Myntra Designs in Kudlu was fined Rs 2 lakh by HSR Layout ward BBMP officials for non-segregation of waste and using banned plastic on December 2, 2019.
BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar says, “The HSR sub-division imposed and collected the penalty. BBMP is urging establishments to segregate waste and stop using plastics that pollute.”
Amit Singh had his misgivings too: “When a company like Mantra doesn’t adhere to simple waste segregation requirements, then how can we trust them on adherence to complicated regulations around data privacy? I have serious doubts about their ethics.”
Shashank felt that the BBMP was being biased: “Wonder why you go into hiding when it comes to naming and shaming contractors doing shoddy and below par work? Convenient to blame firms not hand in glove, right?”
Naveen Patil felt that Rs 2 lakh was too less. “Add one zero or two zeros extra, it will show up in its bottom line profit and (they will) mend their ways of doing business.”
Is Big Basket next? Residents like PV Balakrishna have asked the BBMP to raid the Big Basket office behind Marble Palace on Sarjapur Road. “They openly dump waste, and even BBMP contractors selectively pick from the trash, leaving the rest to rot and emit a stench making living in the neighborhood a miserable experience,” tweeted Balakrishna.
Many netizens asked about Amazon and Flipkart. Well, Flipkart was fined recently. Myntra followed. Perhaps, it’s Amazon next, if they are also caught violating the rules.
May this serve as a warning to all those big establishments as the law applies to everyone. For all those who don’t know, you cannot use banned plastic (google it to know more). In addition, you are to segregate the waste into three sections: kitchen or wet waste, dry waste and sanitary waste.
No black garbage bags, please?
Sanjay made a pertinent point to the commissioner about garbage contractors accepting black garbage bags. “I request BBMP not to pick garbage packed in the banned black plastic covers. Whoever uses it should only dispose it, which is seen in BBMP lorries and autos, mostly laid like a bedding, one over the other.”
Dipika Bajpai, the award-winning and dynamic former Deputy Conservator of Forests in Bangalore, praised a middleman the other day. Actually, it was a boy. She was reacting to an impressive story shared by Bhubaneshwar IPS officer Arun Bothra who summed up the tale by saying, “We are a nation of middlemen.” And Dipika responded with: “What a novel and nobel way of employment.”
Why are these civil servants so impressed with the boy, you ask? According to Bothra, this youngster apparently helped a senior citizen’s legal issue by tweeting about it to the cops. After looking at the grouse on Twitter, Bothra apparently invited the harassed citizen to his office, and resolved the issue. But what surprised him most was the passing remark by the elderly gentleman. “While leaving he told that a young boy in his area tweets for others. Charges Rs. 500/- for every resolved issue,” tweeted Bothra.
Clearly, where there is an opportunity, there is money to be made. The tweet received over 238 comments, was retweeted over 600 times and registered over 2500 likes.
However, Bothra did clarify that only 5-10% of complaints are resolved through Twitter. The rest is through the respective police stations.
Here are some of the best comments on Twitter about this boy’s side venture:
Aishwarya P: On a positive side, we can appreciate the boy for using his skill and time to earn money and also enabling others to solve their issues. After all, what he is rendering is also a service. I believe he is much better than those who depend on parents or govt for money.
Sitanshu Mahapatra: The Boy is the Entrepreneur of the Year👋🏾👋🏾👋🏾
Sandip: Is he mentioned anywhere that he is doing social service? If not, then he is doing nothing wrong. You must have heard the dialogue “if you are good at something never do it for free”.
Arun Chopra: He’s making money out of his education while doing social service, better than selling pakoras.
C J Karira: He saw a business opportunity! Fifty years ago, letter writers sitting outside GPOs did a similar job… only difference is that paper sheet has become smartphone and pen the finger.
Syeda Sabaun Noor: Wow!!! This thing is making us less of a community… Everyone is doing a side business.. sad.
Jay Jagdev: These jobs carry more respectable names like Advisor, Consultants…
TenderSure footpaths in central Bangalore are the toast of the city for their neatly-designed spaces for pedestrians. However, on MG Road, this has helped two-wheeler riders more than the walkers as this video proves. Clearly, where there is a way, there is a vehicle!
The only way to remove illegalities on roads and footpaths is to equip all the high density roads with high-end CCTVs for automatic traffic violations like speeding, footpath riding, overtaking, cutting signals and so on. This will bring order where none exist. Importantly, three such violations should result in automatic cancellation of driving licences for a year. No human involved means no corruption either. Will the central ministry of transport implement this immediately please?
The video above by Anantha Subramanyam says the story of footpath encroachment in just 30 seconds. A must-watch.
The spectre of commercialisation has gripped oversaturated neighbourhoods like Indiranagar, Whitefield, HSR Layout and Koramangala. The other day, a few youngsters supported by adults went from shop to shop on 100 Ft Road in Indiranagar, requesting them to remove ‘fairy lights’ on trees as they are damaging to the trunks as they are nailed into them. Not to mention, the birds who cannot bear a series of bright lights in their habitat.
Organised by youngsters of The Interact Club, the initiative did have its fair share of naysayers who asked the residents to do better things than mess with the shop’s aesthetics. Others said that the respectability of resident associations will lose its sheen if these initiatives were supported by them. Clearly, the reactions appeared to be either unfounded or had some vested interest as the arguments in favour of ‘fairy lights’ lacked substance.
The shopkeepers finally saw reason. Today, the fairy lights opposite Vapour pub and brewery, much to the relief of the residents. Today, the youngsters had also gone on a follow-up round of the shops. The store staffers promised them that they will abide by the law and remove the bright lights shortly.
Sonalee, the person coordinating the initiative for the youngsters confirms that most stores that the students visited last week had switched off their fairy lights since last week. “They have also promised to remove the tree lights in the coming week,” she said.
The stores covered in the follow-up drive included Allen Solly, Simon Carter, Van Huesen, Sony, Bhartiya Jalpan, US Polo, Chai Point, Bohemia, Bumble and O2.
Hundreds of people blocked the footpaths on 12th Main in Indiranagar today. Claiming to be victims of the residents’ crackdown on illegal pubs and restaurants, the protestors carried placards saying they should be given jobs as they are unemployed now. The residents counter it by saying that this is a ridiculous way to brush aside the illegalities and nuisances committed by pubs like Monkey Bar. It’s tantamount to saying that lawless businesses have no jobs for people because the law prohibits them.
The silent standing protest lasted for about an hour after which the crowd dissipated. Holding placards saying, “I want my job”, “Wanted: A job”, “Help! I’ve Lost My Job”, and so on, several observers reported that many restaurants appeared to be supporting this move as there were DJs and servers wearing white and holding flowers. A war of words began on Twitter too where some people asked the Indiranagar resident associations to give jobs to those who have lost employment due to their “mafia attitude”. Blaming proactive residents for shutting down restaurants that “stopped blaring music” after protests, the naysayers are questioning the association to stop their ‘holier than thou’ attitude and be more understanding to business concerns.
Reacting to all the controversy, resident Isabel Paul had this to say: “Unplanned and money-minded commercialization in residential areas impacts everyone eventually, and the govt needs to identify a satisfactory solution in collaboration with all the stakeholders.”
I Change Indiranagar Responds
In a tweet to the authorities, the media and the general public, I Change Indiranagar, the proactive federation of all residents welfare associations in Indiranagar, HAL 2nd and 3rd Stage, came out with its reaction to the snap silent protest conducted this afternoon: 1. We are not against any legally-run establishments – pub, bar, brewery or restaurant. 2. We are only interested in ensuring all establishments are operated based on the legal rules and norms laid down by the government authorities, be it building bye laws, fire safety, pollution control, traffic and law and order police, Excise, BBMP health department, BESCOM and BWSSB rules. 3. The core of this is the safety and well-being of residents, who have to bear sound and smoke pollution from generators and vehicles and roof top establishments blaring music past midnight, which are against Supreme Court established pollution norms. 4. It is also our concern for the safety of the patrons and guests of these establishments, as the owners of these establishments have not taken that into consideration. 5. Parking area in basement is most often misused for commercial purpose and cars parked in front of residents’ gates. 6. Buildings without occupancy certificate cause serious risk to lives of their guests and residents around, especially in case of fire. 7. Many illegal activities such as drugs and prostitution, which are a bane to society, occur in and around these establishments. 8. The security of residents and visitors alike, is seriously being compromised due to the huge influx of people on a given weekend and we as resident’s need our RIGHT TO LIFE restored too. This entire campaign is being made to look like arm-twisting mechanism by the authorities.
EDITORSPEAK
It is clear that the law is violated repeatedly in most cases of commercial enterprises in residential areas. And this is most prominent with pubs, the Monkey Bar being the most recent example as it did not have the mandatory Occupation Certificate, among many more violations. Political connivance, bribery and coercion is evident as many big establishments under the radar were found to be owned by heavyweights in business, politics and entertainment. Clearly, this nexus can only be broken if there is political will. The best example that one BBMP official cited was the removal of flex banners across the city within days after the High Court order. This shows that only the courts can rescue the residents from the commercial ambitions of senseless, greedy and unlawful entrepreneurs. It’s time this commercial breed realises its mistakes and makes amends instead of using youth as pawns in their larger game of commercialising everything in the city and outside. Every trend has its limits, and commercialisation has gone way beyond the saturation point. It’s about time the Supreme Court intervenes and ensures such illegal commercialisation does not happen anywhere in the country.
By law, the residents have every right to oppose any activity if it disturbs them, be it noise, air, or water pollution, or parking congestion and any other inconvenience. In a court of law, such an argument will always win. Therefore, we urge all entrepreneurs to be good Indians and follow the law rather than bribe an official and run their establishments without the relevant permissions. When they go ahead with the violations, and soon, the axe falls on them due to resident activism, they are responsible for rendering their staff without jobs. Not the residents. It’s plain common sense.
Whitefield Rising, the citizen action group, has some good news to share about an economical way to save water: installing mini sewage treatment plants across the city. They have a success story to share with a full technical presentation tomorrow between 11am and 1130am at Bangalore One on Whitefield Main Road.
The beauty of this presentation is that there is a successful, operational mini STP that will be shown to the public, with special focus on the technology and the process that goes into it. This STP takes the dirty water from the stormwater drains, purifies it and releases it into public toilets for recycling, while the rest joins the lake.
The plant is completely solar-powered and is all natural as it does not use any chemicals. The joint initiative of Whitefield Rising and Hagadur Ward 84 committee, the STP was implemented by Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited and funded by an MLC grant from Mahadevapura.
The plant requires only 10 sq. metres, and Rs 14.5 lakhs. Most importantly, it takes only a month to build and commission.
This is another true public-private partnership that can do wonders to society. Be there and get one for your ward/neighbourhood/city.
Innovator and educationist Sonam Wangchuk, the real life Phunsukh Wangdu of Aamir Khan-starrer ‘3 Idiots’ will be in town this weekend. Catch him at the Bhoomi International Conference whose theme is ‘In Search of Wellbeing’.
Sonam is just one among 15 pioneers and practitioners (see the image above) who are coming to inspire and motivate you. Make the most of this two-day affair from Sept 28-29 at Koramangala’s Satya Sai Convention Centre.
Some of the topics that educators and parents can listen in would include issues like climate change, safe food, economics, education and sustainability.
Be part of this enriching and meaningful conference. Take your kids along.
Walkathon 5K Closer home, NH Narayana Hospital is organising this run this Sunday (Sept 29) at 6am. If you want to walk for a healthy heart, this is what you should on your day off from work.
The location is the hospital in Sector 3 opposite HSR Club off 22nd Cross, 18th Main. Register now by calling 88849-49797 or 95139-65190. This event is organised to commemorate World Heart Day that falls on Sept 29. It’s all for the heart. Be there.
There is no time like now to ensure that your Voter ID is alive and working. The last date for online verification of voter ID across India is October 15.
Sandhya Bhatt, one of the volunteers of citizen group Whitefield Rising has prepared a nifty presentation to make it easier for you to understand.
Just visit the National Voters’ Services Portal and register as a new user by creating a user ID and password. Click on the elector verification program and follow the instructions. The video above is self explanatory. Please watch, share and show that you care. The last date is not far away. So hurry!
Tomorrow, September 8, happens to be E-Waste Day. To commemorate the occasion, Saahas, an NGO, is organising a doorstep collection of e-waste in Sector 5. If you have bulkier items, you can call their hotline number (73497-37586).
The three collection spots are as follows. Please pay attention to the timings at each point:
* 12th Main, 7th Cross (10-am-11am) * End of 6th Cross (11am-12pm) * 12th Main, 4th Cross (12pm-1pm)
Be an e-responsible citizen. Discard, the eco-friendly way!
Six persons in their 20s were allegedly caught redhanded by the cops for selling narcotics near NIFT College in Sector 1, off 27th Main.
The cops unearthed the racket under the leadership of inspector Raghavendra SR. Three mobile phones, Rs 1000 cash, and ganja (cannabis) weighing 10 kilos worth Rs 45000 were seized during the raid. The accused include Lakshman Cherudu (22) and Sai Charan (24) both from Andhra Pradesh, and Sujeeth (26) and Dominic (22) both from Kerala.
The incident occurred at 12.30pm on August 23, 2019. The cops received a tip off that two persons were selling drugs to the general public. Taking permission from the higher-ups, the local cops took eye witnesses and got Lakshman and Charan body searched by a gazetted officer to recover two mobile phones, 2kg ganja and Rs 1000 cash. Based on the information given by these two people, two more youngsters were arrested to recover the rest of the haul.
The cops have arrested the accused under the Narcotic Drugs & Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. If convicted, they could spend their time in jail for six months to ten years and also pay a hefty fine.
