the Reserve Bank of India had repeatedly flagged the issue about unauthorised collections and raising of deposits by IMA during the State Level Coordination Committee (SLCC) meetings and had also written several letters to various authorities in Karnataka.”

Based on these letters from RBI, inquiries were conducted through these officers. “They allegedly failed in their duties in pointing out the glaring irregularities committed by the IMA, and gave clean chits. Investigation into the expenditure statements of IMA revealed the alleged payments of huge bribe amounts on multiple occasions by the founder and managing director Mohammed Mansoor Khan and other IMA directors to these officials,” the CBI spokesperson added.

The CBI had registered a case on August 30 in the IMA scam on the request of the state government and further notification from the Centre. The case was earlier being investigated by Karnataka Special Investigation Team.

Mansoor and other IMA entities had illegally collected deposits from the public in the form of investments on various ponzi schemes with a promise of getting high returns. Most of the deposits were allegedly misappropriated by Mansoor and other IMA entities for acquiring assets on their personal names and names of family members. “The accused have allegedly paid huge bribes to public servants and others as protection money to carry out their illegal activities,” the officer added.

The main demand of the students remains that those accused be arrested or appropriate action be taken against them.

BENGALURU: In continuation with the strike that began on Saturday, junior doctors of Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) working at Minto Eye Hospital boycotted Out Patient Department services after one of their female colleagues was allegedly assaulted by members of Karnataka Rakshana Vedike. On Friday, members of the pro-Kannada outfit came in to demand for compensation for a patient who lost his sight after an eye surgery went wrong, owing to the use of a contaminated drug. Later, they allegedly began assaulting her because she could not speak Kannada.

“Our colleague was not even the person responsible for the surgery. Moreover, she is not from Karnataka. What kind of impression does it give about Bengaluru or Karnataka when we assault outsiders, especially a doctor who was just doing her job?” complained Dr Savitha, one of the doctors on strike.The main demand of the students remains that those accused be arrested or appropriate action be taken against them. A protest is likely to take place on Monday morning as well.

“We have reservation for only 50 percent of the seats for Kannadigas. The rest are people from other states who come after writing NEET. What if Kannadigas went to study and practice outside the state and they are attacked for not knowing the language?” demanded Doddabasappa, another doctor.

A male colleague who tried filming the incident was allegedly assaulted as well.

“There is a procedure to complain if any patient has an issue. They should approach the right authority,” Dr Savitha added.Speaking at an event on Sunday, Deputy Chief Minister and Medical Education Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan said,” I have asked police to take action against the perpetrators. I urge the doctors to return to work as patients should not be affected. Necessary security will be provided to doctors.”

Manuchandra, the head of the Bengaluru chapter, pointed out that marine life was the worst affected due to plastic and very soon there will be a shortage of seafood in the city.

BENGALURU: In order to reduce the amount of plastic waste generated by the city, the Bengaluru Chapter of the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) will promote the use of eco-friendly products in city’s restaurants.

NRAI is creating awareness among restaurants to use paper bags, reed or bamboo straws, bagasse containers and glass bottles. “Bengaluru is the fourth-largest generator of plastic in the country. Many restaurants in the city can bring about change. We are asking restaurants to start using bagasse, the leftover fibre after the extraction of the juice from sugarcane, which is eco-friendly,” said Prakash Pandey, NRAI member and director of Byg Brewski Brewing Company.

Manuchandra, the head of the Bengaluru chapter, pointed out that marine life was the worst affected due to plastic and very soon there will be a shortage of seafood in the city.

More than 3,000 restaurateurs joined hands to clean up Koramangla and Indiranagar on Sunday. The team collected 754 bags of plastic waste and 874 bags of other waste. Even elected representatives like MLAs N A Harris and Ramlinga Reddy were a part of the exercise.

The NRAI has also made posters to create awareness to use eco-friendly products and they gave these posters to restaurants. “We are spreading in the message by making posters. At TOIT restaurant, we have started using smaller glasses as many people only drink half a glass of water and they waste the rest,” said Mukesh Tolani, director of TOIT.

Pramesh Jain

Karnataka CM,BS Yediyurappa,Launched Emergency Response Support System [ERSS],With all-in-one emergency Helpline Dial 112 for Karnataka.
“The Services include police, fire, ambulance etc”.
“The Single Helpline number will reduce the response time”.
The 112 Single Emergency Helpline number as Emergency Response Support System came into existence based on the report submitted by Justice Verma of Nirbhaya Committee.The Central government introduced and asked all the states to integrate to Single Helpline number for public.
No longer need to call different numbers for police,fire and ambulance.Of these,112 have the same number.Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa along with High-ranking police officers including Home Minister,Basavaraj Bommai,MLA,NA Harris,Additional Chief Secretary of the Home Department Dr.Rajneesh Goyal,DG&IGP of Karnataka,Neelamani N Raju,Additional Director General of CL&M Rajvir Pratap Sharma were also present at the event on thursday launched the ‘Emergency Response Support System.Located on the premises of the Police Communication,Logistics and Modernization (CL&M) office on Mahatma Gandhi Road,the center includes 100 police helpline 100, fire department 101 and ambulance services 108.You can get all these emergency services by calling 112.
Karnataka now has an integrated emergency helpline number, 112, which will allow residents of the state to call for police, fire and emergency, and ambulance services. 
The Emergency Response Support System (ERSS),which is already in place in 17 states in the country, will be implemented in Karnataka in the next few days. 
100,101 and 108 will remain in operation until the public can remember the number 112 completely.112 is also started in the other states as part of the central government’s ‘One India, One Emergency’.  There are 112 operations in other states and Union Territories of the country.But it is the only operation in the major cities and is dedicated to full scale operation in our state.
Speaking at the inauguration of the 112 helpline number, CM BS Yediyurappa said,It makes me very happy to inaugurate the 112 Helpline number this is one of the ambitious plan of the central government is happy to launch the Emergency Response 112.This single number will help integrate all the other helpline number into it as,Police,fire and rescue and ambulances are integrated into 112.112 will be useful in controlling and prosecuting cases of crime in the state.  People friendly Police,People’s Safety Center and State Government are the top priority.It will help to protect those who are in distress.This will benefit working women.You can dial 112 numbers,you can even send SMS,you can report on the website,send mail,you can even chat and or get help through 112 India App.As of now 86 Emergency vehicles can be quickly deployed to help those who are in distress.The central government has spent Rs 10 crore for this project.The remaining amount has been borne by the state government.There are 180 emergency vehicles at night and day in all districts of the state.The number of these vehicles will be increased to 500 in the coming days.In Bengaluru, it will be funded to buy 100 petrol vehicles,he said.
The new system will maintain transparency of how the police will be assisted and assisted in case of emergencies,”said by DG&IGP of karnataka Neelamani N Raju.
Meanwhile,CM BS Yediyurappa flagged off thirty ‘Mahindra XUV 300’ vehicles that are rushed to the emergency department.
Rajvir Pratap Sharma,ADGP,for Communication and logistics Modernization,told media persons that,it is a national initiative but to make this services reach to a common man our state has taken two unique initiatives.We have Launched a elaborate Website this website is for the people.second initiative is an elaborate users manual which is the creation of Karnataka state police to reach to the common man has been done.There are many others modes adopted like YouTube Publicity,FM band publicity,and going through the mass internet information all these efforts we have done.But still we know we cannot reach the hundred percent population in one row so to ensure that people gets confuses from helpline 100,108 this two services and fire services which are existing at the moment will continue to exist till the dependence of the people with hundred percent without absolute and after that only the 100,101 and 108 will be discontinued.However our efforts are gradually changing the confuses and bring people Under the umbrella 112 Emergency Response support system as One nation One Emergency Call number.He even said in the other countries the emergency number 911 Vehicle system is little different there people can reach only through SMS and phone calls in Europe there are three methods,SMS,E-mail,and Telephone calls.Since we are adopting it late so we have more elaborate system we have six inputs of methods,America has same Module scheme may be 30 years back.Europe had 25 years back so one thing we have their experience that irrespective whatever others can say India has most evolve technology country today so we have got six methods others have three and America has two they were also be updated over the period of time I don’t know but at the moment we are having six methods he added.
Under what circumstances people can call ?:
Police,Ambulance,fire and rescueViolence against women,atrocities on children,all forms of criminal activity.
Traffic jams,riots,natural or man-made disasters,disasters.Information on suspicious objects,persons,
Calling for help if any person falls ill on highway, desolate areas.
 112 Connecting Methods:
–  Dial 112 on mobile. – Pressing the mobile’s power button three times continuously calls 112 – Press 5 or 9 on Basic Mobile for a while and connect to 112
Download the ‘112 India’ app through which you can call and inform.
There is also an SOS facility
Emergency assistance is thus obtained.
The CL&M office on MG Road has an emergency response control room.There are a total of 180 policemen,with 60 policemen each.They are trained to receive the call and forward it to the concerned districts.
Call taker responds by pressing call 8.The caller should then state the name,address of emergency assistance and what type of assistance is needed.If you do not know the address,the location will be known through tower location or GPS.
Depending on the call preference, it will be forwarded to the Dispatch section divided into ‘Most Emergency’, ‘Medium Emergency’ and ‘Normal’.From there, the Emergency Response Unit,which is located in all the district centers of the state, is sent to the ‘District Planning Center’.They tell emergency crews nearby and emergency crews will rush to the spot soon.People can call 112 to get help.
 Miss Call is recorded:
 If the call is not received in the control room while the call is in effect, it will be recorded as Miss Call.Then the call back from the control room will be done by the operator to know the details.
The single emergency helpline number 112 responds well to the Safety of people Emergency Response Support System (ERSS).About more than 12 lakh calls have been received in a single day,Last Thursday,Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had officially launched the 112 service.  The background to the plan’s implementation has been unimaginable.  Yes,more than 12 lakh calls in a single day.  There have been over 50 thousand calls in one hour.Prior to this, there were a number of emergency helpline numbers for 100 for police assistance,101 for firefighters,108 for health care,and so on.112 single emergency helpline has been launched for all systems.All emergency services are available to the public under the number 112, such as an emergency service ambulance (108), police service (100) and fire service (101).Calling 112 is sufficient, and within a few minutes the staff transmits to their relatives.

Pramesh Jain

CCTV cameras helped cops to detect the clueless sensational double murder”.

A clueless sensational double murder case solved by Whitefield Division police of Mahadevapura police and have arrested two persons and recovered stolen property from them. 
Sensational double murder case of a elderly couple solved by Mahadevapura police by arresting two accused a husband and wife and recovered stolen 305 grams gold ornaments and cash from them. 
The accused has been identified as Venkatesh CH,30 years,and Smt.Arpita Venkatesh,21 years.Both live in a rented house in Amruthahalli.
On 17th October an elderly couple were found murdered in Mahadevapura Police Station limits.
The deceased Chandregowda,aged 63 years (retired Pvt.Company employee) and his wife Smt.Lakshmamma,aged 55 years were found murdered in their home located in RHB Colony, Garudacharpalya.by unknown miscreants and their house was also found to be ransacked.
Sensing a sensitive case four teams were formed under DCP Whitefield. 
The murder case was detected with the help of technical investigation skills and with the CCTV footage in the area as there was no CCTV cameras installed in the elderly couple house and surroundings but a major breakthrough was CCTV footage in the area which captured the movements of these duo.
Under Section 27 of evidence act we have arrested them and we took them to the scene of crime also. 
Senior officer told the accused were married in 2016 and have a 1.5-year-old child. Venkatesh works as an Ola cab driver.Venkatesh had several loans amounting to Rs 10 lakhs, and decided to pay back the loans by committing murder for gain.Smt. Lakshmamma is a distant relative of Venkatesh.He had met them in a marriage function in Mysuru about a month back.After seeing the jewels worn by her,he and his wife decided to target this elderly couple.They also visited the house twice to build up a rapport and gain their confidence.On 16th October,Venkatesh and his wife went to the house of deceased,and these both accused brutally assaulted them on their head with a spanner and murdered them.They then searched the house for valuables,and decamped with gold jewels, silver articles and cash.The gold articles were then sold at Shri Dhanlaxmi Jewellers,Malleshwaram for which they obtained Rs.8.6 lakhs cash after obtaining the cash they visited to Dharmasthala and stayed their for two days and then they were hiding at their friend Gautham’s house in a village in Dakshina Kannada district and based on the investigation clues they were nabbed on 26th October at his house and During the course of investigation he has confessed the crime and said to repay the loan of ten lakhs these both used to identify elderly couples who are all alone and has no child and after getting information about them they used to target them by taking them in their confidence and then they used to assault them with spanner and decamp with their valuables and a detailed investigation by the team the accused Venkatesh revealed that he had committed a similar offence in Rayasamudra Village, in KR Pete Taluka, Mandya District in July 2019.Further enquiry has revealed that an elderly couple; Gundegowda,aged about 55 years and his wife Smt.Lalitamma, aged about 50 years were murdered in a similar fashion by Venkatesh on the night of 12th July 2019. Smt.Lalitamma was a relative of Venkatesh (she is the elder sister of his brother in law).After murdering them he ransacked the house and made away with 60 grams of gold jewels and cash of Rs. 2000.Then the gold was sold by his wife Arpita at Shri Dhanlaxmi Jewellers in Malleshwaram for which they obtained Rs1.8 lakhs cash and thereafter they repaid some of the loans.During the course of investigation 305 grams of gold ornaments and Rs.5,04,300 cash has been seized. Further investigation is continued and it is shocking that in the double murder case of elderly couple one alleged accused is in jail by name Yogesh who is a neighbour of Venkatesh in KR Pet only just for a small quarrel between them and to take revenge from his neighbours they both fixed him falsely in the double murder case and the cops have also arrested him based on his statement instead of doing investigation in all angles they have fixed a person who is still in jail and a detailed investigation will be done in this case also as why he was not booked by the concerned officer in the crime of Mandya KR Pet Police station he added.
Their Modus Operandi is they used to visit to marriage and other functions and his wife used to collect details about elderly persons in their family and after knowing that the elderly couple is all alone with no children then they used to target them and visit their house oftenly to build their rapport with them as they are caring to them and are concerned about them in the same way they collected details about lakshmamma and Chandregowda and to repay his loan of Rs.10 lakhs he has murdered these elderly couples as being all alone what they will do with this much of property.
Commissioner of Police,Bhaskar Rao told media persons as on 17th October 10 days back there was a double murder reported in Mahadevapura police Station limits in which elderly couple were brutally hacked to death by some unknown miscreants they even ransacked with their valuables as soon as the murder was reported my self with Addl CP,East,S Murugan,DCP Whitefield MN Anucheth with other officers and staff along with dog squad,Finger print expert,Forensic experts were pressed into action after visiting the scene of crime we formed three special teams under the supervision of DCP Whitefield,MN Anucheth one team was busy in collecting CCTV footages from the neighbouring areas,another team was busy in collecting information from the neighbours and the elderly couples relatives about who all visits to their house and another team was busy in gathering information with the technical support as the team were pressed into action and the team who were pressed into action the team got a vital clues in one of the CCTV cameras which has recorded the suspects movements in one of the camera in the area and then we asked the complainant Shivaraj to identify the persons who are seen in the cameras as he identified the suspects and said he is a far relative of deceased who used to visit oftenly then we asked the adopted children of couples to verify who seen the CCTV footage and identified the two and said that they are our far relative and was seen in marriage of our relative in Mysuru after that we are seeing him here the complainant Adopted children of elderly couple said based on her statement our team called the suspect to appear before us for questioning but the suspects tried avoiding us and were not cooperating with investigation by giving reasons and based on their suspicious behaviour our team got doubt on them and then one team was pressed into action to follow his all movements and keep a close watch on them the team with the help of technical support has tracked the suspects at his friends Goutham house in Dakshina Kannada who gave shelter to them and even Money to travel in his vehicle the team rushed to the spot and zeroed in both of them at his house and took them for questioning during the course of interrogation after sustain interrogation by the team the team grilled them who confessed the crime and based on their statement and confession the team arrested them and a detailed inquiry about the suspects as our team got to know about few months back another elderly couple staying all alone who is the relative of duo accused was murdered in the same fashion as our crime team questioned him what you were doing in Mandya inspector the Rayasandra KR pet as our team collected information from the concerned police station after analysing the CCTV footage we found their movements and presence at the Crime scene our team grilled both the accused who confessed that in the month of July he and her wife has murdered these both to gain all their property and valuables as the elderly couple were all alone so to grab all their property they brutally hacked them also with this our team has detected two sensational elderly couples murder case and arrested these both dreaded criminals and recovered 350 grams worth of gold ornaments and 8,000 cash from them.Bhaskar Rao even said we will take strict action against those who are giving shelter to those accused who take shelter at their friends house or relative house and many relatives and friends knowingly also are giving shelter them in their place those will also be booked as these days we were not taking action but now we will act very tough on those who are helping and giving shelter to culprits as recently we have booked 6 members in former VC case in which many have helped the accused by giving their vehicle to commit offence and many even gave them shelter and other things after the crime incident those will be booked and I have instructed the DCP Whitefield to book Goutham also who has given shelter to those accused.And after the Diwali function we will map all senior citizens staying across city and we will install or fix one beat book at their house so men in khaki will visit their regularly and sign the book and I appeal to all the citizens to install CCTV cameras in your house and apartments as in this case there was no CCTV cameras but one of the CCTV cameras in the area helped in detecting the case and it is our priority to give protection to elderly persons living in the city as many are staying here as there children will be in abroad working and they will be alone so their safety is our responsibility so we will be fixing beat book in their house in all the Divisions and in many cases we are not booking there relatives or associates after the crime by giving shelter as they are also involved in crime we will bring them also in the purview and in some places they are destroying evidence as recently in the Amritha bai college a student committed suicide by jumping  from the college building where the evidence was destroyed by the criminals by pouring water and washing the floor with water and they have even erased the CCTV footage also our officers has booked the whole Mamagement in the case under 120(B) conspiracy of crime and we are investigating the case,and finally a reward of One lakh rupees will be given to the team for their commendable job done in nabbing the notorious dreaded criminals and a case has been registered in Mahadevapura police Station and further investigation is on and finally Bengaluru police commissioner,Bhaskar Rao,has appreciated Addl CP East,S Murugan,DCP,Whitefield,MN Anucheth,ACP,Whitefield Sub-Divsion,Krishnappa V,PIS,as,M Manjunath,Ambarish,Ashwath Narayanswamy,Narendra Kumar,PSIs,as,Narayanaswamy G,Manjunath,Rangesh,and ASI,as,Ramesh with crime staffs as,Venkatesh,Suresh H,Shivanand Poojary,Shivakumar MR,Bhaskar,Ravi KL,Manjangowda,Sulemaan,Basavaraj Patel,Yathish NM,Kariyappa Kotte,Harish KL,Chandrappa,and Madan,has been appreciated for the exemplary work done by them in nabbing the duo dreaded criminals and detected two sensational double murder case of elderly couple committed by them he added.

Union leaders later presented a memorandum to the Divisional Railway Manager. 

BENGALURU: Hundreds of railway employees in the city, affiliated to the South Western Railway Mazdoor Union (SWRMU), launched a protest against the alleged move to bring privatisation into the railways, on Wednesday.

A rally commenced near the railway station around 10.30 am and was followed by a dharna in front of the Divisional Railway Manager’s office at 1.30 pm, during which slogans and placards were raised by participants. 

The protest has been called by the largest trade union in the railway, All India Railway Men’s Federation (AIRF).

Speaking to The New Indian Express, SWRMU Secretary K V Raghavendra lashed out at against the saying, “Railways is doing well. There is no need to bring in private participation to develop 50 railway stations and use them to operate 150 passenger trains, as is being done by the creation of ‘Empower Group of Secretaries’.”

Union leaders later presented a memorandum to the Divisional Railway Manager. 

Sadiq was sent home on Tuesday after being questioned by officers of the Internal Security Division (ISD) of Karnataka police in Hubballi. 

BENGALURU: Mohammed Sadiq Kuppelur, who was questioned on Tuesday in the Hindu Samaj Party leader Kamlesh Tiwari murder case, may know some of the murder accused but was not found complicit, police said. Central agencies had intercepted a call from another accused, Sayed Asim Ali of Nagpur, to Sadiq, following which he was questioned.

Sadiq was sent home on Tuesday after being questioned by officers of the Internal Security Division (ISD) of Karnataka police in Hubballi. 

A senior police officer from Uttar Pradesh told The New Indian Express that Sadiq is reportedly “not involved” in the crime. “Sadiq was questioned by Karnataka police based on a phone call between him and another accused, Sayed Asim Ali of Nagpur, which was intercepted by central agencies. Ali was heard asking Sadiq to arrange for a lawyer for the surrender of the accused. Ali had earlier received a call from prime accused Sheikh Ashfaq Hussain to arrange for a lawyer,” said the officer. 

“The information obtained following his interrogation was shared with UP police for follow-up action. There’s no case against Sadiq in Karnataka,” a Karnataka police officer said. 
“Sadiq’s association with the Tiwari murder accused will, however, be investigated,” he added. So far, eight men, including two prime accused, Ashfaq (21) and Pathan Moinuddin Ahmed (23) from Gujarat have been arrested in the sensational murder case. 

The names of the other accused who were arrested are Rashid Ahmed Pathan (23), Faizan (21) and Maulana Salim Sheikh (24) from Gujarat, Maulana Anwar-ul-Haq and Mufti Naeem Kazmin from Bijnor in UP, and Sayed Asim Ali (29) from Nagpur in Maharashtra. 

Last fiscal year, the plant had filled over 216 lakh cylinders, and this year, the number is expected to exceed to 250 lakh cylinders.

BENGALURU: With many people migrating from other parts to the state for better employment opportunities and for other reasons, the Indian Oil (Karnataka) has seen a higher demand in the sale of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders by 7-10%  in the present year.

The Devangonthi Bottling Plant – Indian Oil, located in Hoskote, supplies 203 LPG distributors, comprising six major districts of Bengaluru urban and rural, Kolar, Tumakuru, Chikkaballapur and Ramanagara, adding to 55% of total LPG supplied by IOC in Karnataka.

Last fiscal year, the plant had filled over 216 lakh cylinders, and this year, the number is expected to exceed to 250 lakh cylinders. “The highest demand for gas cylinders we see is for domestic purposes. People have started migrating, and we are seeing an increase in demand. This year, we had a 97% coverage, with 7-10% higher demand for gas cylinders. This apart, even those using induction cookers, have now started opting for gas cylinders,” said N Konar, general manager of the plant.

To meet the growing needs, this year, 48-point cylinder filling carousels were commissioned to the plant, double the size of the conventional 24-point carousels.During 2019-20, IOC released new connections to the tune of Rs 2.38 lakh, of which 1.47 lakh connections are under the Ujjwala Scheme, which is the highest for the industry.

Devangonthi terminal goes smart
The Devanagonthi terminal of the IOC, which supplies 30% of the petroleum demands of Karnataka, is now called a ‘smart terminal’, with automation taking over the fuel filling process to ensure safety and convenience. This ensures quality control, interlocked safety systems, productivity, transparency and customer satisfaction.