Articles by News Desk

  Bengaluru this week December 18th 2014     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!      City news that matters Before the summary of our own stories, here’s a curation of the latest news from Bengaluru. A case related to flouting of environmental norms in Mantri Developers’ Agara SEZ project is being heard today in the Delhi bench of the National Green Tribunal. Chief Minister restates BBMP’s claim in the assembly, that only 97 buildings have officially been given Occupation Certificates in last four years. An engineer working in Bengaluru was slapped with charges of…

Inside Johnson market. Pic: Mansoor Ali The BBMP proposes to demolish 18 old, traditional markets and replace them with malls. Most of the markets they plan to destroy are more than 60 years old, and some, like Johnson Market, are much, much older.   We believe the government must consider the heritage value of these markets before deciding to replace them with malls. Instead of thoughtlessly destroying them, the BBMP could easily involve urban, conservation and heritage experts such as INTACH to help revitalise these markets.   INTACH, together with like-minded people, has launched a campaign to save these structures and also promote…

The flag-off ceremony.Pic: NBF As the countdown for the close of nominations for the Namma Bengaluru Awards 2014 (NBA) has begun, Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF) in association with BTV, the media partners for the awards, organised the flag off of the display vehicle from Dr Rajkumar Memorial grounds at Peenya.  The display vehicle will move around the city to enable citizens to nominate their heroes from right where they are.  The vehicle was flagged off by well-known director of the Kannada film industry, MG Shrinivas who now is making his debut as an actor in his new movie “Srinvasa Kalyana”.…

  Bengaluru this week December 11th 2014     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!   Citizen Matters co-founder Meera K receiving Manthan award in New Delhi. Pic: Navya P K We are very proud to announce that your local web newsmagazine Citizen Matters has won the Manthan Award (South Asia and Asia Pacific) in the e-News and Journalism category. Our co-founder Meera K received the citation last week at the award ceremony in New Delhi. This is our sixth award in six years! Thank you, for your unfailing support to us, by reading, giving feedback, contributing…

Citizen Matters is happy to announce the availability of our popular guidebooks for Bangaloreans in e-book form. Newshunt, the popular news app and Rockstand, the specialised e-book app—both are carrying our books. All our three guidebooks are available here. Buy e-books from Rockstand here Living in Bengaluru 2.0 Buying, Investing and Renting Property in Bengaluru Get to Know Bengaluru Better Buy e-books from Newshunt here Living in Bengaluru 2.0 Buying, Investing and Renting Property in Bengaluru Get to Know Bengaluru Better

Citizen Matters co-founder Meera K receiving Manthan award in New Delhi. Pic: Navya P K This is yet another feather in our cap—and your cap too! Your own web magazine for city and hyperlocal news, Citizen Matters, has won its sixth award in its sixth year. Support us today Oorvani Media, the company that publishes Citizen Matters, began its journey as an angel-investor funded startup. We are indebted to the original angel Bangaloreans who helped us develop this news magazine as a platform for hyperlocal news, between 2009-2013.Today our journalism is completely funded out of Oorvani Foundation, a non-profit charitable…

The Subramaniam Committee has prepared and submitted its report on amending environment and forest-related laws. The leaked report, a copy of which is with Citizen Matters is uploaded below. It can be recalled that this committee walked out of a public hearing in Vikasa Soudha in Bengaluru last month, when green activists threw many questions about the mandate of the committee and other issues. The main hearing did not take place,though there were many other hearings that actually took place in Bengaluru. If you have anything to say about the report, do comment below the article, or mail us expressing…

  Bengaluru this week December 4th 2014     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!     We’re glad to inform you that your community news magazine, Citizen Matters, has made it to the shortlist of the Manthan Awards (South Asia and Asia Pacific), in the e-News and Journalism category. Our co-founder Meera K is presently in Delhi to attend the summit. In August 2014, we won the Manthan Award (South West India) in the same category. City news that matters And before the summary of our own stories, here’s a curation of the latest news…

  Ammu Joseph, veteran journalist based in Bangalore, highlights one of several contradictions in Bengaluru, on Facebook: "These photos were clicked and shared by a friend, who questioned the manager of the mall about this "public installation" outside, and was told that Marilyn is the fashion icon of New York City! So much for his knowledge of movie stars and fashion icons. But, even if she is/was, what has that got to do with a mall in Bengaluru? Not only the moral police, but the actual police and various other worthies in the city, have been waxing eloquent about "obscenity"…

Sometimes people do not encounter problems; but rather problems have a way of finding those who have the vision and resolve to make the world a better place. That’s what happened to Prateek Kaul and Prarthana Prateek Kaul, when they were working on an event with blind kids and had to struggle in order to arrange for appropriate gifts for them.  Prarthana and Prateek Kaul of GiftAbled Foundation at an event This made them think of what would happen if a sighted person wanted to give a card to a blind person. If it was a card with words, the…