City: Bengaluru

P C Mohan has emerged as the winner again from Bangalore Central parliamentary constituency, scoring a hat-trick. Bangalore Central comprises eight assembly constituencies – Rajajinagar, Chamrajpet, Gandhinagar, Shivajinagar, Shantinagar, Sarvagnanagar, CV Raman Nagar and Mahadevapura. The majority of voters in this constituency are linguistic and religious minorities. Large slums, the Central Business District, gated communities in newer areas like Bellandur and Whitefield, are all part of Bangalore Central. The voter turnout in the constituency was only 45.34 percent this election. Mohan won the seat with 50.35 percent of the vote share, which accounted for over six lakh votes. Rizwan Arshad…

An RSS swayamsevak and lawyer at the Karnataka High Court, 28-year-old Tejasvi Surya is the winning candidate from Bangalore South constituency. Known for being the General Secretary of the Karnataka state Yuva Morcha, Surya has also been part of BJP’s national social media team. He is also the nephew of Ravi Subramanya, the BJP MLA from Basavanagudi. Bangalore South parliamentary constituency is a BJP stronghold. For the longest time, it was held by six-time MP late Ananth Kumar. The seat had remained vacant since Kumar's demise last November. It was widely reported that BJP’s national leadership had chosen Surya over Ananth…

D V Sadananda Gowda of Bharatiya Janata Party has retained his Bangalore North seat, becoming an MP for the fourth time. Gowda got 8.2 lakh votes or 52.83 percent of the total votes polled. His closest rival, Congress candidate Krishna Byre Gowda - MLA and Minister in Karnataka’s ruling coalition - trailed behind Gowda by over a lakh votes. Sadananda Gowda had handled three portfolios in the Modi cabinet - Minister of Railways, Minister of Law, and eventually Minister of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Straight match Bangalore North has been BJP’s stronghold since 2004. Sadananda Gowda had won the 2014 elections…

Holidays and broke teenagers don’t quite fit together, more so during summer. With the scorching heat and sweat dripping down our faces, getting annoyed was pretty easy. Bengaluru certainly made living easier in some ways, but not if you weren’t ready to pay for it. Every time I wanted to catch a movie, I’d pay Rs 150 or 200 at a single-screen theatre because I couldn’t pay up for a multiplex. So was my story with Rex theatre in Brigade Road. 'Logan' had just come out, starring Hugh Jackman as Wolverine for the last time. Despite not having followed or…

Over 200 home buyers across the state participated in a protest at the Town Hall on May 18th, demanding proper enforcement by the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) in Karnataka. The protest was organised by the Forum for People’s Collective Efforts, Karnataka Chapter (known earlier as Fight for RERA), in association with the Namma Bengaluru Foundation, Bangalore Apartments' Federation, Federation of Apartment Associations Bengaluru, and various Resident Welfare Associations and organisations across Karnataka. The protesters said that Karnataka RERA (KRERA) has not taken any stringent action even when its own judgements were not honoured by erring builders and developers. There…

Bengaluru is the second city in India, after Mumbai, to have Dry Waste Collection Centres (DWCCs). Since 2012, BBMP has been setting up these centres in the city. While 198 DWCCs have been sanctioned for Bengaluru, 166 are functional, with capacity ranging from 0.5 to 4.5 tons a day. DWCCs are operated with the participation of waste-pickers and informal waste collectors. Thirty three DWCCs that are operated by waste-pickers, are supported by the NGO Hasiru Dala. These 33 DWCCs have special orders to engage in the bi-weekly collection of dry waste directly. DWCCs were set up to provide decentralised dry…

Miyawaki is a technique pioneered by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, that helps build dense, native forests. The approach is supposed to ensure that plant growth is 10 times faster and the resulting plantation is 30 times denser than usual. It involves planting dozens of native species in the same area, and becomes maintenance-free after the first three years. This article shares the basic steps to create such forests in small urban spaces, as small as 30 square feet. This guide is an abridged version of the DIY guide shared by Afforest, a service provider for creating natural, wild, maintenance-free, native…

KSPCB action against 331 establishments The Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) has slapped notices and cases against 331 industries, establishments, apartments and utilities for flouting sewage and effluent treatment norms. These establishments will be monitored for their compliance with green norms. A penalty formula under the ‘polluter pays’ principle will also be prepared against them. The establishments had been inspected by the KSPCB based on an August 2018 order by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which in turn was following up on a Supreme Court order. KSPCB has inspected 5656 plants in the state over the past six months,…

Bimal Desai has been a one-man army protecting much of what we see of Cubbon Park. The 14 cases he filed over the last two decades ensured that night-time traffic was banned in the park and encroachments were kept at bay. But one of his learnings while he was fighting the system over the years, was that you can't always win. So while he continued his legal battles, Desai decided to parallelly start greening the city to compensate for its lost green cover. Using the Miyawaki method, he has created eight patches of forests in his house, which is set…

Bengaluru is known for its high levels of citizen activism, but low level of citizen participation in elections, the most important instrument of democracy. The trend continued this Lok Sabha election too. However, some apartment societies did a lot of work to buck this trend and improve the voter turnout. One such society was ours - Prestige Shantiniketan in Whitefield. With 3000 flats, 12,000 residents and more than 2000 registered voters, we are a powerhouse in terms of voter numbers, and we did everything to make sure we had a high voter turnout this election. To start with, we had…