Articles by Navya P K

All wards in Yeshwanthpur constituency are recent additions to the BBMP. This is a large constituency which also includes villages outside the BBMP limits. Hence many areas lack basic facilities compared to old BBMP areas.Kengeri railway station and Kengeri satellite town come under this constituency. It also has many industries. NICE (Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises) ring road and BMIC (Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor) passes through the constituency. There have been protests about NICE Ltd acquiring more road than is required, and using it to build private layouts. There have been various court cases on this; but in a recent affidavit,…

Fourteen assembly election candidates from the city have been endorsed by the Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC). B.PAC team includes Biocon Head Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairman of Manipal Global Education Services T V Mohandas Pai, and former IAS officer K Jairaj. The rest of the team includes more corporate honchos, and sportspersons and artists. Candidates have been selected from across political parties - there are five Congress candidates, three from BJP, three from Lok Satta, two from JD(S) and one from KJP. BPAC says that political ideology was not a factor in candidate selection. B.PAC will contribute to the candidates'…

Prof B K Chandrashekhar, MLC and former IT minister, is Congress's candidate for Basavangudi this election. Chandrashekhar, 76, is a retired IIMB professor, and has worked in other universities in India and abroad. He has a post graduation in law from Leeds University, and a doctorate from Oxford University. He is currently one of KPCC's Vice-Presidents. He is also a former Chairman of the Legislative Council.Though the KPCC VP, Chandrashekhar talks less on the party's stand, and more on his personal views. He also positions himself rather as an exception within the party - as part of a minority that…

Note: This website will soon be migrated to a new system.  If you face any issues, do mail us. You can also reach us through Twitter or Facebook! Bengaluru This Week Get our free weekly newsletter. Name Email Bengaluru This Week archives. Shobha Karandlaje, Yeshwanthpur MLA and former BJP minister, is busy with her election campaign. She is the KJP candidate for Rajaji Nagar constituency this time, and is up for some serious competition against BJP minister S Suresh Kumar.She had handled three portfolios - Rural Development, Energy and Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs - in the ministry earlier. She…

  N A Haris, Congress MLA from Shanthinagar, is contesting once more from his constituency. Like all other contestants, Haris, 46, too is busy trying to woo the voters by holding padyatras to various areas in his constituency. Haris was in news recently for his role in the eviction of about 1000 families from Ejipura EWS (Economically Weaker Section) quarters. Citizen Matters caught up with him during two of his evening padayatras - to Vivek Nagar and Vinayaknagar. In this exclusive interview, he talks about his plans for Shanthinagar, his views on Ejipura evictions and more. Pic: facebook.com/mlaharis Excerpts from…

Election is the time to recall whatever a party has done to the constituency during its rule and find out what are the promises for Bangalore the party has in store. Narayana Rao, head of the Bangalore manifesto committee of JD(S), says that the main topics in the JD(S) manifesto are water, electricity and the issue of whether Bangalore should be allowed to grow the way it is now. “Forming of layouts should be completely privatised,” says Narayan Rao. Pic: Navya P K Here are excerpts from the interview:In BWSSB's water supply, about 35% is lost because of leaks alone.…

With the onset of summer, many of the parks in the city have dried up. Most parks maintained by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) were using up water from the bore wells on their premises. But over the last few months, many borewells have been drying up. Wipro Park in Koramangala has been drying up. Pic: Navya P K Parvathi Srirama, Joint Secretary of Koramangala 4th block RWA, says that compared to December, there is much water shortage now in parks. Parvathi, also a ward committee member of Koramangala, is in charge of monitoring parks in the area. Swabhiman…

Last September, after a long delay, the BBMP had invited new tenders for garbage collection and transportation in 91 packages. The 198 wards of the city are covered by these 91 packages. But the new tenders have come to effect in not even half of these; only 43 packages have new contractors now. In the remaining 48 packages, work is still being done by old contractors by extending their previous contracts.But a bunch of new tenders - 12 of them - were approved by the state government on March 20, 2013. The government's approval came on the day when the…

A massive Rs 2,300 crores industrial project is coming up in Agara, adjacent to Koramangala, along Sarjapura Road, the first of its kind here. But it might be coming at a cost to the people staying nearby. The project, by Manipal ETA Infotech Pvt Ltd, is a township that includes an SEZ, retail outlets, hotels, office buildings, two residential apartments etc. The project is a joint venture between Century Real Estate and Mantri Builders - while Century is providing land, Mantri is taking care of the construction. A SEBI document of 2011 mentions Sushil Mantri as Chairman and Managing Director…

The debate about including IT/ITES industry under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act has been going on for a while. Here is what IT employees think about their work conditions and about the IE Act. Pic: Wikimedia Commons Most employees that Citizen Matters spoke to, opined that the Act will help employees. There was skepticism though, on a government department's interference in the industry and on its ability to actually help employees.While most employees complain about favouritism, overtime without compensation etc., some complain about being affected by serious malpractices. Ravi (name changed), who used to work in Yahoo, the multinational…