With smartphones getting more affordable and in everyone’s hands, every individual walking on the road is a potential prey. Says Deba Saha who was witness to one incident recently: “I saw a phone snatcher near the KPTCL power station on 27th main. Two people on a bike tried to snatch the cellphone of a girl who was walking on the road. Unfortunately, I was in the opposite direction, and therefore couldn’t chase them.”
The safer way of not getting your phone stolen is to always hold your smartphone on the drain side of the road. Remember to be vigilant around you while you are on the phone as that is just as important. When you spot someone coming really close to you, it’s best to back up on the footpath. They could be after your gold chain or your smartphone.
Similarly, chain snatching is just as bad in HSR Layout. One resident had this to say: “I saw a woman’s chain being snatched at 7am in Sector 3,” said Rohit G. “Before I could look at the nameplate of the biker, they had vanished, and the woman was too frazzled to note anything. With helmets, it’s hard to identify the culprits too.”
The cops recommend that women avoid wearing costly jewellery and if they do have to, they should cover it with their scarf. But most women forget that there are prowlers on their trail.
A few shopkeepers in BDA Complex have come together and knocked on the doors of the court against the agency’s plan to turn the HSR landmark into a mall. Citing loss of business, they have filed a Public Interest Litigation. However, there is no confirmation on when the case will come up for hearing. But the Bangalore Development Authority officials say that the complex will be shutdown for sure.
The shopkeepers have confirmed receiving 2-3 closure notices from the BDA so far, but nobody is clear on when the complex will eventually shutdown for construction. Until then, they are simply chugging along. Some tenants have identified alternative places while others have chosen to ‘wait and watch’.
“We are identifying a place, but nobody knows when the complex will be shut or will it be shut at all,” said retailer Vijay Purohit. “All I know is that our landlord took this shop on lease from the BDA in 2003-2004.”
According to M Prabhu, assistant executive engineer, BDA, “The complex will shutdown, but when, nobody knows”.
RESIDENTS DON’T WANT A MALL TOO!
The local shopkeepers are opposed to the idea of the BDA complex turning into a mall, because they will have to pay a lot more rent, and until the reconstruction happens, they will be without a cheaper venue. If you take them out of the equation, there is still some food for thought. Indiranagar resident and civic activist Sneha Nandihal is facing a similar issue in her locality. What she says resonates with HSR as well. “The BDA complex is supposed to provide all civic amenities to the local population,” she says. “It is meant to reduce traveling. But the proposed expansion will make it a favourite shopping/entertainment destination for outsiders, and promote long-distance traveling. It will also increase the traffic density in the neighborhood. For a residential area, it’s bad news.”
HSR resident Suraj Lulla who runs three branded showrooms in HSR Layout, agreed with Sneha: “It is not right to change every civic amenity to something which becomes commercial and the essence of having all civic facilities under one roof is lost. We should rather look at strengthening the BDA complex to be a one-stop solution to all the civic and government needs of the locality.”
One shopkeeper at the BDA complex was categorical when she said, “The BDA Complex isn’t shutting down too soon. The government itself is undecided on how to proceed with BDA complexes after the resident protests.”
In what should come as welcome news to many civic activists, an unauthorised shed is being demolished today by the BBMP (Jakkasandra ward) with the help of the cops on 14th Main near Greenview Hospital in Sector 5, HSR Layout. “The people should shiver before they think of building anything without BBMP’s plan sanction,” said one BBMP official. In addition, the building was being built in the Agara Lake buffer zone specified by the National Green Tribunal.
According to the National Green Tribunal, no structures can come up between 30 and 75 metres of Rajakaluves (major stormwater drains). If they are already constructed before May 2015 but uninhabited, such houses are not to be occupied without the prior permission of the court, and in any event, not until the commissioning of the sewage treatment plants to prevent the generations more sewage.
In a letter dated January 16, 2018, the BBMP asked the land owner Nitya Muralidharan to demolish the building that was encroaching the buffer zone and being built without the plan sanction from the BBMP. However, when no action was taken, the BBMP took the help of the police force and is demolishing it today.
The BBMP Grounds recovered after a five-year fight by the Resident Welfare Associations of HSR Layout is being misused by the local politicians and BBMP officials despite resident protests. But this time, the residents decided that enough was enough when they realised that the BBMP, on the advice of Bommanahalli MLA Satish Reddy, had given the permission for a 11-day non-sports event from March 1. Though the permission was given in November last year, it has come to bite BBMP now as the event is slated to begin from tomorrow.
When the residents saw that the erection of the pendal had begun, they went to the BBMP office last week, and asked them to suspend the event as the permission is illegal.
“About 20 concerned residents met the Assistant Engineer of the BBMP at the HSR Layout office and gave a representation along with BBMP circulars that clearly indicate that BBMP can only give permission to non-sports events for only five days in a month, to five different organisations. There is no room for mega events as the rules stipulate that only one Sunday can be used by one organisation, and they can only use the grounds for one day. In this case, one organisation is holding a 11-day event, including two Sundays, which is a blatant violation of the BBMP rules,” said Sector 2 resident Girish Shivalingaiah who is leading the protest.
But the BBMP officials insist that such a big event cannot be held anywhere else. MP Kupendra Reddy also called for a meeting precisely for this reason, citing traffic issues if “2 lakh people” turn up for the event. However, the organisers are apparently saying that arrangements are being made to feed only 4000 people per day. The truth could well be inbetween, but what concerned Kupendra Reddy is the traffic mess and the fact that it’s exam time for students.
The protestors contend that though the event is only for 11 days, the dismantling of the massive structures will take another month. “Before the programme, they took 20 days to build the structure. After the 11-day event, they will take another 10 days to dismantle it. Totally, the playground will be blocked by this event for 41 days and the playground will not be available for any sporting and related activities during this time,” says Girish.
The BBMP and the MLA are in the middle of a controversy yet again for violating all the rules of the land concerning the open corporation grounds.
Since September 2018, the 9th Main-14th Cross was inaccessible to commuters. Thanks to rains and stormwater drains getting blocked and flooding homes in low-lying areas, this was BBMP’s way of desilting the drains. However, the works hit a road hump when the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (KPTCL) took its own time to do its bit after the BBMP had done its desilting.
In fact, the box drain could not be closed until the KPTCL shifted their cables going underneath the 9th Main Road. “We cannot touch the cables; they have to switch off the power going through these lines and work on holidays,” one BBMP official had said. “Once they shift the cables from the centre of the drain, we can cover the gaping hole quickly.”
Sounded easy peesy, but the KPTCL said this would mean shutting off half the city’s power supply on a Sunday to get the job done, which was a logistical nightmare. This led to some more delay. When the BBMP officials reminded them again, the KPTCL people who had promised were posted elsewhere. The wait continued. Finally, this week, the job was done and the road is ready for primetime traffic near Empire restaurant in Sector 6. It is only a matter of time before the barricades go and the traffic movement is allowed. The stretch doesn’t appear to be super smooth just yet, but eventually will, we hope.
This is the traffic you can encounter at the 5th Main-Mangammanapalya Main Road junction at 7pm. Strangely, this junction is manned by the cops from Electronic City. “We have to come 10 kilometres away from our station to manage the traffic here,” complained one cop.
When we checked with HSR traffic police on that day, we were informed that they were sent 10 kilometres away to Freedom Park for some traffic bandobast. Clearly, the jurisdiction of cops can be anywhere but where they should be. No wonder, you hardly find a few cops in HSR Layout. Will the higher ups ensure that the cops given to one station are used optimally for the area they are to manage? No wonder, there is so much chaos in HSR Layout when the cops are doing duty elsewhere.
And when residents do see them on the streets, they are busy collecting fines when they should be removing footpath encroachments, fixing broken dividers and streamlining traffic movement at busy junctions.
BORDER AREAS OF HSR LAYOUT
Indeed, this was not the scenario only on this day. The border areas of HSR Layout are regularly managed by traffic cops from Electronic City. We are talking about the Somasundrapalya Main Road junction and 5th Main junction of HSR Layout.
The problem is shortage of staff. The remedy? They hop from one junction to the other to ease the traffic flow during peak hours. We spotted them at the 5th Main-MG Palya junction between 6.30pm-8.30pm.
When we pressed them to also look at the jam at the MG Palya-HSR Layout junction, the cops said that they are short of staff, and they would rather tackle the bigger bottlenecks of Somasundrapalya Main Road and 5th Main junction near Salarpuria apartments. In addition, they said that the narrow stretch of road that meets MG Palya Road is the biggest problem. “Even a single four wheeler cannot take a U-turn here without obstructing traffic for a long time. The problem is with the curvature and width of the road itself,” said one cop manning the 5th Main junction.
The biggest complaint from the cops is that the users are always in a hurry and don’t listen to them on many occasions. “The tanker drivers are the biggest culprits. Many people keep dying regularly because of such persons. They drive fast even on roads that demand slow-moving traffic.”
JURISDICTIONAL CHAOS
While all the sectors of HSR Layout are managed by the crime branch of HSR Layout in a clear-cut fashion, the traffic police, however, had a stranger problem earlier. Sectors 6 & 7 were managed by the Madiwala cops. Later, it was streamlined to include all the sectors of HSR Layout. Similarly, the Bandepalya Police Station is in Sector 3 of HSR Layout, as they did not find a convenient place in their own jurisdiction, or so they claim. Similarly, the entire stretch of MG Palya Road, from Somasundrapalya Road junction to Hosur Road junction is managed by the Electronic City traffic cops, while Iblur is managed by the HSR cops.
The sub station of Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) was on fire between 6.30pm and 8pm yesterday. Coincidentally, when we uploaded a story yesterday about how the Bangalore Electric Supply Company (Bescom) is coming under fire from the residents for outages and fluctuations that have damaged electronic equipment, one resident pointed out that the actual power sub station on 27th Main could actually be on fire.
At 12.30pm, Krishna Kumar Puravoor reacted to our story in a WhatsApp group saying, “I am seeing a considerable amount of dry grass in the KPTCL compound which is highly inflammable in the light of recent fire incidents. They should clear those grass lands.” Six hours later, the compound was actually on fire due to the dry grass getting ignited by what some Bescom officials suspect could be a cigarette butt. No less than Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Isha Pant rushed to the spot and asked the concerned authorities to ensure that the fire does not happen again. She has asked Bescom and BBMP to clear the compound of any other impediments that could cause a fire in the future.
It is to be recalled that during the time of Diwali, on the night of November 7, this same portion had caught fire. However, it was controlled as soon as alert residents called up the authorities and alerted them about the fire. Clearly, the KPTCL authorities had not learnt any lesson from this and it happened again. Therefore, this time around, the cops are writing a letter to the BBMP Joint Commissioner to ensure that grass is regularly cut to prevent any more fire breakouts. Better late than never.
The sparking and buzzing/hissing sounds in the new transformers of the Bangalore Electric Supply Company (Bescom) across HSR Layout has become an everday affair. When you ask the officials, they use all the technical words to confuse you no end. All the residents want to know is when will this nightmare end.
Complaints against Bescom’s frequent power shutdowns, fluctuations and damage of equipment is becoming all too common in HSR Layout. Despite raising this issue many times with the authorities, the resident welfare associations have nowhere else to turn for a proper remedy to this problem.
Watch the video above to know how one such transformer behaved in Sector 6 on 9th Main. Only after this video went viral on our channel a few months ago did the Bescom wake up to it and fix this. However, they have not learnt their lessons. There are still many cases that keep cropping up all the time. Whenever there is sparking in the transformers, there are voltage fluctuations at homes and offices across HSR Layout. And this has already resulted in damage of electronic equipment in the neighbourhood, and we have written about them whenever some glaring cases have come to our notice.
Sector 4 resident Fazal Khalil says this is a perennail problem with Bescom that was prevalent even when it was earlier known as the KEB (Karnatake Electricity Board). “I’m losing equipment and electronics ever since I shifted to HSR in 2003,” says Fazal. “I have spoken, written and shared my problems with everyone at Bescom. We need to fight this collectively, with the RWAs (Residents Welfare Association) in the lead.” This time around, due to the inconsistency in voltage around Sector 4, Fazal has lost his air conditioner and treadmill. “Thanks to the ever-incompetent Bescom and their even more incompetent staff, the common man continues to suffer,” he says.
Agrees K Sesha Kumar: “We have to come together and make a strong and joint documented submission to BESCOM Chief Engineer at HSR and escalate to the higher ups, and submit a monetary claim for the loss of equipment in our homes.”
Resident Suresh Bhaskaran advocates that the right equipment can prevent damages. “You need spike arrestors. Many times, it is not so much about high voltage as it is about high amperes of current which blows up equipment. Prevention is better. With all the huge construction machines, this can happen. I am a victim of it. Not once, but twice.”
https://youtu.be/c9xwVQx55TA
The BBMP contractor assigned to redo all the footpaths and drains in HSR Layout made a careless mistake a few months ago that will cost him lakhs of rupees. This video recording of the scene captures the story for you. Check it out.
Now, here is the back story. The contractor broke all the tiles laid over the stormwater drain by three shopkeepers on 27th Main Road in Sector 1. Before he realised that he was to only relay the tiles on the footpath and not on the stormwater drain, the damage was done. The tiles in front of three shops were completely removed and the new tiles were partially laid in front of one store, when the contractor realised his folly and stopped the work immediately.
The contractor did not touch the adjacent shop’s tiles as they were on an elevation. If he had done so, it would have costed him a lot more.
However, the damage is done and the contractor has no recourse but to repair it. “Whether it costs Rs 1 lakh or Rs 5 lakh, the contractor has to relay the tiles as BBMP is not going to give him any money for his mistake,” said a senior BBMP official to Residents Watch. Five months ago, P Panduranga, the BBMP contractor, informed Residents Watch that he would fix the tiles, but only after the BBMP clears all his bills. But till date, he claims that the BBMP has only partially cleared them. The wait was only getting longer, so the shopkeeper himself relaid the same tiles that were removed as he could not keep waiting for the BBMP to do its job. Though he was not able to fix the tiles as well they should be, it is still better than just red soil.
Will the contractor relay the tiles properly and will the BBMP do its job remains to be seen.
Resident S Srinivasan, who shot this footage next to the BDA flyover on the side of Sector 5 near Devi Eye Hospital, says that the entire stretch from the BDA junction on 14th Main to the point where the flyover lands on Outer Ring Road near Swathi restaurant, needs to be relaid. It’s not a pothole but a pot road.
“When it rains, the water collects over here, causing the road damage,” he reasons. “There is no more proper drainage system in the adjacent buildings and on the road. And at night, it’s also a vulnerable spot for mobile phone snatching.”
The bus and truck traffic has worsened the situation. “We installed an arch with the permission of the traffic police, to prevent larger vehicles from using the service road but those have been removed forcefully by some people and even the cops say they are helpless as it is next to the main Outer Ring Road,” says Srinivasan.
The good news is that the BBMP has already submitted the budget for relaying the road from Silk Board to Agara junction. Says civic activist Kavitha Reddy who is pressurising the government to grant funds soon. “We have requested the BBMP Special Commissioner Randeep for a clean up drive on the Agara Service Road, and two height baracades for both the service roads to restrict HTVs. The BBMP (Major roads) department has already confirmed that the road from Agara Flyover to Silk board will be taken up soon, and the area under the BDA flyover will be tiled, so we can use it for parking of two-wheelers. This should take 2-4 months.”
https://youtu.be/HP2It9d33co
The HSR Citizens Forum, a group of HSR residents, has turned a dilapidated median park into a community garden a while ago. Today, it’s not only a green lung space but also the educational ground for students. If you want to take part, you can drop anchor on any Sunday at the median park on 18th Cross in Sector 3, diagonally opposite McDonald’s. And if you want to understand organic gardening thoroughly, then every last Sunday of the month, there is a free workshop at Swachagraha Kalika Kendra in Sector 4 behind HP petrol bunk opposite BDA Complex, from 8am to 11am.
A few months ago, students from HSR’s Freedom International School were given a walk-through and a practical demonstration of how gardening is done. They even got their hands dirty to get a thrill of agriculture.
Says volunteer and resident Ratnakar Bhadravathi: “The school children were exhubarant and so am I to see the comprehensive activities of our team members. Kudos to each one of you to have made it a worthwhile place for children to visit and get sensitised about eco-friendly initiatives.”
Air Force Station Yelahanka, Technical Area, BSF Campus, Yelahanka
₹600-1800
General Visitor, Entry Gate – Gate # 5. Access Zones – Exhibition area only: 9.30am to 5.30pm. Access rights is only upon security clearance and validation of Govt ID proof. Air Display Visitor (ADVA): Entry Gate – Gate # 8 – 9. Access Zones – ADVA Area ( Flying Display Area) – 10 am to 12 pm, 2 pm to 5 pm. Tickets: BookMyShow.com.
They are launching their cafe with a bang – Visit their resto-cafe and enjoy a night of comedy with Rupen Paul, Satish Perumal and others. Make your Sunday perfect with delectable food, strong coffee and endless humour! Enjoy Chef Specials and a wide range of brunch-worthy dishes with your friends in our relaxed and eclectic ambience! Enjoy 30% off on all their offerings.
Joke it off is the best way for you to close your weekend with upcoming comedians in Bangalore. Add a nice finishing touch to your weekend.
WORKSHOP
Calligraphy – The Art of Decorative Handwriting!
Sun, 24 Feb 3:00PM – 5:30PM
GreenBubbles Startup Services, No.L-165, Sri Gayathri complex, Near Bhagavathi Hospital, Service Road, Sector 6, HSR Layout
Rs 1200
Looking for decorating cards, labels or posters? Want to impress teachers or friends through handwriting? Wish to make your project attractive? Calligraphy art doesn’t need any artistic background. This workshop is accessible to anyone who can hold a pen.
SPORTS
Cycle ride to Nandi Hills
Sun, 24 Feb 5:30AM – 11:30AM
Renault Silk Board, 33/445/30/6B, 31/1, Rupena Agrahara, Hosur Road
Rs 349
100+ km / unsupported / medium speed (17 18 kmph) / group cycle rides. The rides are to different scenic locations on the outskirts of Bangalore and includes a vegetarian breakfast. Whom is twaah! 100 for? Cyclists who are 18 years and above, and looking forward to an endurance ride on Sunday mornings. Cyclists who have already ridden an endurance ride of 75-80 km’s at least once. Not advisable for beginner level riders / riders who’ve not finished at least a couple of 50 km + rides. Sunday rides, start at Silk Board (before 6:00 AM). Ride to get over in around 6 hours (around 12:00 AM). Book your tickets on eventshigh.com.
Cyclothon – HSR to Cubbon Park
Sun, 24 Feb 5:30AM – 11:00AM
Starting point: BDA Complex, HSR Layout
Free
The following places will be covered in addition to Cubbon Park: Bangalore Aquarium (2nd Largest Aquarium in India), Chinnaswami Cricket Stadium, Karnataka High Court, Tennis Stadium, Kanteerava Stadium, Attara Kacheri, Museum, and Seshadri Iyer memorial hall.
Spend quality time and refresh yourself from the city pollution. Cubbon Park is one of the best parks in India to spend half a day, enjoy nature, appreciate different plants (total of around 6000 plants/trees), and flowers, among others.
Joy of running
Sun, 24 Mar 5:30AM – 9:00AM
BBMP Grounds, Sector 2, HSR Layout
Rs 449 onwards
Forget everything and celebrate the ‘Joy of Running’ with like-minded people. Take your family and friends to join this fun event. Each participant gets a T shirt, Certificate, Medals and Breakfast after the run. There are two categories (3K and 5k), in each category for Men, Women and Kids. The winners will be awarded with trophies and shopping vouchers. Only kids above 12 years can participate.
