[audioholic]

What on earth was wrong today at ecospace? There was no traffic hold up at all and traffic was flowing freely towards silk board until the second flyover. Not sure whether this is the holiday effect or something else. But this is definitely not right. Reached home in 1hr 10 mins from whitefield. Something was definitely wrong.

[naveenroy]

Bike. Took me 2 hours and 30 mins to office (EC1) from Koramangala today. I was pissed off at first. Then I heard that Garment workers were protesting against the PF rule that doesn't allow you to withdraw the PF amount until you're 58 years young. GO protesters!

[mpksuhas]

Guys, there is a online petetion started by an apartment member for widening of Haralur road. Those who are using the road, please sign the same.

Link

Also, noticed that Sarjapur road is resurfaced, this has made traffic snarls bit less during weekend. From the looks of it, seems Haralur road is also about to be resurfaced.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Also, noticed that Sarjapur road is resurfaced, this has made traffic snarls bit less during weekend. From the looks of it, seems Haralur road is also about to be resurfaced.

Resurfacing of Sarjapur Road has reduced the traffic snarls even during peak hours. Haralur Road, or rather, Kudlu road from Kudlu Gate junction for about a km towards Kudlu has also been tarred, offering respite from the bone jarring ride that was the norm earlier. Now Hosa Road/Central Jail road needs to be taken up, especially towards Sarjapur Road

All's well and good so long as it lasts. But for how long is the bigger question

Originally Posted by naveenroy

GO protesters!

That's the exact feeling I had when I read the news. It did inconvenience somw people but when things hurt and nobody gives a rat's posterior, movements such as this become inevitable

[chandrda]

There was an accident early morning near the ISRO U turn on the ring road at 6:30 AM. An Indica had rear ended a petrol tanker which was waiting or about the take a U turn near the ISRO junction coming from Marathahalli side.

Hope this has not caused any traffic jam and has been moved to the side.

There was considerable damage to Indica, hope all the occupant are safe as most of the back seat occupant don't wear seat belt.

Funny thing is that two guys were more busy and in a hurry to scrape the company sticker/logo from the rear glass than moving the car.

Regards

[binand]

Originally Posted by silversteed

It did inconvenience somw people but when things hurt and nobody gives a rat's posterior, movements such as this become inevitable

On the contrary, now that I have read reports of this in today's newspaper, I feel this was a prime example of how easy it is to bring this city to its knees. The Hindu explains:

- A vernacular newspaper published a report on Saturday that you cannot touch your PF at all till you are 58.

- Garment factory employees started discussing this among themselves, and soon got agitated enough to take to the streets.

- There are apparently 5L people employed in the garment sector in Bangalore (does it make the sector the second largest employer of Bangalore?) with only 3% of them unionized.

- So when the cops and administration officers came to negotiate with the striking employees, they found (a) there were no leaders with whom they could have negotiated, and (b) no coherent or articulated demands that they could have negotiated on.

- There were 30K people participating in the protests yesterday, of which 15K were at Bommasandra alone.

So, it seems to me that the root cause was irresponsible journalism, exacerbated by the lack of strong unions in the sector.

[sachinpk]

Okay. Looks like there is going to be some problems today as well.
1. At Electronics City BHEL Jn. around 300 garment workers are doing a sit-in.
2. Massive protests and sit-ins may happen at Garvebhavi Palya Jn. & Kudlu gate side.
3. There is also another sit-in protest at Bellandur Gate, and looks like similar issues near Kaikondrahalli as well.

Only thing is that looks like the police have pretty much identified the trouble spots and have moved in their men to those areas.

[silversteed]

Sarjapur Road was kind of blocked from near Kaikondrahalli Jn towards Total Mall.

Got these pics taken from an apartment near Sarjapur Road Fire Station:





Heard that the protesters had resorted to stone-pelting and the cops are trying to contain them.

[chakri400]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Guys, there is a online petetion started by an apartment member for widening of Haralur road. Those who are using the road, please sign the same.

Link

Also, noticed that Sarjapur road is resurfaced, this has made traffic snarls bit less during weekend. From the looks of it, seems Haralur road is also about to be resurfaced.

Thanks for sharing this link and thanks to your friend for starting this petition, I signed the petition too. I travel to work and back home on Haralur road daily. Glad to see that the road has been relaid. It definitely needs to be widened. Hope this petition helps.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by silversteed

Heard that the protesters had resorted to stone-pelting and the cops are trying to contain them.

From what I heard, police men from other areas within the city are now getting moved into the "South Eastern" parts. But this sudden formation of "leaderless" crowds seems to be a bit alarming. Now the only hope for the police is to video record the event and clearly identify the trouble makers. And then later during the evening or in the coming days pull them up from their homes for some "study classes on living a decent life" *.

*: It seems this is what the city police did to the folks who caused riots during the Raj Kumar's death ceremony/cremation. One police man had died in the riots.

[Latheesh]

Looks like protesters are blocking Hosur road today also (near Electronic city - between Phase 1 and Hosa road signal)

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by Latheesh

Looks like protesters are blocking Hosur road today also (near Electronic city - between Phase 1 and Hosa road signal)

This could be the crowd at BHEL Jn. in Electronics City, or folks coming from Garvebhavi Palya, Kudlu gate side. There was some news at some places on Hosur Road protestors are not adhering to instructions from the traffic police men. Looks like this is now becoming a "paid holiday and chance to riot" rather than a protest over any genuine demand.

Updated:
Govt. relaxes norms for partial PF withdrawal
My understanding is that with this correction, employees can withdraw their PF (which they have as of today) completely within the next three months. After that it is not possible. So strikers worried about PF, can use this chance to withdraw from the fund completely.

[glenmz]

Originally Posted by mpksuhas

Also, noticed that Sarjapur road is resurfaced, this has made traffic snarls bit less during weekend. From the looks of it, seems Haralur road is also about to be resurfaced.

Originally Posted by silversteed

Resurfacing of Sarjapur Road has reduced the traffic snarls even during peak hours.

Not too sure if this has helped. Was travelling from Ecospace side towards silkboard today. There was a huge traffic jam towards approaching the Sarjapur road flyover. The traffic to enter Sarjapur road service road was blocking entry towards the flyover entry. The buses and cabs to take a left turn to the service road had blocked atleast 2 lanes of the ORR.

The scene towards the other end, from Iblur were not good either. There was traffic pile up till the entry of Agara flyover from silk board side. I must believe that the traffic towards sarjapur road has creating this pile up, as the stretch from Sarjapur rd signal towards ecospace was relatively free. Maybe, the stretch was free because the vehicles were blocked at "source"

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by glenmz

Not too sure if this has helped. Was travelling from Ecospace side towards silkboard today.

Today's case is different. There are two strikes in that area by garment factory workers. One at Kaikondrahalli-Dodda Kannelli & another one at Bellandur Gate.

[glenmz]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

Today's case is different. There are two strikes in that area by garment factory workers. One at Kaikondrahalli-Dodda Kannelli & another one at Bellandur Gate.

Thanks sachinpk. The one today should be from the factory opposite Total Mall?