City: Bengaluru

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah presented Karnataka State Budget on March 15th, 2017. Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB), a citizens movement in Bengaluru, has welcomed the focus in the budget given to solve the mobility issues Bengaluru is facing, while asking the government to work more on a mobility strategy for the city. A press note from CfB says: "We have noted that the CM is seeking to address the stressful issues of mobility that bother Bengaluru with more buses, expanded Namma Metro, commuter rail, improved roads, grade separators and short-span flyovers at junctions and better pedestrian facilities. The MOU with Railways &…

Air pollution has always been a mainstream concern with an underwhelming response towards remediating the situation. More recently, the interest has been re-ignited in India with several Indian cities having the highest levels of air pollution in the world. In addition, a report estimates over 650,000 deaths in India in 2015 due to outdoor (ambient) air pollution alone, and an even higher number due to indoor air pollution (1.2 million). These are only mortality estimates, and the impact on morbidity is a lot more widespread. News articles on air pollution and its impacts in Bengaluru are usually based on studies…

  Bengaluru’s air story is one of unchecked air pollution, ever increasing dust and air quality issues. Bengaluru's Airpocalypse: Air pollution Problems & Solutions is a workshop that brings experts to answer key questions like: What is happening to Bengaluru’s air? From vehicular smoke ro garbage burning... How has it impacted our children’s and our health? What are some of the government policies and actions that are having an impact on the quality of air? And what can we do - as individuals, and as a collective? The workshop is hosted by the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board and supported by…

Andalamma identifies herself as a 'Raitha mahile' and a 'Samaja sevike (social worker)'. She is a woman who 'may be physically old but is mentally strong'; She has done so many different things over the decades, from running a pre-primary school, an orphanage, and a full-fledged school (day care to 10th standard). She is a director in a factory, has started a Mahila Samaja and many stree shakti groups too. She has spent time in learning about mushroom cultivation and vermicompost; she also enjoys learning languages, and can speak and understand Malayalam and Bengali. Andalamma is currently involved in building…

This is the full text of Karnataka state budget speech - 2017-18. [embeddoc url="https://citizenmatters.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Karnataka-Budget-speech-2017-18.pdf" download="all"]

Bruhat Bengaluru Nagara Palike (BBMP) has its branches in every ward. They are called ward offices, and they will have the assistant engineers, junior health inspectors, work inspectors, garbage supervisors and all other important stuff related to your ward. So, you need to know where your ward office is, to get anything done from BBMP. To help everyone in Bengaluru who is searching for their ward office, Opencity.in is mapping the ward offices of all 198 offices of Bengaluru, through this form. Since the form involves collecting the location data, you might be prompted to share your location. You can…

The previous three stories in the Right to Education Act series revealed loopholes in the implementation of 25 per cent reservation under RTE - how the schools try to circumvent rules and parents fight to get free education to their wards. The last story in the four-part series reflects what the private unaided schools think about the 25 per cent reservation, and what are the challenges they face in the process. In one of the popular private unaided schools in Bengaluru, a software engineer whose monthly income is above Rs 1 lakh gets a free seat for his child under…

RJ Shruti was at the BBMP Head Office at Corporation Circle, the venue of the Pourakarmika strike, on Women's Day this year. The 'temporary' Mahila Powrakarmikas are currently taken on through a contract system and do not get any of the crucial benefits that 'permanent' workers get including the notified minimum wage of Rs. 14,040 per month. They are currently being paid in the range of Rs. 3000 to Rs. 6000 per month while also not getting any weekly or festival offs. The promises made by the government last year in this regard are yet to be implemented at ground…

Pic courtesy: Namma Bengaluru Foundation Namma Bengaluru Foundation hosted its flagship initiative – ‘Namma Bengaluru Awards’ (NBA) in Bengaluru today. NBA aims to recognizing, honouring and celebrating the efforts of Bengalureans for their unparalleled contributions towards the city, identified and honoured 6 ‘Real’ heroes of Bengaluru. Presided by Hon’ble Justice Shivraj Patil as the Chief guest and Smt. Thara Anooradha, National Award recipient and a politician as the Brand Ambassador, the evening saw the winners of the Eighth edition awarded in the following categories: - Jagannatha Rao for Government Official of the Year - Geetha Menon for Citizen Individual of…