HC seeks action plan to end flex board menace

The High Court of Karnataka on Friday directed the BBMP commissioner and police commissioner to come up with an action plan to end the menace of illegal flexes and hoardings in the City.

  Hearing a petition filed by AK Advertising who had sought for renewal of advertisement contract, Justice AN Venugopala Gowda questioned BBMP on why they have not taken any stringent action against those who instal flexes and hoardings without taking due permission. The presiding officer asked the BBMP commissioner M Lakshminarayana on whether the Palike would be able to take help from Karnataka State Pollution Control Board.

BBMP counsel submitted that from February to June, 2014, Palike had managed to remove 28,800 illegal flexes and hoarding and in July nearly 18,607 flexes cleared in a special drive. During the hearing, the court observed that the penalty imposed on the violators is very less. 

Construction workers

The High Court  has directed the State government to appoint permanent staff to the Karnataka Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board to look into the welfare of construction workers and to fill up posts whenever they fall vacant.

Karnataka State Legal Services Committee had filed a PIL seeking compulsory registration of all construction workers, so that they can get the benefits under the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1996. A division bench comprising Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice Ashok B Hinchigeri heard the petition.

During the hearing, Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (Credai) filed a memo with a suggestion to ensure that all construction workers were registered with the board. The memo said that 5.68 lakh workers were registered from 2007 till date. The Board had collected around Rs 2,500 crore as one per cent cess on all the construction work in the State and disbursed Rs 19.79 cr to the registered workers under various schemes. The bench directed the government to discuss and issue proper directions to implement the suggestion given by Credai and adjourned the next hearing till Oct 7, 2014.

Deadline set for OOSC

The High Court has asked the State government to consider the suggestions given by Kathyayeni Chamaraj, the social activist, with regard to bringing back out of school children (OOSC). 

A division bench comprising Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice Ashok B Hinchigeri while hearing the suo motu PIL asked the social activist to take up the responsibility of identifying OOSC in Bangalore North division and bringing them back to school.

During the hearing, the bench observed that the Education department can join hands with non-governmental organisations to come up with a scheme to bring children back to schools. The bench directed the government to bring 53,133 children back to school by September 30.