Bangalore's administrators have been long-accused of letting down the public. Cases abound from corruption in tendering to recklessness and negligence in execution of works. This month S Subramanya, BBMP Commissioner was transferred after a debacle over the washing away of a boy in a monsoon downpour. Just before that he was involved in a public spat with the head of the anti-corruption watchdog, Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde. Despite its status of a toothless tiger, the Lokayukta has still been able to deliver justice for complainants from the humblest of backgrounds - poor citizens who have been victimised or deprived…
Read morePrasun Bandyopadhyay is 35 and a senior scientist at a major multinational firm in the rapidly developing Whitefield area of Bangalore. He and his wife Punam, also a scientist, have two children and they live across the Whitefield Railway Station, in north-eastern Bangalore, beyond the Sai Baba Ashram. This is the extended Marathahalli-Whitefield road that goes north to intersect the Hosakote/Kolar highway. A number of private residential layouts have mushroomed here over the last few years. A whole host of young, as well as middle-aged professionals have started settling down here. The Bandyopadhyay couple, like many of their fellow-residents are…
Read moreIt was a quiet Saturday afternoon on the first of March this year that Citizen Matters, Bangalore's first online community news publication went live for the city public. The two of us at Oorvani Media, and Gokul Janga at Tecdost, our technology friends, had had a frantic week. March 1st was our final deadline, and we were not going to miss this. Working furiously at our keyboards, it was around 5.30 p.m, that we had addressed the last of the publishing wrinkles that were fighting for our attention, and gave the finishing touches for the launch version of www.citizenmatters.in. We…
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