BENGALURU BUZZ

Over 16 lakh added to voters' list Almost 16,04,285 voters, including about two lakh young electors, have been newly added to the voters’ list after the publication of the final electoral rolls on January 5th  and January 15th in Karnataka. Hence, there are 5.31 crore electors in the 224 Assembly constituencies, said Manoj Kumar Meena, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) for Karnataka. People now cannot add, delete or update the rolls. After announcement of polls, enrolment activities were taken up till April 20th and all eligible applications have been updated in the electoral roll 2023. Just before the elections, a voter…

Poll fever shoots up Even as all parties swing into campaigning, efforts are being made to increase voter turnout, hoping that it would go up to at least 75% from last time’s 55%. About 1.35 lakh voters in the age groups of 18-19 years will vote for the first time. About five lakh voters have been added since January 2023, said Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner and District Election Officer Tushar Giri Nath at a voter awareness campaign organised by Bengaluru Chamber of Industries and Commerce (BCIC) . The hope is that voting goes up to 100%. A…

Govt 'failed' in education: Civil rights body The government's performance in education has been marked ‘Grade E’ (Fail) by the civil rights group, Bahutva Karnataka. It evaluated the state's performance based on certain parameters, such as the learning abilities of students, implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, communalisation of education, revision of the curriculum, exclusion of students from marginalised communities, infrastructure, among others. The forum, consisting of education experts and student activists, said that its report card is an outcome of evaluation based on the government's performance in relation to its own goals, as well as the constitutional…

Withdraw FIRs: Sankey road protestors The Sadashivanagar police’s FIR against 70 people, who protested peacefully on February 19th against the proposed Sankey Road flyover, has drawn ire from citizens and Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWAs), activists, and civic organisations. The group wrote to the Police Commissioner C H Pratap Reddy, and met him on April 5th, demanding the withdrawal of “baseless allegations against the citizens”. The letter was endorsed by over 500 citizens and almost 100 organisations. The case has been transferred to the Halasuru Gate police station. The citizens have been charged with crimes under Sections 143, 341, 283 and…

Poll plans roll out Many are worried that as civic officials have been posted to election duties for the upcoming Assembly polls on May 10th, the ongoing infrastructure projects will be affected. Meanwhile, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that urban apathy is a concern in elections. Against the 72% polling in the state in the 2018 Assembly elections, the city's constituencies had only around 55% polling. He said that the EC (Election Commission) has reached out to IT firms, colleges and start-ups to increase awareness. To increase voter participation, the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) listed out some initiatives…

Road construction on Hosakerehalli Lake stopped On March 11th, BBMP Special Commissioner (Projects) P M Ravindra said that engineers will remove mud immediately and restore the 59-acre Hosakerehalli lake, the main water source at Rajarajeshwari Nagar, to its original condition. Earlier, Horticulture Minister and area MLA Munirathna had denied that a permanent road was being built through the Hosakerehalli Lake. However, he admitted that a temporary road was laid just to clear silt, as the lake is spread over 50 acres and has collected silt over the last 100 years. The BBMP will develop a model lake and build a…

Viral fever cases Bengaluru hospitals are reporting high numbers of fever patients in the OPD, yet hospitalisations are much lower as patients are being admitted mostly in general ward rather than in the ICU. However, in the last fortnight, government hospitals in the city showed a rise in admissions to 45. The numbers in the state went up from 17 at the end of February to 52 on March 13th. An 81-year-old, suffering from ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome) in the city passed away on March 9th, one of five deaths reported in the state this year. The weekly test…

Viral fever cases among children An increase in hospitalisations, among children, due to viral fever has been reported since December last year. Influenza, including the currently prevalent H3N2 strain, is causing upper respiratory tract infections and body ache. On the other hand, adenovirus is leading to respiratory infections, gastro-enteritis and conjunctivitis, though body ache associated with it is less severe. Fever, cold, sore throat, body pain, vomiting and diarrhoea are probable adenovirus symptoms. However, adenovirus symptoms, which used to earlier resolve in two to three days, are now lasting seven to 10 days, with high-grade fever. The prevalence has been…

BBMP presents budget The BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike) on March 2nd presented its budget of Rs 11,157 crore at Town Hall. Infrastructure projects received 63% allocation, followed by solid waste management that got 14.73%. It is the third time that the BBMP has presented a budget in the absence of a city council. Amid opposition, the civic body also proposed five more flyovers. Pushing for transparency in accounting, the BBMP has created IFMS (Integrated Financial Management System). The BBMP has also earmarked Rs 92 crore to establish 61 primary health centres and allocated Rs 2 crore for the Bangalore Health System…

Reservation issues The Kannada Language Comprehensive Development Bill, 2022 was adopted by the Legislative Assembly, with the support of all political members. It seeks to provide reservation to Kannadigas in higher education and private industries to give primacy to Kannada. It also aims for a state-level enforcement committee, led by the Kannada and Culture Minister, V. Sunil Kumar. Meanwhile, the High Court of Karnataka ordered issue of notice to the state involving a petition questioning the validity of the Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Seats in Educational Institutions and of Appointments or Posts in the Services under…