2 DECCAN HERALD B Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Metro

BENGALURU, DHNS: To reju-venate and comprehensivelydevelopthehighlypollutedBel-landur lake, the state govern-ment on Tuesday formally is-sued an order constituting anexpert committee with a man-date to undertake and overseea scientific survey of the city’sbiggest water body.

Headed by Additional ChíefSecretary (Urban Develop-ment), Mahendra Jain, thecommittee has as its membersthe Commissioners of the BDAand the BBMP; Member Sec-retary, Karnataka State Pollu-tion Control Board; Chairman,BWSSB; Deputy Commission-er, Bengaluru Urban District;Dr T V Ramachandra, IndianInstitute of Science; ProfRamaprasad;Dr Yellappa Red-dy, Environment expert; DrSharath Chandra, Atree; pres-ident, Bellandur ResidentsWelfare Association; Rama-murthy; Siddaiah, formerBBMP Commissioner; CEO,Karnatakal Lake DevelopmentAuthority; Secretary, Minor Ir-rigationDepartment;ChiefEn-gineer (Waste Water Manage-ment), BWSSB; EngineerMember, BDA and CEO, Nam-ma Bengaluru Foundation.

Bengaluru DevelopmentMinister K J George had an-nounced the setting up of thecommitteeatarecentworkhop

organised by the BDA on Bel-landur lake. The panel, he said,would submit its report to thegovernment in three weeks.Namma Bengaluru Founda-tion, lake experts and otherNGOs had made power-pointpresentations on the possibleways to rejuvenate the lake.

Terms of referenceThecommittee’stermsofrefer-ence for the restoration and re-juvenation of the lake would be:■ To suggest a vendor agnos-tic appropriate technologythat could be used / adoptedfor a one-time restoration /rejuvenation of the lake;■ To recommend targetedquality parameters of the lakewater to be achieved on com-pletion of the restorationproject;■ Mode of maintenance aftercompletion of the project;■ To suggest a structure for asustainable and critical biodi-versity conservation project;■ To prepare timely and de-tailed technical reports, let-ters and documents;■ To arrange individual /group field visits to monitorthe project progress; to docu-ment the events properly; and■ To support activities linkedto organisation of confer-ences, seminars and trainingcourses.

BENGALURU, DHNS: Ben-galuru Development MinisterK J George, after a reviewmeeting of the solid wasteclearance on Tuesday, warnedthe Bruhat Bengaluru Ma-hanagara Palike (BBMP) offi-cials of stern action, if steps arenot taken for effective garbagedisposal in city.

The minister said garbageclearance should be ensuredquickly as it can affect healthof citizens and he went on toadd that the government isready to extend all support inthis regard. Chief SecretaryArvind Jadhav, who was alsopresent in the meeting, gave amonth’s deadline to all BBMPjoint commissioners to take upthe issue seriously and ensurethat the waste processing unitswork to the optimum capacity

with full workforce. The min-ister directed the BBMP Com-missioner Manjunatha Prasadto float tender for hiring vehi-cles with leachate (highly con-taminated concentrated liquidwaste) sucking machine. “Me-chanical sweepers should alsobe purchased immediately.Labourwelfarecooperative so-ciety in every ward should beset up to execute civic workssuch as sweeping and door todoor collection of garbage, ef-fectively,”he added. Hestressed that Palike shouldkeep a tab on vehicles engagedin dumping of debris at night.

Prasad said the City gener-ates 3,500 tonnes of garbageevery day and there are sevenfunctioning garbage process-ing units with the capacity toprocess 2,500 tonnes a day.

BENGALURU: It is goodbyeto free parking at theSwamy Vivekananda RoadMetro Station. The Banga-lore Metro Rail CorporationLimited (BMRCL) has pro-posed to introduce paidparking at this station with-in the next 15 days.

The first signs of this dra-matic change was visible onTuesday, when the entire park-ing lot was barricaded with a‘No Parking’board prominent-ly displayed.

Effectively, none of theMetro passengers could parktheir vehicles for the day. Sometook the risk of parking theircars and motorcycles just out-side the barricade. Metro secu-rity personnel explained thatorders from above were to al-low only staff parking.

Enquiries revealed that atree branch had fallen on a

parked car on Monday night,sparking a verbal duel betweenpassengers and the securitypersonnel. There were also al-legations that at least two mo-torcycles were stolen from theplace despite round-the-clocksecurity. To avoid any furthertrouble, the authorities foundit safer to barricade the entireparking lot.

EversincetheMetroopenedits underground stretch, hun-dreds of passengers have beenparking their bikes and cars atthis station. Adequate parkingfacilities with roofing and 24/7security have been providedhere.

On the proposed paid park-ing, BMRCL chief spokesper-son, U V Vasanth Rao, had thisto say:“In15daysorso, weplanto have paid parking at SVRoad Metro stop. We will soonbe issuing a tender on this and

bidders can quote their pack-ages. It will be like the Baiyap-panahalli station, which haspaid parking.”

However, he said, BMRCLwas not aware of any thievingof vehicles at the station or ar-guments and noisy scenes onMonday night.

“The current parking is atowners’ risk. Metro does nothave authority to regulateparking there. It can be doneonly after tenders are issuedandbidderstakeuptheproject.We areissuing thetenders nowand in around 15 days, Metroshould be able to regulate andcontrol parking at the SV Roadstation,” Rao said.

Metro parking zones at oth-er stations could face similarissues and in this backgroundthe BMRCL is mulling tendersat these other places, too.DH News Service

In brief

38 acres of govtland identified

»The Bengaluru Urbandistrict authorities have

traced close to 38 acres ofgovernment land inTavarekere village inTavarekere hobli of Ben-galuru south taluk.

The land was tracedwhen a litigation was filedpertaining to Survey Num-ber 125 in Tavarekere. Theland is spread in 66 acresand 29 guntas. The litigantshad claimed rights over theentire chunk of land andwanted partition deed. Dur-ing the field visit, the offi-cials took note of a hillockand a lake spread on 37acres and 29 guntas in thesurvey number. The old rev-enue records showed 37acres and 29 guntas asB Kharab land.

Passing the order, the as-sistant commissioner ofBengaluru South sub-divi-sion L C Nagaraj main-tained, “The extent of 37acres and 29 guntas of landis to be mutated in thename of government. Theremaining extent of landbelongs to the appellantand the respondents herein,which is arenable/cultivableland.”

He also directed the spe-cial tahsildar of Bengalurusouth taluk to rectify themistakes and regularise theentries in the revenuerecords, such as RTCs et al,in the name of appellantand a respondent.

BDA announcescompensation

»BDA CommissionerSham Bhat on Tuesday

said that before the distri-bution of sites at the Kem-pegowda Layout to the ap-plicants, compensation willbe given to those who haveparted with land for the de-velopment of the Kempe-gowda Layout.

He was speaking to re-porters after holding a dis-cussion with YeshwantpurMLA S T Somashekar. Hesaid along with this, a burialground would be set up forthe benefit of 12 villages lo-cated in the layout, afteridentifying the land. So-mashekar said civic ameni-ties such as good roads,drainage system, electricitywould be provided to theresidents of 12 villages andthat the BDA had completesupport from the villagers,for developing the layout.

Govt orders expertpanel to overseeBellandur lake survey

Warningonwasteclearance

Bengaluru Development Minister K J George holds a meetingwith officials on solid waste clearance on Tuesday. DH PHOTO

BENGALURU: The Bengalurudistrict administration hasfound fault with the KarnatakaIndustrial Area DevelopmentBoard (KIADB) for handingover the 19 lakes to a privatecompany for the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corri-dorProject (BMICP), includingDodda Thoguru and ChikkaThoguru near Electronics City.

The Infosys Foundationwanted to develop two lakes-turned-cesspools by installinga sewage treatment plant. Thefoundationhadevensentapro-posal to the Bengaluru Urbandistrict administration seekingpermission. Following the pro-posal, the district authoritiessought an NOC from the KI-ADB and the Public Works De-partment (PWD). However,they refused the permission onthe ground that the land acqui-

sition matter pertaining to theBMICPwaspendingbeforetheSupreme Court.

Reacting to the cold re-sponse from the KIADB andPWD, Deputy CommissionerV Shankar said, “The KIADBcommitted a mistake by hand-ing over the lakes to a privatefirm. We are the custodian ofall theB Kharablandandlakes.But due to the faulty land ac-quisition, we have no role toplay.” He said lakes are part ofcommon land and they cannotbe handed over to anyone,which the KIADB ignored.

“We are more keen thananyone for the restoration oflakes including Dodda Thogu-ruandChikkaThoguru.Unlessthe KIADB and PWD give usNOC, we are helpless,”Shankar said.DH News Service

NO MORE FREE: The parking lot at the SV Road Metro Station, free till Monday, was barricad-ed on Tuesday. A ‘No Parking’ board was also put up. DH PHOTO

Paid parking in 15 daysat SV Road Metro stationFree parking lot barricaded, passengers upset

G Manjusainath

BENGALURU: City-basedbiopharma company Bioconhas come forward to rejuve-nate three dying lakes inElectronics City as part of itsCorporate Social Responsi-bility (CSR).

The company has submittedaproposaltotheBengaluruUr-ban district administration forthe rejuvenation of Bom-masandra, Kammasandra andHebbagodi Lakes.

These lakes in the custody ofPanchayat Raj EngineeringDepartment (PRED) and Mi-nor Irrigation Departmentshave turned into septic tanksdue to the inflow of effluents.

Swinging into the action, thedistrict administration pre-pared has detailed project re-ports. Shortly, it will enter intoa memorandum of under-standing (MoU) with the Bio-con. Speaking to Deccan Her-ald, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

said these are ambitious proj-ects to revive the water bodieswhich require a huge capital.

She said, “These are expen-sive projects. We are closelyworking with the district ad-ministration. We will take upHebbagodi Lake first and willstart the work once it is handedover to us.” She refused to di-vulge details.

Sheaddedthatsewagetreat-ment plant will be set up andthe effluents will be diverted.

Deputy Commissioner VShankar said the action planfor the revival of three lakeswaspreparedinameetingcon-vened by the Karnataka StatePollution Control Board(KSPCB). Formal requestshave been made to the princi-pal secretaries of Minor Irriga-tion and the PRED to issue noobjection certificate.

Once the NOC is obtainedwe will soon we wil start the re-juvenation work, Shankar said.DH News Service

Biocon to rejuvenate3 dying lakes in city

Lakes: Dist administrationfinds fault with KIADB

BENGALURU: Members ofthe Banashankari 6th StageResidents Welfare Associa-tion held a protest on Tues-day outside the Lingadheer-anahalli garbage-processingplant set up by the BBMP.

Hundreds of residents tookpart in the protest. They de-manded that the Palike shutdown the plant as it is affectingtheir health and posing threatto the flora and fauna of BMKaval reserve forest and Tura-halli minor forest.

Manjunatha M K, a resident,said, “The plant is functioningfor the past five months. ThePalike constructed the plantwithout consulting us andBDAallotted land for it. Besides themosquito menace and thestench, the groundwater and

the Somapura lake are gettingpolluted due to the flow ofleachate into the lake and theroadside drains.”The protestors said that the

foul smell from the plantspreads up to 3 km. Sprayingof insecticides to curb the mos-quito menace has not been tak-en up till date. Every day about

25 trucks, each truck carryingeight tonnes of garbage fromsouth zone, enter the plant.

Devaraj, a resident ofMetkalpalya near the plant,said that he and his childrenwere unable to eat peacefullydue to the stench and mosqui-toes. He said that if the prob-lem continued, he would shifttoanother locality.TSMahesh,president of the Association,said that they had earlier fileda case with the National GreenTribunal, Chennai, against thePalike for not informing themabout the project.

High Court stay“The case was moved to theKarnataka High Court and wegot a stay. Now, the stay orderhas been vacated. We had sub-

mitted a petition against theBBMP last year and held aprotest in June. But till date,there is no response. We willcontinue to fight as the plant isaffecting 25,000 houses andeight villages,” he said.

Sarfaraz Khan, BBMP JointCommissioner for Health andSolid Waste Management, vis-ited the spot and assured theresidents that he would discussthe problem with BengaluruDevelopment Minister K JGeorge and Palike commis-sioner Manjunatha Prasad.

He told Deccan Herald, “Theplant operators are not doinga good job of maintaining theplant. Iwilldiscusstheproblemwith higher authorities andtake appropriate steps.”DH News Service

Protest against waste-processing plant at Lingadheeranahalli

Residents of Banashankari 6th Stage protest outside theLingadheeranahalli garbage-processing plant on Tuesday.DH PHOTO

BENGALURU: Bengaluru De-velopment Minister K JGeorge on Tuesday defend-ed the formation of Ben-galuru Blue Print ActionGroup (BBPAG), stating thatit is only a panel to “givesuggestions” for develop-ment of the city.

Addressing a press confer-ence, he said the group wouldnot become an “extra-consti-tutional”decision-makingbodyas being suggested by somenon-governmental organisa-tions.

George said all suggestionsmade by the group would gobefore the Bangalore Metro-politan Planning Committee(BMPC), an executive bodyhaving statutory back-up andwith elected representatives asmembers.

Agencies to implementThe decision taken at theBMPC will be implemented byagencies like the Bruhat Ben-galuru Mahanagara Palike(BBMP), the Bangalore Devel-opment Authority (BDA), theBangalore Water Supply andSewerage Board (BWSSB)

amongothers.Ontheinclusionof industry leaders such asAzim Premji and N RNarayana Murthy and how canthey relate to the problemsfaced by common people,George said they were not justfrom the corporate world buthad also made significant con-tribution to society. The firstmeeting of the group will beheld by the end of May, headded.

OnTuesday,thegovernment

issued a revised notification byincluding the mayor as well asurban expert Vivek Menon inthe group.

The mayor had been left outof the group in the initial noti-fication issued on April 28,leading to speculation that theCongress was not confident ofretaining the mayoral post inthe elections slated for laterthis year as it foresaw the BJPallying with the JD(S) to cap-ture power.

Georgedefends action group, saysitwill spur city’s development‘All suggestions made by BBPAG will be vetted by CM-headed panel’

Multi-storeyparkingatselectMetrostationsBENGALURU: The state gov-ernment, in association withthe Bangalore Metro RailCorporation Limited (BMR-CL),hasdecidedtoconstructmulti-storey parking facili-ties near select NammaMetro stations.

Speaking to reporters onTuesday, Bengaluru Devel-opmentMinisterK J Georgesaid, theBMRCL willbecon-ducting a study on the trafficflow and parking require-ments before deciding onstations.

While the East-West cor-ridor of the Namma Metrohas received good responsefrom the people, there havebeen complaints about lackof sufficient parking spacenear the stations on thestretch.

George said he was awareof the problem and had spo-ken to BMRCL ManagingDirector Pradeep SinghKharola in this regard. Onceapproved, the facility cancome up in 15 months.

The minister said he hadsuggested that underground“chiller plant” at CubbonPark Station near MinskSquare be shifted to theground level and the spacecan be utilised for mecha-nised lift operated parking.

He said government waskeenondevelopingmonorailso that it can act as a feederservice to Namma Metro,es-pecially at Byappanahalliand Nagasandra. A Mala-ysian firm has evinced inter-est in the same.

As a short-term measureBengaluru MetropolitanTransportCorporationisop-erating buses as feeder serv-ice, he added.DH News Service

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BJP MLAs oppose vision groupBJP MLAs from Bengaluru city have opposed the setting upof Bengaluru Blue Print Action Group (BBPAG), terming it“against the spirit of the Constitution”.A press statement signed by MLAs, S Suresh Kumar andB N Vijay Kumar, and state BJP media in-charge S Prakash,said the setting up of the group went against the 74thamendment of the Constitution which mandated setting upof the Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC).The MPC is already in place with the chief minister as itschairperson, but Siddaramaiah has not been taking interestin its functioning, they suggested. They claimed the Banga-lore Agenda Task Force that was formed during the S M Kr-ishna regime didn’t do anything to develop Bengaluru, andurged the government to drop the move to form the BBPAGand instead activate the MPC.

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Legal scrutinyGeorge expressed confidencethe BBPAG would stand legalscrutiny, stating that the opin-ion of the Advocate Generaland the Legal Department wastaken before the group was setup.

The minister also said acommittee for co-ordination

among civic agencies wasformed on February 18 thisyear to ensure smooth imple-mentation of developmentworks. The committee is head-ed by Chief Minister Siddara-maiah and its members areheads of civic agencies in Ben-galuru.DH News Service

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Minister hints at fresh BBMP electionsBengaluru Development Minister K J George has indicatedthat fresh civic polls would have to be held once the Presi-dent gave assent to a bill that proposed to divide the BBMPinto smaller administrative units.The Karnataka Municipal Corporations (Amendment) Bill,2015, which seeks to divide the BBMP, has been passed byboth houses of the state legislature and is pending with thePresident. Before going to the President, the bill was to sentto the Governor for his assent. The governor, however, didnot take a call on the grounds that the subject did not comeunder his purview. He forwarded it to the President. For thelast 8 months, the bill has been pending before the Presi-dent. George said the state government had received aquery from the Union Home Ministry whether electionswould have to held again to the smaller administrative units,and the state had answered in the affirmative. When re-porters sought the details, George said he could not disclosemore at this stage but would answer all queries once the billreceived the President’s assent.

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BENGALURU, DHNS: Thetraffic police have imposedthe following restrictions inand around MG Road onWednesday between 2 pmand 11.30 pm in view of anIPL T20 cricket match atChinnaswamy Stadium.

Vehicular parking is bannedon the following stretches: Onboth sides between CTO Circleand Queen’s Circle on Queen’sRoad; on both sides betweenAnil Kumble Circle andQueen’s Circle on MG Road;between MG Road and Cub-bon Road on Link Road; RajBhavan Road, T ChowdaiahRoad and Race Course Road.

Bothsidesontheroadacrossthe stadium compound; bothsides on Central Street; be-tween BRV Circle and Dicken-son Road onCubbonRoad; be-tween Kamaraj Road Junctionand Dickenson Road on Cub-bon Road. (The norm excludesBMTC buses).

BetweenSBICircleandAsir-vadam Circle on St Mark’sRoad; between MG Road andSt Mark’s Road on MuseumRoad; between Queen’s Roadand Hudson Road on KasturbaRoad and between Siddalinga-iah Road and RRMR Road onVittal Mallya Road.

King’s Road, in frontof PressClub, Bal Bhavan Fountain in-side Cubbon Park; betweenGrant Junction and Queen’sRoadonLavelleRoad;betweenSiddalingaiah Circle and Bish-op Cotton Girls’ School on Vit-tal Mallya Road.

Parking facilityVehicles can be parked at StJoseph’s Indian High Schoolgrounds, UB City and first floor

of Shivajinagar bus stand.Those having VVIP passes

can park their vehicles at thepay-and-parkfacility inUBCity.KSCA members can park ve-hicles at St Mark’s Cathedraland Bowring Institute.

The public have been re-quested to reach the stadiumin BMTC buses and Metrotrain. Those deputed for secu-ritydutycanparktheirvehiclesin front of KGID building.

Additional busesThe BMTC will operate extrabuses from different places inthe city to Chinnaswamy Sta-dium on Wednesday between5 pm and 12 midnight.

Traffic restrictionsfor IPL match today

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Namma Metroservices till 1 amOn account of the IPLcricket matches at M Chin-naswamy Stadium, theBangalore Metro Rail Cor-poration has extended itsservices till 1 am on thepurple line. The matchesare scheduled for May 18,20 and 29.The Metro train will run onthe east-west corridor(Baiyappanahalli to Mysu-ru Road) from 10 pm to 1am (next day) at a frequen-cy of 20 minutes duringthe extended period. Onthe green line, services willbe also extended fromSampige Road to Nagasan-dra station from 11 pm to1 am (next day), a pressrelease stated.

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