COVID-19 testing scaled up The number of tests for COVID-19 has been scaled up by five times, said Medical Education Minister Sudhakar K. He said that earlier, 200-300 real time RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) tests used to be conducted in the state everyday. This has been increased by around five times, to 1500 tests per day. Given the rate at which the disease is spreading, Karnataka needs to further ramp up testing but is ill-equipped for this, said health experts. There is shortage of PCR machines, testing kits, biosafety level-2 labs, and trained technicians. Sources admitted that the…
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KRDCL may axe thousands of trees The KRDCL (Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited) may soon axe 8,561 old, mature trees in the city outskirts. The trees are to be cut for widening six roads: the 20-km stretch from Hoskote/Budigere Cross to airport (1,758 trees), 15-km stretch from Nelamangala to Madhure (869 trees), 23-km stretch from Madhure to Devanahalli road (1,593 trees), 33-km stretch from Bidadi to Jigani (184 trees), Bannerghatta to Anekal (520 trees), and the 39-km stretch from Anekal to Hoskote (3,637 trees). An expert committee set up to examine applications for tree felling said early this week, that…
Read moreDouble property tax for building law violation Double the property tax will now be applicable to buildings constructed in violation of bylaws. State cabinet has approved an amendment to the Karnataka Municipalities Act to affect the change. Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy said the tax doubling would apply only to the portion of the built-up area that violates bylaws. BBMP will be able to levy the additional tax as soon as a notification is issued in tune with the cabinet's decision. However, the double property tax does not absolve violators, Madhuswamy clarified; they would have to pay…
Read moreToday (May 30th) is the last day for citizens owning properties in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits to file their property tax with five per cent tax rebate. But even after two months of BBMP making the property tax payment system open, citizens have continued to complain of issues with tax payment. Earlier this month, one of our readers and property tax expert D R Prakash (who is also the founder-president of Osborne Road Area Residents Welfare Association) wrote an article about the glitches in property tax payment portal. Last week he again wrote an e-mail to Citizen Matters,…
Read moreBBMP Property tax payment cycle is underway. Here's a guide that explains the process and lists the problems, along with the changes introduced this year. Note: This article was originally published on April 18th, and has been updated on May 6 2016, to reflect the BBMP's rollback of zonal classification. Finally BBMP has fixed the system to file property tax. This year there are changes: 1. Change in tariff 2. Change in zonal classifications (Rolled back on Apr 28th) The first one is a regular hike, which had to be done after expiry of every BLOCK period of FIVE years.…
Read moreA number of articles have been written about step-by-step approach to fill the Online Form for payment of property tax this year. I am writing this article on the failure of the new system and what went wrong since lakhs of tax payers could not make payments till date. BBMP is in a big muddle for having introduced a software overnight without proving the efficacy of the new system. I am giving below the reasons for such a failure. The matter is in the hands of the concerned BBMP Commissioners who are probably not taking into consideration, the actual state…
Read moreThe homepage of old BBMP website that was filled with lot of information, has changed now with a new design. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) websitehas got a new appearance. The homepage which was earlier overloaded with information and links, has been made simpler and cleaner. All the links and information are categorised under the main menu making it easier for the users to search. The redesigned website was launched on the night of July 7th 2015. The work is still under progress. BBMP IT Advisor T Sheshadri who has worked on the website said the purpose of redesigning…
Read moreA typical scene from BBMP Council meets during afternoons. Pic: Shree D N It's a meeting that is supposed to discuss the development works that must happen in your ward, every month. Your own representative, who is a councillor, better-known as corporator, is supposed to attend it and participate in it on your behalf. What if you come to know that the one whom you chose to do this job did not even attend the meetings? Or if you come to know that the person faked his attendance and went elsewhere to do his other works? List of councillors having…
Read moreThe Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) presented its annual budget, the last by the current Council, on March 17th 2015. The total outlay in the 2015-16 Budget is of Rs. 6730 crores. Acknowledging the financial situation of the BBMP to be “tight and tough”, Chairman of the Finance and Taxation Committee, V Anand characterised the budget as a realistic one. Instead of initiating new projects, the budget’s main focus would be to see through the ongoing and spilled over works and to cut down on administrative overheads. Total grants of Rs. 2,891 crores are expected from the State Government. The…
Read moreIt is that time of year when we have to pay the property tax for the current year. There are two different types - White (Form IV) in bilingual, and Blue (Form V) For the properties, where there is no change in any field - either in category (residential / non-residential), dimensions (any addition / deletion to the structure) or usage (tenanted / self-occupied) one has to use the white form (Form.IV). Unlike previous years, the Form IV has already reached all the help centres this time. Pic: Shreyas B K The block period for this term came to an…
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