Articles by Meera K

Pic: Nikita Malusare P C Mohan had made many promises in 2009, when he contested Lok Sabha elections from Bengaluru Central. Many voters wonder what he has done, even as a survey shows him scoring well on many fronts. As a candidate to the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, this is what PC Mohan promised in an interview with Smart Vote. * 3 priorities of your constituency? Concentrate on infrastructure, public amenities and environmental issues * How do you plan to address these issues in parliament? Certain issues can be sorted out in state, some need grants. Whatever is required I…

Last Friday, on Rajyotsava, Karnataka High Court justices N Kumar and B V Nagarathna, visited Bellandur Ward apartments Divyashree Elan and Springfields. This was part of a tour of various Solid Waste Management facilities in the city, including Koramangala's Kasa Rasa, Dry Waste Segregation Centre, Karnataka State Composting Corporation (KCDC) etc. They were accompanied by BBMP Commissioner Lakshminarayana, former BBMP chief Siddhaiah and many other officials. Judges Kumar and Nagarathna inspecting a composting facility. Pic: Meera K This visit was related to the SWM PIL currently underway, so the learned judges could understand the situation on the ground and get…

More than a month and a half have gone since the Ganesha festival, but the idols and trash at the Kalyani tank at Kaikondrahali Lake still make for a sorry sight. There are also the flowers and leaves which were collected in big trash bags. The Kalyani at Kaikondrahalli on Oct 8th. Pic: Rajesh Dubey. This is a negligence of duty from the garbage contractor. Lake monitoring committee members have been calling them continuously for weeks now. Each time, we are told that it will be cleared within a week. And weeks come and weeks go, the stuff remains. The…

A resident from one of the 80 apartments in the Sobha apartments neighbourhood/Green Glen Layout posed an open challenge last week, daring people to walk down the main access road grandly named Palm Avenue, without getting one's feet/trousers dirty. The terrible roads of Green Glen Layout. Pic: Thomas V. Another resident took it further capturing the state of the road in a video clip, shooting as he drove through the area, with the camera positioned at road level.  It may not be very different from hundreds of other roads in the city, but that doesn't decrease the pain that thousands…

Waiting for the Chief Ministers. Many officials, security personnel, political leaders were present. Pic: Meera K. The first thing that hits you is the strong smell of bleach all over. Then you realise something looks different, cleaner. The roads look recently cleaned, potholes have a temporary filling of wet quarry dust. The debris dumped on the side, that was there till yesterday is now missing. This was the scene at Kaikondrahalli lake. And at Agara lake, Mekhri Circle, Malleshwaram and probably a few other places in the city on Saturday. All thanks to the chief minister who was on a…

Go anywhere in Mahadevapura, you can see the ubiquitous water tankers. Ask anybody about their key demand from the candidates - you will hear, water, water and water. The election campaign here seems to be a mainly a two-party fight between the reasonably well-known BJP sitting MLA Aravind Limbavali and his Congress rival A C Srinivas. Most candidates are focussing on road shows, but many voters are still not aware of the candidates. It is a tough challenge for candidates to cover the large constituency, especially the apartments and gated communities who do not give permission for campaigners within their…

Come May, and Bangaloreans will join citizens in other parts of the state to decide who will be steering the political fate of the city and Karnataka over the next five years. As voters, we are all accustomed to candidates across parties making promises or making excuses, especially before elections. But do we know enough about our chosen political representative - our area MLA - to really make an informed choice? ♦ How vocal has your MLA been in the Assembly about issues that concern you and your constituency? ♦ How has he utilised the local area development (LAD) funds…

Noel and Lindsey are good hospitable souls. When a troupe of 10 of us landed up at their house this Sunday, December 22nd, they welcomed us warmly into their beautifully decorated Christmas home. We gorged on Marzipan, rose cookies and kul kuls, sipped mint flavoured lemonade and admired their Christmas tree decorations. A quiet house tucked into a corner of the heart of the city, it is graced by one of the tallest Christmas trees I had ever seen. The lovely Christmas decoration at the Noels' house. Pic: Rajeev R We were a bunch of people part of a Christmas…

Last Friday, December 14th, there was an event announcement from BBMP. My apartment association got a printed letter (enclosed). The subject of the letter was "citizen participation in improving civic amenities", and it was signed by the Assistant Commissioner (Admin and Tax), with a request to the President of the RWA to attend a meeting. The note said:Bangalore has earned fame as garden city and has attracted attention of the world. A meeting is organised in Town Hall on 15-12-2012 at 11:00 to discuss with the Commissioner of BBMP on how we can make Bangalore a city with the best…

Ever since the state Election Commission opened up the voter registration for the summary revision earlier this month, the system has been besieged with problems.With the online registration system available this time too, many citizens opted to submit their applications online. As on November 29th, 2,10,020 citizens registered and 1,40,325 submitted their applications online. Many citizens who registered could not submit their forms successfully. Some of them had registered during the earlier window in June, and complain that their application status still says, "Under process". A bunch of assembly constituencies, part of Batch I and II was open for registration…