Traffic on 22nd Cross (HSR Club Road) is being rerouted as one stretch of it is blocked for traffic from Kodak Express junction to Kadal Da Meen junction. You will have to take the cross roads to reach the other side of 22nd Cross.
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has taken up the long-pending stormwater drain work at the 18th Main-22nd Cross junction near Kadal Da Meen restaurant. Pipeline laying work is in progress. Considering that it’s a major road, the BBMP officials told Residents Watch that they will do everything possible to finish the work within a week to avoid further inconvenience to the public and vehicle users.
When the going is tough, the tough get going. And that’s what has precisely happened last weekend from Vibgyor school to Somasandrapalya Main Road. When the BBMP turned a blind eye to the gaping potholes on this stretch, the residents pooled in the money to fill them up with their own funds.
Says Vilas Deshmukh of Harluru Somasandrapalya Residents Welfare Association: “This is a public-funded pothole filling project with major contributions coming from Navayuga, a small-scale construction firm whose proprietors – Nagarjuna and Narasimha – are residents of this area. The rest of the monies came from the volunteers of our road group.”
The residents spent around Rs 25,000 to fix the roads last week in addition to sweating it all out while the work was being executed. “The work is still pending and we will continue on the coming Saturday as we need to complete it right up to Chinmaya school. So far, we completed from Vibgyor school to ND Oliva apartment complex.”
‘Corporator was of no help’
When the residents approached HSR Layout corporator (Ward 174) Gurumurthy Reddy, he was of no help to them. “The potholes were in this state for the last eight months and only getting worse whenever it rained, causing many issues to school kids, office goers and the elderly,” says Vilas. “But our request to the authorities and the local corporator went unheard.”
About 20 volunteers managed the work from 10 pm on Saturday night (June 8) till 4 am on Sunday morning, including the diversion and management of traffic to protect the concrete filling. The residents involved included Ramakrishna Reddy, Rajesh, Srinivas Rajesh, Prasad, Durga, Kunal, Subbu, and many kids, among others.
Will this act shame the authorities and prompt them to do a thorough job of fixing all the potholes in the HSR ward remains to be seen.
Last week, 28-year-old Sunanda Barki, a resident of RV Layout was hit by a water tanker on Sarjapur Road. The bride-to-be was injured grievously.
The incident occurred on June 4 at around 8.40am. Sunanda was riding her TVS scooter towards Iblur when a water tanker (KA14B1924) allegedly driven rashly by a male driver hit her vehicle from behind at SLV Ceramics junction near Doddakannelli. The impact was such that her bike skidded about 10 feet on the stretch, breaking her left thigh and right shoulder bone. In addition, there were scratches on her legs. The driver drove away without attending to the victim.
The passersby rushed her to the nearby Columbia Asia Hospital in an auto. The doctors operated on her thigh and inserted a rod. The tragedy is such that Sunanda’s wedding was fixed on June 14 and she was involved in an accident ten days earlier.
The cops have registered a case against the driver for rash driving (IPC 279), causing grievous hurt (IPC 338), shirking duty to rush the victims to the hospital (Indian Motor Vehicles Act 134), an offence that is punishable with imprisonment of three months or a fine of Rs 500 (IMV 187).
On May 26, at around 10.30am, 23-year-old Naveen Kumar, a resident of KR Puram was travelling in a cab along with his elder brother Kiran (25) and cousin Manikantha (25) after arriving in Bangalore from Chennai. After getting down from the bus at Silk Board junction, they had boarded an Ola cab (KA03AA5625) to go towards KR Puram.
Anjappa M was the 37-year-old driver who allegedly drove rashly and overspeeding on Outer Ring Road. When he reached 14th Main Road near the BDA flyover in HSR Layout, he hit the flyover wall in front of JSS College. The result was that Naveen hurt his knee from the impact with the front seat, Manikantha’s left leg was injured while Kiran’s face had hit the windshield due to the impact, hurting his left eye, face, forehead and head.
The vehicle wasn’t spared either. The front portion of the Tata Indica was completely damaged. The cab driver left the car and ran away after the incident. The passersby rushed the victims to St John’s Hospital in an autorickshaw.
The cops have registered a case of rash driving (IPC 279), endangering life (IPC 337), shirking his duty to rush the victims to the hospital (Indian Motor Vehicles Act 134), and punishable with imprisonment of three months or a fine of Rs 500 (IMV 187).
Last year, there were 5036 cyber crime complaints received by the Bengaluru police. This year, and it’s just in its sixth month, and already 4350 complaints have been registered and counting. Some of the recent cases involved residents from Kasavanahalli and Koramangala. And both these cases were identity thefts.
THE KORAMANGALA CASE OF ATM FRAUD
Twenty-seven-year-old Raghavendra R needed Rs 400 urgently. However, the vendors were not accepting e-wallets. Therefore, he rushed to the nearest ATM in Ramamurthy Nagar and withdrew Rs 400. Three days later, while he was gymmin, he received two SMS-es that someone had withdrawn Rs 10000 and Rs 7000 from the same ATM in Rammurthy Nagar. Having realised that he was defrauded, he rushed to the Bank of India office who said they would take 90 days to resolve his complaint and also advised him to file a case with the Cyber Crime police station.
“I had Rs 18000 in the bank,” Raghavendra told Residents Watch. “They withdrew Rs 17000. After this fraud, I heard from another friend that someone known to him was defrauded the same way. Unfortunately, I had the old ATM card without the chip. Now, I have taken the one with the chip.”
THE KASAVANAHALLI CASE OF CREDIT CARD FRAUD
On May 4, 38-year-old Neelam Podar’s phone was switched off at 11.24pm. When she switched it on at 11.55pm, she was flooded with transaction alert messages. “My credit card was hacked and I reached out to the bank and blocked it,” she told this channel. However, the damage was done. She was defrauded of Rs 64088.
On June 2, at around 11.30pm, 23-year-old Mallesh, the security guard at Siddhartha Convention Hall in Sector 2, HSR Layout, was allegedly assaulted by one Naveen who claimed to be a former manager at the wedding hall.
At 11pm, Naveen apparently asked the security guard to let him enter the premises as he was a former employee, but the guard stood his ground by saying that his higher-ups should say so first. Naveen broke the lock and entered the premises despite the warning by pushing aside the guard in addition to mouthing expletives and giving him a death threat.
The cops have charged Naveen on four counts for causing mischief, criminal intimidation, trespassing, and intentional insult.
It pays to install CCTVs in homes and always having someone at home to guard it if you go by the recent spate of robberies in HSR Layout. Between May 29 and June 3, there were police reports of two vehicle thefts and four robberies. That’s six incidents in six days. From robbing an Ayurvedic centre to three domestic homes, it is a spate of robberies. Could it be one gang operating in the area? Nothing conclusive on that yet.
FIRST INCIDENT
The first incident of robbery occurred between 3am on May 28 and 11.30pm on May 29 on 24th Main, 13th Cross, Sector 1. Forty-six-year-old businessman Pankaj Goel left for Delhi with his family at 3am on May 28. When he returned at 11.30am on May 29, he saw that somebody had broken the window grill and entered his house to steal Rs 4.5 lakh in cash.
SECOND INCIDENT
This occurred in the house of Prashanth (37) staying on the third floor of a house in Sector 2, 23rd Main, 25th A Cross. On May 29, he and his wife left home at 9.45am to go to their office. When the wife returned at 5.30pm, somebody had broken the lock on the front door and stolen six costly watches, including Esprit, Fossil, Titan, Giordino, a Canon camera and his car’s spare key.
THIRD INCIDENT
Between May 30 at 9.30pm and May 31 at 6.30am, someone broke into Healing Earth multispeciality Ayurveda centre on Outer Ring Road in Sector 5. They stole a Sony TV and Rs 1.5 lakh cash. Someone had broken into the centre through the rear window and took away Rs 1.5 lakh from the chairman’s cabin and a TV in the waiting room.
FOURTH INCIDENT
On June 3, items worth Rs 30,000 were stolen from the courtyard of Geeta Dhir staying on 4th Main in Sector 6. Some of the things stolen included a wall fan, gymnasium set, home theatre, water motor, mobile phone, copper wires and metal utensils, among others. According to her, the theft occurred between 7am and 8.30am.
FIRST INCIDENT OF TWO-WHEELER THEFT On May 29, at around 10pm, businessman Pragma Reddy (25) parked his Honda Dio (KA51EH1515) worth Rs 45,000 in front of his house in 14th Cross, 3rd Main, Sector 6. When he woke up on May 30 at around 5am, the bike was nowhere to be seen.
SECOND INCIDENT OF TWO-WHEELER THEFT On May 3, at around 10pm, G Harshavardhan parked his Pulsar AS 150 (KA41EF1987) inside his house gate in 11th Cross, Sector 7. He left for Hyderabad to attend his wedding. When he returned on May 16 at around 10am, the bike was nowhere to be seen. Strangely, the police complaint was filed only on May 31, 2019.
For more bike thefts between May 17 and May 19, you could read this report.
For all the thefts and robberies reported above, the cops have collected the CCTV footage from the neighbouring houses and shops to nab the thieves.
Once the LT project is complete, this will not be necessary!80% of laying these low tension bunched cables are complete in HSR Layout
The Bangalore Electric Supply Company (BESCOM) has now announced a Rs 5300 crore multi-phased project for different neighbourhoods of Bangalore, including HSR Layout. What this means is that all the high tension cables running above the ground will go below the surface to avoid electrocution, short-circuits and power tripping. Even more fascinating is that the roads will not be dug up incessantly; only holes will be made every few metres in what is called a ‘high definition digging mechanism’. The three-phased project has HSR in the first phase. If all goes well, the project slated to begin from July 2019 should be completed in 18 months.
Last year, the Bangalore Electric Supply Company (BESCOM) initiated a project across HSR Layout to install low tension aerial bunched cables across HSR Layout. These are the wires that are drawn to all the residential lanes. This project is about 70-80% complete. The remaining work is yet to be done as the work awaits further funds for it. Once installed, the cables will not be hazardous to trees or people even if you touch them as they will be heavily insulated from the elements. They will be electrocution-free. Which means, the power won’t be shutdown even when it rains.
According to Bescom officials, about 20% work is yet to be done on the low tension lines, the major part of the pending work being in Sector 1. Once the funds come in, it will only take a few months to complete the project.
Celebrate World Environment Day. Run for a Greener HSR and Bangalore. The organisers of Super Run tomorrow at BBMP Grounds in HSR Layout, Sector 2, are asking everyone to come forward and take part in this event to make it a thumping success.
The registration fee of Rs 499 includes a T-shirt, breakfast, medal and certificate. There are two categories: 3K Run & 5K Run. For each category, there are three winners in male, female and kids divisions. The winners get trophies too.
Timing: Report at 5.30am as the run starts at 6am.
The people who are registering for the run can collect the T-shirt at the venue itself. Go with your friends and family and run for joy and health to celebrate World Environment Day (June 5). The event is presented by SuperSeva Services Pvt Ltd.
Congestion is going to continue on 24th Main Road for the next fortnight as the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) is laying a pipeline from Lotus Hospital to KPTCL junction.
While the pipeline is now laid from Lotus Hospital to KPTCL junction, the levelling of the road is only pending now. BWSSB officials informed us that the asphalting work of the dug up stretch will take up two weeks to complete.
What is throwing a spanner in the works are the rains. The work was supposed to have finished by now but for the rain gods. Expect traffic jams during peak hours, particularly in front of Purva Fairmont on 24th Main and at the KPTCL junction. It’s best to avoid that area between 6pm and 9pm as we come across jams around this time.
In the last few months, there is some tussle between the Karnataka Compost Development Corporation (KCDC) and the garbage contractors. KCDC is refusing to take leachette alongwith the garbage that is given to it. It’s contention is that it is commercial waste being given to them when the truth, according to BBMP officials, is that it is very much residential waste. KCDC still wants the contractors to reduce the leachette at source before handing over the wet waste to them. However, the garbage contractors feel that it’s practically impossible to do so, particularly when it rains.
“Since the rains are here; the leachette is more due to the water percolating into the waste bins kept outside for collection,” said one BBMP official. “We have been convincing the KCDC officials that it is indeed residential waste and leachette is part and parcel of it.”
Earlier, lorries used to deposit waste at KCDC. Now, that process is streamlined to avoid any outside waste from entering the premises. Only domestic vehicles are now being used to usher in more transparency and accountability.
In addition, one tonne of daily waste is being composted by the lane composters installed at ten locations across HSR Layout and at the Swachagraha Kalika Kendra. That’s equivalent to composting wet waste from over 200 households. In addition, several residents have opted for home composting, further reducing the waste generation from HSR Layout.
The garbage contractors feel that some days, KCDC accepts the waste and on other days, it rejects or raises doubts. “There is no end to their suspicions. When we do really good work, they suspect our motives, and when others do really bad work, they think it’s allright,” said one garbage supervisor.
For now, the intake at KCDC has also come down from 150 tonnes to 60 tonnes due to mounting pressure from the public and the elected representatives. Wet waste is only collected from all the wards of Bommanahalli assembly constituency and two wards of BTM Layout constituency.
According to BBMP officials, the waste from seven wards of South Bangalore constituency is sent to another composting plant in Chikkanagamangala that processes 100-150 tonnes of waste every day. For all these reasons, the situation at KCDC has stabilised now. “We have no problems with KCDC after holding a few talks on this matter,” said one garbage supevisor. “However, the KCDC has not stopped questioning us even if there is a little more leachette than usual. We have to keep telling them that it’s the rains.”
Following the statement to us by BBMP Commissioner Manjunatha Prasad that the basement shops will be shutdown after May 23, it is now learnt that the BBMP is getting ready for this massive operation. As it requires a systematic way of conducting the operation without fear or favour, there needs to be some amount of planning. For this project, political will is not an issue as the action is ordered by the Karnataka High Court.
Enough time has already been given – more than three months – for all the shops to relocate from the basements. Ofcourse, there are many new shops coming up in the basements as the landlords are openly sceptical about BBMP’s real motives. However, they fail to see that they are violating a 1976 law. The real sufferers will be all those new tenants in basements, and here is where their ignorance will lead to financial losses.
Speaking to Residents Watch, Dr A Soujanya, Joint Commissioner, Bommanahalli, said: “We will begin the basement shutdowns soon. We have just resumed our work after the elections. We will have a meeting, prepare the time table and chalk out our next steps.”
