Santhanam Benedict was in for a shock the other day when his car’s tyres vanished overnight. Tweeting to the media and the cops, he says, “I had parked my Hyundai I10 car last night near my residence in Sector 4. The miscreants have stolen the left side front and back alloy wheels of the car and kept stones in the middle.”
The robbery between 9.30pm on January 9 and 10am on January 10. It happened on 15th D Main, 15th Cross.
Bellandur Jothege is an “apolitical civic positive action federation of RWAs and citizen groups” who are all for “livability, inclusion and the environment in Bellandur, for Bellandur, by Bellandur”.
Now, this group, fed up with the laxity shown by the government and the authorities is asking the general public to pitch in with their ideas. The subject is the designing of Iblur junction where two pedestrians died in the last one month alone.
“Iblur junction is a big cog in the Bellandur’s wheel of traffic,” the group says. “You can help it to function better by giving suggestions of Iblur Skywalk Design. Write to Bellandurjothege@gmail.com. Every little change counts.”
TRAFFIC POLICE DOING ITS BEST
The residents are thankful to Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Harisekaran and DCP East KV Jagadeesh for moving towards a pedestrian-safe Iblur junction. Now the residents are hoping for pelican signals and strict enforcement by the traffic police to make the area, zero-accident zone.
YOU CAN DO YOUR BIT
The police are looking for traffic wardens in Bellandur area. If you want to do your bit, read the announcement below.
Following the death of another pedestrian at Iblur Junction in a month on January 12, the traffic police is pressurising everyone possible in ensuring that road deaths on Sarjapur Road and Iblur junction are minimised with proper overbridges and other safeguards. In the meanwhile, the lorry driver who ran over Doddamuniyappa and killed him at … Read more
Following the death of another pedestrian at Iblur Junction in a month on January 12, the traffic police is pressurising everyone possible in ensuring that road deaths on Sarjapur Road and Iblur junction are minimised with proper overbridges and other safeguards. In the meanwhile, the lorry driver who ran over Doddamuniyappa and killed him at around 9.34am is out on bail. Even the vehicle that was seized is released. “Since it was a case under negligent driving, it is a bailable offence,” said one traffic cop.
The senior officers of the traffic department are visiting and examining all the road deaths on Sarjapur Road to come up with a comprehensive solution to prevent more pedestrian deaths. “We have written letters to not only the state government but also the central ministry as one side of the road belongs to the defence forces. We cannot do any work without their express permission,” said our police source.
WHAT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY?
On January 12, at around 9.34am, 55-year-old Doddamuniyappa died on the spot when a cement mixer lorry (KA01 AE 3754) ran over him while he was crossing the Outer Ring Road near Iblur junction. This was the second pedestrian death in a month on the same stretch. The last death was of Gangadhar Nayar on December 10.
The death sparked a public outcry and traffic flow was disrupted for almost half a day on Saturday between Agara flyover and Sarjapur-ORR junction. According to the police complaint, the lorry driver was allegedly driving rashly and overspending when he hit the senior citizen. He did not notice the hand signal given by Doddamuniyappa and rammed into him. The lorry driver continued driving for some distance, then stopped for a while and then went away, according to the police. Later, he was arrested and released on bail.
When one 12-year-old kid from Teacher’s Colony found an injured pigeon who could not fly, he thought of adopting it. But his parents objected. So he gave it to another kid who met with the same resistance from his parents. Eventually, it went to a 13-year-old boy who decided to go to resident BR Subhash who lived in the same colony.
“The parents were the spoilsports who did not want to adopt the pigeon because it would be a hassle to keep it,” Subhash told Residents Watch. “I uploaded a picture of the pigeon with the details in the Namma Teacher’s Colony WhatsApp group. Soon enough, one household volunteered to take care of it. Now the pigeon is doing well.”
Mobile phone snatching and bike thefts are the most common crimes in HSR Layout. Sunil MA realised this the hard way on the night of January 3, 2019. He had stepped inside TBC Sky Lounge on 27th Main Road at around 7.45am. By the time he got out at 1am, he found his bike (KA51 EV3097) was nowhere to be seen. Strangely, the FIR was registered only on January 12, 2019. Working from an office in Sector 4, Sunil had decided to have dinner after work when the theft occurred.
ANOTHER INCIDENT
A few days later, on January 8, Abhinay Thakur was the next victim. The 26-year-old engineer and a resident of Sector 7 had parked his Bajaj Pulsar RS 200 (KA53 EM1084) in front of his house on 9th Main, 19th A Cross at around 7.30pm. When he checked up on it the next day at around 9.30am, the bike was nowhere to be found.
www.ShopHealthy.in is your one-stop shop for all health, nutrition and beauty needs. The website run by residents of Harlur offer products in categories such as Ayurvedic, Homeopathic, Naturopathy, Organic and also Imported brands of health and beauty products. They have been in business for over five years and have more than 50,000 unique products that you can choose from.
ShopHealthy took birth due to the inherent problem of availability when the couple, Divya & Manoj, were looking for organic health supplements and had to go to various shops to get all the products they needed for themselves and their family. And that’s why ShopHealthy was born in 2012. “We realized if the problem was so vast in major cities such as Bangalore, imagine the pain people have to go through to search these products in tier 2 and tier 3 cities in India,” says co-promoter Divya Kalra. “We have grown purely by word of mouth over the years and are happy to say that we have more than 80% repeat customers. We not only have organic food, snacks and cosmetics but also sell natural, ayurvedic and homeopathic remedies for all kinds of health conditions.”
The HSR-based website ships across India and caters to customers of every kind – retail, bulk, people interested in imported brands, and so on. If there is a particular imported health or beauty product that you need and is not listed on their site, you can send them a request and they will make it available to you. They take care of everything – getting it imported into India, customs duties and clearance, international and domestic shipment right upto your doorstep.
ShopHealthy has recently introduced various programs to encourage more people to switch to a healthier lifestyle. One of them is called “Try It For Free”. You can try any of the ‘select’ products for free if you follow the instructions given in the program. They also run a health blog on their site journaling various ways to make your life healthier and happier. So log on – eat well, feel well and live well!
Visit them and buy from www.ShopHealthy.in. For selling on their site or any other queries, get in touch with them at support@shophealthy.in or WhatsApp them at 9035000894.
On January 7 at around 3.10pm, 30-year-old mason Mallikarjuna was on 5th Main in Sector 7.
The thieves used a Bajaj Pulsar to rob the victim
After having withdrawn Rs 50,000 from Canara Bank on 5th Main in Sector 7, he was about to ride away when a person threw some Rs 10 notes and asked if those were his.
With his moneybag in his bike’s box, he bent down to pick six notes when two bike-borne thieves came from the other side and made away with his bag. Both wore helmets, making the exercise of identifying them through the five CCTVs in the vicinity an almost-futile exercise, unless they are known offenders. Mallikarjuna had withdrawn the money to pay his labourers when the theft occurred. The HSR cops have registered a case of theft and are investigating.
MRR Alcohol & Drug Abuse Treatment & Rehabilitation Centre opened about a month ago on Mangammanapalya Main Road. And already, there are about 8 patients undergoing treatment for alcohol abuse. Most of them are married with children and average 35 years.
DETOXING & COUNSELLING
According to supervisor KS Harish, the inpatients are being detoxed and counselled on a daily basis for a minimum of one month before they are released from the centre. “We have no strict timeframe…. they coudl stay longer than one month,” he told Residents Watch. “They are given detox tablets after being given a prescription by Dr Prashanth.”
Their daily schedule is to wake up at 5.45am and go back to sleep by 9.50pm. Inbetween, they get to do walks, exercise, yoga, TV watching, newspaper reading, sleep, discussions (one hour) and sharing their stories (1 hour). The discussion is between 10am and 11am while the sharing is in the evening. “Once they rehabilitation is complete, we call the family members and listen to both sides on their problems with each other. It’s family counselling time.”
During their discharge, the recovered addicts are given a schedule of meetings by Alcoholics Anonymous, a voluntary group of likeminded addicts to share for one hour every day in different places. “If they are serious about recovery, they will go and recover,” says Harish. “It’s one of the continuous treatment principles.”
The centre can only take male inmates. If women do come to them, they refer them to other centres. This ‘half-way home’ is managed by the MRR Trust that also runs a school and montessori in MG Palya.
Drug addiction
While all the inmates here have come to recover from alcohol abuse, the centre is also a drug deaddiction hub. According to Harish, ganja (cannabies) are the most common although there are also “solution addicts” who light up whiteners and inhale its fumes to get high. “This is quite common among slum children,” says Harish. “Gutkha addiction is more common in women in slums, garment factories and even middle class homes. Gutkha is more dangerous than cigarettes as you are chewing raw tobacco. If your mouth ulcers don’t go away despite treatment, it leads to cancer.”
Who is an addict?
A person who drinks whenever he wants and has no sense of time. “An addict is a person who has no control over his consumable capacity unlike social drinkers who do,” says Harish. “Some addicts drink in the morning and some get up at 2am for the same reason.”
Help is at hand
NRR Alcohol & Drug Abuse Treatment & Rehabilitation Centre
Software engineer Pratishtha Pandey, 32 years, has accused two staffers of Kaya Skin Clinic on 27th Main Road for stealing her gold necklace. The resident of Sobha Cinnamon and Saffron on Harlur Road suspects that Asabuddin and Shalini are behind the theft of her jewellery.
Representative image
The incident occurred on January 4 at around 2pm when she went to Kaya Skin Clinic for a facial. She asked staffer Shalini to remove her necklace and keep it safely until her session is over.
However, after the facial, she returned home without the necklace as she had forgotten all about it. When she remembered and rushed to the clinic at around 10.15pm, the necklace was nowhere to be found. In her complaint, she has accused cleaner Asabuddin and staffer Shalini of conspiring to steal her necklace.
The HSR cops have registered a case of theft and are investigating.
During Saturday’s monthly ward committee meeting on HSR Layout ward, several issues were highlighted. This was only the second meeting after the ward committee was formed more than a year ago. And even this was being done after BBMP Commissioner ordered all the 198 wards in Bangalore to conduct the meetings every month without fail.
“About 70% streetlights in HSR, Iblur and Suncity apartment are to be fixed,” said ward committee member Vinutha. Another member Padmashree requested the BBMP to fix the culverts in several areas, including the places where optic fibre cabling companies dug up the roads and left them with potholes galore. Some of the roads where these are rampant, include: 7th Main, Sector 7; 21st Main, 10th Cross Road; 1st Sector, 31st main and 21st main.
Srinivas Reddy asked the BBMP to raise the compound wall of Agara Government School in addition to providing drinking water to students, keeping the toilets clean, and widening the footpath adjoining the school.
Another member Govindswamy alleged that several BBMP contractors had taken money worth crores but the work was still not completed in HSR Layout: cycle tracks, streetlights, road and footpath works. He complained that Bescom had left cables all over the footpaths in several areas of HSR. Resident Lalithamba BV said Bescom had dug up Akruthi Road near 27th Main and left the roads in a shabby condition.
Corporator Gurumurthy Reddy (the chairman of the ward committee) himself had several issues, including the incomplete works by contractors though money had been given to them, including Agara, Iblur and Somasundrapalya Lake works. He lashed out against the stray dog and pig menace in HSR. In addition, he asked for more sweepers to be hired for cleaning up the ward.
These are taxis driven by women and for women fliers. The next time you arrive at Bengaluru airport to reach HSR Layout, you could board these pink taxis. Keeping security in mind, these taxis have been introduced by the Karnataka State Tourism Development Corporation (KSTDC) and supported by the Kempegowda International Airport authorities. They were flagged off only yesterday and are being promoted on Twitter by the city traffic police as well.
Right now, only ten cabs are operational but the number will go up, depending on the demand. They will operate round-the-clock with differential fares (Rs 21.5/km during the day and Rs 23.5 at night), GPS tracking and SOS emergency switch.
If you are looking at a cab service for use within the city as well, there is GoPinkCabs.com that offers rides to the airport and everywhere else in Bangalore with its all-women fleet and headquartered in Rajajinagar. Run by three women, their charges are higher at Rs 31.5/km (city) and Rs 30-37/km (airport, day & night). One-day outstation/sight seeing trips are also offered by this service.
