Bangalore techies: saving files at work, lives outside

Bangalore: Tackling raging fires. Rescuing those
trapped in building collapses. Attending to
victims of natural disasters. These noble duties
just got added to the to-do list of thousands of
Bangalore techies recently.
Nearly 8000 professionals in India's IT hub have
volunteered to be a part of the National Disaster
Management Authority or NDMA's Civil Defence
Wing, which is witnessing a gradual rise in
enrollment. An initiative of the Union Home
Ministry, the Wing aims to recruit at least one
percent of a city's population as part of the
volunteer force.
Although Bangalore is far from that figure, there
are a few encouraging trends. Almost 40 per
cent of the Civil Defence wing is constituted by
women. Also, the corporates in the city have
relaxed their working hours to let their
employees participate in the rescue and relief
missions or attend to training.
"We re-schedule our working hours, sometimes
extending to the weekends. If need be, we start
early morning but we do not compromise on our
work. In our organization, we have 17 people as
part of Civil Defence. We are called commandos
or wardens," 28-year-old Kiran says.
The Civil Defence members go through a three-
level training after a background check. Once
recruited, they are only an SMS away when
required, appearing at the disaster sites in their
fluorescent jackets.
During the Malleshwaram blast in April this
year, it was this team which first rushed to the
spot and helped with rescue.
"The techies are helping physically, but their
knowledge also comes in handy to help set up a
modern force. We need support from IT
employees to build a control room which can
bring in images from the disaster site," says Dr
Chetan, Chief Commander of Civil Defence in
Karnataka.
Apart from accidents and disasters, the team
also helps out during elections or major
festivals to manage the crowds on the streets.

http://m.ndtv.com/article/cities/bangalore-techies-saving-files-at-work-lives-outside-423719

Karnataka IGP seeks voluntary retirement

Bengaluru: In a sudden and shocking move the former Intelligen­ce chief and the incumbent Inspector General of Police, Civil Defence and Home Guards, Gopal B. Hosur has sought for voluntary retirement from the government service four months before his superannuation in February 2014. According to top government sources, Hosur on Septem­ber 17 wrote to the government to relieve him from service with immediate effect, while reportedly quoting personal reasons. Director General of Police and Commandant, Home Guards, Omprakash, who received the letter from his IGP, forwarded the same to the Chief Secretary the same day. “I neither deny nor confirm the news,” said Hosur, who was on official visit to Dodaballapur to see some land for his department. Hosur, who was hand picked by former BJP CM B.S. Yeddyurappa to be his Intelli­ge­n­ce chief in an ADGP rank post in September 2010 was reportedly sidelined after the incumbent Congress-led CM Siddaramaiah came to power in May. He was transferred and posted as IGP, Homeguards. A 1980 batch Karnataka State Police Service officer, Hosur, who was later conferred the IPS, has served in very sensitive posts including the special task force, which was set up to nab notorious forest brigand Veerappan. In 1993 he suffered near fatal bullet injuries in his neck in an encounter with Veerappan’s aides and was in hospital for nearly six months. http://www.deccanchronicle.com/130920/news-current-affairs/article/karnataka-igp-seeks-voluntary-retirement

When people left Ganesh in the lurch

The low-hanging tree branches were
covered with flower garlands of
varied hues and sizes. Puja
materials, including the sacred
thread, colourful paper umbrellas
and paper garlands were left on the
ground. Also, hundreds of Ganesh
and Gowri idols were abandoned on
the pavement amidst uncleared
garbage on both sides of the gate
leading to the immersion pond in
Sankey Tank.
A day after the city celebrated
Ganesh and Gowri festivals with
pomp, devotees who splurged on
the fete did not seem have the
patience to immerse the idols in the
kalyani (immersion tank), and hence
left them on the pavement.
“They worship idols only to
abandon them so? This shows that
they lack civic sense and hold pujas
only for namesake,” said a resident,
upset after seeing the dump outside
his home.
Joggers and pourakarmikas were
also in for a surprise on Tuesday
morning when they found the
abandoned idols. Along with
clearing garbage, the pourakarmikas
had to remove the idols.
While there were no abandoned idols
in Ulsoor Lake, huge mounds of
garbage lay outside on both sides of
the gate. The volunteers at the lake
claimed that idols were immersed till
4 a.m. on Tuesday. They said at
least 40,000 idols were immersed in
the lake on Monday.
“After it started raining, people left
the idols near the immersion tank.
The volunteers had to immerse all
these idols,” said Nanjappa, Bruhat
Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s
(BBMP) Assistant Executive Engineer
(Shivajinagar).
Meanwhile, the number of eco-
friendly idols seems to have seen a
slight increase. The BBMP and
personnel from the Karnataka Civil
Defence Corps are collecting data on
the idols at each of the 10 lakes
where immersion is permitted in the
city.
According to P.R.S. Chetan, Chief
Warden of Civil Defence, the 200-
odd Civil Defence personnel have
been instructed to ensure that no
puja material was dumped inside the
tanks, besides collect data on the
kind of idols (clay, plaster of Paris
or coloured) and the size.
Waste management expert N.S.
Ramakanth said the data would be
collected for the next 10 days and
collated later. He, however,
maintained that the number of idols
being immersed in tanks had
increased compared to last year.
“On the first day, the number of
idols immersed was at least 25 per
cent more than that of last year.
More idols are expected on
Wednesday, as the numbers swell
on the third day after the festival,”
he added.

http://thehindu.com/news/cities/bangalore/when-people-left-ganesh-in-the-lurch/article5113541.ece/