3A DECCAN HERALD B Saturday, June 4, 2016
Metro
Naveen Menezes
BENGALURU: A little morethan 1.36 lakh propertiessituated on the 800 squarekilometre area of BruhatBengaluru Mahanagara Pa-like (BBMP) would be at-tracting penalty if theseproperties do not have rain-water harvesting (RWH)structures.
Almost five months afterBangalore Water Supply andSewerage (Rainwater Harvest-ing) Regulations 2011 wasamended to make it more pow-erful, the BWSSB has finallycollected the data of those whocome under the purview of thenew guidelines.
The recent BWSSB surveyhas identified as many as1,36,573 properties measuring60x40 sq ft and 30x40 sq ft(constructed after 2009), whoare supposed to adopt rainwa-
ter harvesting system.Of this, 28,000 properties
havealreadysetupRWHstruc-tures and more than one lakhproperties do not have it, Kem-paramaiah, BWSSB Engineer-in-chief (additional) told Deccan Herald.
Atpresent, theBoard’swatersupply network is connected tonine lakh properties.
BWSSB, however, does nothave a separate data of nowmany properties come underdomestic and non-domesticconnections. While BWSSB
claims that about 58,500 prop-erties harvest rain water in theold BBMP areas, city’s Rainwa-ter Club has said that the num-ber could be as high as twolakhs, takingintoconsiderationeven the suburbs.
Kemparamaiah on Fridaysaid the Board has alreadystarted imposing penalty fromJune 1 on those propertieswithout the RWH facilities.
The violators with domesticconnection will have to pay anadditional25%onthewaterbillfor the first three months andthe amount of fine doublesfrom the fourth month on-wards. Similarly, the penalty is50% on non-domestic connec-tions, he said.
The Board had issued a cir-cular to all the assistant execu-tive engineers of as many as 31sub-division offices regardingthe new rule.
The water metre readers toowere asked to impose penalty
from Wednesday, which auto-matically gets updated in thein-house software, a BWSSBofficial said.
Meanwhile, urban expertAshwin Mahesh feels that theBWSSB should first take initia-tive to ensure rainwater is har-vested in the government-owned lands.
“Harvesting rain in 1.36 lakhproperties would not serve thepurpose unless flowingrainwa-ter is arrested and re-chargedtothegroundeveninthepublicspacesparticularly inthestormwater drains”, he said.
Claiming there were morethan two lakh properties whoharvested rain, water conser-vationist S Vishwanath saidBengaluru is the second city af-ter Chennai to have maximumnumber of properties harvest-ing rain and the number is en-couraging o the outskirts ofcity.DH News Service
BWSSB starts finingpropertieswithoutRWH facility‘Only28,000of 1.36 lakhbuildingsharvestingrainwater’
Properties without rainwater harvesting facility will have topay an additional 25% on the bill for domestic connectionsand 50% for non-domestic connections for three months.The amount of fine doubles thereafter. DH FILE PHOTO
Matrimonial meet
»The Bhavasar Kshatriyamatrimonial meet will
be held on June 12. Eligibleboys, girls, widows, widow-ers and divorcees are re-quested to send their post-card size photos, biodataand horoscopes on or be-fore June 10 to Suman Tai-lor, No 25, Patel KullappaRoad, RS Palya, MS Nagarpost, Bengaluru-23 or call8197206347.
Training in baking
»The Institute of Bakingand Cake Art (IBCA),
Bengaluru will be conduct-ing a training course inhome baking from June 6to June 8 and eggless homebaking from June 13 to 16.
These courses have beenspecially designed to givetechnical knowledge to par-ticipants for enhancingtheir baking skills. Thecourses include demonstra-tions and hands-on-prac-tice. For further details,contact 8088601601.
Nikkei Asia Prizefor Akshaya Patra
»The Akshaya PatraFoundation has won
the Nikkei Asia Prize for itscontributions to the field ofeconomic and business in-novation. The award waspresented to Madhu Pandi-ta Das, president of thefoundation, by NaotoshiOkada, CEO and presidentof Nikkei Inc, said a releaseissued by the Akshaya Patrafoundation. The award car-ries a cash of three millionyen and a certificate.
In brief
Bosky Khanna
BENGALURU: There is nospace to plant saplings on theroadsidesinBengalurucity lim-its, the Bruhat Bengaluru Ma-hanagara Palike (BBMP) andthe Bangalore DevelopmentAuthority (BDA) concede.
Ranganath Swamy, Assis-tant Conservator of Forests,BBMP Forest Cell, said the ex-isting roads were being con-stantly used and re-used for in-frastructure projects, makingtrees vulnerable in the city. Asa result, saplings can be plant-ed only in “closed spaces” likeeducational institutions, fencedgovernment premises andclubs.Thespaceincommercialand residential institutions isalso limited. Only shrubs canbe planted but not trees, hesaid.
The BBMP Forest Cell hadsuggested to the engineeringwing to retain or undertakefreshplantationonnewTenderSURE roads, but the requestwas turned down on thegroundsthattheinfrastructurewould get disturbed because ofunderground pipelines and ca-bles. This has led to further re-duction in space, said a forest
cell official.Principal Chief Conservator
of Forests, Ashok KumarSingh,saidthesearchfor spacein city limits was going on forplantation of saplings.
MahanteshMurgod,DeputyDirector of Horticulture De-partment, Cubbon Park, tooopined that space was a con-straint. He said space was lim-ited not only in the city but alsoin Cubbon Park and Lalbagh.He saidthesearchforspace forplantationofnativespecieswasgoing on.
NotedEnvironmentalist ANYellappa Reddy said that de-spite new developments, thegovernment and urban bodieshad not created new lungspaces or earmarked the areafor plantation. The existingparks have more shrubs andornamentalspeciesthannativespecies of trees. There is a needfor tree parks, he said.
At a recent meeting of theBDA board, Chief minister Sid-daramaiah and Bengaluru De-velopmentministerKJGeorgehad said that abandonedgarbage quarry pits on the out-skirtswould beturnedintotreeparks.DH News Service
Bengaluru nolonger the cityfor trees to grow
MLAwarnsofficialsovergarbagedisposalBENGALURU,DHNS:Rajara-jeshwari Nagar MLA Muni-rathna recently warned theBruhat Bengaluru Mahana-gara Palike (BBMP) admin-istration that a flyover in hisconstituency will collapse, iftheburningofwasteunderitis not stopped immediately.
He spoke about the poorsolid waste management inthe city at the BBMP councilmeeting last week. Everydaytonnes of waste is set on fireunder the flyover which willmelttheshock-absorberrub-bers,heexpressedapprehen-sion.
“Everydaytonnesofwasteis set on fire at Hoskerehalli,Laggere, Lakshmidevi Na-gar,JPParkandvariousoth-er places. Records show thatat least 100 fire tenders havebeen rushed so far to dousethe fire of these garbagepiles,”Munirathna claimed.
He accused the officials ofgeneratingbogusbillsstatingthat waste is being sent toSeegehalli and Kannahalliprocessing units.
MBA entranceexams on July 2, 3
»Entrance exams forMBA, MCA and M.Tech
courses will be held on July 2and 3, reports DHNS fromBengaluru. The last date forapplying for the exams on-line is June 8.
Entrance exams will beheld in Bengaluru, Ballari,Viajayapura, Belagavi, Mag-naluru, Dharawad, Kal-aburagi, Mysuru, Shivamog-ga and Tumakuru.
“There are 189 privateand 40 government collegesteaching MBA courses inthe state. Private collegescharge Rs 50,000 whilegovernment colleges chargea fee of Rs 13,000.”said thechairman of PGCET, ProfSubash.
Monsoon likely toarrive in city on June 9
Applicationsinvited
»Karnataka VeerashaivaVidyabrudhi Samsthe
has invited applicationsfrom students who havescored more than 95% inSSLC and PU exams as wellas students from Veerashai-va and Lingayata communi-ties who have received goldmedals in medical, technicaland professional courses inregistered universities. Thestudents will be felicitatedwith an honorarium, said apress release. For details,contact: Secretary, Karnata-ka Veerashaiva Vidyabrud-hi Samsthe, SJM Towers,18, Sheshadri road, Gandhi-nagar, Bengaluru - 560 009or call 080 - 222 6416).
BENGALURU, DHNS: The cityis likely to experience the firstspell of monsoon rain on June9or10,sayIndiaMeteorologicalDepartment officials.
S M Metri, director-in-charge, IMD-Bengaluru S MMetri told Deccan Herald,“Southwest monsoon has al-ready arrived in Andaman andNicobar Islands and are likelyto hit Kerala coast in another 3-4 days and Bengaluru by June9 or 10 (with model variationsof four days).
The pre-monsoon showerswere below average and therewas an unusually prolongedsummer in Bengaluru. Themaximum temperatures in thecity breached 39 degrees Cel-sius-mark, this summer.
But the IMD predicts a goodmonsoon showers. The state asawholeislikelytoget113%rain-fall of the long period average.
The average normal mon-soon showers for Karnataka is832.3 mm. It is 659.9 mm forsouth interior Karnataka, 506mmfornorthinteriorKarnata-ka and 3083.5 mm for coastalKarnataka.
Metri attributed the pre-monsoonshowers,thecityisex-
periencing now, to the forma-tion of two systems - upper aircirculation over LakshadweeptonorthKeralaandneighbour-hood. Andacycloniccirculationfrom central Bay of Bengal offcoastal Andhra Pradesh toOdisha coast. Due to these twosystems, the city and surround-ing areas are witnessing thun-der showers and a dip in tem-perature. This will continue tillthe onset of monsoon.
More rainsMost parts of the city record-
ed traces of rain on Fridayevening. No tree falls or powerbreakdown reported due to therain. The BBMP Prahari staffhad a quiet day. The police saidthattherewasnotrafficconges-tion because of rain. Moderaterainfall is likely to continue inthe next 24 hours.
n Bengaluru city: 186 mmn HAL: 211 mmn Kempegowda Airport: 197mm
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Rainfall (March1 to May 31)
BENGALURU: Bengalureanscan now use a new mobile-based application to chip intheir suggestions which willbe incorporated as part ofthe extensive proposal forthe capital to bag the ‘SmartCity’ tag. Prominent propos-als which will be sent to theCentre to make Bengalurubetter can even win a cashprize for Rs one lakh.
People can go to the GooglePlaystore in their mobile anddownload “eye orta-smart city
Namma Bengaluru.”Also, theycan visitwww.facebook.com/smart-city-Namma-Bengaluru
Speakingafter launchingtheapp onFriday,Mayor BN Man-junathReddysaidthattheCen-tre had given a second oppor-tunity to avail the ‘Smart City’tag to Bengaluru, which willnot be lost.
“We have 25 more days inwhich a proposal containingdetailed information will besubmitted to the Centre,” the
Mayor said, appealing to thecorporators, MLAs and BBMPofficials to help prepare an ex-tensive proposal.”
Hecalledupontheengineer-ing college students, residents’welfare association and IT-BTemployees to make the drivesuccessful.
The Mayor said, “The Cen-tre has certain parameters andif we meet at least 70 per centof it, Bengaluru will be entitledfor the ‘Smart City’ scheme.Smart meter usage, smart
waste disposal, smart fuel,smart administration, areamong the requirementswhich we hopefully able to ful-fill. Slums will be convertedinto a better living places andat least 250 acres of land willbe converted into a green zone,regardingwhichtheBBMPhastaken a strong initiative.”
Speaking on the occasion,BBMP commissioner N Man-junatha Prasad asked people togive their feedback on city’s de-velopment, share information
vital to the city and lodge com-plaintsalongwithpictures.Thenames will be kept a secret, thecommissioner said and addedthat all information shared bythe citizens will be flashed intheUniongovernment’sportal,BBMP's Facebook page, e-mails, Twitter and BBMP’s dis-play boards.
He claimed that such an ap-plication had been launchedfor the first time in the coun-try.DH News Service
Childrenturngreenambassadors
Visitors at Nazariya,a national-level paintingcompetition portraying chil-dren’s views on the environ-ment. The event was organ-ised by the HeritageFoundation of Art and Cul-ture at Venkatappa ArtGallery in the city on Friday.(Above) One of the prize-winning paintings on displayat the exhibition.DH PHOTOS
BENGALURU, DHNS: Fuel sup-ply in the city will be affectedfrom June 6 as the tank truckcrew attached to the Devan-gonthi terminal on the city out-skirts, from where all the oilcompanies dispense fuel, havedecided to go on an indefinitestrike from Monday demand-ing better wages and facilitiesat the terminal.
KarnatakaPetroleumTrans-portsDrivers’andCleaners’As-sociation president Sri Ramusaid the strike would hit fuel
supply to Bengaluru, Mysuru,Chamarajanagar, Mandya andsurrounding districts.
Bangalore Petroleum Deal-ers’ Association president B RRavindranath said the associa-tion will support the strike.Ramu said: “Last month whenlorry owners and truck driverassociations held a flash strike,the companies gave us an un-dertakingthatapanelcompris-ingdistributors,driversandlor-ryownerswouldbeformed.Buttilldatenothinghashappened.”
Strikemayhitfuelsupply
20% of city’s 50 lakh trees deadand dangerous, says Palike
Towards greener world: BBMP will start fresh tree census in June second week
Bosky Khanna
BENGALURU: The BruhatBengaluru Mahanagara Pa-like (BBMP) has formed an-other committee to under-take tree census in the cityfrom June second week.
According to estimatesmade by BBMP Forest Cell of-ficials, there are around 50lakh trees in the city, of which20% are dangerous and dead.They need to be axed. But thePalike has no official figure onthenumberoftrees inits limits.“The survey will help us to es-timate the exact number oftrees,’’ an officer said.
A senior BBMP official saidthat last year 13 teams were
formed to survey the trees butnothing was done. This yeareight more teams have been
formed. Each team comprisesvolunteers and forest cell offi-cials who will number each
tree. The survey will start fromsecond week of June.
Asimilaropinionwassharedby horticulture department of-ficials.
“There are many aged treesin Lalbagh and Cubbon Park.During strongwinds and heavydownpour, we are scared to sitin the offices as the old Ashokaand Silver Oak trees can fall. Aplan is being chalked out to fellthem and plant native treesspecies. By doing this, spacewill also be created to plantnew tree species,” an officialsaid.
The BBMP every year re-ceives 2500-3000applicationsfrom individuals and organisa-tions to axe trees and branches
for infrastructure works. And80% of the applications are ap-proved.
Meanwhile, environmental-ist A N Yellappa Reddy ques-tions the BBMP's estimatesthough he accepts that 20% oftrees in the city are damagedand dead because of un-planned infrastructure works.
According to a study con-ductedbyCentreforEcologicalSciences and Centre for Infra-structure, Sustainable Trans-portation and Urban Planning,IISc, in 2015, there are 14.78lakh trees in Bengaluru whichhas one crore population. Thismeans that there is one tree forseven-eight people.DH News Service
Forestdepttoplant1crsaplingsinonedayBENGALURU, DHNS: To in-crease the dwindling greencover in the state in the wakeof drought and prolongedmonsoon, the state ForestDepartment is on a missionto plant one crore saplingsin a single day.
Principal Chief Conserva-tor of Forests Ashok KumarSingh told Deccan Heraldthat they have a target toplant eight crore saplings. Inthis, one crore saplings willbe planted in just one dayacross the state. The date isgettingfinalisedbasedontheconvenience of the ministersand officials across the state.Areas are being search inBengaluru city and acrossthe state for this purpose, headded. He said the depart-ment has a large number of
saplings. Many people havealso shown keen interest tobuy saplings and join handswith the department to be apart of the plantation drive,he noted.
Since this is the first timesuch a massive plantationdrive, the department is alsoplanning to make a docu-mentary on this programmeand is finalising the direc-tors, camera persons andteam members, he said.
The BBMP has also decid-ed to plant 1.2 lakh saplingsthis year in the city. TheBBMP Forest Cell said itplanted 45,000 saplings in2014-15.The civic body aimsto plant 100 saplings (all na-tive species) in all 198 wardson account of World Envi-ronment Day.
Niveditha Jain
BENGALURU: Ever wonderedhow children view nature andwhat they think of the environ-ment?
A doctor treating earthwhich is suffering from feverdue to global warming, a globeplaced atop an ice cream conethat is on the verge of melting,a thirsty bird trying to drinkwater from an empty tap.These are some of the imagessketched by children at thesixtheditionof ‘Nazariya’paint-ing competition organised na-tionwide by Options Concep-tual Services Private Limitedin association with HeritageFoundation of Art and Culture.
This World EnvironmentDay, treat yourself to an arrayofthought-provokingpaintingsmade by children that are ondisplay at the Venkatappa ArtGallery. The exhibition whichbegan on Friday will be held tillSunday.
A total of 103 handpickedpaintings made by childrenfrom Bengaluru, Chennai, My-suru, Meerut, Guwahati,Kolkata, Ernakulam, Hyder-abad and Agra are on display.Besides, four artworks done bystudents of ‘Nazariya’ work-shop that are chosen to beshowcased at Japan have alsobeen put up.
ChandrikaB,president,Her-itage Foundation of Art and
Culture, said the idea behindthe painting competition wasto create awareness about theenvironment, not just amongchildren but also among par-ents.
More than 6,000 childrentook part in the competition bysending entries last year be-tween February and Decem-ber. Out of them, the top 103have been displayed at the
gallery. The themes are envi-ronmental pollution, conserva-tion of biodiversity and climatechange. The prizes were givenaway to 60 children last Janu-ary, she said.
A platformVaishnaviBM,aclass5studentat Sarvodaya National PublicSchool, Vijayanagar, wasamong those who took part in
the competition. She said shewas excited to take part in thecompetition. “It has given mea platform to share mythoughts on the environment.I made an image of a globe andshowed a person planting treesin the backdrop, to stress theimportance of greenery.”
Hemalatha Sahu said herseven-year-old son Anapay Ak-shar Sahu’s painting was one
of the four to be presentedglobally. “He has made a paint-ing showing a child trying toconserve all elements: land, an-imals, birds, aquatic creaturesand trees. He took four days tomake the painting and we arehappy his efforts are being ap-preciated.”
The exhibition is open from10 am to 6 pm and entry is free.DH News Service
‘Send suggestions for Bengaluru to bag ‘Smart City’ tag’
