City: Bengaluru

The aim of amendments to the Karnataka Private Medical Establishment (KPME) Act was to ensure protection of patient rights/citizens’ interests and bring in much needed transparency and accountability in private medical establishments. We welcome the government’s move to table the KPME amendments in the assembly. The Bill includes certain key pro-patient provisions but certain others have also been watered down to placate the private hospital owners. These changes to the Bill are proof of how the private hospital lobby was able to hold the government to ransom. We take strong objection to a closed door meeting between the private hospital…

I was following the articles posted about Mayors of other cities outside of India, and how as Mayor of their city they could achieve a lot. Of course, the lingering question is, are we really comparing apples to apples? Does the Mayor in our country have the similar responsibility and authority like a Mayor in a Philadelphia OR New York City? So here are my practical reasons why I would NEVER want to be Mayor of Bengaluru, it is almost as close or worse than being the Chief Minister of Delhi! There’s a saying in kannada, ಆಟಕ್ಕೆ ಉಂಟು ಲೆಕ್ಕಕ್ಕೆ ಇಲ್ಲ…

Residents living near Shivananda Circle in Bengaluru have decided to protest once more on November 25th, against the 310-metre grade separator planned on Hare Krishna Road that connects Race Course Road to Sheshadripuram. The grade separator for which work has begun already, will start after the Railway Over Bridge near the petrol bunk and will end in front of the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce. The residents have been sounding alarm bells with petitions and protests for a long time now. On Saturday November 18th, residents from various Resident Welfare Associations including Kumara Park East, Srikanthan Layout, Kumara Park West,…

Two years ago, many of us came together with an idea - to save the local lake that we lived near. The situation was dire. Rachenahalli Lake located near Srirampura Cross, Jakkur, Bengaluru, like many other water bodies in the city, is part of an interconnected system both upstream and down. Though the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) had spent a substantial sum of public money to rejuvenate it about eight years ago, it had turned into a drain for the sewage water being released by the upscale apartments that surrounded it. The situation had taken a turn for worse because…

Last Friday, my visit to a friend’s place was reminiscent of a typical journey that most of us are so accustomed to in Namma Bengaluru. Meandering through the famed Brigade Road in order to connect to Bannerghatta side of the city, it took a good 15 minutes just to cross the stretch of 200m. As we crossed the signal, we couldn’t see an apparent reason for the delay in moving across the street. There are no feeder streets coming onto this road to cause any conflict in the flow. On further introspection it can be realised that the real culprit…

If I were the Mayor, I would let data and metrics shape the future of the city. The city has grown exponentially and beyond the expectations of everyone to a point where it is becoming unmanageable. Well, as Peter Drucker famously said: You can't manage what you can't measure. If you can't measure it, you can't improve it. The above would be my mantra to improve this city. Everybody has been saying there is no planning, but the intent to improve it has been very few. Unfortunately,for long amounts of time, there is hardly any data that is made available…

Garbage is a major crisis that Bangalore, as a city faces everyday. The city produces around 4,000 tonnes of waste every day. Adarsh Rhythm apartments located off Bannerghatta Road is one of the few communities in Bangalore that started following best practices in Waste Management way back in 2011. With 300+ families living in the community, it started off as an effort by a group of dedicated resident volunteers to manage the waste generated by the community responsibly.  The community has achieved more than 90% segregation at source by the residents. Waste is segregated into the following categories at household…

Citizen Matters had published a story 'Bengaluru on poll mode: Get registered as voter for 2018 elections'. But unfortunately, CEO-Karnataka website is a mess and the authorities are defensive. Even when you use their URL, it takes you to some other site or gives 404 error. Only Kannada version of the new rolls is published. They are CAPTCHA-protected and are image files. Even if we download them after entering CAPTCHA, we cannot search for data in the file. Extraction is difficult. I have to work on the task once I get the English version. I cannot find my section (the…

The Karnataka High Court in an order issued during the court hearing on Friday, November 10th, 2017, said that solid waste should be managed at the ward level in the city of Bengaluru. This order was delivered by a bench of the Karnataka High Court in the ongoing case - WP 46523/2012 (Environment Support Group & Ors v. Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike & Ors connected with WP 24739/2012 and other Public Interest Litigations that are being heard by the Court since July 2012 in tacking the solid waste management crises). Ward committees were constituted across all wards in Bengaluru, in October…

A conversation from a few weeks ago: Paul : So, what was that ChukuBuku Beku thing about? You guys did that after the steel flyover beda, right? Me: That was to bring attention to the long-pending demand for suburban train service. We see local train as a great solution to our traffic woes and pollution. To make that point, more than a thousand of us took a train from Cantonment to Whitefield station to generate public support for the cause. Paul : Oh! interesting. Back in the day, we used to wear our suit-boot and take the train to Whitefield…