BBMP schools to reopen primary sections
BBMP schools will resume classes for grades I to V from Monday, October 25. No online classes were held for these students in the past one-and-half years; teachers only interacted with the students who accompanied their parents to collect rations from school, said an education department official.
The teachers and non-teaching staff have been fully vaccinated, the official added. The 16 civic-run primary schools will be sanitised over the weekend. The strength of students in classes I to V will be ascertained once physical classes resume.
Source: The Hindu
Read more: The reality of online learning in Bengaluru’s govt schools
Plans for ‘Bengaluru Design District’
State government plans to establish a ‘Bengaluru Design District’ in the city, on the lines of the Dubai Design District (d3). It will be set up with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore on 100-150 acres, and will also host a ‘Bengaluru Design Festival’, said Science and Technology Minister Dr C N Ashwathnarayan.
He said that investors from the UAE, Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have agreed that the state is ideal for investments, and that he had held talks with Dubai authorities about establishing a water theme park in Bengaluru as well. The Gulf Islamic Investment Group (GII) will invest Rs 3,500 cr in the state, the minister said.
Source: Indian Express, Bangalore Mirror
City sees sporadic rise in COVID cases
Karnataka has flattened the COVID curve, but in Bengaluru active cases have been sporadically increasing, with spurts seen in July, August, September and October. The city continues to see a three-digit caseload each day. Sources at KC General Hospital said there is not much of an increase in their patients even as commercial activities, schools and festivals resumed. Any sporadic increase in active cases is only due to the technical issue of processing samples, said Dr C Nagaraj, member of the state COVID Technical Advisory Committee.
Vaccination is expected to become more aggressive. So far, 86% of the eligible population in the city has taken the first dose, and 52% have taken both doses.
Data from the Public Health Activities, Surveillance and Tracking (PHAST) portal shows that, during the second COVID wave, Bengaluru was simultaneously encountering a spate of non-COVID respiratory infections. About 35,255 cases of non-COVID-related Influenza Like Illness (ILI) or Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) were recorded between May 1 and October 17 in the city, as per the portal.
Source: Deccan Herald, The New Indian Express
Activists protest CM’s statement on moral policing
Organisations for human rights and those for youth, women, Dalits, minorities and LGBTQI held protests at Mysore Bank Circle on Thursday, demanding the withdrawal of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s statement on moral policing by radical groups. The CM had said: “When sentiments are hurt there will normally be action and reaction.” The protesters condemned the statement as a violation of constitutional values and a legitimisation of acts of violence by individuals taking law into their own hands.
Source: Indian Express
Read More: Preschools, daycares disappear into COVID gap; Govt indifferent
Protests, petitions against potholes
During ‘Pothole Habba’, members of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) decorated potholes across the city’s 198 wards with rangoli, and offered puja. AAP State Convenor Prithvi Reddy said the condition of city roads was pathetic even though the state government had spent Rs 20,000 crore for their repairs in the last five years. He demanded that the government furnish a white paper with details of the expenditure. AAP warned that if the government does not act, they would go to the judiciary.
While the BBMP is yet to repair roads, in the last two months the Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) is reported to have filled up nearly 500 potholes by pooling available resources.
Varthur residents have started an online petition to highlight the issue of potholes to BBMP authorities. The citizens said that though they are paying the highest road tax in Bengaluru, the Varthur-Gunjur road is in extremely poor condition and has not been repaired in the last couple of years. Numerous potholes and increase in dust particles, severe illnesses and lack of proper street lights are causing problems, said the petition.
Source: Indian Express, Deccan Herald
Upgraded ITIs to start classes from Nov 1
Classes at 150 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) that have been converted into “technology hubs” by Tata Technologies Limited, under the UDYOGA programme, would start from November 1, said Higher Education Minister C N Ashwathnarayan. Admission to the advanced courses is in progress.
Source: Indian Express