'High-tension' threat to 7000 illegal buildings in Bengaluru: Report
Bengaluru: Nearly 7,000 buildings in Bengaluru are dangerously close to high-tension (HT) power lines maintained by the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL), raising serious safety concerns amid recurring incidents of electrocution in the city.
This is despite the KPTCL identifying the structures four years ago and asking the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike to clear them, as reported by Deccan Herald on Monday.
In 2021, KPTCL flagged thousands of buildings constructed in violation of safety norms, particularly those that failed to maintain the mandatory vertical and horizontal clearance from overhead power lines. The utility provider subsequently alerted the BBMP, urging immediate intervention to avert potential tragedies. However, no concrete action has been taken yet, DH quoted sources in the KPTCL as saying.
Officials stressed that KPTCL lacks the legal authority to demolish or evacuate illegal constructions and can only notify the appropriate municipal authorities. “We can only identify and alert the BBMP officials. It is the civic body’s responsibility to ensure that such illegal are evacuated or demolished,” the news outlet quoted a senior KPTCL official as saying.
BBMP officials, meanwhile, contend that legal hurdles have hampered their ability to act decisively. “All of these buildings are either built without a plan approval or have violated the approved plan. We have issued notices to clear them. However, many of them challenge the notice in the court and the legal battle is going on,” a senior BBMP official in the town planning department said.
Adding to the complexity, KPTCL officials alleged that corruption within the civic body may have enabled such unauthorised construction in the first place. “The BBMP officials couldn’t clear them because they would have allowed the construction taking a bribe,” DH quoted a KPTCL official as saying.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
NEET student hangs self in Rajasthan's Sikar
Jaipur (PTI): A student preparing for the NEET examination allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in a rented room in Rajasthan's Sikar on Friday, police said.
According to the police, the student allegedly hanged himself from a ceiling fan using his sister's scarf while one sister was attending coaching classes and the other was in the bathroom.
He had appeared in the NEET UG exam 2026, which was cancelled due to paper leak, they said.
Udyog Nagar SHO Rajesh Kumar said that the deceased, identified as Pradeep Meghwal, was a resident of Kanika ki Dhani village in Jhunjhunu's Gudha Gaudji area.
He had been living in a rented room in Sikar's Jaldhari Nagar area with his two sisters while preparing for NEET over the last three years.
His elder sister later found him hanging and informed the landlord and police after bringing him down, officials said.
The SHO said the body was kept at SK Hospital mortuary, and a postmortem had not been conducted.
The student's father, Rajesh Kumar Meghwal, told police that Pradeep's NEET examination had gone well and the family was expecting him to score around 650 marks.
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot expressed grief over the incident and linked it to anxiety among students after reports of irregularities and paper leaks in NEET 2026.
Pilot said repeated paper leak incidents and cancellation of examinations were affecting students' mental health and demanded a time-bound investigation and strict action against those responsible.
