3A DECCAN HERALD B Thursday, September 8, 2016

Metro

BENGALURU: The High Courton Wednesday directed thestate government to grantnecessary clearance to theBBMP for widening the Bal-lari Road from BangaloreDevelopment Authority’smain office to Mehkri Circle.

The court hoped that theroad work would be completedinayear. Adivisionbenchcom-prising Chief Justice S KMukherjee and Justice RaviMalimath also directed to issueTransfer of DevelopmentRights (TDR) certificates toland owners as per theSupreme Court order.

Additional Advocate Gener-al A S Ponnanna submittedthat TDR could not be issuedyet, although the Apex Courthad passed the order in 2014.Ponnanna said that govern-ment was contemplating to re-vision of the TDR rules and re-definezones.To this, thebenchsaid that the Apex Court’s or-der was to follow the existingTDR rules.

BBMP counsel K N PutteGowda said BBMP had takenup road repair and was main-taining the road in good condi-tion.HesaidthatthePalikewasready and willing to widen theroad, subject to clearance bythe government. The benchhas been hearing a PIL filed bythe residents of Koramangala3rd Block. The residents havesought directions to hold theBBMP contractors account-able for the quality of roads.

‘Do not arrest owner’TheHigh Courton Wednesdaydirected Bangalore Metropol-itan Task Force (BMTF) not toarrest a resident who had con-structed his house on astormwater drain (SWD). Thepetitioner,KSameeulla,hasap-

Give clearance toBBMP to widenBallari Rd, HC to govt

BENGALURU, DHNS: In thewake of increasing pollution inthe Vrishabhavathi Valley, theKarnatakaStatePollutionCon-trol Board (KSPCB) has decid-edtoinstallasewagetreatmentplant (STP) in Peenya Industri-al Area.

KSPCB chairman Laksh-man told DH that the boardhad found that most of the un-treated waste entering the Vr-ishabhavathi Valley was fromthe Peenya Industrial Area, es-pecially unorganised sector.

He said the board has ade-quate land to set up the STP.ExpressionofInteresthasbeencalled to know the financial es-timates to set up 200 kilo litresper day (KLD) capacity STP.Basedontheinflowofwasteandavailability of finances, the ca-pacitywillbeenhanced,hesaid.

There are four STPs in thevalley - at Nalasandra of 20MLD, at Kempambudhi of oneMLD, at Nagasandra of 75MLDandVrishabhavathiValleyTreatment Plant of 180 MLD.

According to BWSSB, at anygiven time, the STPs are work-ing at 80% of installed capacity.

KSPCB will hold a meetingwiththeKarnatakaSmallScaleIndustries Association (Kassia)to explain the situation andseek financial aid from them.

Many studies have been con-ducted by independent re-searchers, by Ashoka Trust forResearch in Ecology and Envi-ronment (Atree) and by pro-fessors from the environmentwing of Bangalore Universityto study the pollution levels ofVrishabhavathi Valley.

Vrishabhavathi is a tributaryof Arkavathi river, which joinsCauvery. Theriverdrainsama-jor part of west Bengaluru'swaste water -- domestic and in-dustrial -- covering 97 sqkm.

Itcarriesaround2,300cubicmetres of urban and domesticdischarge per hour. It also car-riesseasonaldischargetoByra-managala reservoir. The valleyhas become a dump yard formany. At any given time, astrong foul smell emits fromthe valley and there have alsobeen instances of carcassesfloating in it.DH News Service

STPatPeenyatocheckVrishabhavathipollution

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‘Don’t allowcracker shops incongested areas’The High Court onWednesday directed theBBMP commissioner, Ben-galuru City Police Commis-sioner and Director Gener-al of Police (Fire Services),not to allow shops sellingcrackers to be set up atcongested areas.A division bench compris-ing Chief Justice S KMukherjee and JusticeRavi Malimath disposed ofa PIL filed by Maruthi, aresident of Seegehalli, whohad sought directions to beissued in the governmentorder, in 1980.

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proached the court, seeking di-rections to quash the FIR filedagainst him by the BMTF.

Justice Anand Byrareddy di-rected the petitioner to appearbefore the BMTF on Septem-ber 14.

Sameeulla’s house was de-molished by the BBMP to clearthe encroachment of the SWD.

In another petition, thejudge granted stay on the pro-ceedings initiatedbytheBMTFagainst four BBMP engineers.The engineers, M V Gu-ruprasad, B T Mohan Krishna,R V Govindaraj, R K Shashid-har and Chowde Gowda, ap-proached the court, seekingquashing of the FIRs filedagainst them by the BMTF.The engineers are accused ofallowing construction of build-ings on SWDs.DH News Service

Kalakshetra at 50

Folk artistes perform ‘Hagalu Vesha’ at the golden jubilee celebrations of Ravindra Kalakshetra,organised by Kannada and Culture Department, on Wednesday. DH PHOTO

Ambarish B

BENGALURU: Even as ille-galities in employees housebuilding co-operative soci-eties remain unchecked,documents reveal that siteshave been illegally allotedin Aircraft Employees’House Building Co-opera-tive Society (AEHBCS) in thecity.

According to the docu-ments, former Congress MLAfrom Nagamangala in Mandyadistrict Suresh Gowda, who isback as the president of AE-HBCS,has got thesitesallottedinthenamesofassociatemem-

bers who in turn sold them tohis father-in-law in violation ofrules. Though the violationswere glaring, the society didnot act.

Three sites allotted to mem-bers were purchased bySuresh’s father-in-law A SRame Gowda within a few daysof allotment. The BDA (Site Al-lotment) Rules,1984 stipulatesthat a member shall not alien-ate or sell the allotted site for aperiodoffiveyears.After losingthe 2013 Assembly electionsfrom Nagamangala, Sureshhas again assumed took overas the president of the HBCS.

His father-in-law purchasedsite number 775A from a

member A Sadashivam, within12 days of the allotment. Inter-estingly, when it was allotted toSadashivam in January 2004the market value of the site wasRs 12.15 lakh and the allotmentprice was Rs 4.82 lakh. RameGowda bought the same sitefor just Rs 6 lakh. On Novem-ber4,2011,RameGowdagiftedthesitetohisdaughterJRGee-ta, Suresh’s wife. Later, Geetasold the site for Rs 50 lakh,while its market value was Rs1.27 crore.

In the other two transac-tions, Rame Gowda purchasedsite number 866 measuring4,000 sqft from Mani in Octo-ber 2002 for Rs 2.25 lakh and

sold it toone Zaheeda Khanumfor Rs 8 lakh. Similarly, RameGowda bought another site ofthe same dimension that wasallotted to M Shankara in No-vember 2002 and sold it againto Zaheeda Khanum. All thesesites are situated at Singasan-dra village in Begur hobli.

Suresh was the HBCS presi-dent when all these allotmentsandsubsequentsaletookplace.The sale deeds executed to themembers state that they shallnot alienate or sell the allottedsite for a period of five years.The BDA rules under whichthehousebuildingco-operativesocieties are formed also sub-scribe to the condition that a

house shall be constructedwithin a period of two years.The rule was later amendedand the construction time limitwas extended to five years.

When contacted, Sureshsaid that the BDA rules onsite allotments have beenamended.

“The BDA rules stipulatesconditions. However, the soci-etycanissueanoobjectioncer-tificate (NoC) to the allottee tosell the site immediately afterthe allotment,” he said. How-ever, the former MLA couldnotprovidedetailsof thepowerrested with the societies to is-sue NoC to allottees.DH News Service

Site allotment scam surfacesin Aircraft Employees’ HBCSViolating rules, members sell plots to ex-MLA’s father-in-law

GENERALPES University: 22nd internationalconference on Advanced Computingand Communications, auditorium,Prof MRD Block, PES University,3.30 pm.Indian Institute of Cartoonists:Exhibition on Kannada Jnanpithawardees in caricatures, Indian Car-toon Gallery, 1, Midford House, nearBig Kids Kemp, Trinity Circle,10 am.M S Ramaiah Institute of Technolo-gy: International conference on ‘Re-cent Advances in Engineering Sci-ences, Seminar ‘Hall-I, ESB-II, M SRamaiah Institute of Technology,11 am.Bangalore Divine Life Society: Birthcentenary of Swami Chidananda,Guru Vilasam, No 71, Chick Bazaarroad, Swami Sivanandapuram

(Tasker Town), 9.30 am.Vivekananda College of Law: Fresh-ers’ Day and Inauguration of academ-ic activities, Sri S T Narayana GowdaAuditorium, No 12/1, 3rd Cross, Gay-athrinagar, Maruthi Exension,10.30 am.CULTURALNanjanagud Sri RaghavendraSwamy Mutt: Classical music recitalby Sneha Tayur, 5th Block, Jayanagar,7.30 pm.Kannada and Culture Department,Government of Karnataka: 'Ne-napinokuli', Ravindra Kalakshetra at50, Burra Katha, Tatwapada,Ravindra Kalakshetra, J C Road,5 pm.'Vin'Scent Art Gallery: Exhibition ofdrawing, painting and murals, 'Vin'S-cent Art Gallery, 33, Sai Lotus,

60 Feet Road, BEML Road,11 am.RELIGIOUSSri Vinayaka Mitra Mandali: 35thGaneshotsava, daily programmes,1st 'A' Main Road, 8th Block,Jayanagar, 9.30 amSri Lake View MahaganapathyTemple Trust: 30th anniversary,Sri Venkateshwara Swami, Tank Road,Ulsoor Lake, 7 am.Sri Varasiddhi Vinayaka Devalaya:Ganesha Chaturthi celebrations,Canara Bank Colony, NagarabhaviRoad, 7 am.Tirumala Tirupati Temple: Upa-nyasa Bhajane, Sri Raghavendraswa-mi Mutt, ITC, Dooravaninagar,6 pm.Vedanta Satsanga Kendra: Dis-course on 'Bruhadaaranyaka Upan-

ishath' by scholar K G Subraya Shar-ma, Vedanta Satsanga Kendra,Sakamma Gardens, Basavanagudi,9 am.Paramaartha Vichaara SanghaTrust: Talk on 'BrahmasutraBhaashyam' by Dr K G Subraya Shar-ma, Adhyaatma Mandira, VV Puram,7.45 am.Sri Vidyaganapathi SevaSamiti: Cultural programmes organ-ised to mark Ganeshotsava byShashidhar Kote and Troupe, 6thBlock, Rajajinagar, 7 pm.Uttaradi Mutt: Discourse on‘Prostapadhi Srimad Bhagavatha’ byPandit Srimukundi Sreekantachar, SriDigvijaya Lakshmi NarasimhaswamySannidhana, Uttaradhi Mutt premises,North Road, Shankarapuram,near Lalbagh, 6.30 pm.

In city today

Rainfall 0.4 mmHumidity 82 pcSunrise 6.09 amSunset 6.25 pmMoonrise 11.29 amMoonset 11.20 pm(Relevant data recorded at 5.30 pm.Source: IMD)

City weatherFORECAST: Generally cloudysky with one or two spells ofrain/showers.TEMPERATURESMaximum 27.0 CMinimum 18.8 C

BENGALURU, DHNS: Severalwomen who are considered tobe at a risk of delivering achild with chromosomal ab-normality, could opt for a lessrisky procedure. The Non-In-vasive Prenatal Screening Test(NIPT) would help detect anyabnormalities with just thesamples of the mother’s blood.

According to doctors, NIPTcould be a convenient optionfor mothers who are found tobe at a high risk of having achild with chromosomal ab-normalities. Conventionaltests (invasive methods), theysaid, could up the risk of foe-tus getting aborted as Chori-onic Villus Sampling (a testmade in early pregnancy todetect congenital abnormali-ties in the foetus, in which atissue sample is taken fromthe villi of the chorion) andAmniocenteses (which in-volves injecting into the moth-er’s womb to collect samples)are being done.

Newmethodcutsriskintestingfoetusforabnormality

Dead fish foundfloating on pollutedVarthur lakeBENGALURU: Many dead catfish were seen floating on thepolluted Varthur Lake, in EastBengaluru on Wednesday.

Experts point out that thiswas an sign that the lake is be-yond repair now. But officialssaid they were unaware of thefish kill.

Jagadish Reddy Nagappa, aresident of Varthur said hefound dead catfish floating onthe lake during his morningwalk on Wednesday. Thewaterlevel in the lake had droppedand there was an increase insolid waste floating on the lake.A lot of plastic was floating onthe lake because ragpickersthrow unwanted waste into thelake, he said.

The Bangalore Develop-ment Authority (BDA) is thecustodian of the 445.8-acrelake. Officer Shivashankar saidhe was unaware of any fish killin the lake. “I am not aware ofthe issue. The governmentgives funds to develop the lake.Pollution should be managedby the Karnataka State Pollu-tion Control Board. So far, wehave not taken up any develop-ment work. We have told theBangalore Water Supply andSewerage Board that unlesssewage entry into the lake is

stopped, no restoration can bedone. The lake is full of sewageand not even 10% of it is freshwater,” he said.

G Vidyasagar, CEO, Kar-nataka Lake Conservation andDevelopmentAuthoritysaidhetoo was unaware of the issue.He also expressed shock overthe presence of the banned cat-fish. He said the matter will beinvestigated immediately.

Prof T VRamachandrafromthe Centre of Ecological Sci-ences, IISc, who studied thelake, said this was a sign thatthe lake had crossed its thresh-old. Catfish can survive even inharsh environment since theycome out of the water, breathein, and go back into the water.``The level of dissolved oxygenin the lake was zero in someplaces and 2.5 in other places,againstthenormalvalueoffive.Themacrophyteshavecoveredmost of the lake leading to fishkill,” he said.

KSPCB officials who visitedthe lake said that there was nooxygen left in the lake. Since itrained two days ago, the deadfish came floating to the sur-face. A thorough investigationand sample analysis will be un-dertaken.DH News Service

Dead fish found floating on Varthur Lake.

‘Open A Door to Israel’ atMG Road Metro stationReshma Ravishanker

BENGALURU: Soon, you canopen a door at the MG RoadMetro station and experi-ence Israel on the other side.Play the role of a DJ for theIsraelis or click a selfie withthem. All this, with just atouch of a screen.

Israel is not just a desert,there are serene beaches andmore. ‘Open A Door To Israel’is an endeavour of Israel topresent its vibrant and viva-cious face to the world.

Speaking to Deccan Herald,Zavi Apfelbaum, deputy direc-tor, Public Affairs Department,Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Is-

rael said that this event was be-ing organised to strengthen re-lationshipswithIndia.Thepro-gramme is organised for thefirst time in India, she said.

“We understood that whenpeoplewereaskedaboutIsrael,all they could picturise was warand the military. Our countryhas a lively side that ought tobe portrayed. This is an at-tempt to showcase that,” sheadded.

Visitors could take a walkalong the setup at the MGRoad Metro station and openany of the nine ‘CuriosityDoors’. For instance, knock onone and have a peek into theeveryday living of an average

Israeli family.Visitors would be given 30

minutes to walk through thenine doors where each doorrepresentsoneofIsrael’sbrandvalues. Behind each door is alarge LED screen with an in-teractive video that visitors canuse.

The facility would give aglimpse into night life, agricul-ture, the beaches and more.Besides, one could click selfies,connect with people in Israeland also play their NationalGame. The Doors to Israel willbe open to public between Sep-tember 9 and 25.Entry is free.DH News Service

Visitors would be given 30 minutes to walk through the nine doors where each doorrepresents one of Israel’s brand values.

Marking of buildings on SWDs toend today, demolitions from SaturdayBENGALURU: The markingof buildings on thestormwater drains (SWDs)at 35 locations in the citywill be completed on Thurs-day and the BBMP will startthe demolition drive fromSaturday.

BBMP Chief Engineer(SWDs) Siddegowda said sur-veyors were supposed to finishmarking of the buildings byWednesday evening. But theycould not complete the task asthey were confronted withmany challenges.

“Our drive to remove en-croachments of stormwaterdrains will start from Saturday.Against our expectation, themarkings could not end byWednesday evening. The sur-veyors may finish the work byThursday,” said Siddegowda.

All the26surveyorswhohad

previously measured thestormwater drains across Ben-galuruandpreparedthesurveysketches, have been pressedinto service to identify en-croachments of stormwaterdrains. So far none of the megaresidentialapartmentsorama-jor commercial or industrialhub has been marked for dem-olition.

“Survey of Prestige TechPark is underway. Hence, themarking has not been done. Itwill take some time,” said Sid-degowda. Regarding OrionMall, he said the survey reportis yet to reach the BBMP.

Sources in the BBMP saidthere are more than 1,000buildings in 246 survey num-bers of 18 villages in sevenBBMP zones. The action planfor the demolition of buildings,encroaching upon the

stormwater drains, will be pre-pared from Friday.

The villages where the dem-olition will be carried out in-clude Yelahanka, Kogilu,Thiruvenahalli, Sampigehalli,Thindlu and Jakkur in Yela-hanka Zone; KP Agrahara,Barige Muddanahalli andMatthikere in West Zone; Dod-dakunte, Bellandur, Nagawaraand Kalkere in East Zone,Madiwala, Hulimavu in Bom-manahalli Zone; Gavipura inSouth Zone, Abbigere,Chikkasandra, Shettihalli andChokkasandra in DasarahalliZone.

The list does not include anyproperty in Rajarajeshwari Na-garZonewhereKannadaactorDarshan's house was said to beone among the many proper-ties on the SWDs.DH News Service

Report on lake encroachmentin 64 volumes, says KoliwadBENGALURU: Thereportofthelegislature panel on lake en-croachment headed by Speak-er K B Koliwad will come in 64volumes.

The panel is preparing ahobli-wise report on the en-croachment and a total of 32hoblis will be covered in Ben-galuru Urban and Bengaluru

Rural districts. “Two volumeswill be brought out for eachhobli. Details of the extent ofencroachment of each of the1,545 lakes surveyed in Ben-galuru Urban and BengaluruRural districts will be includedin the report,”Koliwad told re-porters in Bengaluru onWednesday.

He said the panel will rec-ommend confiscation of prop-erties of land grabbers and theofficials who have colludedwith them. The panel will alsorecommend filing of criminalcases against them. The com-mittee will submit its report inDecember, Koliwad said.DH News Service

»South Western Railwayhas decided to provide a

one-minute temporary stop-page at Banavara from Sep-tember 7 th to 11 th for the fol-lowing trains in connectionwith the annual celebration-Sandal and Urus Sharief:Train Number 16202-Shiva-mogga-Krantivira SangolliRayanna (Bengaluru) Express

at 08.10 (arrival-A)/08.11(de-parture-D); Train Number16206-Mysuru-Talaguppa Ex-press at 08.59 am (A)/09.00am (D); Train Number 16205-Talguppa-Mysuru Express at06.20 am (A)/06.21 am (D)and Train Number 16201-Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna(Bengaluru)-Shivamogga Ex-press at 6.37 pm (A)/6.38 pm.

Train timings revisedat Whitefield

»Railways has decided torevise the timings of Train

Number 56261-Arakkonam-Krantivira Sangolli Rayanna(Bengaluru) Passenger atWhitefield station with effectfrom September 12 to facili-tate the Information Technol-ogy (IT) professionals who areresiding/working in or aroundWhitefield to utilise theservice.

The arrival time at Krantivi-ra Sangolli Rayanna (Bengalu-ru) Railway Station remainsthe same and timings of ar-rival/departure at Whitefieldas 06.03/06.05 with effectfrom September 12 as againstthe existing schedule.

StoppageoftrainsatBanavara