CITIZEN MATTERS
Bangalore’s own interactive newsmagazine
Speak up, it’s your city!  

Wish you a belated Happy Pongal/Sankranthi!

Citizen Matters got off to lovely start this week with business magazine, Livemint doing a feature on us. We were described as ‘a local news outlet for Bengaluru’. Read more here. 

City news that matters

Before we get into our stories, here is a short summary of what happened in the city.

• Defence Minister Manohar Parikkar wants HAL airport re-opened, on which he has written a letter to Civil Aviation Ministry. However, the agreement signed with BIAL in 2004 indicates that no airport can operate within a distance of 150 km, before 2029.
• BMTC gets national award for low accident rate. One more feather in Bengaluru’s cap!
• Traffic Police data reveals that 2014 was an year of lowest accidents, since 2005. While vehicle population is at all-time high, accidents have significantly reduced.
• HC asks BBMP to fine ward engineers if footpaths are not walkable or broken.
• Bharat Heavy Electronics Ltd has got an order of Rs 1200 crores from Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd, for a 370 MW gas-based power plant, which will come up in Yelahanka.
• After Bus Day and Cycle Day, Bengaluru gets set for Rail Day on February 4th, to encourage commuters to experience train travel and see if it makes a difference to their travel time.
• Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi is gearing up to open a Research and Development centre in Bengaluru by March-April 2015 at Cessna Business Park.
• Twitter has acquired the Bengaluru-based startup ZipDial, which is a mobile marketing platform.
• January 18th, coming Sunday, is Pulse Polio day. BBMP has geared up to carry out the Pulse Polio drive as usual.

This week’s highlight: Kere Habba 20BMTC yield to citizens’ demands

» BMTC has introduced the Chakra service, which will connect Whitefield in small local loops. BMTC also plans to increase the number of Big Trunk buses to the area. Many citizens of Whitefield worked with BMTC to make this happen. Read: Whitefield gets more buses.

Also read:

» Bus Day at Whitefield

» Ganga Madappa writes on what discourages her from using BMTC buses. Read: 10 reasons why she opts out of travelling by bus. 

Voter roll issues

» New errors in voter rolls: Some voters are named ‘AAA’ and ‘XYZ’. A voter named Rajan is renamed to Mohammad Saleem and Mohsina Begum becomes Mohan Raj. Hilarious as it may sound, this denies some voters the right to vote in BBMP elections. Read: Ghar Wapsi, Election Commission Style. 

Survey: How much are you paying for your water?

» How much do you pay for the water that comes to your home? Is it from BWSSB or a borewell or from tanker suppliers? Anirudh Rajashekar, a grad student from MIT and IIM-Bangalore are conducting a study to map out water tanker prices in Bangalore. This data will provide more transparency and inputs to water policy. Three lucky respondents to get four tickets each to PVR cinemas. Do take the survey: How much are you paying for water?

City matters

» BWSSB claims that sanitary charge is collected only from those apartments that don’t have private sewerage treatment plants. But there are apartments with independent STPs paying the charge. Read: The curious case of BWSSB sanitary charge collection.

» There are 58 Aadhaar Card enrolment centres in Bengaluru, of which 51 are Bangalore One centres. So if you’re looking to get an Aadhaar Card, here is the list of centres where you can get it done.

Bengaluru’s first Lake Festival

Children try to catch lake creatures during a workshop. Pic: Akshatha M

» The city’s first ever Kere Habba saw over 3,000 citizens gather at the Kaikondrahalli Lake premises. Nature walks, green workshops, story-telling sessions and more. Read: Bengaluru’s first lake festival.

Also read:

» Family run at Kere Habba 2015 

» Kere Habba – A green event

Clean up act

» The 2Bin1Bag campaign has now spread to over 50,000 households in the city. The campaign even has a new website now! Read about it and the recent Kere Habba in the Bellandur Buzz newsletter.

» Sruthi Krishnan from Fields of View takes a trip down memory lane to the time when her great-grandmother bottled pickles in ochre and white porcelain jars. While doing so, she also makes a valid point: Garbage is not so much about health, it’s more about being human.

The heroes among us

» Two participants of the B.CLIP program spearheaded a clean-up drive involving the community in Nagpura and Shivanagara wards. This is only the beginning they say. Read: Nagpura and Shivnagara wards get a facelift.

» YUVA recently showed appreciation and gratitude to 23 government officials on behalf of citizens of Yelahanka. Read: Citizens felicitate government officials.

Heritage

» Going on a heritage walk can throw up some delightful insights into Bengaluru’s history. Aruna L recounts her experience.  Read: A sneak peek into old Bangalore through a heritage walk.

Events this weekend

• Ainesh Madan, a New York-based performance artist will be performing Homage in Hybrid, a recitation on the pleasures and pains of living away from India on January 16th at Alliance Francaise.
• Bengaluru’s literary community will get together for Narratives of Violence, a series of discussions, readings and screenings at the IIHS City Campus from January 16th to 18th.
• Set a date with nature at this unique water workshop on interconnectedness of the earth’s water cycle with food to be held on January 17th. To register for the workshop, click here.
• Join Unhurried’s Food Walk in V V Puram to sample goodies from the legendary Thindi Beedi, VB Bakery and numerous other food outlets in the neighbourhood on January 17th.
• Kya Hai Ki, Kya Nai Ki: Dakhani–A Tongue Untied, a talk on Mizahiya Shayri, the tradition of comic-satire performance poetry in Dakhani is being held at Bangalore International Centre on January 18th.  
• Alliance Française is organising a screening of selected films that have made it to the shortlist of MyFrenchFilmFestival.com between January 19th and 22nd.
• Watch A Moment of Memory, an experiential performance based on personal encounters will be held at Shunya Space on January 23rd, 24th and 25th. Also read, Deepa Mohan’s review of the performance.

You can also have a look at the complete listing of events coming up in Bengaluru here. 

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