Articles by Navya P K

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…

For the past 12-13 years, IT/ITES industry in the state has been exempted from a key labour law which is applicable to other industries. From coming April, this law - The Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, aka IE Act - is supposed to be applicable for all IT companies in India. While the state Labour Department is waiting for IT/ITES companies to start implementing this, the industry is said to be actively lobbying for exemption. Pic: Wikimedia commons The crux of the IE Act is that each company will have to define its employment conditions in ‘Standing Orders' (SOs),…

Residents of Sobha Daffodil apartment in HSR Layout Extension have been waiting for water for the last 4-5 months. They had paid around Rs 10 lakh to the BWSSB for water from Cauvery Stage IV Phase II project; they got pipelines laid and meters fixed. But no water comes here yet. Pic courtesy: BWSSB.org "We paid a few crores some 3-4 years back too, for water. In the last few months, we went to the local BWSSB office some 10 times. Every time, we were told that water will come the next day or next week, but there has been…

Bengaluru has already lost thousands of acres of land to encroachers. But if you know about a case of encroachment, there are many government bodies where you can complain. Here is a list of whom you can contact, and how. 1) BMTF (Bangalore Metropolitan Task Force): The state government had formed BMTF in 1996 to check land grabs and building violations in Bangalore Metropolitan Area (BMA). BMA includes Bangalore urban and rural districts, and part of Kolar district. All encroachments of government land/water bodies in these areas - even those that come under BBMP, BDA, BWSSB etc - will be…