Articles by News Desk

The third edition of the organic gardening event, Oota from your Thota (OfyT) will be held on Sunday, January 8th at Electronic City. The event is to support aspiring gardeners grow gardens in their homes. An introductory workshop on organic terrace gardening will be held, along with a special session on waste management and composting practices. A mela is also planned for sale of plants, seeds, garden tools, compost, organic food, ecofriendly cloth bags etc, along with an open forum for discussions.The event is supported by NGO Garden City Farmers Trust (GCFT) and Apna Complex. Citizen Matters is media partner…

Measures taken by BBMP to collect property tax above 1 lakh rupees from defaulters are being effective, especially the Drum Beating Program and announcement of defaulters names in various media. Bagmane Tech Park has paid 10 crore rupees of overdue property tax. Many other organizations and individuals are also taking this issue of paying the tax seriously even before BBMP issues notices and arrives in front of their buildings with the drum beaters to save themselves from embarrasment. BBMP Press Release dated 3 Jan 2012 ⊕

BBMP has decided to allocate a certain time for public grievances keeping in mind the productivity and security of BBMP staff during working hours. Hence visiting hours between 3pm to 5pm is dedicated to public grievances in all BBMP offices. The staff will not attend to public during the other working hours. This is as per the notification issued on 2-1-2012. ⊕

As per BBMP Commissioner's instructions, a lot of unauthorised OFC cables have been identified and immediately removed in BBMP's South, East and Mahadevapura Zone. The particulars are as follows: Zone Date Total length of OFC cable removed South Zone Vijaynagar and Gali Anjaneya Temple area 23-12-2011 24-12-2011 8,865 meters East Zone 27-12-2011 29-12-2011 1,218 meters 758 meters Mahadevapura Zone 29-12-2011 21,500 meters Total length    32,341 meters    ⊕

Residents of 4th Block and 5th Block Jayanagar, Bangalore have written to Dr V S Acharya, Minister for Higher Education, and S Suresh Kumar, Minister for BWSSB on their problems with BWSSB's rules on Rainwater Harvesting (RWH) and the deadline of December 31st. They write: Dear Sir,We would like to bring the following facts to your notice, and request that you use your good offices to safeguard the interests of the general public of Bangalore City.As we all know, Bangalore Development Authority has obtained the legislative sanction to allot sites to all residents of Bangalore who have paid the value in…

Construction wastes and unwanted materials on pedestrian footpaths have been creating a hindrance to vehicular traffic and do not present a pretty picture of the city. BBMP had already made several requests to the public not to dispose of the construction material remains on footpaths and drains. Penalty was imposed when people were caught red-handed disposing the construction materials. But in spite of all this the bad practice has continued. Hence BBMP has identified about 20 unused quarry pits around the city where the people can leave construction waste. The following are the places identified: K.R Puram       - Haralooru…

Domestic workers protest. Pic: Navya P K An appeal from DWRCDear Sir/Madam, We are working closely with the Labour Department and will be collecting the data to enrol workers for RSBY health insurance. Our organisation is also part of the National Advisory Committee (NAC) task force on domestic workers at the centre and working on the draft policy for domestic workers. We request concerned Resident Welfare Associations for support and give us permission to collect the details, fill up the forms for the RSBY scheme. We have to complete our process by December 31st. -Geeta MenonDomestic Workers Rights Collective (DWRC)…

Starting with the holiday weekend of December 24th-25th, OfferGrid, a distribution network for service and product deals for publishers is powering local deals on Citizen Matters, Bangalore's interactive newsmagazine. Deals from over 17 categories ranging from health care and dance classes to dining and education are available for nearly 24 localities in Bengaluru, at the time of launch on December 24th. All major major localities such as Jayanagar, Indiranagar, Koramangala, Malleshwaram, etc, are covered. The deals are available for readers on the Citizen Matters home page, article pages, events pages and more. Launched in Q3 2011, OfferGrid Exchange is the…

Residents of Raja Rajeshwari Nivas apartment complex in Bommanahalli, had decided to dig two borewells to sort out the seven-month long water problem. But when the work started on Monday, they were in for a rude shock. Some goons landed there with weapons demanding the work be stopped. They threatened the residents and broke the glass windows in order to convince them they don't need to dig the borewell. Bommanahalli is off Hosur Road just south of the Silkboard intersection.  Police constable stands vigil as the borwell digging continues Pic: Padmalatha Ravi. Residents allege that Mohan Reddy, a local water…

Road is to be widened for 3.3 kms between Yeshwanthpur circle (NH4) and Cauvery junction in Bellary road (NH7), via CNR Rao circle, Maramma Temple circle, Sankey tank road and Bhashyam circle. The entire stretch would be made a six-lane road of 30 m width. BBMP will cut 501 trees and acquire 27,590 sq m of land during the project. Total project cost is around Rs 33 cr. BBMP held a Bhoomi Pooja for Sankey road widening on December 7th. Last week High Court had given BBMP the go-ahead for widening. Pic: BBMP Work on the stretch is divided into…