Articles by Supriya Khandekar

After a long day of debates between candidates from Bangalore South and Bangalore North it was now Bangalore Central candidates’ turn to answer the public’s queries. The candidates looked tired at the end of a long day of campaigning.The event organised by Smart Vote and News9 on 14th April, at Sathya Sai Samskrutha Sadan, Koramangala, brought all candidates contesting for Bangalore Central on one dias. Candidates present included Dr HT Sangliana (INC), Vijay Raja Singh (BSP ), K Uma (SUCI), JD Elangovan (Indian Justice Party), Vijaya Bhaskar N (Independent). PC Mohan (BJP) and Zameer Ahmed (JDS) were absent.The session started…

On Wednesday, 15 April at 6:30 AM, I left for Lalbagh. Not for a morning walk, but to meet Captain G R Gopinath, the famous founder of Air Deccan and now an independent candidate from the Bangalore South constituency for the Lok Sabha elections. Gopinath was having a Yoga session that morning and his team had scheduled my meeting after the session, at 7 AM. Capt Gopi at the Press Conference - Announcing the kite as his election symbol (Pic courtesy: votecaptaingopi.com) As I was waiting, I could see most of Gopinath’s supporters and campaigners were in the age group…

"Downturn is like baptism with fire. The day I surrendered my ID card, I was really down. It was a long day," expresses Suhas (name changed). Twenty-two year old Suhas started working with Sasken, a leading Bangalore-headquartered communications solutions technology company, in August 2008 as a fresh graduate. By the time he finished his six months training for his position as software engineer, the economic slowdown had hit his company. "The trouble started in October, bad news started pouring in. We were under constant apprehension. We thought we would go in December. In December, the firm started firing senior people.…

Water | Health Summer’s here, and so is crisis season. Every year, officials say power cuts and water issues will not plague Bengaluru but each summer the situation remains the same. And if all this were not enough, the heat and humidity of summer bring with it its own problems. Citizen Matters spoke to government officials to find out what people can expect on the power-water front and also to some doctors on how to combat seasonal ailments. Uninterrupted power…what’s that? "I have to depend on the generator as there are untimely power cuts. My business is getting affected. This…

11th May 2008. Heaps of mud, broken dividers with mud all over, main road dug up, traffic badly hit and people anxiously waiting to see things change. This was the intersection of J P Nagar's 15th Cross Ring Road, a critical artery in south Bangalore, and the 24th Main Road, and the scene of a magic underpass construction. The notice board put up by Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) mentioned that the construction will finish by February 2009. Eight months later, the scene looks exactly the same. 15th cross-ring road intersection dug up (Pic: Supriya Khandekar) The magic seems to…

A list of the most sought after locations in Bengaluru would be incomplete without Koramangala. While on the one hand it offers various residential options for a growing city, it is also home to long time residents and their posh bungalows with lush green gardens. But now there’s an unsavoury element to this area. For the past few weeks, some of the residents in Koramangala have been complaining of an unusual series of incidents. “Two people, Nagaraja Reddy and his associate Raja, are introducing themselves as professional gardeners on contract with the BBMP. They induce residents to get manure from…

“When was Citizen Matters launched?” was my deliberate question to our editor. I wanted to know why we have forgotten this important date (It's March 3rd 2008). “Well there are so many dates… umm umm…why… well ya March 3rd…” the enthusiasm in this answer was overwhelming. Yes of course it has to be, just that it was unlike my expression: It is our First Anniversary!! We are 1 year and 15 days old magazine!! It’s a moment to celebrate and it’s a date to be remembered.For all of you who are reading Citizen Matters religiously (or even irregularly), we have…

What could be a better start to a bright Sunday morning than visiting a lake? Unless you end up looking at a stretch of water full of decaying garbage and have to inhale the resultant stink. This was the case of Agara Lake, near HSR Layout, in south-east Bangalore. Once known as a beautiful water body with chirping birds, over a period of time it was transformed into a garbage dump. Recently, however, the lake got a welcome makeover when an annual cleaning drive was organised. Held on 15th February, the cleaning drive, led by Major Pramod Kapur, President of…

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike(BBMP) website now has the handbook of property tax and list of helpline centers (where one can go and pay the taxes). Illustration: Narasimha Vedala The Taxes can be paid at the Citizens Service Centre at the BBMP headquarters and the helpline centres (usually the ward offices in various locations) and specified banks. BBMP has not provisioned for citizens paying at the Bangalore One centres. They explain that it is because people do not give correct details of their property. “Now we will check if all the details are fine and cheaters can be caught,” says…

  Now here is an Example Suppose you have a property in the city that fell into tax Zone E, your tenanted area is 450 sq ft and self occupied area is 950 sq ft then following will be your tax calculation: Gross Unit Area Value - Rs 22200.00 Depreciation Amount -  Rs 5328.00 (the depreciation is of 24 per cent) Net Unit Area Value - Rs 16872.00 Property Tax - Rs 3374.40 Cess (24 per cent) - Rs 809.86 Total Property Tax - Rs 4184.26 Rebate of 5 per cent - Rs 3975.00 (If paid in full on or…