high court of karnataka

A couple voting in the BBMP elections of 2015. What does it mean for Bengalureans to not have an elected Council now? File Pic: Akshatha M On September 10, the tenure of the BBMP Council ended, and the state government stepped in to appoint senior bureaucrat Gaurav Gupta as the corporation's administrator. Gaurav Gupta will remain in charge of the corporation until a new bunch of corporators are elected in the next Council election. It was a move that didn't surprise many who had been watching the space. But the Council elections aren't on the horizon anytime soon - partly…

Five COVID-19 cases reported so far Five COVID-19 cases were reported in Bengaluru as of Thursday. The first case, confirmed on March 9, was that of a 46-year-old IT employee who had travelled from US via Dubai. His wife (47), daughter (13), and a 50-year-old man were added to the list the next day. The fifth case, reported on Thursday, was that of a 26-year-old who returned from Greece. All five patients have all been quarantined in the state-run Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD). They are responding well to treatment and are recovering, said RGICD Director C Nagaraj.…

BBMP to take over all city lakes except three  All lakes in the city except Bellandur, Varthur, and Veerasandra will be handed over to the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike), according to Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, who is also the Bengaluru Development Minister. Also, 628 acre of lake land that has been encroached, would be cleared. Bellandur and Varthur lakes are under the BDA (Bangalore Development Authority), and Veerasandra lake is with the BMRCL (Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd). Currently, 169 out of 200 lakes in Bengaluru are under the BBMP. It will now take over 38 more lakes.…

The High Court’s recent decision to give ‘itself’ a seven-storey annexe building in Cubbon Park has not gone down well with heritage and environment activists in the city. In an online petition on Change.org, the activists have pleaded to the High Court to revisit its decision and to conserve the lung space of Bengalureans. The petition, started two days ago, has already garnered over 4300 signatures. In a writ petition filed in 2014, High Court Registrar Rajendra Badamikar had sought the court's permission to demolish the Old Election Commissioner's Office in the park, and to build an annexe to the…

BBMP ups security deposit for road cutting  Roads that are dug up by various agencies are often restored poorly, due to the lack of coordination between agencies. To address this issue, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is increasing the security deposit that agencies - including private telecoms and internet service providers - have to pay when they take permission for road cutting. The security deposit should be enhanced to 100 percent of the road restoration cost, as per a circular issued by the BBMP Commissioner B H Anil Kumar to the Palike's chief engineers. So far, the civic body…

City to get air purifiers  About 500 air-purifying devices will be installed at various traffic-heavy junctions in the city, to reduce vehicular pollution. A memorandum of understanding was signed by the BBMP with the software firm aTechTron, which will begin to install the purifiers from the second week of September. About 100 air purifiers will be installed over three months in the first phase. The entire project will be completed within the next year-and-half. At more traffic-heavy junctions such as Silk Board, Marathahalli and Bellandur, more than one device will be installed. The devices are made with patented technology. They…

  Ward delimitation before civic polls State government has taken up the delimitation of wards based on a proposal by the BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike), in the run up to the civic polls in 2020. After delimitation, the number of wards will remain the same, but the core city will have fewer wards compared to the outer zones. The goal is to reduce the disparity in ward population, which ranges from 21,171 in Marenahalli to 95,368 in Horamavu. The plan now is to have 198 wards with an average population of 42,645. The exercise will be done on the…

At a testy hearing in the High Court of Karnataka, the University of Agricultural Sciences reversed its position on the BBMP's link road through its GKVK campus in north Bengaluru. Before a two-judge bench on December 16th, the university's counsel Nithin Ramesh said the Vice-Chancellor, P G Chengappa, was willing to convene a fresh meeting of the Board of Regents to strike down its earlier approval for the link road, and added that the board's earlier decision was taken under ‘duress'. As BBMP claims 70 per cent of the work is completed the High Court orders an expert committee be…