Articles by News Desk

The News Desk at Citizen Matters puts out Press Releases, notifications and curated information useful to the urban reader.

Farmers protest, call for bandh on Sept 28 Hundreds of farmers blocked major highways and state highways in and around Bengaluru on Friday morning to protest the amendment to Land Revenue Act and the APMC Act passed in Parliament. The protest and blocking of roads was called by Ryot, Dalit, Labourers Aikya Horata Samithi - a collective of 35 farmers' groups, Dalit and trade unions. It affected the movement of regular traffic at Nayandahalli and Goragunte Palya junction. Police personnel were deployed at many places to prevent complete blockade of key routes. Hundreds of farmers courted arrest and were taken…

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COVID-19: New rules for containing zones; 50,029 fever camps conducted so far On September 24th, Chennai recorded 1089 fresh COVID cases. The day also saw 1005 recoveries and 15 deaths. In a fresh development, the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has removed all containment zones in its limits. According to the updated regulations, a street will be declared as a containment zone if there are three index cases reported and if the contacts are untraceable. An index case is defined as the first case in a family or other defined group to have come to the attention of the investigator. The…

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Sanctions from the Centre for the ORR-Airport Metro line is expected to take longer. Representational image: Ramnath Bhat (Wikimedia Commons) Vrishabhavathi river turns frothy dark yellow Vrishabhavathi River has changed its colour from black to turquoise blue to dark yellow with froth, over the past month. Things had worsened last week, when the water turned soapy like caustic soda. On Thursday morning, a pungent smell filled the air as the river turned yellow. Namami Vrishabhavathi, a citizens' group, brought the matter to the notice of the State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB). Residents suspect that electroplating and textile-dyeing industries have been…

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COVID: Second serosurvey to be done by September end | 12 doctors from Chennai succumb to COVID | GCC steps up surveillance in 13,000 streets The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) announced that the second serosurvey will be conducted by the end of September. This time, the T-cells of recovered COVID-19 patients will be analysed for academic research. The T-cells and antibodies have a huge role in immune response in patients affected by the virus. GCC Commissioner Prakash expects the seroprevalence in the second survey to be around 40%. The first survey saw a seroprevalence of 20%. According to the bulletin, Chennai…

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33% Delhiites develop antibodies as per new sero survey On September 17th, Delhi government shared the results of the third serological survey that was conducted in all the 11 districts of the national capital. Around 17000 samples were collected for the survey. Based on the results, it was found that 33% of Delhiites have developed antibodies for the COVID-19 infection. The government is claiming it to be the highest sero prevalence noted since the outbreak. As per the new guidelines, the administration has aimed to test each person living inside the containment zone within five days of the zone being…

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Representational image: Ramesh Meda/(CC BY 2.0) Reviewed by Prabhakar Shetty, practising advocate at the Karnataka High Court Before buying any property, you need to investigate all documents provided by the current property owner, and authenticate these with the agencies issuing the documents. There are two kinds of documents to check for — primary and secondary documents of title. Primary documents of title are the most essential as they show the ownership history of the property being sold. Some of the secondary documents of title help corroborate the information mentioned in the primary documents. The other secondary documents help the buyer…

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On August 29, BBMP issued an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) on dealing with complaints on the killing of stray dogs. Following is an edited version of BBMP's press release. The killing of an animal by any method is illegal and is a cognisable offence under Sec 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960, and Sec 428 of the Indian Penal Code. These laws provide for lodging of police complaints and filing of FIRs in such cases. So, if you have reason to suspect that the death of a stray dog is due to poisoning or killing, you…

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If you are considering buying a home or a flat, always check that the land it is standing on has been classified as 'for residential use'. This simple check can save a lot of hassle later. Pic: Rameshng/Wikimedia Commons Reviewed by Prabhakar Shetty, practising advocate at the Karnataka High Court Buying property in Bengaluru can be confusing and risky - there are multiple authorities for land use approvals, obscure rules, and the finer details are often missed out. In this article, we explain what buyers and investors should know about different land types and the authorities regulating each. Following are…

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In the past few weeks, many Bengalureans protested the reopening of Cubbon Park to vehicles, saying this lung space needs to be protected. The 300-acre park had been closed for about five months since the imposition of COVID lockdown. The protesters pointed to examples like Central Park in New York, where city authorities have completely banned motorised traffic. Despite protests, the State Horticulture Department allowed the park to be opened to vehicles last week based on a request from the Bengaluru Traffic Police. On the morning of 24 August, some 25 citizens from the #ConcernCollective gathered at Cubbon Park, demanding…

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Cities struggle to manage COVID-19 cases, as the second wave of infection sets in After a decline in new cases in the month of August, Mumbai is experiencing a second wave of infection. Mumbai registered a total of 30,474 cases in the entire August and it has already witnessed 15,227 cases in the first nine days of September. Pune stands as the most infected district in Maharashtra with 2,23,710 cases followed by Mumbai with 1,65,306 and Thane with 1,52,934. Similarly, Delhi broke all its past records of the highest single-day spike on September 9th when it registered 4,039 cases taking…

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