Articles by News Desk

Public parks play a key role in recreation and health of citizens. For children growing up in fast developing, concretised urbanscapes, time spent in parks is their only respite from walls -- in their houses and schools and tuitions. It is a good thing for citizens, therefore, that renovation of parks gets a mention in almost all annual budgets of the Chennai Corporation. However, a visit to some of the public parks in the city will break your heart. On the ground, these parks are anything but child friendly, with most of the play equipment and accessories to engage children…

Each year, an MLA is given Rs 2 crore to spend on developmental works in his constituency. He/she can allocate the funds for government, community and health infrastructure, to create permanent solutions to the problems. This article gives an idea on how and what can the funds be spent on. ☛ Click here for full data set of works done/ sanctioned under N.A Haris’ MLA Local Area Development Funds. An MLA is given Rs 10 crore for spending on his constituency in five years. N.A. Haris’ accounts show an expenditure of Rs 9.34 crores in five years. He appears to have…

Supreme Court slams Delhi authorities over lapses in sealing case The top court of the country told civic authorities and the Delhi government that they might have to walk the Tughlaq way and shift capital if they continued to fail to prevent unauthorised constructions. SC made it clear that commercial establishments like restaurants and big showrooms cannot continue in residential areas in violation of the law as the authorities cannot put the lives of citizens of Delhi in danger. “Unauthorised constructions have a direct relation with rising pollution. Delhiites suffer from problems such as pollution, parking and lack of green…

Actor Revathi was the first speaker at the event. "It is the good deeds and good people around us who still keep our hopes intact for a better world," she began, drawing reference to all the negativity around us. "As a mother I feel there has been a drastic change, change for the good. It has given me the inquisitiveness to delve deep and question every happening. I feel the urge to leave behind the best for the young generation," added the actor. She insisted that the responsibility of transferring the knowledge that we gain in our lives and the goodness…

☛ Who is winning? How did Bengaluru vote? [Live Results]  Candidate list, profiles, polling booth info and more Anekal * Bangalore South * Basavanagudi * Bommanahalli * BTM Layout * Byatrayanapura *  CV Raman Nagar * Chickpet * Chamaraj Nagar * Dasarahalli * Gandhi Nagar * Govindarajnagar * Hebbal * Jayanagar * K R Puram * Mahadevapura * Mahalakshmi Layout * Malleshwaram * Padmanabha Nagar * Pulikeshi Nagar * Rajarajeshwarinagar * Rajaji Nagar * Sarvagnanagar * Shantinagar * Shivaji Nagar * Vijay Nagar * Yelahanka * Yeshwanthpur   MLA Profiles Bangalore South MLA M KrishnappaBTM Layout: Ramalinga ReddyByatarayanapura: Krishna ByregowdaChamarajpet: Zameer Ahmed KhanChickpet: RV DevrajDasarahalli: MunirajuGandhinagar: Dinesh Gundu…

According to recent media reports, the Public Works Department has trained its sights on a heritage building. The 83-year-old Janata Bazaar, which has been listed as a heritage building under the Revised Master Plan 2031, stand on premium property in Gandhi Nagar. The PWD, however, has branded it as "very dangerous" for human occupation and has proposed to bring it down. This has the heritage conservationists up in arms as the building who insist that the building can be restored to its former glory and is only suffering from neglect.  The building which was inaugurated by the Yuvaraja of Mysore…

Are we compromising on the coastline? The draft plan proposed by the Tamil Nadu Government on the coastal management has drawn much criticism from environmentalists and fishermen. What irks environmentalists and citizens particularly is the government’s apathy and indifference in presenting an incomplete draft plan and then inviting a public hearing on the same. Not only has the plan not followed the guidelines and preparation of CZMPs, as per Annexure-1 of Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification 2011, hazard mapping seems to have also been compromised. Besides the blatant violations, a large area of coastline along the ECR  has been changed…

Electoral Rolls after the Summary Revisions have been published on 28 Feb 2018. However there is a last chance for citizens to register as voters. One can submit applications till 14th April, 2018. The Office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Karnataka is organising a mass voter registration drive on Sunday 8th April, between 10 AM to 5 PM owing to many complaints by citizens regarding the non-inclusion in mother rolls. All booth level officers (BLO) will be stationed at the respective polling booths to receive applications of the residuary voters.  This is the last chance for people to get registered…

The American Society of Naturalists (ASN) conferred its prestigious 2018 Presidential Award to evolutionary biologists from the National Centre for Biological Sciences of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, based in Bangalore, India. The ASN Presidential Award honors an outstanding research article from among all the papers published in the society's journal, The American Naturalist, in the preceding calendar year. This is a prominent scientific journal that publishes research papers in frontier areas of evolutionary biology. This year's award was given to the NCBS team for their research paper in the April 2017 issue of The American Naturalist, probing how…

Once there was a river. Rather, there were many rivers. And then there were none. In the run up to Arappor Iyakkam's Sakkadai Thiruvizha, a citizen awareness program to highlight the problem of sewage being let into Chennai's water bodies, two young photographers -- Raghavan Lokesh and Mohan Kumar Karunakaran -- volunteered to travel along Chennai's rivers, and capture images for our readers. The pictures are heart breaking. Let us take a minute to view, and mull over, what we have done to the lifelines of this city. [Raghavan Lokesh is an entrepreneur and has been volunteering with Arappor Iyakkam…