Articles by News Desk

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…

14 ponds in Manali to be restored in the first phase under the Smart City Mission Chennai Corporation will work on restoring 14 ponds in Manali, in the first phase of the pan city initiative under the Smart City Mission.  Chennai has around 280 water bodies of which 145 lakes and ponds come under the Corporation jurisdiction.  The Chennai Corporation has planned to revive all these water bodies in a phased manner. "According to the Corporation officials, it has been proposed to use permeable pavement methods like sand gravel mix as part of the restoration work. It has also been…

Chief Election Commissioner of Election Commission of India (ECI) Om Prakash Rawat announced the poll dates for Karnataka on Tuesday, March 27, 2018. The election will be held on May 12th across the state in a single phase. Counting of votes will take place on May 15th, 2018. Full schedule of events: April 17: Notification April 24: Last day to submit nomination April 26: Nomination scrutiny April 27: Last day to withdraw nomination May 12: Voting May 15: Counting and results Read the full press note from the Election Commission: [embeddoc url="https://citizenmatters.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/PN22_27032018.pdf" download="all"] Slew of measures towards free and fair…

GUIDING PRINCIPLES REMOVAL OF DISCRIMINATION AND PARITY IN TARIFF People living in apartments, no matter how large an apartment complex is, are NOT bulk-consumers. We are the same as individual house owners. All tariffs applicable to apartments should be on par with individual house owners. In addition, club house, swimming pool, STP etc. in apartment complexes are not commercial activities, hence all tariffs (water, power etc.) should only be at residential rates and not at commercial rates. PROVISIONING OF SERVICES Access to basic amenities like water, sewage network, garbage collection etc. is lacking in quite a few areas. The Government…

The growth in the nation’s cities has been maddeningly slow. And it has not even been much, according to the fifth edition of Janaagraha’s Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS) 2017. There has been some improvement in the quality of governance in 23 cities. Yet, this has come about at a frustrating snail’s pace. Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (Janaagraha), a Bengaluru-based non-profit, has surveyed the quality of governance in 23 major cities in 20 states. The survey was based on 89 questions. Pune was the Number 1 grosser, scoring between 3.0 and 5.1 on 10 and topping the…

Unique identification to properties in the city Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP)’s new system can now help you locate addresses easily. It has just launched DiGi7, a system that offers a seven-digit unique identification to 19 lakh properties. Launched by the Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George on March 15, the system was developed by a team led by Special Commissioner (IT) Manoj Rajan. The BBMP assigned unique IDs to about 19 lakh properties spread over 800 sq.kms. So will the citizens be able to use DiGi7 to identify properties, get directions and navigate? Certainly. DiGi7 can help to transport you…

At the inaugural session of Mandram, Dr Balaji Sampath spoke about the need to help our children understand science through experiments using simple objects of daily use. He said everyone is born a scientist, everyone has  natural curiosity about how things work, but sadly this curiosity and scientific temperament is stifled and subsequently lost in the current education system. Watch the full video of his talk below. அன்றாட வாழ்வில் அறிவியல் பற்றி மிக சுவாரஸ்யமாக விளக்கினார் பாலாஜி சம்பத். இவர் ஆஹாகுரு என்ற தளத்தின் மூலமாக நடுநிலை மற்றும் முதுநிலை பள்ளி மாணவர்களுக்கு எளிய முறையில் அறிவியல் மற்றும் கணித பாடங்களுக்கு பயிற்சி அளிக்கிறார். குழந்தைகளுக்கு அறிவியலை எப்படி அறிமுகப்படுத்த வேண்டும் என்று அன்றாடம் உபயோகப்படுத்தும் பொருட்களை கொண்டு…

A wide range of people from all over Bangalore, representing a range of organisations and communities from within the city, peri-urban areas and villages affected by waste disposal, were present when Justice N. Kumar (Retd.), Former Judge of the High Court of Karnataka, released: “Bangalore’s Toxic Legacy Intensifies: Status of Landfills, Waste Processing Sites and Dumping grounds, and working conditions of Pourakarmikas”, a report prepared by Environment Support Group. This report provides a critical framework to evaluate the progress achieved in advancing environmental and social justice of communities impacted by waste handling and disposal, and is prepared to support ongoing…