Articles by Shree D N

The State Ministry of Forests, Ecology and Environment has assured that the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority will be reconstituted within a month and clearances given to the mixed development project coming up between the Bellandur and Agara lakes would be reviewed. The assurance was given in the meeting conducted by Upa Lokayukta, Subhash Adi on Friday January 17th 2014. The Member Secretary of Ministry of Forests, Ecology and Environment, Ramachandran who was also a part of the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority, was summoned to the meeting, to investigate the alleged irregularities by Mantri Developers on the land between…

The Lake division of Bangalore Development Authority has handed over the lakes under its supervision to respective zonal engineers of BDA. The north and south lake divisions have been closed down, and have been merged with the BDA's Engineering Department. A BDA official, who didn't want to be named, said that BDA's lake division had 123 lakes to look after, but only five engineers. These five had to manage the execution of restoration plans. They also had to oversee the protection of these lakes spread all over the city and take action against encroachers, which was practically impossible. Hence the…

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, B S Satyanarayana, Raghavendra Auradkar and other launching the BCLIP. Pic courtesy: BPACEven as the wannabe corporators were waiting for their incubation programme to begin, the main function hall at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan on Race Course Road, Bengaluru was filled with excitement. Bangalore Political Action Committee (BPAC, set up by like-minded people interested in better governance for Bengaluru, was all set to launch its ambitious programme Bangalore Civic Leadership Incubation Programme (BCLIP). The programme aims to train potential candidates for local government elections. Mayor B S Satyanarayana, Mayor, Deputy Mayor Indiramma and Raghavendra Auradkar, Police Commissioner, Bangalore…

The Government of Karnataka has issued the notification outlining the formation of Metropolitan Planning Committee (MPC). The long-awaited step has been taken very secretively, with no publicity to this anywhere. Not even the Urban Development Department website has displayed it; nowhere has it been kept for public discussion. The draft notification has been gazetted and published on November 7, 2013, with 15 days for public feedback on the issue - that is on or before November 22, 2013. Problems MPC is supposed to solve Right now Bangalore has too many planning authorities that sanction approvals and plan the land use.…

  The state assembly election held in May 2013 saw people in Bengaluru coming out in large numbers to vote. There were 67.71 lakh voters on the voter roll, while population was 97 lakh in Bangalore. Everyone praised this as an achievement of election commission. However, were the voter rolls totally problem-free? P G Bhat, who is a retired naval officer and software professional, also an activist working towards quality voter rolls for some years now, traces the recent problems in Bangalore’s voter rolls. The 27 constituencies of Bangalore had more than 66.83 lakh voters in April 2012. Then as…

Goddess of the occasion - Durga - a synthetic marble dollDolls of Sharada, Durga and Lakshmi made of Clay and PoPThere are too many dolls to choose from , mostly all traditional.Park items - trees and shrubs - made up of clay and PoPHanumantha meeting Rama with a message from SitaA part of Ramayana setRavana's courtDolls of Thirupathi god and goddessKrishna stealing clothes of Gopikas - a scene from Bhaagawatha - clay and PoP dollsCute students studying ABCD in school - dolls are not meant to be only traditional.‹ › $(document).ready(function(){ $('.carousel .carousel-inner .item').first().attr('class', 'active item');}); Click to view the…

September  25, 2013, 7 am. A team of 224 left Bangalore in five buses on route to Salem. The team was not an ordinary team - it had all bigwigs who govern the city. Whether segregation at source helps the cause of garbage management is an ongoing debate. There are people who feel it does help to manage garbage in sustainable way, while there are some who feel hundred percent segregation of waste is practically impossible, and garbage management is more important. Practically every city will have some amount of mixed waste. This needs to be tackled in a sustainable way…

Having exact change is the best way to avoid clashes with conductors. Pic: Shree D N She steps into a BMTC bus in some part of Bangalore; asks for ticket, paying Rs.100; conductor says he doesn't have change. Argument over change turns ugly, as she doesn't understand what the conductor is speaking in Kannada. Not able to control her anger, she slaps him. Result: She ends up in judicial custody, for assaulting the conductor. (Src: Bangalore Mirror) What Swati faced is a historical problem in buses everywhere in India - not just Bangalore. Bus conductors usually don't have change; some…

17:39:38 Water water everywhere! Pic: Shree D N It was while hurrying back from Vijayanagar to Malleshwaram that we happened to meet this ‘all-time high,’ ‘10-cm’ record rain for Bangalore. Such a rain is not new to me personally - it was a regular during my childhood days, in my village in Kerala. And trust me, there were no unwanted incidents or accidents there, due to rain, except for occasional breaking of Areca trees. Both my husband and I, though stuck in a traffic jam, were enjoying the rain, sitting in the car. After 20 minutes, I got the first…

Why did you enter politics, what's the motive?Since my college days I have been actively involved in social service and community work. The motive is to expand my area of social service and community work.Do you have any figures in politics / life whom you want to emulate?Smt. Indira Gandhi, for her contribution to our country in providing social equality, concern for the poor, and development plans under the twenty-point programme. Shivaram B K. Pic courtesy: bkshivaram.org What is your ambition?I see myself as people-friendly, being able to listen across cross-sections of society, and overall, to prove my leadership skills…