Articles by Abhishek Angad

Born in Kochi , Muralidhar Rao has been a Bangalorean since 1959 and a resident of Koramangala since 2005. He is a former industrialist himself. He married his passion for writing and civic mindedness and in 2006 co-founded praja.in. It is an online platform to engage in discussions on civic issues. He is also a member of the citizens group ‘Koramangala Initiative ' His wife, Priya Rao, works as a Associate Director-Technical for Indian Spastics Society in Karnataka region. He has a son and a daughter. Excerpts from his interview. You are a regular commentator on civic and commentator issues.…

Members of Federation of Residents Welfare Association of Ward 148 (Ejipura) known as FORWARD 68 brought civic officials for a one-on-one session in its quarterly review meeting on 19th May.The meeting was held in Ashwini Layout, primarily to discuss the resident's grievances. Members of RWAs from Ashwini Layout, Venugopalaswamy Layout, ST Bed Koramangala, Ejipura New Extension Residents' Association (ENERA) and Chandra Reddy Layout voiced their problems with BBMP, BWSSB and BESCOM officials. Member of Forward-68 attending the meeting. Pic: Abhishek Angad Anil Kumar , Secretary , FORWARD 68 drove the meeting and allowed concerned residents in turns to inquire about their…

Dr Prathibha Vinay is a doctorate in botany, and resident of JP Nagar since 1997. From 2002 onwards she has dedicated herself to promoting medicinal plants. She even planted them at JP Nagar's Dhanwantari park. In 2002, she founded TULSI (Treasure and Utilise the Life Sustaining Ingredients of Nature) an NGO that promotes medicinal plants for health and raises awareness on conservation of such plants. Dr Pratibha Vinay at her residence. Pratibha earned her doctorate degree in Palynology-a super speciality in Botany in 1972. Later she was awarded Post Doctoral Fellowship at Bangalore University -Department of Botany in 1973. In…

The Karnataka State cabinet on 7th May underlined its commitment towards women empowerment and announced provide 50 per cent reservation in urban local bodies on the lines of reservation in gram, taluk and zilla panchayats. Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs S Suresh Kumar after a cabinet meeting on 7th, reportedly said that the government will amend the Karnataka Municipalities Act, 1964 and Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976 in the next legislature. Karnataka has nine city corporations including the recent inclusion of Tumkur. It has 205 other municipalities: 43 City Municipal Councils, 94 Town Municipal Council and 68 Town Panchayats.…

The only large playground on 19th Main, BTM layout, 1st stage has become dumping yard, for construction debris, owing to the broken fence all around. This playground comes under BBMP ward 176 and is a major open lung space for the neighbourhood.The residents feel that if the fencing is not done, the entire playground will soon become a dumping yard. Some contractors have started to illegally dump construction debris at night. Subramaniyam Sheshadari, a resident who stays opposite the playground says that at the least, the fence should be repaired to avoid the situation from getting worse. Debris in the…

Sheikh Shariff is seven, Rukhsana is 10 and Sameera is all of 12. The siblings show up every morning outside Dhanwantri Park in JP Nagar, 2nd Phase to sell fresh vegetables. This is their summer job.They live in an asbestos roof house nearby. Their father Mehboob Basha, earns a meagre Rs 4000 a month, working as a gardener. Their mother Fatima Begum who also works as gardener in the nearby senior citizen's park earns Rs 3000 a month. School fees for all three children is a burden on the family. The children help out by selling vegetables during their summer…

Debt-ridden BBMP is unable to retrieve Rs 12,68,030 from National Public School (NPS), Koramangala, for the 7,166 sqft of land it leased.A Right to Information(RTI) reply, sought by MVK Anil kumar and RTI activist from Koramangala, indicates that NPS at Ejipura Ward, near NGV has possession of more than 7000 square feet of BBMP's land but till date the rent has not been paid. Nearby the school land, there is a strip of land measuring 7166.66 square feet. This land has twin 3 meters underlying sewage pipeline laid by BWSSB. NPS wanted to take up the maintenance of this land…

Anil Kumar, 63 is an RTI activist. A former employee of Indian Telephone Industries in the marketing department, Kumar, today cracks open the government red tape for a better society.Kumar moved to Ejipura in 1994 when it had no roads, no drains and no proper electricity. He filed RTIs to find the reasons behind these pending works. The RTIs of this nature often result in work being completed, because officials were wary of explaining the reasons behind the delay. Anil Kumar, the RTI activist. Pic: Abhishek Angad Kumar believes that the thrust on Sec 4(1)(b) of the act i.e voluntary…

In a yet another attempt to raise awareness, Bangalore Traffic Police (BTP) plans to conduct a painting competition on 29th April at Cubbon park.BTP encourages painters of all age groups to participate in the event titled 'Road safety through painting'. Participants need to bring their own painting materials and can use water or oil paints and crayons. BTP will provide drawing sheets. Speaking to Citizen Matters, M A Saleem, IGP and Additional Commissioner of Police(Traffic), pointed out that the event aims to promote safety measures while driving. He adds, "We have already invited Chitrakala Parishad students to make the event…

Elita Promenade residents in JP Nagar, 7th Phase, have filed a lawsuit against their developers for allegedly keeping them in dark over various issues related to the apartment complex. The case was filed in November 2011. Elita Promenade, near Sarakki lake, is a multi-floor apartment complex constructed in joint venture between Singapore-based Keppel Land and Puravankara Developers, Bengaluru. Three issues seems to lie at the centre of the conflict - sewage problem, lack of clarity on land ownership in the layout and sale of one part of common land to KPTCL without notice. Pic: Abhishek Angad A temporary boundary fence…