Articles by Navya P K

"First they said that our apartment was illegal. When we showed our property documents, BBMP engineers said that it wouldn't matter because we had to give up our land for road widening anyway," says a resident of Rashi Pride apartments on Nyanappanahalli main road, BTM 6th stage. This relatively quiet road located in BTM 6th stage has been in the news lately because the residents raised their voice against BBMP's coercive tactics for land acquisition. Apartment marked for road widening on Nyanappanahalli main road in BTM 6th stage. Pic: Sreenandan A V The resident, who does not wish to be…

Most schools in Bengaluru have completed their admissions for the coming academic year. Despite that, the state government seems to be pushing to implement the RTE (Right to Education) Act for 2011-12. The SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) will soon submit a revised draft of the Act to the government. "We have revised the draft after taking suggestions from the public. The new draft will be submitted by end of this month," says Sandhya Venugopal Sharma, State Project Director, SSA. Ramakrishna School - 80% of the children are from low income groups. Pic: Navya P K While many private schools are…

Despite Bengaluru's cosmopolitan nature, safety in public spaces is still a problem for women in the city. Opinions vary about whether Bengaluru is safer compared to other Indian cities, but most women agree that the city has a long way to go in terms of accommodating women. Citizen Matters and Justfemme present Is Bengaluru women-friendly? A panel discussion Dec 18th, 4-5.30pm @ NGMA Auditorium, Palace Road, Bangalore All are welcome. The Bangalorean panelists (in alphabetical order) Prakash Belawadi, a well-known journalist, theatre enthusiast and a filmmaker. Mithila Jha, an Urban Planner, currently working with BMTC. Suneel Kumar (IPS), is Additional…

Saaku, Bengaluru's anti-corruption campaign, may not have lived up to the buzz generated in social networking sites over the last week, but the rally of around 800 citizens more than managed to capture the attention of the public on December 11. The event's coordinators had initially expected participation of 1000-2000. The participants, most of them from relatively elite sections of society - included college students, IT professionals, activists and residents from all over the city. Around 800 citizens, including students and IT professionals, participated in the event.Pic: Navya P K The four-day Saaku campaign started on December 8 with the…

At first glance the Lakshmipuram Hindu burial ground in Ulsoor, would look like just another place where cold souls rest. But on a weekend, the far end of the graveyard turns into cricket ground. A portion of the burial ground being used as cricket pitch Pic: Navya P K A clearing in one corner of the nearly 15-acre ground has two ‘cricket pitches' now - a unique solution to the shrinking playgrounds in the city. At the crack of dawn, teams of youngsters would rush to the ground to start playing in the better of the two pitches that lie…

A notorious gang of criminals conning Bengaluru women into giving up their jewellery since 1991 were caught recently. Police (Bangalore South) are now preparing chargesheets against the gang members.  Gang members lined up outside the JP Nagar police station. Pic courtesy: JP Nagar Police. The gang used to steal jewellery from women, posing as policemen and promising to keep the jewellery safe. In Bangalore alone, there are 100 cases against the gang in 34 different police stations. Ten of the gang were nabbed on September 12 while six others were arrested on October 3 by the special squad. The squad…

After repeated extortion attempts by Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) members from their stores, Bengaluru-headquartered printing solutions company Printo filed a complaint against the organisation on Tuesday. The complaint was filed at the Commercial Street police station after eight KRV activists allegedly threatened to ransack the company's Infantry Road outlet. However, an FIR itself was not filed. Printo has 14 centres in Bengaluru. KRV is a pro-kannada organisation with branches all over Karnataka. Customers waiting for printing services Pic: Navya P K The activists allegedly asked Andrew Abishek, Store Manager at the outlet on Wednesday night, to print 200 photos of…

After 26 years of service in the state and central government, former IAS officer T R Raghunandan now heads ipaidabribe.com (IPAB), an initiative by the NGO Janaagraha, to tackle corruption. Three months after its launch, the site now has 2350 reports from all over the country from the public on paying/not paying bribes. Around 1050 of these reports are from Bengaluru. Bengaluru-based Raghunandan, 51, has served as Secretary of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj for Karnataka and as Joint Secretary in the Union Ministry of Panchayat Raj, before retiring voluntarily in 2009. He is a consultant on fiscal decentralisation and…

Zipping across a skating rink on a pair of wheels may only have seemed like a cool hobby to many youngsters until a few years back. But over the last decade, skating has quietly grown as a sport in Bengaluru – from having 5-6 skating clubs a decade ago, the city now has 15 registered clubs. For many kids practicing in these clubs, skating could easily be their future career. Students at BTM Roller Skating Club. Pic: Mayur Chennagere. Faraz A Umar, a seventh standard student at Frank Anthony Public School and member of Force One skating club in Banashankari,…

On Monday midnight, 120 residents of Sachidananda Nagar got their khatas from the BBMP zonal office at Rajarajeshwari Nagar. “This is a great victory for us. It was ‘freedom at midnight’,” gushes Nethrakere Uday Shankar, 54, one of the leaders of the protest. Shankar is Chief Sub-Editor at a Kannada daily in the city. "I bought a plot in the layout in 1992, and planned to build a house there in 2001. I have been waiting for khata since 2001," he said. It was around 1.40 am when khatas were given away to all. This rare act by the BBMP…