Articles by Pavan Kulkarni

The land abutting Sankey lake where an apartment from Mantri Developers is proposed to come up. Pic courtesy: Google Earth No one will miss the pristine forest area abutting Sankey Tank in Malleshwaram, just next to Aranya Bhavan, the State Forest Department building. The cool water in the lake and the woods nearby make the place a walkers’ paradise, with the chirping birds and thriving vegetation. This sight, it looks like will not last longer, with the Karnataka Government losing its appeal in the High Court against the land transaction and the owner of the land ready with a development…

Various citizen groups get together to protest the construction of Mantri Apartments near Sankey lake. Pic: Pavan Kulkarni On Sunday morning, May 3rd, over 250 residents of Malleshwaram and Sadashivnagar area marched around the Sankey lake on the walking path, shouting slogans and holding placards, denouncing the Mantri Developers that is likely to constructed an apartment beside the lake and demanding that the Sankey lake be saved. Sankey Walkers association, Malleshwaram Swabhimana Initiative (MSI), Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF), Sadashivnagar Residents Welfare Association, Citizen’s Action Forum (CAF) and a number of other organisations came together to form a Save Sankey Forum…

KSTC bus on its way to Hassan. Pic: Pavan Kulkarni Anticipating that a large number of people will travel outside and into the city over this weekend on account of Friday being an off for May-day, KSRTC has arranged 30 additional buses for the three-day period between 30th April and 2nd May. These buses will operate from Mysore Road Bus Station, Basaveshwara Bus Station Peenya, Vijaynagar TTMC, Ganganagara, Malleshwaram 18th Cross bus stand and a number of other pick up points. However, not all buses have been reserved so far, and only if there is a demand for more, these…

Hosur Road tops the chart in fatal accidents. The highway extending from Kudlu gate to Huskur gate near Electronic City, saw the highest numbers of accidents resulting in spot deaths in Bengaluru over the last three years. Citizen Matters tried to understand why the accident rate was so high on Hosur Road and what was being done to improve the situation, and hit upon many interesting facts. National Highway hinders city’s traffic 36 out of the 55 fatal accidents in 2014, have occurred on Hosur Road. The area falls under Electronic City Traffic Police limits. The fence between the service…

A butcher at the Murphy Town market showing off his skill with a cleaver. Pic: Pavan Kulkarni Murphy Town market, along with Johnson market and Russell market, may be officially declared as heritage structures in the near future. Professor Gitanjali Rao, the director of Art, Architecture, Design Environment Consultants (AEDI), a Hubli-based organisation designated by the Archaeology Department with the task of preparing a list of heritage structures in Bengaluru, has confirmed to Citizen Matters that Murphy town market is one of the 800+ entries in their initial inventory of heritage structures in Bengaluru. However, operating under tight time constraints,…

The period of relief for people in Bengaluru using vehicles registered out-of-the-state is over, as the High Court has ruled that the stay on collecting taxes is not applicable to all. On April 8th, the High Court limited the stay on collecting lifetime taxes till further orders, applicable only to the petitioner of the on-going case that contested the tax levied on a particular petitioner. This has in effect vacated the unofficial stay on the collection of lifetime taxes from vehicles registered outside Karnataka, traveling in this state for more than 30 days. The order issued by the High Court…

It is terrible to know of people losing lives in accidents. What if we know which areas are accident-prone? We could try avoiding those routes, or at least be careful while passing through the area. In this background, Citizen Matters tried to compile a list of top ten areas that are most accident-prone in Bengaluru. We also tried to understand why the accidents are more at these places and what is being done to solve the problems. We took into consideration the total number of accident cases over the last three years to come up with top 10 list. Over…

Gurudas Sivadas, a resident of 8th block Koramangala in Bengaluru, received a call from an unknown number (84689 38330), one day. A woman told him that his late father, who had expired in 1997, had left behind a life insurance policy, with him as the nominee. He was asked to claim the amount in the policy, Rs 145,580, on the same day from Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), failing which the money would be transferred to the government account, as the delay in making the claims was too long. When Sivadas said he would seek advice from one of…

Debris left behind after demolition of Malleswaram Market. Pic: Pavan Kulkarni Heaps of rubble are piled high over the land where the almost half century old Malleswaram market thrived till a few months ago. There were days when this place used to be scented by garlands of fresh vibrant flowers hung outside the numerous shops, patronised by loyal customers for its wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Some shopkeepers have been rehabilitated in temporary shops built along the storm water drain next to the market that used to be spread over 2.08 acre of land. Some shopkeepers who had not been rehabilitated have set…

Licence for operating a sewage treatment plant can now be renewed once in five years. Pic: Satarupa Sen Bhattacharya Now, apartment management committees don’t have to trudge to the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) once in every two years, to renew their licence to operate sewage treatment plants (STPs). Industries have to renew their licence to operate only once in five years. This is the result of the KSPCB’s recent decision to eliminate extra paperwork and make the processes user-friendly. In a move perceived to be industry-friendly, the KSPCB has decided to extend the minimum consent period for operation…