Saturday events: Math adventure for kids & standup comedies

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Saturday events: Math adventure for kids & standup comedies 1

STANDUP COMEDY It’s a Laughing Matter 8pm-9.30pm True Bleu Restocafe, True Bleu Restocafe #89, 1st floor, 17th Cross Road, Sector 4, HSR Layout Rs 199 A Hinglish stand-up comedy night where you don’t take anything seriously, seriously. True Bleu in association with The Blackbuck Comedy brings you a night of stand-up comedy where sports, politics, … Read more

Why can’t BMTC buses take a detour at HSR Layout?

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Why can't BMTC buses take a detour at HSR Layout? 14
 
 
Why can't BMTC buses take a detour at HSR Layout? 15
 
 
With the increasing traffic congestion, and the failed plan of the BMTC to have shuttle buses in HSR Layout due to lack of proper planning, the residents are now asking the transport department why all the buses plying between Sarjapur Road and Whitefield don’t enter HSR Layout.
 
If this happens, people will find it more convenient to use public transport. Clearly, the BMTC needs to have the right people to plan bus stops in strategic places where most people will find it convenient.
 
Says Sharad Holani and echoed by the Whitefield Rising group: “Why are there no buses going inside HSR Layout and Sarjapura. All buses on Outer Ring Road only go straight towards Silk Board. Why will people use buses when they don’t go anywhere near people’s home?” Tweeting this to the BMTC, he is only one of the many people who have knocked on the doors of the BMTC for efficient public transport.

 

CAUGHT REDHANDED: BBMP worker burning dry waste

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CAUGHT REDHANDED: BBMP worker burning dry waste 16
 
 
CAUGHT REDHANDED: BBMP worker burning dry waste 17
 
Burning garbage is a punishable offence by law. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike is supposed to uphold the law and penalise those who don’t. However, what do you say when their own people indulge in garbage burning? This is the question being asked by several residents across Bangalore and outside.
 
Here is a case of one such BBMP worker burning dry waste and plastic on 3rd Cross in Muneshwara Layout, Hosapalya. Says software engineer Uday Shankaran, a resident of Kudlu who caught him in the act: “Thrice a week, they are burning plastic, twigs, dry waste, and thermocol. I always used to smell it, but today, I caught the pourakarmika (sweeper) red-handed. When I confronted him, he was not showing his face, which means the pourakarmika knows that burning is wrong.”
 
Uday adds that burning garbage is a common practice of BBMP workers in this area. “It’s easier for them to burn rather than use the garbage vehicle. Today, after he had burnt the garbage, I saw the collection vehicle pass by.”

 

Shutdown of basement shops has begun in HSR Layout!

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Shutdown of basement shops has begun in HSR Layout! 18
 
 
Shutdown of basement shops has begun in HSR Layout! 19
 
 
Shutdown of basement shops has begun in HSR Layout! 20
 
 
Shutdown of basement shops has begun in HSR Layout! 21
 
 
Shutdown of basement shops has begun in HSR Layout! 22
 
 
Shutdown of basement shops has begun in HSR Layout! 23
 
 
After years of allowing traffic congestion due to illegal basement shops meant for parking, the BBMP is finally implementing the law that is around for decades now due to a recent order by the Karnataka High Court. This legal intervention prompted BBMP Commissioner Manjunatha Prasad to instruct all the zonal joint commissioners to implement the court verdict.
 
Two weeks ago, the HSR BBMP officials issued notices to over 70 basement shops on all the main roads. And last night, the basement shops on one side of 27th Main in Sector 1 and 2 were shutdown – nearly 20 of them and counting. The onus is now on the landlords to demolish the shops and make way for parking. “We locked some of the shops ourselves while the others were locked by the shopkeepers themselves,” said Vinodh GM, health inspector, BBMP.
 
This drive will go on until all the basement shops are replaced with parking lots. Says Dr A Soujanya, Joint Commissioner, BBMP (Bommanahalli): “Only one third of the citizens are aware of this illegality. The tenants are the ones who are hit now. The next one month will be devoted to this operation.”
 
Yesterday, the BBMP shutdown shops on one side of 27th Main. Today, they will do the other side and move on to the other roads. For every zone, like Bommanahalli, there is a nodal officer who is overseeing this operation. A time table is plotted out for everybody who is part of this shutdown drive, including the police, health inspectors and engineers.

 

Road cutting on 27th Main irks residents; complaint closed without resolving issue

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Road cutting on 27th Main irks residents; complaint closed without resolving issue 24
 
 
Road cutting on 27th Main irks residents; complaint closed without resolving issue 25
 
 
Road cutting on 27th Main irks residents; complaint closed without resolving issue 26
 
 
Road cutting on 27th Main irks residents; complaint closed without resolving issue 27
 
 
Road cutting by new buildings is rampant, with or without BBMP’s permission. This stretch of the busy 27th Main-22nd Cross Road junction was dug up allegedly by the building owner of Motonation shop on 27th Main Road. Clearly, this is in violation as road cuttings are not allowed on roads that were tarred only a year ago. When the residents complained to the BBMP, the civic agency closed the complaint without resolving it, irking the citizens even more.
 
 
Road cutting on 27th Main irks residents; complaint closed without resolving issue 28
 
 
“The road and the foothpath in front of the Motonation shop was damaged on December 22, and no one has fixed it yet,” says resident Kamesh Rastogi who has complained on the BBMP app and to the authorities on social media. “They are closing the complaint after a few days and I have reopened it on three occasions so far.”

 

One HSR non-profit keeps this tree park, clean and pristine!

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One HSR non-profit keeps this tree park, clean and pristine! 29
 
 
One HSR non-profit keeps this tree park, clean and pristine! 30
 
 
One HSR non-profit keeps this tree park, clean and pristine! 31
 
 
One HSR non-profit keeps this tree park, clean and pristine! 32
 
 
Amazed that there is a tree park right around HSR Layout? Well, there is one near Freedom International School in Sector 4. But did you know that one local NGO has been keeping it clean for the last three years?
 
Only last week, it was cleaned yet again by Kaagaz Foundation. “It gets filled with garbage due to BBMP’s secondary collection point,” says trustee Kavitha Reddy. Almost every three months, we get it cleaned. In the next tree plantation season, we should be adding 30 more saplings.”
 
The quarterly cleanup sometimes has volunteers, but it’s mostly done with the help of labourers.

 

Don’t keep your laptop in car; two people learnt this lesson, the hard way!

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Don't keep your laptop in car; two people learnt this lesson, the hard way! 33
 
 
Don't keep your laptop in car; two people learnt this lesson, the hard way! 34
 
 
THE INCIDENT IN SECTOR 1
On January 22, at around 3.45pm, 30-year-old Sudarshan Raghunath was shocked to find his Lenovo laptop, two bank cards and his passport missing from his car seat.
 
He had parked his Hyundai Asset car at 3.45pm last Tuesday in front of CPWD quarters on 27th Main Road to shop at Health & Glow. However, when he came back at 4.45pm, the front passenger window was broken and his laptop bag with his belongings was nowhere to be seen.
 
The resident of of Somasundrapalya has learnt a bitter lesson not to keep his belongings in the car while stepping out. The thieves are watching out for such belongings to steal.
 
SECTOR 6 WAS NEXT TWO DAYS LATER
Two days later, Balchandra Bandi, a 38-year-old engineer and a resident of Murugeshpalya was the next victim. He had parked his car on 16th Cross, Sector 6, in front of Syndicate Bank at around 8pm on Thursday, January 24. By the time he came back at 9pm, the thief or thieves had employed the same modus operandi as the previous incident. They had broken the front side passenger window and stolen his laptop bag containing his HP Elite laptop.
 
WHAT HAPPENED ON JANUARY 20?
Two diners learnt a lesson the hard way when they stepped out to have dinner at two different locations in HSR Layout only to find their car belongings missing when they returned after their sumptuous experience.

 

This road divider is yet to be fixed even after 2 months!!

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This road divider is yet to be fixed even after 2 months!! 35
 
 
 
This road divider is yet to be fixed even after 2 months!! 36
 
 
Two months after it was reported, the broken divider on 27th Main Road is yet to be fixed by the BBMP and the traffic police. When the BBMP does not do its job, the traffic department is supposed to act, particularly to enforse one-way on a busy thoroughfare.
 
However, the it is status quo at this divider near Rockview restarant in Sector 2. Agreed that they are the responsibilities the BBMP’s traffic engineering cell. But two months is just too long a time to excuse themselves for being ‘busy’. That’s the excuse they have been giving the traffic police all this while.
 
The truth is also that though the dividers were put back a week after it was first broken, some miscreants removed it again (residents suspect auto drivers). After that, the divider has remained broken and the case is in suspended animation ever since. It is more than 60 days but there is no resolution to this problem.

 

Your wet waste is being turned into biogas and organic fertilisers!

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Your wet waste is being turned into biogas and organic fertilisers! 37
 
 
Your wet waste is being turned into biogas and organic fertilisers! 38
 
 
There is some confusion over BBMP’s rule of 10 kilos or 50 units rule. Some apartment owners in Somasundrapalya are saying that they are using a commercial service provider even though they are less than 20 units. BBMP sources in HSR Ward say that such cases are happening in the neighbouring 190 ward of MG Palya.
 
Resident activist Kavitha Reddy believes that this idea of having separate vendors for commercial and domestic users by the BBMP is a money-making racket to inflate costs of waste collection. “It’s a totally stupid idea. My point is if two vehicles are coming on the same road, one to collect from houses and another to collect from apartments, it sounds silly.”
 
“We have to wait and see the final proposal,” says resident S Sankar. “Earlier, it was considered as 50 units and above. But again at ward wise, 20 units and above is given to an exclusive vendor by the corporator. I am not sure if this will be continued or do we have to opt for approved vendors from BBMP. If that’s the case, the apartment owners might have to pay more.”
 
“In HSR, apartments that are close to 40 or above units are categorised as commercial if the garbage generated is above 10 kilos every day,” said HSR health inspector Vinodh GM. “This is only where the entire building is owned by one person as the garbage generated will be considered bulk. However, we do take garbage from flats independently owned by people.”
 
Apartments like 60-flat Aakruthi Silverline in Sector 2 are giving the waste to Hasiru Dala as they are categorised as bulk generators. Many more surrounding apartments like Mahaveer, Manar, and DSR Rainbow are also handing their waste to commercial garbage vendors, and have had no problems with them.
 
However, there is still some issue with the neighbouring Ward 190. “In apartments, no daily collection happens anyway. The wet waste and reject waste collection is only once in 2-3 days and dry waste is once a week,” says Sankar. “Sometimes, all goes together in the same vehicle. This is the state for the last one year. Much discussion was done and supervisor Vasu said that it’s corporator’s decision to have different vendors for 20 units and above. Either go with that or go with BBMP-approved vendor which is expensive. This is the state in many of the wards, and there is nothing new.”
 
BBMP officials say that if certain apartments are being categorised as commercial, it could also be because the segregation has not happened. “Commercial vendors take non-segregated waste and apartments find them more convenient,” said a BBMP official.
 
BIOGAS AND FERTILISERS
Is the commercial vendor sending the waste to Karnataka Compost Development Corporation (KCDC)? No, they send it to Carbon Masters, a city-based waste to energy startup in Doddaballapur & Malur. The Malur plant was shutdown due to some political interference, but it should re-open soon, according to our sources. “We send 5 tonnes of garbage every day from Ward 174 to the Doddaballapur unit,” says Vinodh.