Articles by Akshatha M

With the Supreme Court extending the deadline for conducting Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) election by four weeks, the State Election Commission (SEC) is now preparing to arrange a fresh poll schedule for civic body in Bengaluru. S Honnamba, Secretary of State Election Commission, told Citizen Matters that in accordance with the Supreme Court order, the SEC will conduct the polls before August 28th. “Though initially there was confusion about eight weeks time granted by the Court, now the ambiguity is cleared. We have cancelled the schedule of events for BBMP polls that we had announced earlier. We are yet…

Long-pending demand of the electoral roll experts to introduce a software to trace electoral roll anomaly has been finally paid heed to. With the BBMP polls is less than a month away, the State Election Commission has come up with a special software to detect errors in electoral rolls including duplication, repetition of voters names with same photograph etc. Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner G Kumar Naik who is in-charge of BBMP polls, said that the software has detected discrepancy in over 35,000 cases in BBMP election voters list. During cleaning up exercise using the software, duplication, incomplete details,…

Even as the State Election Commission has announced the calendar of events for BBMP polls, the Karnataka State government has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court on Monday, against the High Court single bench judgment on BBMP election.The State government in its petition has challenged the HC single bench judgment that directed the State to hold election before August 5th as per the Supreme Court’s previous order. Initiating a fresh round of litigation, the government has appealed the Supreme Court to put the election process on hold. It has sought time to conduct polls as per delimitation and reservation…

BBMP Administrator T M Vijay Bhaskar Pic: Akshatha M It has been only two months since senior IAS officer T M Vijay Bhaskar assumed charge as the Administrator of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). With the announcement of calendar of events for BBMP election and the council likely to be formed in a month, there is very less time left for the Administrator to prove his mettle. In an interview with Citizen Matters, Administrator T M Vijay Bhaskar shares his experience and the initiatives taken up during his tenure, challenges faced by BBMP and solutions to the impending problems. What…

On May 17th, BBMP Administrator T M Vijay Bhaskar blew the lid off “development works” taken up in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), with a tweet. In his tweet, he said  that details of works completed and pending bills as on April 30th 2015 are displayed on BBMP website for transparency. He asked public to check the list of works and inform the officials in case of discrepancies. With it, the Social Audit system was introduced in BBMP for the very first time. Enthused public, activists and new political parties got into action. With the data in hand, they went…

With the High Court on Monday ordering the State government and State Election Commission to conduct Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) polls on time, air of apprehension has surrounded the BBMP restructuring process. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has called for a meeting tomorrow, on June 25th 2015, in which selected ministers in the state government, MPs, MLAs and MLCs from Bengaluru, the Urban Development Additional Chief Secretary, the BBMP Administrator and the BBMP Commissioner will take part. The meet is expected to decide on whether the BBMP will be restructured or not. While the BBMP Restructuring Expert Committee is likely to…

Uncertainty that loomed large over BBMP election has been cleared, with the High Court on Monday dismissing the State government’s Impleading Application (IA) seeking time to conduct polls on the grounds of releasing fresh reservation roster. Apart from dismissing the IA, the Court also imposed penalty on the government for abuse of the process of judiciary. The Court has ordered the State government to pay Rs 10,000 to each of the respondents in the case. It also dismissed applications filed by other applicants including Karnataka State Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and levied them a fine of Rs…

A recent circular sent by the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) directed apartments with Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) to adhere to certain parameters. This kickstarted a debate among apartment residents, as the BWSSB did not publish the circular on their website and there was no official communication on this to any of the apartments that have STP. The BWSSB circular issued by BWSSB Engineer-in-Chief on May 19th 2015 deals with two aspects: 1) Making it mandatory to use external additives like microorganisms for bio-culturing in STPs 2) Compulsory installation of single low cost ‘probe’, a sensor equipment, fitted…

A US-based non-governmental organisation and a Bengaluru-based engineering firm have prepared a Vision Plan for restoration and regeneration of lakes in Bengaluru. The Vision plan titled ‘Better Lakes, Better Bangalore’ advocates a “sustainable water supply plan for Bangalore.” Curiously, many of the stakeholders mentioned in the report have denied involvement in preparing the report. Bengaluru-based engineering consultant firm Invicus Engineering, along with San Francisco-based non-profit organisation working towards water sustainability—Sherwood Institute and an engineering firm based in San Francisco, Carollo Engineering, had signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the BDA on November 6th 2012 to provide a Vision Plan for…

The High Court of Karnataka took serious exception to the absence of BBMP Administrator M N Vijay Bhaskar from the court proceedings during the hearing of a batch of solid waste management PILs on Friday. The Special Bench constituted by the High Court comprising of Justice N Kumar and B V Nagarathna refused to accept submissions from the petitioners during Friday’s hearing, owing to the absence of the BBMP Administrator in the court. “During the last hearing in April, the court had given one and a half months time to the newly appointed BBMP Administrator and the Commissioner to study…