Week’s news in brief: Dec 19 – Dec 25

This week's scan of Bangalore's Kannada dailies includes a number of reports like the Metro vs. Mono conflict.

Business

Now- an agency to safeguard vacant sites!

Safeguarding a vacant site is a big task in Bangalore, especially if you live outside the city. The demand for land is so huge that encroachments have become common. So who will take care of your site if you are not in Bangalore? Vruddi Infrastructure Private Limited will! It is an agency that is providing this innovative service… for a nominal fee the agency will maintain your site and give you monthly updates. For details contact; 42994399, 42434445. (Udayavani, Monday, 22 December, Namma Bengalooru)

Government

Cops get trained for policing, opt for teaching!

In recent times the government is concerned about a new trend in police department. About 25 percent of the newly recruited police constables fail to assume their posts once they finish training. Most of them prefer teaching to policing. This was disclosed by Director General of Police R Srikumar, at a workshop organised by CII Security Forum. He also mentioned that the police work 15 hours a day and get to sleep for just four hours. (Kannada Prabha, Friday, 19, December)

Information leak worries Lokayukta

The Lokayukta’s raid on ten corrupt officials made big news a few days ago. However, the office is concerned about corrupt officials having prior knowledge of the raids. It happened again when the Deputy Conservator of Forests in Mysore C Srinivasan met the Lokayukta a day before the suspected raid on his house and tried to show him records to prove he is honest. When the Lokayukta said that there was no intention of raiding him, Srinivasan claimed that he was aware of an impending one. (Prajavani, Saturday, 20 December)

BJP workers make merry in the name of farmers

The government recently flew 91 farmers to China under the Karnataka Krishi Mission. But in actuality, it was BJP workers who went on the tour in the name of farmers, going by the list of beneficiaries. District and taluk level BJP leaders, leaders who lost the elections, leaders of the various wings of the BJP and relatives of ministers constituted the ‘list’ of 91 farmers. (Vijaya Karnataka, Sunday, 21 December)

Tough times for BBMP

The BBMP has become an orphan as there are neither corporators nor a commissioner to look after this highest administrative body of Bangalore. BBMP is working without corporators since a year. Now Commissioner Dr S Subramanya too has gone on leave, citing health reasons. The government seems to be least bothered in finding a replacement for the commissioner. Plenty of files are pending for clearance in the BBMP. With taxes for current financial year yet to be collected, BBMP is going through some rough weather indeed. (Udayavani, Sunday, 21 December)

The Mountain will come to Mohammed?

Does Minister for Tourism Janardhan Reddy want to shift the Vidhana Soudha to Bellary? “With God’s grace and people’s blessings, let that be so” says Reddy. When scribes took him for a task for not coming to his office in Vidhana Soudha, Reddy said he preferred living in Bellary. Journalists, aware of Reddy’s previous intentions of preferring Sriramulu as chief minister, asked him whether he had plans to shift Vidhana Soudha to Bellary, to which the Minister answered in this nonchalant manner. (Vijaya Karnataka, Friday, 19 December)

Infrastructure

Metro v/s Mono

With BMRCL (Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited) opposing the move to have Mono rail line near its stations, the tussle between the two projects has now reached a peak. Earlier, the Mono rail project was undertaken to supplement the Metro. However the former is now viewed as a threat to the latter. BMRCL is now preparing to file an objection to this status of Mono rail, contending that the government cannot consider the proposal to have it as an alternative to the Metro. (Kannada Prabha, Friday, 19, December)

Hockey stadium to be developed

The Hockey stadium in Akkitimmanahalli (near Shanti Nagar) is in a sorry state, thanks to the lack of basic infrastructure. The government is now planning to develop this stadium. Karnataka State Hockey Association, which is in charge of its maintenance, will soon be inviting tenders for the same, according to its Secretary K Krishnamurthy. If things go as per schedule, the hockey stadium will get a new lease of life within the next three months. (Vijaya Karnataka, Friday, 19 December, Bengaluru Vijaya)

Toll not so NICE, say commuters

The decision of NICE (Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises) to levy toll fee on its BMIC peripheral road has invited the wrath of commuters. They feel that the toll is very high, and that it was announced without prior notice. NICE officials denied this charge and clarified that the government was aware of the whole issue. Many feel that toll is not justified as some stretch of the peripheral road is yet to be completed. (Prajavani, Friday, 19 December)

People

Japanese croons in Kannada, wins hearts

‘Huttidare Kannada Nadalli huttabeku…’ ‘(if you are born, it is better to be born in the land of Kannada…’) – guess who croons this song in fluent Kannada? Chiba Syan- a senior officer in Toyota Kirloskar Motor Limited. Chiba from Hiroshima, Japan, is a hero in the campus and his rendition of this Dr. Rajkumar original song is a hit. He says practice made him perfect, and his efforts have inspired yet another Japanese executive to learn the language. Are you listening, rest of India in Karnataka? (Vijaya Karnataka, Saturday, 20 December)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Similar Story

The consequences of eviction: Women face the wrath of domestic violence

Why should evictions cause domestic violence? Our conversation with women in Chennai's resettlement areas brings out many harsh realities.

At 16, when Jency* got married to a man her family chose for her, she dreamt of a blissful life. Her husband, a carpenter, toiled to make ends meet, while she was a homemaker. Life was tough but they were content. "During weekends, he would take us to the beach and once in a while we went to the movies. Eating Delhi appalam and walking along the seashore at Marina Beach with my husband and my two kids is one of my favourite happy memories," she says. That was Jency's life in the past. The sole breadwinner of her family,…

Similar Story

International Women’s Day: Single women shun judgements, embrace their identities

Meet Chandrima Home, Lalitha, and Srobona Das, who defy the odds to raise their children, while navigating work and parenthood.

The delusional bubble of our so-called ‘progressive society’ is broken every year on International Women’s Day. Irrespective of how far we have developed, we still struggle to comprehend and respect simple concepts of freedom and equality, especially concerning women.  A woman's identity is not tied to a man The identity of a woman is somehow still rigidly bound by her association with a man, be it her father or her husband. A single woman is often judged. It is not just society that ties a woman to a man’s name, but also the government with some regressive policies. The recent…