Articles by Akshatha M

In an early morning tragedy, Ernakulam-bound Bengaluru-Ernakulam Intercity Express (Train No. 12677) derailed in Belagondapalli near Anekal in city’s outskirts on Friday, leading to the death of 12 passengers. Two compartments of the train collided, causing the loss of lives. Over 100 passengers are said to have been injured in the accident of which many are in critical stage. However, according to official version, the number of deaths is 10 while 18 were injured. The dead include five male passengers, three female passengers and a 12-year-old boy. Injured passengers include two citizens of Poland. Five people among the injured are…

While the nation is still recovering from the unforeseen historic results of Delhi Assembly elections, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is busy preparing to attack other cities and states. Next in the hit list seems to be Bengaluru. AAP’s Karnataka unit members who are flying high with the clean sweep of the party in the Delhi assembly election are now silently preparing for BBMP polls. The civic body poll is likely to be held this year—in 2015, as the term of the BBMP council ends this April. Though the party did not fetch any seats and underperformed in its political debut…

The app released by Government of Karnataka has a lot of scope for improvement. The ambitious mobile governance project of the State government, Karnataka One, which was also touted as one of the world's largest multi-mode mobile governance platforms, has not met the expectations of the people. Even after almost two months of launching, the mobile app that intends to offer easy access to various government and private services, is yet to evolve as a comprehensive mobile governance system. During its launch on December 8, the government had boasted that the app will provide 637 government (both Central and State)…

On January 14th in Bengaluru, Hebbal dipped to the minimum temperature of the day at 6.04 am, Electronic City felt the minimum temperature at 6.18 am. Vidyaranyapura recorded the lowest temperature at 6.24 am, and Jayanagar as late as 7.10 am. Despite Hebbal being located only 16 km from Jayanagar, there was a significant difference of 1 hour 6 minutes when both areas recorded minimum temperature. The same is true for rain too. It doesn't rain in Whitefield, when it does in Jayanagar. So the preparedness is different for Whitefield and Jayanagar for a rainy day predicted by Meteorological Department.…

Clean air is in short supply near Kadugodi area in Whitefield, where apartments and villas cost crores of rupees. Reason: indiscriminate burning of low value plastic in open fields. If you walk through the narrow road in Khajisonenahalli near Kadugodi in Northeast Bengaluru, you will be greeted with heaps of garbage and smoke emanating by the side of the road. Dry waste of all types, including plastic materials, clothes, mattresses, chappals is piled up, and a few workers were seen manually segregating waste, on the day this reporter visited the spot. Smoke emanates from the segregation site. Pic: Akshatha M…

BBMP is left with only two officials now, to deal with the rampant tree cutting that takes place in the city. Pic: Shree D N It isn’t for the first time that Bengalureans have witnessed the BBMP and its Forest Cell getting into a nasty fight. The cold war which had once come to the limelight with the repatriation of BBMP’s Chief Conservator of Forest, Brijesh Kumar (IFS) to his parent department in October 2012, had temporarily calmed down with his return to the post. Two years on, the BBMP has relieved him again from the duty by issuing an…

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) passed a resolution in its Council meeting on Wednesday, January 28th, 2015, demanding that the State government extend the term of the Council for six more months, if at all the Karnataka government has plans to postpone the BBMP election. BJP Councillor Padmanabha Reddy moved a private resolution in the Council expressing his displeasure over the state government trying to postpone the BBMP polls citing Palike restructuring as the reason. "The term of the present Council ends on April 22nd, 2015. As per the 74th amendment to the Constitution, election should be held to…

Bengaluru-based Citizen Action Forum (CAF) has suspected a possible delay of BBMP election due to Palike restructuring process, and said it should be opposed. Addressing media persons here on Thursday, January 23rd, 2015, CAF Secretary Mahalakshmi Parthasarathy said that the Forum fears that the State government would use restructuring as an excuse to delay the election. "The BBMP election has to happen in time. Inordinate delay would only hamper the process of forming functional Metropolitan Planning Council and ward committees. The government issued an order on November 19, 2014, mentioning that the restructuring committee report has to be submitted within…

What would be the total number of residential high-rise buildings in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) limits, built during the last five years? If the data provided by the BBMP is anything to go by, 97 is the exact number of buildings built in the Capital city between 2009 and 2014, which have been issued official Occupancy Certificates by BBMP. What is more puzzling is the reply given by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the Assembly session last month, confirming that no cases of residential apartments failing to obtain Occupancy Certificates have come to the notice of the government. However, if…

  Despite several measures taken, as claimed by the Chief Electoral Officer - Karnataka, to avoid errors in the electoral rolls, it seems the attempts have not yielded in a foolproof result. Like every year, there are glaring errors found in the final electoral roll published on CEO-KA website in the first week of this month, and the error pattern is almost repetition of the previous years. Complaints, suggestions and requests by various forums and active citizens for the improved electoral rolls, perhaps, seem to have fallen on deaf ears. Though BBMP election is only a few months away, it…