The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Fiat to Government on B.M. Sri memorial

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 03, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Fiat to Government on B.M. Sri memorial

Staff Reporter

HIGH COURTROUND-UP

Bangalore: The Karnataka High Court on Monday directed the State Government to commence within a month construction of a memorial for renowned Kannada writer B.M. Srikantaiah (B.M. Sri), and complete it within two years.

Justice K.L. Manjunath passed the order on a petition by S.K. Sathyanarayana, a resident of Poorna Prajnya Layout in Bangalore. The petitioner said that he owned a house at Sampige village and it was adjacent to the place where B.M. Sri was born. He said that the State had requested him to lease the house so that it could construct a memorial.

A lease agreement was entered into between the petitioner and the State in 1997 for 99 years. The State was to pay Rs. 10 per annum as the lease amount and this was to be sent to Kukke Subramanya Temple at Kukke for "Sevartha." The petitioner said that despite an agreement being arrived at eight years ago work on the memorial had not commenced.

He sought a direction to the Government to either commence work on the project or hand over the building to him.

Mr. Justice Manjunath disposed of the petition with a direction to the Department of Kannada and Culture to complete within two years construction of the memorial.

Restrained

A Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice B. Padmaraj and Justice V. Jagannathan on Monday restrained the State Government and other respondents from selling or otherwise disposing of in an auction 59 surplus animals belonging to the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Bangalore.

The petitioner, Akhila Pranidaya Sangha, said that the NDRI had put to auction on November 26, 2005 cattle belonging to it.

In all, 59 heads of cattle were sought to be auctioned.

Since it was obvious that the animals would land in the "hands" of butchers, the sangha activists protested against the auction and managed to get it postponed.

In its public interest litigation (PIL) petition, the sangha said it apprehended that the auction could go on any day, any time. It expressed willingness to provide shelter to the cattle and urged the court to restrain the respondents from selling or auctioning the animals.

It ordered the State to file within three weeks a statement and adjourned the case by four weeks.

Report sought

Justice Rammohan Reddy on Monday directed the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike to inspect and file a report on whether the basement of a building housing a hotel on Residency Cross Road complied with the building bylaws or not.

Mr. Justice Reddy passed the order on a petition by Shyam Enterprises, which challenged the Government order of May 10, 2005.

The petitioner said the hotel had been in existence since 1984 and the new bylaws did not apply to it.

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