BENGALURU BUZZ

City roads to be audited: Govt State government has decided to conduct a road maintenance audit in Bengaluru to fix responsibility on officials for poor road conditions. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday informed the State Legislative Council that a detailed audit of main, arterial and sub-arterial roads will be undertaken. Bommai added that administrative approval had been given in 2015-16 for spending Rs 20,060 crore on Bengaluru roads, but not a single road is free of potholes or cracks. Meanwhile, B R Ravikanthe Gowda, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), said that traffic-calming measures like rumblers and surface markers were…

City had most cybercrimes, second-highest murders in 2020 According to the ‘Crime in India-2020’ report by the NCRB (National Crime Records Bureau), Bengaluru was the city with maximum number of murder cases in south India last year (179). Among all 19 metropolitan cities in the NCRB list, Bengaluru is second to Delhi, which reported 461 murders. The reasons for the murders spanned from petty quarrels to illicit relationships. Kamal Pant, Commissioner of Bengaluru City Police attributed the high number of cases to swelling population and unbridled growth of the city. Bengaluru also reported the highest rate of cybercrimes; of the…

One crore vaccinated in Bengaluru Urban district On Wednesday, the one-crore vaccination mark was achieved in Bengaluru Urban district. In addition to the 198 wards of BBMP, the district comprises five taluks, six town municipalities, one city municipality and 1,038 villages under 87 gram panchayats. The district administration officials said 1,00,34,598 people have been vaccinated at various centres. While 75.9 lakh people have been given the first dose, 24.4 lakh completed both vaccinations. With this, the district, barring the BBMP area, has achieved 90% of its vaccination target. In the BBMP area, 70% adults have been vaccinated with at least…

Revised guidelines Markets and commercial centres face some restrictions as the festival season kicked off with Varamahalakshmi and Muharram on August 20th. Shops, restaurants and mall owners have to ensure that their employees are vaccinated at least once and customers wear masks and maintain social distancing. Shop owners failing to enforce these rules face a fine or closure of their establishments. The Chief Commissioner has said 50 teams of marshals, home guards and police will patrol the city to enforece COVID appropriate behaviour rules based and punish people violating COVID norms. Travellers from Kerala or Maharashtra are required to show…

Bengaluru children test COVID positive The first 10 days of August saw 499 children in Bengaluru testing positive for COVID. A health bulletin reported that 88 children between 0 to 9 years and 305 children between 10 to 19 years tested positive. The number might shoot up to more than three times in the next few weeks, said sources in the health department. They have also advised parents to vaccinate themselves and to keep children away from crowded places. However, BBMP officials denied there was a steep rise in fresh cases among children. They said most children who tested positive…

Prohibitory orders till August 16th Bengaluru City police has imposed prohibitory orders, based on guidelines from the Karnataka State Disaster Management Authority. The order, issued to contain the spread of COVID, prohibits the assembly of more than four people in public places. Bus stands, Metro stations, railway stations and airports are exempted. The curfew will be in place till 6 am on August 16. Bengaluru Police has invoked Section 144 (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Those violating the orders will be punished under the Disaster Management Act and Karnataka Epidemic Diseases Act. On Thursday, 414 COVID-positive cases…

Spike in COVID cases On Thursday, 506 COVID-positive cases were reported, compared to Wednesday’s 376. Alarmed by the 34% rise, BBMP officials resolved to scale up surveillance besides intense testing and tracking in containment areas. BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta said that as per reports, infection was spreading through gatherings like weddings. Marshals have been told to be vigilant. A major chunk of newly infected people were found to have a recent connection with a physical market. Six clusters were discovered at CV Raman Nagar ward, where many had a history of movement to local markets. Meanwhile, BBMP started its…

Commercial Street makeover As part of the Smart City project, BBMP has carried out a major exercise in improving the look and feel of Commercial Street. The road is designed to be pedestrian-friendly, though cyclists were miffed at a 'No cycling' board. Bengaluru Smart City Ltd has plans for a multi-level parking facility nearby. Newly renovated Commercial Street. Pic: Dy CM - CN Ashwathnarayan/ Twitter The main carriageway has grey and yellow cobblestones and tall wrought iron lamp posts add to the look. Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa inspected the completed work, with his colleagues and pointed out it was the…

BBMP to reduce govt-quota COVID beds BBMP has decided to reduce the number of government-quota COVID beds to about 1,800, due to the decrease in demand. Some of the CCCs (COVID Care Centres) have been closed. However, the civic body is keeping the city's health infrastructure ready for a possible third wave, BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta said. According to BBMP's data, of the 6,446 government quota beds available, over 6,000 were unoccupied as of Thursday. However, the COVID second wave is not over yet, according to sources from the Karnataka’s Technical Advisory Committee. According to them, the next six…

72% COVID patients have new variants About 71.7% of 1,018 patients in the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) and Bengaluru Urban district limits had the latest variants of SARS-CoV-2. Out of the 2,774 samples received for genomic sequencing, 1,738 were processed. This includes 525 patients with the Delta variant, 116 with Kappa, 88 with Alpha, and one with Delta Plus. In all, 730 patients have the new variants. A member of the state genomic surveillance committee said that the BBMP should be acting on the data. Quick tracing is crucial. It is important to check if patients with the Delta…