MEDICAL MIRACLES MAKE BANGALORE A GLOBALDESTINATION FOR QUALITY HEALTHCARE | 9

SOLAR ECLIPSE FALLS ON JAN 15; SCIENTISTS SAYSUPERSTITIOUS PRACTICES ARE MEANINGLESS | 6

THE TIMES OF INDIA, BANGALORE | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2010

TIMES CITY

Order on techie’sbail plea reserved

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: There was high dra-ma at the VI additional chief met-ropolitan magistrate court onTuesday: the bail petition filed byPallab Chakraborty, the techie ar-rested on charges of torturing a14-year-old domestic help, hadcome up for hearing.

The magistrate reserved ordersfor January 15 even as membersfrom an NGO urged the judge not togrant bail to Pallab. The judge askedthem to convey their argumentsthrough the public prosecutor.

Pallab’s advocate Girish con-tended that the techie, father oftwo children, had suffered a lot aswas also suspended from his job.

The public prosecutor, who metNGO members, said if Pallab wasreleased, he may threaten the girland destroy evidence.

After hearing argument fromboth the sides, the judge reservedhis orders for January 15.

TORTURE OF DOMESTIC HELP

Engineer lands inLokayukta net

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kolar: An assistant executive en-gineer of the panchayat raj engine-ering department has landed in theLokayukta net for accepting bribe.

D M Narayanaswamy took Rs15,000 from Manjunath, a residentof Itharasanahallin in Kolar, onMonday. Manjunath had suppliedmaterial for construction of a drainin the village, and submitted thebill to Narayanaswamy, who de-manded money, for counter signa-ture. Manjunath lodged a complaint.On Monday, the complainant askedthe engineer where he could meethim to hand over the money. Hetold him to come near the RTO.Manjunath did so when the sleuthscaught Narayanaswamy.

‘SC Bench neededfor speedy justice’

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Transparency Inter-national has sought a SupremeCourt Bench in Bangalore.

Chairman of the Karnatakachapter Justice M F Saldanha saidon Tuesday: “For every case thatreaches the Supreme Court, thereare 1,000 others which are left outbecause of financial and distancelimitations. Of the ones which havemade it to the apex court, the in-evitable delays result in at least 50%cases being rendered infructuous.’’

Advocate Pramila Nesargi said:“Justice should be accessible atevery doorstep. Thanks to distanceand expenditure, Supreme Courtis not accessible to most.’’

Infrastructure being put in place now, but sanitation and solid waste management still pose challenge

Nirmala M Nagaraj | TNN

Bangalore: It is barely 20 km from theheart of Bangalore and was included inBBMP limits in 2007. Still, the infrastruc-ture in Dasarahalli zone resembles villages— with overflowing sanitary pits, open un-cleaned drains, drinking water scarcity,garbage, mud roads and potholes.

For years, infrastructure developmenthas been distant to this part of Banga-lore. However, suddenly, there is a spurtin road construction activity in someparts of this zone.

There are eight wards in this zone —Shettihalli, Bagalagunte, Mallasandra, TDasarahalli, Chokkasandra, Peenya In-dustrial Area, Rajagopalnagar, DoddaBidarakallu, Hegganahalli and Herohalli.

It’s been more than three years sincesome of the areas coming under CMC andgram panchayats were added to BBMP, tilldate, infrastructure in most places is lim-ited to that of remote villages — kaccharoads, bad sanitation, shortage of powerand water continues to bother people here.

But, the BBMP election has been a boonto some areas like Mallasandra wardwhere newly-elected MLA Muniraju re-sides. Until six months ago, roads in Mal-lasandra ward had uneven mud roads withpotholes. One of the most noted develop-ments in this area is the progress in thelong-pending Pipeline Road. The estimatedcost of this project is Rs 386 lakh, and dead-

line for completion is March 1. However,slow and shoddy work for months has fi-nally scaled up, with elections nearing.

MUD ROADS MARK AREAMost part of the wards still have mudroads. In Herohalli, Dodda Bidarakallu,T Dasarahalli, there are still kaccha roads.Almost all lanes in entire Dasarahalli zoneare yet to get concrete roads.

In some areas, where work is inprogress, residents complain on the sub-standard quality of ongoing road work.“We were all excited that for the firsttime, they were laying roads in our area.Jalli stones were put a week ago and theylaid asphalt concrete without levellingthe road. The BBMP board estimated ahuge cost for construction of these roadsbut with this kind of low-quality work,most of these roads will not last long.But, we are happy that some kind of de-velopment work is finally initiated inour area,” said Salma, a resident ofPeenya Industrial Ward.

Though some of the main roads are re-cently asphalted, most of them are still anightmare for commuters with potholesand narrow mud lanes.

With construction material scatteredand left abandoned by roadsides, the pub-lic wonders on the accountability of theongoing infrastructure work here.

None of the roads have pavements /footpaths. Due to recent road wideningwork, huge trees on either side of theroads are cut and with the absence ofproper bus shelters, the large workingclass population in this zone, especiallyPeenya Industrial Area, finds it difficultto commute.

In places like Shettihalli, the authori-ties have not laid water and sanitary lines,but have concreted the roads. There arechances of re-digging the same for layingthese pipes.

The ongoing work on the elevated NH4has added to commuting woes.

ABSENCE OF STORM WATER DRAINS Interestingly, here either the storm water

drains are encroached upon or reducedto garbage dumps.

With no proper maintenance of stormwater drains, during the monsoon, hous-es are flooded with rainwater. The stormwater drain that flows near DefenceColony on Hesaraghatta Main Road is one

such example. Along the drain runningadjacent to a school, children are spottedcrossing this open stagnant drain.

POWER AND COMMUNICATIONElectric poles in some areas are danger-ously positioned and wires are found hang-ing on roadsides, and streetlights in someof the areas are still not automatic andare operated manually. Power shortage isone of the common problems here too.

Getting BSNL connectivity is thebiggest problem here, as most often, thelines are dysfunctional. “To market pri-vate telecom companies, most often, BSNLlines are dysfunctional. There are ru-mours that they have a tie-up with BSNLworkers themselves. As they don’t respondefficiently to our grievances on our BSNLhelpline, even we have started believingthe rumour,” said Santosh, a resident ofDodda Bidarakallu.

SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENTThere is absolute no solid waste manage-ment in this part of Bangalore. Withouta proper garbage disposal facility, it is scat-tered everywhere — from drains, emptysites to roadsides.

Lack of proper solid waste manage-ment has led to an increase in street dogsin this area. BBMP contract garbage col-lection teams pay a rare visit to some ofthe residential areas.

“Earlier, for two or three lanes, therewas a corporation dustbin, where we vol-untarily dumped our waste. Since thehouses close to the bin complained of in-creasing stray dogs and maggots, theBBMP removed these bins, assuring us ofdoor-to-door collection. For a week or so,contract workers visited regularly andcollected garbage, suddenly they havestarted demanding money every day tocollect waste. When some of us refused,they stopped coming. Now, we throw ourwaste in vacant sites,” explained Raju,resident of T Dasarahalli area.

With no proper monitoring, industri-al and commercial effluents are frequentlyspotted dumped on tank or lake beds andon vacant plots.

SOCIAL SECURITY On the congested, jammed, bad roads, ac-cidents are frequent in this part of thecity. With a higher lower middle incomepopulation residing in this part of cityand with a large number of garment fac-tory units closing down here, there is arise in petty crime like chain-snatchingand robbery. Real estate-related propertyand land disputes and murders are notrare in this area.

Stray dogs are a menace in some of thelocalities where civic issues are compro-mised and in some areas, these stray dogsare considered a security.

Since most of these areas don’t haveactive residential welfare associations,public issues concerning social securityare still not much in public debate but anindividual affair.

SOCIAL LIFE The biggest annual event in most part ofthe Dasarahalli zone is the annual villagefair, it is the biggest function and active-ly participated by the locals.

Other entertainments are — food joints,dhabas, malls, clubs, temples and fitnesscentres like yoga and gym centres etc.

MY CITY

MY VOTE

BBMP

DASARAHALLI ZONE

8 WARDS

DAY ONE

TOMORROW: Water,health and sanitation

DASARAHALLI ZONE WARDS LIST

It’s final: ordinance onAkrama-Sakrama soon

The cabinet on Tuesday sanctionedissuance of an ordinance to bring

Akrama-Sakrama (regularization ofconstructions) scheme into force.

As the code of conduct for BBMP pollswill come into effect from January 15,government is said to be in a hurry toissue the ordinance. The scheme, keepingan eye on polls scheduled on February 21,has given huge rebates for the citizens.

Villages brought into BBMP fold

6 DASARAHALLI: Thanisandra,Rachenahalli, Dasarahalli, CAR Quarters,Balaji Krupa Layout, Basavalingappa Nagar(P), R K Hegde Nagar, Kaveri Nagar,Prashanth Nagar (P), Chowdappa Layout,Nandanavana Layout, BDS Layout, ShirdiSai Rathan Layout, Railway Men’s Layout,Vidya Layout, Bhagyashree RoyalLayout, Chamundeswari Layout,Arogyappa Layout, Mestri Palya,Jingarappa Layout, RachenahalliKere, Maruthi Layout, PrakruthiColony, Buvaneshwari Nagar,Mariyanna Palya, NandanaResidency Layout, DefenceLayout, Defence Enclave 2,Manyata Residential layout,Defence Colony, BharatNagar, Sarai Palya,Ashwath Nagar,Settigere MuniyappaLayout, Amar JyothiLayout, KrishnappaLayout, MCECHSSanchar Nagar,Alankar Nagar (SajidNagar), MuninangappaLayout, Vidya SagarLayout, Rasool SabLayout, Tuba Layout,MS Ramaiah NorthCity

12 SHETTIHALLI:Abbigere, Myadarahalli,Chikkasandra,Shettihalli, NisargaLayout, Abbigere Kere,Someshwara Layout, AchappaLayout, Vijayalaxmi Layout, Abbigere

Dinne, Abbigere Layout, MuniswamiappaLayout, V R Layout, Kalyana Nagar, KalaNagar, Kammagondanahalli, Jalahalli West,

Raghavendra Layout,Subramanya Layout, Sri

Mahalaxmi Layout,Venkateshwara

Layout, VinayakaLayout, KempeGowda Garden, S M

R Layout,Paschima

County, R R Layout,Sandhya Nagar,

Dasappana Palya,Athmiya Geleyara Balaga

Layout, Sapthagiri Colony,Anjanadri Layout, M BabannaLayout, Mallasandra (P),Krishna Nagar, Lake View

Defence Colony, CauveryLayout, Nandana Nagar,Brindavana Layout,

Maruthi Nagar, ChikkannaLayout

14 BAGALAKUNTE: Sidedahalli,NMH Layout, SoundaryaLayout, MHR Layout,

Siddeshwar Layout, Meenakshi GardenEnclave, Kirloskar plots, Sampangi

Layout, MEI Employees’ Housing Colony,Bagalakunte, Bagalakunte Kere, ManjunathNagar, Widia Kennametal Industry, DefenceColony, Bhuvaneshwari Nagar, HavnoorExtension, M S Ramaiah Layout

15 T DASARAHALLI: T DasarahalliMaheswari Nagar, T Dasarahalli, OmColony

NO PROPER SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

KACCHA ROADS, OPEN DRAINS

Govt told to filecounter-affidavit

on bio parkTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: The high court on Tues-day asked the state government tofile a counter-affidavit indicatingwhat steps have been taken with re-gard to setting up a biological parkwithin Bannerghatta Biological Park.

The division Bench headed by Jus-tice V Gopala Gowda adjourned by 10

days the hearing ofa PIL challengingthe park’s pro-posed night safariapproved by thecabinet. The gover-nment advocate to-

ld the court that as per the December18 proposal, only 731 hectares of landwill be converted into a biological parkwith entry to people and in other ar-eas entry would be prohibited at night.B R Deepak filed this PIL claiming thissafari is against the essence of theWildlife Protection Act, 1972.

GERMAN SEEKS NATURAL PARENTSThe HC ordered notice to DGP, SI ofUllal police station in Mangalore, thelocal child welfare committee andthe Sisters of Charity Nirmala Soci-al Welfare Centre in Mangalore withregard to an appeal by Chaya Maria.

Chaya, who was adopted by Germ-ans, from the Sisters For Charity cen-tre in Mangalore about three decadesago, came to India in 2005 to do herdoctorate in Indian Sociology and waskeen on meeting her natural parents.However, the efforts to trace her mo-ther didn’t pay off. The single Benchdismissed the case stating such a di-rection cannot be given after 30 years.

RETIREMENT AGEK N Putte Gowda requested the au-thorities not to increase the retire-ment age of high court and SupremeCourt judges by three years.

THE TIMES OF INDIA THE TIMES OF INDIA

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