City: Bengaluru

BBMP moots controversial Pet Dog Licensing Bylaw again BBMP has again drafted the Pet Dog Licensing Bylaw, which had been withdrawn in 2018 following opposition from dog lovers. According to the draft Pet Dog Licensing Bylaws 2020, a flat-owner can rear only one dog, and a person living in an independent house can keep only three. Owners need to fix a microchip and sterilise their pets. But the rules have been relaxed for those who rear abandoned, rescued and local breeds after getting the necessary certification. Dog owners who don't have license will have to pay a fine of Rs…

In the last couple of months, many apartment complexes in Bengaluru got notices from the state Pollution Control Board (KSPCB), asking them to pay a penalty of Rs 5 lakh, for discharging untreated sewage outside their premises. Many of these apartments were already running Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs), and these were functioning well as per routine lab tests that the apartments used to get done. So, the apartments wrote to KSPCB instead of paying up. But the Board did not respond to the residents’ concerns. Instead, it issued them a ‘show cause’ notice, mentioning that they hadn’t paid the fines…

If you’re somewhere around Manyata tech park, you may hear the chirping of birds amidst all the honking and din of heavy vehicles. Adjacent to the tech park, a small internal road will take you to five mini forests, spread across 7850 sq m. All of these have been created by the residents of Manyata Residency nearby. These parks are the only lung spaces in the otherwise traffic-choked, congested area that houses many high-rise apartments and commercial establishments. How it all started As we face the ill-effects of global warming, we need to stop cutting down trees and plant more…

Translated by Mukund Gowda ಅನೇಕ ವರ್ಷಗಳಿಂದ ಸಿಲ್ಕ್ ಬೋರ್ಡ್ ಮತ್ತು ಕೆ.ಆರ್.ಪುರಂ ಮಧ್ಯೆ ಬಿಎಂಟಿಸಿ ಬಸ್ ಚಾಲನೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಿರುವ ರಾಮು ಬಿ.ಪಿ ಅವರಿಗೆ ಕಳೆದ ನವೆಂಬರ್ 1 ರಿಂದ ಜಾರಿಯಾದ ಬಸ್ ಆದ್ಯತೆ ಪಥ ನಿರಾಳತೆ ನೀಡಿದೆ. "ಮೊದಲೆಲ್ಲಾ ಈ ಮಾರ್ಗ ಮಧ್ಯದ ಸಂಚಾರಕ್ಕೆ 75 ನಿಮಿಷ ಬೇಕಿತ್ತು , ಕಳೆದ ಮೂರು ತಿಂಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಇದು 45-50 ನಿಮಿಷಕ್ಕೆ ಇಳಿದಿದೆ." ಎಂದು ಹೇಳುವ ಇವರು "ಬಸ್ ಆದ್ಯತೆ ಪಥ ಸಂಪೂರ್ಣವಾಗಿ ಜಾರಿಯಾದರೆ,‌ ಇನ್ನಷ್ಟು ಸಮಯ ಉಳಿಯುವುದು" ಎಂದು ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯ ಪಟ್ಟಿದ್ದಾರೆ.  ಇದೇ ಮಾರ್ಗದಲ್ಲಿ ಬಸ್ ಚಲಾಯಿಸುವ ಇನ್ನೊಬ್ಬ ಚಾಲಕ ಸಂಜಪ್ಪ ಅವರಿಗೆ ಬಸ್ ಆದ್ಯತೆ ಪಥ ಮಾನಸಿಕ ನೆಮ್ಮದಿ ನೀಡಿದೆ. "ಮೊದಲೆಲ್ಲಾ ಜನರು ಬೇಜವಾಬ್ದಾರಿಯಿಂದ  ಅಪಾಯಕಾರಿಯಾಗಿ ವಾಹನ‌ ಓಡಿಸುವುದರಿಂದ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಒತ್ತಡ ಇತ್ತು, ಇದೀಗ ನಮಗೆಂದೇ ಪ್ರತ್ಯೇಕ ಪಥ ಇರುವುದರಿಂದ ಬಸ್ ಚಲಾಯಿಸುವುದು ಸುಲಭವಾಗಿದೆ" ಎನ್ನುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಸಾರ್ವಜನಿಕ ಸಾರಿಗೆಗೆ ಪ್ರತ್ಯೇಕ ಪಥ ನೀಡಿರುವುದಕ್ಕೆ ಸಂತಸ ವ್ಯಕ್ತಪಡಿಸುತ್ತಾ, ಎಲ್ಲಾ ವಾಹನ ಸವಾರರು…

Cubbon Park was created as a 100-acre park in 1870 by Major General Richard Sankey. It was originally named Meade Park after the acting Commissioner of Mysuru in that year, John Meade. It was later named Cubbon Park, after Sir Mark Cubbon, a more illustrious successor to Meade.  Cubbon Park now covers close to 300 acres, making it the largest park in the city. A favourite with morning walkers and joggers in the heart of Bengaluru, it is in the news for a redevelopment project worth Rs 40 crore. As part of the smart city project, the redevelopment of the…

Last week, Amulya Leona, 19, a journalism student, was arrested and charged with sedition for sloganeering "Pakistan Zindabad" at a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the city. In January, another student Nalini B was charged with sedition in Mysore, after she held up a placard that said "Free Kashmir". But do such slogans or placards really qualify as sedition? As a law student I was introduced to ‘sedition’ while reading Gandhi’s statement during what is known as The Great Trial of 1922. In his concluding remarks, Gandhi invites the judge to convict him of sedition, with the…

It has been a decade since the Carlton Towers fire tragedy on 23 February, 2010. On Saturday, Beyond Carlton, a citizens' initiative that was formed after the incident, organised a fire safety awareness programme at the National Gallery of Modern Art to pay tribute to the nine lives lost -  Akhil Uday, Benzie Kumar, Fayaz Pasha, Madan Purohit, Rajesh Subramanian, Savitha R, Siddhartha Padam, Sunil Iyer, and Surabhi Joshi. As part of a series of events to create awareness and prevent fire accidents, we, at Beyond Carlton, had also launched a social media campaign #IamAFireChamp. On behalf of Beyond Carlton,…

SAP offices closed after H1N1 cases  After a couple of employees in the German software group SAP were tested positive for the H1N1 virus in Bengaluru, sources in the Indian arm of the company said Thursday that they had shut down all national offices for sanitisation. SAP India offices in Bengaluru, Gurgaon and Mumbai have been temporarily closed and employees have been asked to work from home. As per WHO (World Health Organisation), H1N1 symptoms include fever, chills and sore throat, like seasonal influenza. However, it is characterised by higher fatality rates among healthy young adults, as well as greater…

PublicEye, an app that allows citizens to report traffic violations, is seeing a steady growth in the number of complaints as well as resolution of the same. The app was launched in September 2015, jointly by Bengaluru Traffic Police(BTP) and Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship Democracy. From the time of its launch, PublicEye has aggregated a total of 1.26 lakh app downloads with 24,222 active users. It has received a total of 3.28 lakh complaints, of which 2.27 lakh complaints have been effectively resolved in the last four years. Last year, 2019, recorded the highest complaint uploads, with a 150% increase…

During the solar eclipse on December 26, the solar power generated in Karnataka dropped sharply for an hour. At the time, over 18% of the state’s power demand was being met through solar energy. Currently, the Bangalore Metropolitan Area Zone (BMAZ) draws around 20% of the state’s energy. Given this, much of Bengaluru’s energy demand can potentially be accommodated by solar power alone (Bengaluru gets power from the same grid that supplies to the entire state). With the commercial operation of the world’s largest solar park (2050 MW) at Pavagada in Tumkur district recently, Karnataka now has the highest capacity…