1. Bengaluru Bandh Called Off As HC Cracks Whip
Kannada organisations that had called for a ‘Bengaluru bandh’ on Sunday called off the protest on Friday, hours after the Karnataka High Court restrained them from going ahead with their plans.
The HC also directed the state government and law enforcement agencies to take all steps to ensure that commerce and industry and life of the common man is not affected by the bandh.
The bandh had been called to seek Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention to resolve the Mahadayi dispute. The protest was timed to coincide with Modi's visit to the city to address a BJP rally. This bandh was to follow a Karnataka bandh observed on 25 January on the same issue.
(Source: Times of India)
2. Top Cop Submits Report In Techie Case
The city police commissioner on Friday submitted a report before the Karnataka High Court with regard to the progress made by the Special Investigation Team, constituted to trace Kumar Ajitabh, a techie who has been missing since 18 December.
Justice A S Bopanna was hearing a petition filed by Ajitabh's father, Ashok Kumar Sinha, who had moved the court, seeking directions for a CBI inquiry in the case.
Commissioner T Suneel Kumar stated that the investigation was in progress and that two senior officers, including Additional Commissioner of Police Rakesh and sub-inspector Somashekhar, have been deputed to meet Ishanth Sinha, an advisor to the National Investigation Agency in matters related to Internet Protocol Detail Records. Sinha's report is awaited, and a status report will be filed before the court once it is received, the commissioner stated.
(Source: Deccan Herald)
3. Mother, Son Charred To Death Inside Car
A 30-year-old woman and her four-year-old son died were charred to death inside their car while they were trying to park the vehicle in the basement parking lot of the Sumadhura Anandam apartment complex in Whitefield on Friday afternoon. The reasons for the fire or why the victims were unable to get out of the vehicle are yet to be ascertained. Whitefield police have registered a case and are probing the incident. "We suspect a short circuit in the wiring of the car to be the prima facie reason for the fire," said Whitefield DCP Abdul Ahad.
The deceased are identified as Neha Varma, and her son Param. Neha, the wife of a private firm employee Rajesh, had gone outside for shopping. She had taken her only son with her in her Maruti Ritz car. Security cameras have captured the image of the car entering the apartment compound and heading towards the basement around 3.25 pm. The fire reportedly started immediately and both of them were found charred to death inside the vehicle.
(Source: Bangalore Mirror)
4. BJP Hosts Ashtayama Yagna For Cow Protection
As the debate over cow slaughter and beef ban comes more strident and the city gears up for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Karnataka for his first campaign rally in the run-up to the 2018 Assembly elections, the state BJP started its 24-hour Ashtayama Yagna on Friday, seeking divine intervention for cow protection.
The BJP cow protection cell, unfazed by the lack of a crowd at the yagna, began the religious programme on Friday afternoon at the Sathya Ganapathi Temple on Puttenhalli Main road, JP Nagar 6th Phase. The yagna will end on Saturday.
While BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa and other party leaders were supposed to show up at the yagna to lend credence to the event, no one had turned up there till late Friday evening.
(Source: Times of India)
5. Polls Ahead, BBMP Under Pressure to Complete Projects
With the impending Assembly polls, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is under pressure from the higher authorities to complete the ongoing developmental projects at the earliest.
There are also inspections by the Bangalore Development and Town Planning Minister, KJ George, with officials to ensure that the several ongoing infrastructure projects are completed and inaugurated before the Assembly election poll code comes into effect.
A day after inspecting the alternative route to Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) the Minister inspected the construction work of the flyover and underpass near Okalipuram on Friday. On completion, both these projects are meant to ease the traffic flow in the respective areas. George set the deadline for completion of both the projects' first phase to 28 February.
(Source: Deccan Herald)
6. IISc Nails Karnataka Government's Lie On The Cause of Bellandur Blaze
When the National Green Tribunal (NGT) recently asked the Karnataka government about the cause of frequent fires at Bellandur Lake, including the 30-hour-long blaze a couple of weeks ago, government agencies submitted that it was due to burning grass - probably a fire set off by miscreants.
However, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the country's premier science institution has, in one of its reports filed in the wake of a similar fire in February 2017, said that the increasing level of methane in the highly polluted lake is the cause of the fire.
A senior scientist with IISc said their preliminary investigation to find out the cause of the 19 January fire in the waterbody also indicated that the presence of methane had fanned the blaze and sustained it for more than 30 hours.
(Source: Times of India)