Here are the big stories from Karnataka today

Karnataka Today newsletter: Caste census report placed before State Cabinet, gig workers Bill cleared, and more

The report of the socio, economic and educational survey (caste census), conducted by the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes, was placed before the State Cabinet on April 11. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the report and its recommendations would be discussed in the next cabinet meeting scheduled for April 17. “Some ministers wanted time to read through the report,” he said.

The Cabinet also approved the Karnataka Platform-based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill, which proposes to create a dedicated fund for the welfare of gig workers. The government plans to promulgate an ordinance to implement the welfare measures. Introduced as a ‘rights-based bill’, the Karnataka draft Bill places obligations on aggregators in relation to social security, occupational health and safety of workers. Read all about it here.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike, in its recently presented city budget, had announced a relaxation in the height of the stilt (ground-level parking) from 3 metres to 4.5 metres to accommodate a multilevel mechanical car parking. This aims to enable two cars to be parked one over the other. As an incentive, it has said the additional 1.5 metres increase in the height would not be considered in the overall height of the building. 

While this proposal has got a good response from builders of apartments, where parking space is premium and rationed, it doesn’t seem to have elicited the same kind of response from individual home builders, whom the civic budget says it is aimed at. Moreover, without a policy that will penalize roadside parking of cars in the residential bylanes, it is unlikely that builders of individual houses will invest extra to put up a multilevel mechanical car parking facility, experts point out.

The Chandra Layout police in Bengaluru have arrested four youth for alleged ‘moral policing’. The accused, working as delivery executives, allegedly confronted a burkha-clad girl sitting on a scooter with a boy of a different faith on April 9. They objected to their relationship, before allegedly assaulting the boy and the girl. They also recorded a video, which went viral.

In another incident, Kundapura police arrested one person for allegedly assaulting a minor boy and abusing a minor girl. The 15-year-old girl, after finishing her examinations on April 8, had accompanied three classmates, all boys belonging to another community, to Manipal. The accused, Mahesh, who was following the children, assaulted one of them. He also threatened to kill the girl if she persisted with such behaviour.

The Supreme Court has reserved its verdict on a plea of senior BJP leader and former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa against an order reviving a corruption case against him.