City: Bengaluru

  Hello again from Citizen Matters team! We’re back with our newsletter, to bring you more news and analysis. And our most popular story of the week - how this Sarjapur Road layout solved their water problems, with rainwater collecting, recharge, wastewater treatment and more. And they have no more need for water tankers! Read: Reaching water sustainability. The highlight: Why do schools hike fees? Pic: Shree D N After we look at what makes Bengaluru schools hike their fee, we know look at the other side. While there are schools that hike their fee arbitrarily, there are also schools…

Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has started the trial of smart cards in a small scale, after unveiling it in a press conference on June 14, 2016. It will take two months to complete the trial and launch the card in full scale, according to sources from BMTC. It can be recalled that BMTC Managing Director Ekroop Caur had revealed the plans for this card in an interview with Citizen Matters. There was also a plan to launch Intelligent Transport System (ITS). This was done last month, however there are a lot more buses left out of the ITS net,…

Hoarding displayed on one of the major roads of Bengaluru. Pic: Akshath G V In the first part, we explored why BBMP is not making any money from illegal hoardings. Next part of the series tried to explore why the unauthorised hoardings are not removed. This part will examine the efforts being made to set the system right. A few attempts were made in the past to modify the existing policies related to advertisement. Strangely, every attempt so far has gone futile and reformation moves just did not take off. While implementation of the existing policy is a different aspect,…

From taking water for granted, to discovering water scarcity and now managing water sustainably without depending on water tankers, our Sarjapur Road community is very different from the rest of the neighbourhood suffering from water problems. Rainbow Drive (RBD) is a gated community established in 1998-99. Till 2004, no meters in individual houses, water was supplied free. A few houses had private borewells for their own use. After the Residents' Welfare Association was formed in 2004, they started to meter the supplied water at a nominal charge to recover the operational cost. They also decided to ban the digging of…

Click to view the reports: Mathai’s 5th report on BBMP Advertisement issues Mathai’s 6th report on BBMP Advertisement issues Mathai’s 7th report on BBMP Advertisement issues Mathai’s 8th report on BBMP Advertisement issues

Last week, we covered the issue of many parents in Bengaluru protesting against the private schools hiking fees, which they say has doubled in last 4-5 years. But, is there another side to the story? Citizen Matters spoke to a few school managements and teachers. What are the costs involved in running a school? "It’s not just the maintenance expenses that the school managements have to bear, but the initial establishment cost too," says Dr M Srinivasan, Founder and Chairman of GEAR International School. For instance, he says, if a person had to buy two acres of land in a prime…

I needed that drink after just an hour out in the sun on Saturday morning near the Puttenahalli Lake, at Nataraj Layout in JP Nagar. More labour under what looked like a deceptively dull sky that morning and it quietly saps you. At that point, all resolutions incinerate instantly and the body rejects what appears like salad, fresh though it may be. Instead, the body wants to chill on a mat, or even better, on a seat with liquid much stronger. And voila! Nothing like the kind consideration of my fellow nationals in the thoughtful accompaniment of the glass with…

Let us first analyse what is Khaatha. It is just an account number allotted to property owners by BBMP so that property tax paid by them is credited to that particular owner's 'account'. It is in no way different from a Bank Khaatha (account in English). It is directly derived from the earlier Property identifcation number like Survey number or previous Khaatha number. After allotting Khaatha, BBMP Officials move further to assess the property tax which is dependant on the area (how developed the area of the property is), and sq ft area of the relative property. It is also…

BMTC is issuing the Students concessional pass for the year 2016-17 on a staggered time table to facilitate smooth and hassle-free issue of passes to the student community. The passes are now being issued for primary, secondary and high school students from 4th June, 2016 onwards.    43 pass counters spread across the city listed below will issue the passes. The counters will function from 8 am to 5 pm on all working days and remain close on Sundays and General Holidays. Pass Issue centers: Kempegowda Bus Station, Shivajinagar Bus Station, Kalyannagar Bus Station, Kengeri TTMC, Vijayanagar TTMC, Yeshwanthpura TTMC, Jayanagar…

The city faces urban floods every year, in rainy season. Here are the numbers you will need to get help, to clear the floods, to clear the fallen trees and to catch the reptiles that lose base and start scouting around in your locality. BBMP Control room numbers Centre nameNumberIPP Centre22660000BBMP office22221188, 22975595South Zone26566362East Zone22975803West Zone23561692Dasarahalli28393688, 22975904Yelahanka22975936Bommanahalli25732447, 25735642Mahadevapura28512300/01Rajarajeshwari Nagar28601851, 28600954 The names and numbers of snake catchers / BBMP wildlife volunteers Sl.  Name Zone Phone No 1Sharath Babu R West 98801088012Druvakumar R South 98862864613Surya Kumar M South 98451252314Mahesh Kumar Bommanahalli 99169689595Shashikumar M South 98450204986Arjun M South 99026004427Yatish U South 99166764208Akshay Kumar M South 98457355199Adil Arif Dasarahalli 988051082410Sreeram V South 966301500011Sanjeev P South 974208433512Vijayababu S South 997248799113Guru South 994515982914Deepak S West 988617939615Nagabhushan Mahadevapura 934124048216Shivaraj S R.R. Nagara 984412378817Spoorthy P East 984453003318Kumar R.R. Nagara 990279471119Saleem Hameed East 998621001520Abhishek S Byatarayanapura 963205050321Arun Kumar Byatarayanapura 900871956822Mohan K Dasarahalli 984508090323Manjunath P Bommanahalli 994523933724Rajesh Kumar M West 903611100725Jayaraj…