State Forest department had pointed to violations by firm

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has paved the way for Sesa Goa, an arm of the Vedanta Group, to resume mining in 164 hectares (ha) of land in the Nirthady forest of Chitradurga.

Drops plans to take up project under PPP model

The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has decided not to take up the proposed ‘golden quadrilateral’ project to construct 25-kilometres of elevated road in the City under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model as planned earlier. In the budget 2013-14, Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar had announced the proposal to take up the golden quadrilateral project to reduce traffic snarls in the City.

Palike admits to delay in completion of the work

A grant of Rs 192 crore provided to the City under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JnNURM) for remodelling primary and secondary Storm Water Drains (SWDs) across four valleys —Vrishabhavathi, Challaghatta, Hebbal and Koramanagala — seems to have literally gone down the drain.
According to Bruhat Bengalurur Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) officials, a fresh proposal to remodel the drains in the 800 sq km area under the Palike will replace the JnNURM scheme meant initially to cover 257 km of storm water drains in the four valleys.

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike will finally do away with the three per cent garbage cess on property tax collected from bulk generators in the City.

“There is no point in imposing garbage cess when we have asked the bulk generators to dispose their waste. We will withdraw the cess,” BBMP Commissioner Siddaiah told Deccan Herald. The cess had become a bone of contention between the bulk generators and the civic agency. The High Court had questioned the Palike on the rationale of collecting the cess from bulk generators when they have been asked to segregate and dispose their garbage.

The grand plans of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike to set up garbage disposal plants may cost the civic agency a whopping Rs 300 crore.

As an alternative to landfills that are facing opposition from the local residents, the Palike is exploring the possibility of decentralising garbage collection at the zonal level. “We are looking at identifying sites at the zonal level to dispose of wet waste. The plan is to set up garbage disposal plants at these sites,” an official said.

The new norms to be adopted by the Department of Telecom (DoT) to curb levels of radiation emitted from mobile towers are likely to reduce the health risk to humans by only a fraction.

As per the norms which are already in place, the radiation levels have to drop to 1/10th of the existing power density. As a result, the current density which is at 92 per watt per square metre (W/Sqm) will now have to be reduced to 0.92 W/Sqm. Similarly for the 900 Mhz GSM users the power density will be reduced from 48 W/Sqm to 0.48 W/Sqm.

The City’s failure to adhere to the norm on garbage segregation at source may soon force the State government and BBMP to make it mandatory.

The Palike is keen on such a step and is in the process of verifying whether the Supreme Court’s recent remark on the subject is an observation or a directive. “It is learnt that the Supreme Court has spoken on the matter recently. Whether segregation at source is an observation or a directive is to be verified,” said Palike Commissioner Shankarlinge Gowda.

With lesser number of sites available, many allottees fear losing sites

The controversy surrounding the Arkavathy Layout refuses to die with the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) announcing that only 14,000 sites were available for the allottees and the farmers from the 16 villages where land had been acquired for the layout in 2003. Tuesday’s High Court ruling has forced BDA to provide developed land to farmers who parted with their land, provided they return the compensation money.

In what may be termed a blatant disregard for law, it has come to light that the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) surreptitiously allowed felling of 34 trees without a work order at Koramangala.

To cover up its act, BDA issued the work order three days after the ‘job’ was done. The alleged illegality has come as a shock for the residents of Koramangala who have been fighting tooth and nail against the controversial Sirsi Circle-Agara Junction signal-free corridor.

Lays down six criteria in Arkavathy Layout case

Curtailing the ‘discretionary’ powers of successive State governments that have indiscriminately doled out denotification orders, the Supreme Court has now laid down a set of criteria that must be implemented by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) while denotifying lands in its possession. The Supreme Court on May 5, 2010, upheld the High Court observations on denotification while hearing a case on Arkavathy Layout, and laid down six criteria to be implemented by the BDA in the future.