Two wheeler thefts are quite common across HSR as the last 45 days of our reportage has shown. However, this is a first in the last 1.5 months. A car has been stolen in Sector 2 and no less than the Toyota Innova which is costlier than the average cars on the streets.
Representative image
B Venkatesh, a 60-year-old resident of 24th Main, 25th Cross in Sector 2, HSR Layout, parked his 2014-model of Innova (Reg No KA01-ML5013) in front of his house at around 6.30pm on October 24. When he woke up the next day and went out to check on his car at around 6.45am, it was nowhere to be seen. An FIR was lodged the same day at 945am and the cops are investigating.
A literature festival no matter where it’s held in the city is a matter of pride for the residents and readers. When every TV soap, film or business strategy relies on writing, it’s but natural to showcase the power of writing to the world and encourage the habit of reading. It is with this objective that we are highlighting this event eventhough it’s being held in the centre of Bangalore.
Held once a year, the 7th edition of Bangalore Literature Festival is two day event at Lalit Ashok hotel on Kumarakrupa Road near Bangalore Golf Course from October 27 to October 28. The HSR extension residents who are part of this festival include author Bhaskar Chattopadhyay (who stays in Suncity Apt in Iblur) who will hold the fort on crime and detection. And then, there’s bestselling romance author Preeti Shenoy, a resident of Bellandur, and romance author Nandita Bose from Harlur Road. Three members of the Litt Fest team are residents of this area including Subodh Shankar (Bellandur), Shrabonti Bagchi (Harlur Road), and Festival Director Shinie Anthony (Mantri Sarovar in Sector 1).
“It’s a community funded festival by individual contributors from the citizens of Bangalore,” says Subodh Shankar who is also the co-founder of Atta Galatta, the exhibition space in Koramangala. “It belongs to the people of Bangalore. In its seventh year, we have close to 200 authors, around 150 sessions of programming in five stages parallelly. Two are dedicated exclusively for children. There are grand musical concerts to close the festivities for each day.”
Some of the most recognised names on the literary circuit will be there including Vijay Seshadri, the first person to win a Pulitzer for poetry. And then, there are Aatish Taseer, Ashwin Sanghi, Appupen, Chitra Subramanian, Barkha Dutt, Kiran Manral, N Ponnappa, Nandan Nilekani, Naina Lal Kidwai, Saba Naqvi, Rhea Saran, Samit Basu, Sarika, Shashi Tharoor, Shoba Narayan, Shoma Chaudhury (Tehelka), Srinivasan Jain, Vinta Nanda, Tushita Patel, Vivek Shanbagh, Girish Karnad, VK Karthika, and Ramachandra Guha, among many more.
Festival Director Shinie Anthony is an HSR resident
From panels on #metoo to fake news to the upcoming general elections, there are several topics being discussed under one roof. Importantly, one stage is dedicated to children below 10 years and another for those above that age limit. The timings are between 10am and 7pm and it’s free for all.
Leave whatever else you are doing in the next two days and head over here. It only happens once in a year. CLICK HERE for the full schedule.
Everytime, the roads are paved, they raise the height. The same is at work when they erect culverts over drains. The best examples are the ones done at 5th Main and 9th Main. With such heights, residents fear that the water will enter their homes much more easily due to their higher elevation.
One resident even said that although Bangalore is 900 metres above sea level, it is getting flooded because of these foolish practices by the civic agencies. But why is the BBMP doing it? “So they don’t have to desilt the drains everytime,” said Sector 3 resident Mohan. “Just raise the height and it will take care of the extra water. And if there is a blockage, they just remove the slabs at the intersections and put them back at their own time and pace. All their work is ad-hoc. There is no proper longterm plan about the issue of drains.”
Resident Srinivas DN has slammed the BBMP for its shoddy quality of culverts. Posting a picture as proof, he highlights the elevation of the culvert and adds that the cement work is so bad that it comes off within a couple of months. Will the BBMP high command and the state government sort out the system before it sinks us all?
The commissioners appointed by the Karnataka High Court have just now wound up their visit of HSR Layout to check the status of potholes. As reported earlier, a group of proactive residents across Bangalore filed a public interest litigation about the shoddy state of potholes in the city. Based on that, the court gave a deadline to the BBMP last month. Later, the civic body claimed that there were zero potholes in several zones, including Bommanahalli.
18th Cross, Sector 7, HSR Layout
In response to an appeal by the petitioners, Residents Watch provided pictures of some glaring potholes that we came across. Those pictures were submitted to the court. And again, a day before the hearing on October 23, we took pictures of the potholes we had submitted earlier to prove that their condition hadn’t changed despite the court ruling. This morning, the commissioners toured the city’s areas, including HSR Layout, to look at it themselves. After the tour, they have declared that some roads that we had identified require the relaying of the entire stretch and not just pothole filling. That’s even better for the residents living in those areas.
If you have come across glaring potholes, Whatsapp us (98805-85748), so we could highlight those as well. Just remember that they have to be of the existing potholes and not something shot a month ago, because things could have changed now.
In August, Residents Watch had sought out CultFit about the increasing inconvenience that both the residents and the Swabhimaana Tree Park visitors were experiencing on 15th B Main, Sector 3, as their employees were parking their cars all along the road.
The management of CultFit promised to us that they were in the process of buying a parcel of land to precisely tackle this issue. And now, we are pleased to inform that they have kept their word. All the cars of their employees are now being parked on an empty site on 19th Cross, behind their administrative office building on 18th Cross. In addition, the dirty water from the office that was flooding the footpath has stopped too.
SOME PROBLEMS REMAIN
However, some problems remain. We urge them to resolve this as soon as possible too. The rooftop chimney of their office building faces the residential houses instead of the sky and over a dozen split ACs face the road, spitting out hot air towards the pedestrians. Since CultFit now owns the entire building, it is its job to ensure that they or the landowner shift the ACs to the terrace.
That’s not all. The residents are complaining that the CultFit gym on 19th Main in Sector 4 is causing major inconvenience to residents as visitors park all along the road, blocking their pathways.
This chimney points to the residential houses when it should be facing the sky
These split ACs should be placed on the terrace and not facing the road
Venting her ire on social media, resident Veena Bala writes, “We always have Cult Fit members parking right in front of our gate. No amount of complaints to them with pictures of their members parking has been obliged. And none of their centres have parking, so all their members park on the roads, blocking traffic, and many right in front of the gate where we cannot even get our vehicles in or out. We have to wait till their members finish the class. And again if we are not outside, another member will park and go.” An easier way to tackle this problem is if CultFit goes for ‘valet parking’ here just the way they have it at their corporate office on 18th Cross. And if there are other measures, they could take, like buying a parcel of land just for their visitors, that would be great too!
Following the police complaint by the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) that a girl student had gone missing from October 13, the cops swung into action immediately and traced her when she was on her way to Hyderabad. They alerted their Andhra Pradesh counterparts who intercepted her in Ananthpur and handed her back to her relatives in Bangalore. The case of 19-year-old Bharati Gurjar is amusing too as she hadn’t gone missing because she had eloped with anyone or someone had kidnapped her. NIFT officials informed Residents Watch that since there were 10 days of college holidays, she had planned to visit Hyderabad with her friends without informing her college or family members. That was her undoing. But then, if she had informed, they would not have allowed her to go. Unable to decide between the two options, she decided to lie to the college authorities that she was going to stay with her relatives in Banashankari. But the college authorities smelt a rat and checked with her relatives if she had reached their place. Since her father was in the Indian Foreign Service, it was also a prestigious case for the institute. With her family’s permission, the college authorities filed an FIR because the cops cannot trace anyone’s call without the court’s permission. And that can only happen with an FIR. Once the FIR was lodged, the cops accessed the SMS records of Bharati and found that in one SMS, she had told someone she’s coming to Hyderabad. Tracing her GPS coordinates, the cops found that she had reached Ananthpur in Andhra Pradesh. They alerted the cops in the nearest police station who picked her and brought her back to Bangalore.
68-year old Kumud Sinha missing since Saturday is reunited with her family. Unable to remember the apartment name, Kumud did the next best thing. She went back to her hometown and asked her family over there to call her husband back in Bangalore. Her son flew to her native place and got her back.
Speaking to Residents Watch, son Raju Sinha said, “As usual, she went out to buy some fruits. However, this time she went out of the building through the gate she never used before. She forgot the way back and tried to search for some time. As she did not know the building name, she decided to go back to our home town as that is the only address she knew. When she reached there, she asked our friends to give us a call as she did not carry a mobile or know our number. I immediately flew to my home town and got her back. She is good now.”
Expressing his happiness, her son Raju has thanked Deputy Commissioner of Police Ahad and his team for forming a team to trace her. The cops had done their best too. “They sent her pic to all the police stations in Bengaluru,” said Raju. “They came to our house and checked the CCTV footage in and around the building. They reached out to help groups if they have any information.”
In his message to the DCP to call off the search, he sent the latest picture given below and said, “Sir, this my mom’s picture, she looks fine now. My relative came here last night and took care of her. Sir I am very thankful for all your help and support.”
Lawrence School in HSR Layout and Mt Litera Zee School in Kudlu near Sector 2 have gone solar, paving the way for more.
Three years ago, Zee did it by opting for the ‘zero cost’ model of Solarify, a three-year-old company based out of Jayanagar. In this case, an investor paid Rs 50-60 lakh for a 96 KW plant. The school will continue to pay Bescom but not at the earlier rate of Rs 8-9/unit, but only at Rs 7/unit.
However, Lawrence School in Sector 6 invested its own money for a 40KW unit last year. This year, the panels have been removed to make way for another floor. Once that’s up, the panels will be put back, most probably by December this year.
Solarify is game to do other schools too at zero cost, provided they have several branches in the city or if their rooftop area is at least 10,000 sq. ft, so they can install a 75-100 kilo watt solar plant. If you are a house owner with a 1200 sq. ft plot, you could spend Rs 2 lakh and get back your investment in 6.5 years, according to Solarify that takes up every solar project conceivable.
“Zee School is saving Rs 20,000-30,000 every month without any investment,” says Sharath Devineni, founder, Solarify. “After 10 years, the plant is theirs. Schools are the most powerful influencers on young minds. A school that runs on clean energy, instills a sense of social responsibility in its students.”
The difference between the two schools is simple. Zee is paying the electricity bills and saving money on power bills without investing anything, while Lawrence is not paying power bills as it invested its own money.
The biggest hurdle to adoption of solar energy were regulatory issues. However, they have been simplified in the last two months. “The number of steps have reduced from four to one, and the registration is done online,” says Sharath. “The major hurdle was a safety inspection, but now that’s not necessary. Unlike earlier when the Bescom officials would take their own time to install, now they can’t as there are specific timelines for every stage of the work.”
According to Sharath, the only issue pending right now is the software tweaking required for the billing of domestic and commercial enterprises. “This will take time, but what’s best right now is that things have become quite decentralised.”
When many more larger homes, schools and offices take up rooftop solar, the power consumption will come down and Karnataka could become a power-surplus state. Touchwood.
Sector 2 resident and civic activist Lalithamba BV has done something brilliant. Two weeks ago, she reported to the cops about an abandoned vehicle in front of Somasundrapalya Lake in front of Isha Lakefront View apartments. She even checked out the owner’s name on the transport authority’s website.
According to the RTO, the car belongs to one Rajesh Kallayel and was registered in 2007
“The cops said that they don’t have a towing vehicle then,” said Lalithamba. She followed up a week after her complaint, and the cops said that they are fetching more details on the vehicle from the Road Transport Organisation (RTO) before deciding on their next step.
She followed up again today, and found that half an hour before her call, the cops had towed away the car to an empty site next to Bandepalya Police Station in Sector 3. “The cops said that perhaps the thief ran out of fuel and abandoned the stolen vehicle, never to return for some reason,” said Lalithamba.
We called Electronic City traffic inspector Mariswamy, and he had this to say: “Since it was abandoned for such a long time, it appears to be a stolen vehicle. However, the Bandepalya police guys are supposed to verify and confirm.”
A few days later, the car owner was traced online by another resident
Car owner traced in Brussels by HSR resident
The mystery of this car is now unravelled, this time by another HSR resident Shrinivas Deshmukh who did some nifty social media lookup to contact the real owner of the car. In a Facebook chat, car proprietor Rajesh Kallayel says that he’s in Brussels and had kept his car at his friend’s place who never informed him that the car was stolen. He was indeed planning to sell his car and had hired a person to prepare all the papers. “But he stole my money and is not giving my RC book. It’s a mess,” car owner Rajesh told Deshmukh. Delaying the issue further is that he is only coming to Bangalore in February. Until then, the Mahindra Renault car will remain abandoned at the Bandepalya police station in HSR Layout, Sector 3.
It may be recalled that another HSR resident (you can read our earlier story) Lalithamba BV had pursued the traffic police to remove an abandoned vehicle in her vicinity for over two weeks. Since no complaint was registered against the vehicle, the cops took their time and eventually shifted it to the Bandepalya police station premises where it’s still lying abandoned. The cops speculated that it could be a stolen vehicle. And then resident Deshmukh finds the owner on social media and alerts him to the stolen car.
Here are the screenshots of the conversation that followed between him and the car owner.
On the morning of October 19, at around 6.15am, 47-year-old Muniyallappa was riding his two wheeler on Bellandur Service Road from the Cafe Coffee Day end towards Bellandur.
When he approached Bhagini restaurant, 26-year-old Siddeshwar, a cab driver, allegedly driving rashly hit him so hard that the victim fell on the road along with his bike. He had injuries on his leg and back. Interestingly, the cab driver himself called for an autorickshaw and took him to the nearby Sakra Hospital for treatment.
This is the second instance where the culprit has also played a good samaritan by attending to the victim immediately in the last two weeks. It also makes sense because if not treated immediately, the patient could die and the culprit could be behind bars for a longer time. However, a case is registered against the cab driver for rash driving and causing agony to the victim.
Renjith M Das had parked his car on 19th Main in front of Rashtrakutas restaurant in Sector 4. He had left a fitness bag (with nothing inside), but three thieves thought there was a laptop inside it, and plan this robbery in five minutes during daytime while people are moving around. The video is now with the HSR police, but no news on their whereabouts yet.
Though the incident happened more than a year ago, and the video had gone viral then, Renjith shared this video today again to warn people about not keeping expensive things inside cars. With HSR having a considerable floating population, these video reminders are the need of the hour. Just CLICK HERE to watch the video that has already recorded over 45,380 views so far and counting.
HSR Layout residents are heaping ignominy over the Bangalore Electric Supply Company (BESCOM) for switching off power at will. Even when it does not rain, even during the winter, there are frequent power cuts, sometimes lasting for over six hours. And this has not gone down well with the residents.
Bescom officials contend that these could be for a range of reasons. From feeder relay issues to new power lines being laid for commercial entities to technical issues. Their justification is one of comparison. “Koramangala is worse, HSR is so much better,” said one official.
However, the residents could not keep their complaints to themselves and have taken to Twitter to vent their angst. Four hours ago, TheRJ tweeted to Bescom that there was no power in CPWD Quarters on 27th Main in Sector 1. At the same time, Naresh Parasaram tweeted, “Medical emergency. Patient is on oxygen respirator. Requesting power immediately in 1st sector.”
Munsi Mustaque was more livid: “First, be a stable power supply organization and then talk about being the best. BESCOM really sucks in providing power supply in HSR layout. My remote village has much better power supply than in Bangalore by BESCOM. At least, be like BEST or TATA power supply in Mumbai.” In another tweet, he says, “Dear BESCOM, why are there so many frequent power cuts in Sector 4 area? Day or night, there are power cuts all the time. Why are you not able to provide stable power supply?In the last one month, we have seen power cuts every day. Why such a horrible service?”
Aditya Khandelwal has tweeted that there is no electricity in Garden Layout, Sector 2 for over two hours, and he has tweeted to the Chief Minister himself. The tweets continue. Will Bescom better its act or continue to come up with excuses remains to be seen.
