A few of them are still legislators, while others are rebels who exited their party and were subsequently disqualified.

BENGALURU: They might be tired of politics and ready to call it a day, but they certainly don’t seem ready to distance themselves from power. In the past one week, at least four netas, including former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, have expressed their desire to retire from active politics, while at the same time pushing for the political futures of their sons. 

A few of them are still legislators, while others are rebels who exited their party and were subsequently disqualified. With a lot of time on their hands, they are anxious to see their sons prosper. Former JDS state president AH VIshwanath announced his exit from electoral politics last Friday. But sources say he is paving the way for his son Amit Devarahatti, who is expected to contest from Hunsur in the upcoming bypolls. Amit even visited B S Yediyurappa’s residence the day before he took oath, adding to the speculation. 

At the time, Vishwanath was holed up in Mumbai with the other rebels. The very next day, an emotional Kumaraswamy spoke at length and said that his time in politics was done. At the same time, talks were underway for fielding Nikhil Kumaraswamy from KR Pete for the bypolls. While he publicly denied the same, sources say it is under consideration. 

Following Kumaraswamy, former minister GT Devegowda, who defeated Siddaramaiah in the biggest upset of the state elections in 2018, expressed his desire to quit. He said that he would serve as MLA till his term ended. It is said that he has been lobbying hard for a ticket for his son GD Harish Gowda in the upcoming bypolls. 

Another rebel MLA, MTB Nagaraj also hinted at exiting politics. His son Nithin Purshottam started his career as a BBMP Councillor in 2015 on a Congress ticket. Now, with his expulsion from the Congress, Nagaraj is looking for a political home for his son and hopes that the BJP would allow his son to contest the bypolls from Hosakote. 

CM will seek flood and drought relief; national leaders will have say on ministers, slots for rebels

BENGALURU: Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, who left for New Delhi on Monday on a three-day visit, is expected to discuss and finalise many issues, including his cabinet, the new BJP state president, the coalition rebels who resigned and also funds for Karnataka, which is facing both drought and floods at the same time. He is reportedly carrying a list of 20 members to be inducted into his cabinet. The three-day visit is expected to include many brainstorming sessions with national BJP leaders.

According to BJP sources, Yediyurappa’s list includes B Sriramulu, Govind Karjol. Basavaraj Bommai, R Ashoka, V Somanna and others. “He has prepared a list of names, most of them associated with his camp. But there are a few names from BL Santosh’s camp. It is up to them (national leaders) to accept the list or modify it. They cannot reject the entire list, but might modify it,’’ sources said.

CT Ravi and Aravind Limbavali, who are contenders for the state BJP president’s post, also figure in the list. If one of them becomes president, the other will be inducted into the cabinet. Karjol, Ashoka and Limbavali’s names are doing the rounds for the post of home minister, but again, it all depends on national leaders. 

On Tuesday, Yediyurappa discussed pending works related to Karnataka with all state MPs who are attending the Parliament session at Delhi. He will meet Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu and is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Wednesday, he will also hold a series of meetings with several Union ministers. According to sources, he is expected to seek more funds for the state, which is in a peculiar situation — drought in the southern districts and floods in the north.

More than Rs 2,000 crore is yet to be released under the MNREGA scheme.The biggest issue for Yediyurappa is said to be the disqualified rebel MLAs of the coalition, who have now approached SC. “While discussing the cabinet, they will probably leave some slots for the rebels and later, depending on what the Supreme Court rules, they will be inducted or not,” sources added.

list  of probables
R Ashoka, Umesh Katti, Balachandra Jarkiholi, Govind Karjol, Basavaraj Bommai, BC Patil, Renukacharya, B Sriramulu, Madhuswamy, Angaara, Basavaraj Yatnal, Dattatreya Patil Revoor, Prabhu Chavan, Rajegowda, Kota Srinivasa Poojary, SR Vishwanath Reddy, CT Ravi, Aravind Limbavali, V Somanna, Pradeep Shettar/Jagadish Shettar

The former chief minister also said that his government had allocated more money for constituencies of Congress MLAs than that of JD(S).

BENGALURU: Days after he was ousted from the chief ministerial post, JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy on Monday said that he worked like a “slave” for its coalition partner Congress during the tenure of his government in the state.

“I had given full freedom to all the MLAs, and even corporation chairmen, why they are blaming me I don’t know. For the last 14 months, I worked like a slave for these MLAs and our coalition partner (Congress). Why they are blaming me? I don’t know,” Kumaraswamy told ANI.

The 14-month-old Congress-JD(S) government fell after it lost the trust vote. Later, Yediyurappa was sworn-in as the 25th chief minister of Karnataka on July 26, following the collapse of the Congress-JD(S) government.

The JD(S) leader said that several Congress leaders didn’t want to form the coalition government. “After the fractured verdict in our state, Congress leadership wholeheartedly wanted to join hands with JD(S) and they wanted to form the government. But, some local leaders were not interested according to my sources,” Kumaraswamy said.

“From day one, the way a section of the Congress leaders behaved and reacted in the public, everybody knows it,” he added.

The former chief minister also said that his government had allocated more money for constituencies of Congress MLAs than that of JD(S).

“Even when MLAs used to come without taking an appointment, I met them. Whatever requests they had for the development of their constituencies, I took decisions on them immediately. What previous Congress government couldn’t achieve, I did in 14 months. I have allocated more than Rs 19,000 crore in 14 months to constituencies of Congress MLAs,” he said.

Speaking on the JD(S)-Congress coalition, Kumaraswamy said that his party leaders were unhappy after he joined hands with the Congress to form the government. “Even some of my party leaders were not happy, but I formed the government with the help of Congress. They were not happy with the system. They knew how will they going to backstab us,” he said.

The former chief minister said that he has pain in his heart since nobody acknowledged his work. “I’m the happiest person now after vacating the office as a Chief Minister. For 14 months, I worked for the development of the state, there is a little pain in my heart because nobody appreciated my work,” he said.

The JD(S) leader said that his party leaders are not interested in a coalition with Congress in the future. “Majority of the workers are not interested in the coalition. But Congress high command even now is very much cooperative with us. Let us see what is going to happen in the future,” he said.

Ashwini V, a homemaker residing in Rajarajeshwari Nagar, filed a complaint with the Jayanagar police against Vinod alias Manjunath, a resident of  JP Nagar Sixth Phase.

BENGALURU: Despite all the warnings the police has been spreading about the dangers of befriending strangers online, their advice seems to have been going unheeded. The latest victim is a 23-year-old woman, who accepted a stranger’s friend request and ended up losing gold jewellery worth Rs 2.2 lakh to him.

Ashwini V, a homemaker residing in Rajarajeshwarinagar, filed a complaint with the Jayanagar police against Vinod alias Manjunath, a resident of  JP Nagar Sixth Phase.

According to the complainant, she received a friend request on Facebook from Vinod on June 1. Although she didn’t know anyone by that name, she accepted the request and within 10 days, they had even exchanged numbers. 

One day, Vinod called Ashwini and told her he was in dire need of money as his sister had some financial problems. Ashwini gave him Rs 4,500. A couple of days later, he called her again and told her that he needed money again as his mother was suffering from a cardiac problem and needed to have surgery. When Ashwini told him she did not have that much money, he asked her for her gold jewellery. Ashwini agreed and gave Vinod her two gold chains, a bracelet, three rings and a pair of earrings all together worth more than Rs 2.2 lakh.

After getting the jewelry, Vinod started to avoid Ashwini. When she tried contacting him, he did not respond. Ashwini found that not only was Vinod’s mother not a cardiac patient, but also that Vinod had another named called Manjunath. An investigating officer said, “We have taken up the case of cheating and launched a manhunt.”

The court adjourned the hearing to August 8 while directing the SIT to submit the further status report on investigation, and the CA to file affidavit explaining further action.

BENGALURU:  The Karnataka High Court on Thursday directed the competent authority appointed under the Karnataka Protection of Interest of Depositors in Financial Establishments (KPID) Act, 2004, to conduct a comprehensive forensic audit of IMA and its associate companies, directors and partners  to track the inflow and outflow of funds in the unregulated deposit schemes.

The court has also asked the state to submit its response on the petitioners’ plea for issuing directions to probe other ponzi companies, and also appointment of competent authorities (CAs)  to deal with complaints against those companies. A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Mohammad Nawaz issued these directions during the hearing of a batch of petitions, including public interest litigation, seeking a probe into ponzi companies. 

Directing the state to submit its response on the CBI probe sought by IAS officer B M Vijay Shankar, arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), the court asked the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to share the details of properties attached with the SIT and do investigation in coordination with each other. 

The court directed the CA to publish the public notice seeking information about properties of IMA and its entities, benami properties, if any, in Urdu newspapers with wide circulation, as most of the depositors are Muslims. This was after a petitioner’s counsel sought such directions, as the public notice was published in Kannada and English newspapers only. 

The court adjourned the hearing to August 8 while directing the SIT to submit the further status report on investigation, and the CA to file affidavit explaining further action. Meanwhile, the court has ordered its registry to keep the status report, submitted by SIT, and that it should not be opened without the court’s order. 

IAS officer submits affidavit
Bengaluru Division Regional Commissioner V Rashmi Mahesh, who was appointed as CA under KPID Act to handle the depositors’ complaints against IMA, submitted an affidavit to the High Court explaining the steps taken to protect the depositors’ interests. The CA has stated that certain properties, of IMA and its allied concerns have been attached based on SIT report. “Letters are also addressed to the appropriate authorities in other states for information on properties of IMA and related concerns,” he said.

Economy slowdown hits car sales; dept achieves 13% of its target

BENGALURU: Karnataka’s Transport department has been seeing a decline in its revenue. Not because of poor imposition of fines but due to the fall in the number of vehicule registrations, especially of high-end vehicles. With an estimated revenue of Rs 3,420 crore in Bengaluru alone this year, the department has received only Rs 105 crore in the first quarter.  

Achieving only 13 per cent of its target, the department is at a new low, said to be a first, according to a transport official. “I have never seen such a low target achieved. The economy is down at the moment and the revenue received from the registrations has decreased drastically. Vehicular registrations is one of the main sources of income for the department,” a source said, adding that similar trends are seen in the entire state with the total estimated revenue of Rs 6,614 crore. As of now, there are 12 RTOs in the city.

Road tax, registration fee for new vehicles, permit fee, pending taxes and fines, driving licence fee and inspection fee at checkposts are the department’s major revenue sources. In the city, Commercial Tax department, Excise department, Stamps & Registration and the Transport department are the main revenue-generating sectors to the state government.

“The automobile industry is in a bad shape due to bad economy. And now most citizens tend to drive their old vehicles longer. This also has a lot to do with the city’s infrastructure, where people feel a second-hand car is better and costs less for registration,” V Ravichandar, urban expert

“The department also needs to ensure that second-hand vehicles are getting registered since new vehicular sale is in a slump,” he added.

“If people do not buy vehicles, naturally revenue from registrations will not come to us,” said V P Ikkeri, Transport Commissioner. According to official data, the growth of eight core industries dropped to 0.2 per cent in June, mainly due to contraction in oil-related sectors as well as cement production. The central government on Wednesday also revised downwards the growth rate of these eight sectors for May to 4.3 per cent from the earlier estimate of 5.1 per cent.

The construction near the Press Club has come as a shock to the Cubbon Park Walkers’ Association, who were the first to spot it, as well as many other users.

BENGALURU: Illegal constructions seem to be thriving in the city with even sides by the lakes not being spared. The latest one is at Cubbon Park. The construction near the Press Club has come as a shock to the Cubbon Park Walkers’ Association, who were the first to spot it, as well as many other users. When the Association brought this to the notice of authorities, the horticulture department said Karnataka State Bar Council near the park was making a room for security guards.

Umesh S, president of Cubbon Park Walkers’ Association, said, “Buildings just come up like this. We have only a few lung spaces in the city. Even though it is not a big building, it is still illegal. It is the horticulture departments’ responsibility to look into these issues.”

Umesh added that work is being carried out daily, with vehicles often ferrying construction material. Sribhavani Rakhesh, organising secretary of the Association asked, “Why do such incidents happen only in Cubbon Park? Why not Lalbagh? We also demand equal importance and restoration of greenery. We want the current generation to enjoy the greenery we did when we were growing up. We want kids to spend their childhood amidst greenery.”  

Deputy director of Horticulture Department, G Kusuma, said the matter was brought to her recently. “I have sent a notice to Karnataka State Bar Council to stop the construction immediately,” she told CE.

Pramesh Jain

Thousands bid tearful ADIEU to CCD’s Founder Siddhartha at his cremation in Chikkamagaluru:

Highlights.
* The family of Cafe Coffee Day’s founder VG Siddhartha on Tuesday reported that he had been missing since Monday.He was last seen by his driver.VG Siddhartha had asked the driver to drop him near a river and told him to go on without him.
* The investigating authorities found a letter allegedly written by VG Siddhartha to the Board of Directors and employees of his company Coffee Day Enterprises, showing he was struggling with financial problems due to debt,taxes and share buybacks.The letter pointed to suicide.
* The police launched a massive search operation involving multiple agencies, which scoured the waters under a bridge across Nethravathi,where Siddhartha was reportedly last seen on Monday night. After 36 hours of intensive search,a fisherman informed the police that he had spotted a body in the river.Police fished out Siddhartha’s remains on Wednesday morning.
* His body was identified by his friends, said Dakshina Kannada district Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil.A police official said everything points to suicide, but nothing can be ruled out until the investigation is over.
* After the post-mortem at Wenlock Hospital in Mangalore, the body was taken to Siddhartha’s home district of Chikmagalur A large number of people from within the coffee estate and neighbouring villages,whom Siddhartha had helped come up in life, thronged to pay their homage to the coffee king.Before Chethanahalli,the body was kept at Chikkamagalur for people to pay their last respects.
* The last rites of VG Siddhartha were performed by his son Amartya.Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa,R Ashoka,his predecessor HD Kumaraswamy and several political leaders as DK Shivakumar,UT Khader with others attended the funeral.
* Borrowing Rs five lakh from his father to pursue his dreams,Siddhartha,known for being shy and self-effacing,went on to become coffee king,creating jobs for thousands of youth instead of joining the family business.
* The family-owned over 350 acres of coffee estate and had been in the business for over 140 years.
* A political war also broke out over Siddhartha’s allegation of harassment by the Income Tax Department, as the Congress accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of betraying the people who voted for an independent and hassle-free economy.
* The company has named independent director SV Ranganath as the interim chairman of the company to replace Siddhartha.Meanwhile,CCD’s share prices suffered another major day of loss as it closed at 123.25, almost 30 points lower than the previous day’s close, which itself was a historic low for India’s biggest coffee chain.
* Former IPS,K.Annamalai also visited and paid his tribute and attended the final rites of Coffee King VG Siddhartha.
Billionaire coffee tycoon VG Siddhartha, whose body was fished out of a river two days after he went missing,was on Wednesday cremated at his estate in his home district of Chikmagalur after thousands of people bid him a tearful Adieu.
Amid a sombre atmosphere,his son Amartya lit the funeral pyre after the last rites were performed according to the traditions of the Vokkaliga community from which he hailed.Poignant scenes were witnessed as Amartya broke down several times while performing the rituals.
The funeral pyre was prepared with logs of sandalwood,jackfruit tree,Baniyan tree. Final rites were held according to the beliefs and rituals of the Vokkaliga community.Halappa Shetty of Gowdavalli village conducted the final rites.
More than 10,000 people witnessed the last rites including father-in-law SM Krishna,Karnataka chief minister BS Yediyurappa,former CM HD Kumaraswamy, Siddaramaiah,MB Patil,former IPS officer Annamalai,and others.
The arrangements were made by LR Shivarame Gowda,former ministers DC Thammanna,Jayachandra,Ramanath Rai, current MLA of Chikmagalur constituency CT Ravi and Legislative Council member Pranesh.
Former Chief Minister SM Krishna, 87,father-in-law of Siddhartha and his wife Prema also fought hard to control their emotions.
Even as the country mourned Siddhartha’s death,his 96-year-old father Gangaiah Hegde was unaware that his beloved son had passed away.When the CCD founder was reported missing,his senile father was battling for his life in a private hospital in Mysore.According to his family members, he is now slipping into coma.
Siddhartha,whose chain of cafes helped make coffee a lifestyle beverage and brought in latte,Cappuccino, Americano and espresso into the urban Indian lexicon, was 59.He is survived by his wife Malavika and sons Amartya and Ishaan.Dakshina Kannada district Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil told media persons that Siddhartha’s body was identified by his friends.
Siddhartha’s body was found by local fishermen and patrolling policemen on the banks of Nethravathi river near Mangalore on Wednesday,two days after he went missing.A letter allegedly written by him to the Board of Directors and employees of his company Coffee Day Enterprises, showing he was struggling with financial problems due to debt,taxes and share buybacks,came to light as well.
The search involved multiple agencies, which scoured the waters under a bridge across Nethravathi,where Siddhartha, founder of India’s largest coffee chain,was reportedly last seen on Monday night, officials said. After the postmortem at Wenlock Hospital in Mangalore, the body was taken to his home district of Chikmagalur.
Before Chethanahalli,the body was kept at Chikmagalur for people to pay their last respects.
A large number of people from within the coffee estate and neighbouring villages, whom Siddhartha had helped come up in life, thronged to pay their homage to the ‘coffee king’.Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa,his predecessor HD Kumaraswamy, and several political leaders attended the funeral.
We have found the body.I have no words to comfort the family,Yediyurappa said.He had more assets than liabilities.
Borrowing Rs 5 lakh from his father to pursue his dreams,Siddhartha,known for being shy and self-effacing,went on to become the “coffee king”,creating jobs for thousands of youth instead of joining the family business.The family-owned over 350 acres of coffee estate and had been in the business for over 140 years.
A police official said that “everything” points to suicide, but nothing can be ruled out until the investigation is over.
The authorities predicted the probable location where the body could be traced using a “model” developed by Hyderabad-based Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), which makes predictions based on current, low and high tide among other parameters, said Deputy Commissioner Senthil.
BS Yediyurappa tweeted his condolences after the funeral.In the moment of grief I paid my tribute to one of the pioneers in the coffee retail industry, the founder of Cafe Coffee Day & Former CM Sri S M Krishna’s son in law, Sri. VG Siddhartha. My heart goes out to his family. He will always be remembered,” he tweeted.
A political war also broke out over Siddhartha’s allegation of harassment by the Income Tax Department as the Congress accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of betraying the people who voted for an independent and a hassle-free economy.
There is an old notion of government has no business in business and Modi in his pre-2014 election campaign made a big deal about it.Today he has absolutely betrayed the people who voted for him to see a robust, independent,hassle-free economy,Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi said on Twitter.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said Siddhartha’s death reflected a “worrying trend”.
Reacting to the death, the Karnataka Congress said on Twitter,Result of harassment by IT officials and decline of India’s entrepreneurial position turning virulent by the day, with Tax Terror & collapse of economy.”
Former Karnataka Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah said Siddhartha’s death is both disturbing and mysterious.The reasons and the invisible hands that ended his life in this tragic way should be unearthed through impartial & fair investigation”, Siddaramaiah said, referring to a letter purportedly written by Siddhartha in which he alleged harassment by the Income Tax department.Siddaramaiah said the letter supposed to have been written by Siddhartha discussed tax terrorism, which is the ugly face of politically motivated institutions.
In the wake of the death of V G Siddhartha, founder of Cafe Coffee Day,West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took at a dig at the Centre over its policies and the state of economy alleging that the industry and the Indian economy were in a bad shape.Expressing her shock over the incident, she wrote on Twitter,From what he has expressed, it appears that he was greatly depressed due to harassment and pressure from different agencies for which he could not run his business in a peaceful manner.This he could not resist.I hear from different sources that captains of industry in the country are under pressure; some of them have left the country and some are contemplating to move out.All the opposition political parties are afraid of horse trading and harassment with political vendetta she said.In the run-up to this year’s General Elections,Banerjee had repeatedly alleged that various agencies and institutions were being used by the Centre to intimidate political parties into submission and socio-economic and other factors were forcing people, including investors, to leave the country.My appeal to the government is that when you have been elected, you have to work in a peaceful manner so that people are confident and that political vendetta and agencies do not destroy the future of the country.She had also alleged that the BJP was planning to topple the then Congress-led Karnataka government and the party was using cash as well as intimidation to get votes she said on the social media platform.
Addl CP Traffic,P Harishekaran expressed his condolences by telling,I am deeply disturbed.I have very fond memories about him,however I haven’t met him.I have detected a murder case in 2008,the victim was his one of the factory drivers.After he came to know my great efforts,he thanked  me with impeccable appreciation.Next day, sent thanking letter with bunch of flowers.Let us learn very positive lessons from his life.Yes, he is  a visionary and brand maker he added.
Former IPS,K.Annamalai who attended the funeral procession and paid his last rites to VG Siddhartha the coffee king said VG Siddhartha is a pride to Chikmagalur.
VG Siddhartha a billionaire coffee tycoon has played a vital role in getting releasing Dr.Rajkumar who was kidnapped by Veerappan in the year 2010 when SM Krishna was Chief Minister of karnataka Siddhartha has given funds to get release of Dr.Rajkumar from Veerappan the sandalwood smuggler.
Coffee Day Enterprises board appointed,SV Ranganath as the interim chairman of the board” and “Nitin Bagmane as an interim chief operating officer (COO) of the company.

The BJP has sought the Union government’s assistance to trace the missing businessman. 

BENGALURU: Politicians cutting across party lines made a beeline at former external affairs minister SM Krishna’s residence as news of his son-in-law Siddhartha missing near Mangaluru broke on Tuesday morning. From Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa to Krishna’s protege DK Shivakumar and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, political bigwigs met the octogenarian political veteran to show solidarity. 

Former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy was one of the first to visit Krishna’s residence in Sadashivanagar. Given his long career with the Congress before joining the BJP, a host of Congress leaders stood by Krishna’s family on Tuesday even as efforts to find Siddhartha were underway. A team of recently disqualified MLAs, including S T Somashekhar, Shivaram Hebbar and M T B Nagaraj, too visited Krishna’s residence to show support.

A delegation of BJP MPs led by Udupi-Chikmagalur MP Shobha Karandlaje submitted a petition to Union Home Minister Amit Shah. “A gentleman, who popularised coffee across the world, known for his business acumen. It is unfortunate that man who has given jobs to thousands of Kannadigas goes missing,” a statement from Karandlaje said. The BJP has sought the Union government’s assistance to trace the missing businessman. 

Congress leaders, especially Shivakumar whose proximity to Krishna as well as Siddhartha is not a secret, insisted on a thorough investigation, deeming the incident “fishy”.   “I received a call from him on the July 28 asking if we could meet. It’s unbelievable that a courageous man like him would resort to this. However, I find this utterly fishy and urge that a thorough investigation be conducted. Shri Siddhartha and his family are closely known to me for decades now. (SIC)” Shivakumar tweeted.

The long list of political bigwigs who visited Krishna included former state Home Minister M B Patil, former DyCM G Parameshwara, former Speaker K R  Ramesh Kumar, former minister Krishna Byregowda and KJ George, former CM Jagadish Shettar, BJP’s Suresh Kumar and Kumar Bangarappa.

Speaking to The New Indian Express, a top traffic cop said that police were keen on three specific spots being completely barricaded with strong structures by BMRCL.

BENGALURU: As part of enhancement of security and safety measures in and around Parade Grounds on account of thousands of visitors expected to visit the Parade Grounds for Independence Day celebrations, the traffic police have directed the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) to immediately put in place steel barricades. Metro had sealed off a portion of the Kamaraj Road since June 15 in connection with works related to an interchange underground Metro station of Phase-II here. The 200-metre stretch between MG Road and Cubbon Road will remain closed for at least 35 more months. The interchange station forms part of the Gottigere-Nagavara Metro Line.

Speaking to The New Indian Express, a top traffic cop said that police were keen on three specific spots being completely barricaded with strong structures by BMRCL. “Pedestrians are permitted to walk along the 200-metre stretch, which has been barricaded presently.

One side of the footpath is being protected with a compound wall, but on the other side gunny bags have been kept and even light barricading using cloth-like structures has been done. We expect at least 7,000 visitors, including over 3,000 school children to visit the Grounds to take part or watch celebrations on August 15,” said the top cop. Traffic police are insisting the BMRCL to put up steel barricades for their safety until the Independence Day, he said.

“It is aimed at preventing any stampede from taking place. Also, we do not want any child to slip from the footpath and fall where Metro construction work is being carried on. We will be glad if they continue with it even later in the interests of public safety,” he added.

Speaking about the other two segments which cops want secured are a blockage of the view of the podium from the spot where Metro work is going on. “We call it as View Cutting and this is done as part of VIP security measures,” he said. “Gate No. 4 leading to the Parade Grounds also needs to be sealed with barricades,” the cop added.A top BMRCL official confirmed the orders given to it by the traffic wing of the Cubbon Park station, and said it would begin barricading work at the earliest.

Metro services on Purple Line to be disrupted 
Metro train services between Baiyappanahalli and MG Road Metro stations on the Purple Line (Baiyappanahalli-Mysore Road) will not be available from 9.30 pm on August 3 till 11 am on August 4 due to regular maintenance work. Train services will continue to run as usual in the stretch between M G Road and Mysore Road stations (5 am to 11 pm) and well as the Green Line.

One entry of RV Road Metro station to be closed 
The South West entry of the R V Road Metro station connecting the concourse area of the station to the platform will be closed from Thursday (August 1), due to some modification works being taken up at the station. The north west entry at the station, will continue to remain open for commuters who want to travel from R V Road to Nagasandra Metro station.