Articles by News Desk

COVID: Second serosurvey to be done by September end | 12 doctors from Chennai succumb to COVID | GCC steps up surveillance in 13,000 streets The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) announced that the second serosurvey will be conducted by the end of September. This time, the T-cells of recovered COVID-19 patients will be analysed for academic research. The T-cells and antibodies have a huge role in immune response in patients affected by the virus. GCC Commissioner Prakash expects the seroprevalence in the second survey to be around 40%. The first survey saw a seroprevalence of 20%. According to the bulletin, Chennai…

33% Delhiites develop antibodies as per new sero survey On September 17th, Delhi government shared the results of the third serological survey that was conducted in all the 11 districts of the national capital. Around 17000 samples were collected for the survey. Based on the results, it was found that 33% of Delhiites have developed antibodies for the COVID-19 infection. The government is claiming it to be the highest sero prevalence noted since the outbreak. As per the new guidelines, the administration has aimed to test each person living inside the containment zone within five days of the zone being…

Representational image: Ramesh Meda/(CC BY 2.0) Reviewed by Prabhakar Shetty, practising advocate at the Karnataka High Court Before buying any property, you need to investigate all documents provided by the current property owner, and authenticate these with the agencies issuing the documents. There are two kinds of documents to check for — primary and secondary documents of title. Primary documents of title are the most essential as they show the ownership history of the property being sold. Some of the secondary documents of title help corroborate the information mentioned in the primary documents. The other secondary documents help the buyer…

On August 29, BBMP issued an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) on dealing with complaints on the killing of stray dogs. Following is an edited version of BBMP's press release. The killing of an animal by any method is illegal and is a cognisable offence under Sec 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960, and Sec 428 of the Indian Penal Code. These laws provide for lodging of police complaints and filing of FIRs in such cases. So, if you have reason to suspect that the death of a stray dog is due to poisoning or killing, you…

If you are considering buying a home or a flat, always check that the land it is standing on has been classified as 'for residential use'. This simple check can save a lot of hassle later. Pic: Rameshng/Wikimedia Commons Reviewed by Prabhakar Shetty, practising advocate at the Karnataka High Court Buying property in Bengaluru can be confusing and risky - there are multiple authorities for land use approvals, obscure rules, and the finer details are often missed out. In this article, we explain what buyers and investors should know about different land types and the authorities regulating each. Following are…

In the past few weeks, many Bengalureans protested the reopening of Cubbon Park to vehicles, saying this lung space needs to be protected. The 300-acre park had been closed for about five months since the imposition of COVID lockdown. The protesters pointed to examples like Central Park in New York, where city authorities have completely banned motorised traffic. Despite protests, the State Horticulture Department allowed the park to be opened to vehicles last week based on a request from the Bengaluru Traffic Police. On the morning of 24 August, some 25 citizens from the #ConcernCollective gathered at Cubbon Park, demanding…

Cities struggle to manage COVID-19 cases, as the second wave of infection sets in After a decline in new cases in the month of August, Mumbai is experiencing a second wave of infection. Mumbai registered a total of 30,474 cases in the entire August and it has already witnessed 15,227 cases in the first nine days of September. Pune stands as the most infected district in Maharashtra with 2,23,710 cases followed by Mumbai with 1,65,306 and Thane with 1,52,934. Similarly, Delhi broke all its past records of the highest single-day spike on September 9th when it registered 4,039 cases taking…

BBMP Council's term ends, administrator appointed On Thursday, state government appointed IAS officer Gaurav Gupta as the administrator of BBMP, since the five-year term of the BBMP Council ended. Gaurav Gupta is the Principal Secretary of Commerce and Industries Department, and has taken additional charge as BBMP administrator. He will take decisions related to the city until the new Council is formed. Former corporators alleged that the administrator's appointment was a clear sign that the government wanted to avoid the election, and that it's a violation of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act. State government had cited the pandemic as well…

COVID-19: Penalty targets for Corporation officials; fever camps to be scaled down In order to ensure that citizens adhere to COVID safety norms, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has been imposing a penalty on citizens who have been found to violate those. A target has also been set for fine collection by various officials of the civic body. As per the norms stated, an assistant engineer should collect a minimum of Rs 3,000 every day and other authorities should collect Rs 1,000 a day. Each zone in the city is tasked with collecting a minimum of Rs 1 lakh a…

ICMR allows walk-in test for COVID-19  As per the new directive issued by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) to states and union territories, people can now go for walk-in tests and will not be requiring a doctor's reference for getting tested. The new advisory comes as a response to an order by the Delhi High Court which said that people with no symptoms - which forms a large base of COVID-19 patients in the country - must be able to get themselves tested.  The guideline recommends adoption of "simplified modalities" for testing, implying that no restrictive measures should be implemented by…