City: Bengaluru

This document details about the struggle an apartment community had to face and eventually how they got the khatha. It also list out few suggestions for getting khatha faster and in a transparent way. The apartment falls in Mahadevpura constituency and Bellandur Ward in Kasavanahalli area. ARO office for the apartment complex falls in Marathahalli BBMP office and JC/DC office falls in Mahadevapura BBMP office. May 2015 i.We did the groundwork of understanding the khata process from Citizen Matters post, BBMP site and Sakala website. Below are the links that I referred. Citizen Matters article: Citizen Matters BBMP Site: http://bbmp.gov.in/khatha-services Sakala…

Man-hole cleaning. Pic: Thamate Munuswamy, hailing from Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu, and Jagannatha, hailing from Chittor district in Andhra Pradesh, died due to asphyxiation from lack of oxygen and an excess of methane gas while cleaning up a 15-foot man-hole in Doddaballapur on April 3rd 2016. They were working for a Hyderabad-based contractor firm, Raus Construction Pvt. Ltd., who had signed an agreement with the Doddaballapur Municipal Commissioner for providing the under-ground draining system in Doddaballapur. Seeing Munuswamy and Jagannatha suffocate, two youngsters from Doddaballapur, Madhu, a garment worker and Muniraju, an aquarium worker, tried to rescue them but…

BBMP, BDA, BESCOM, BWSSB, and other organisations should stop the practice of accepting deposits and payments from developers on behalf of home owners. Instead, they should set up a system by which the home owners can directly make the payments themselves, hassle-free. The current practice is leading to an ocean of black money. (a) Monies collected from home owners is often not paid at all to the utilities. (b) Monies collected from home owners is often far in excess of what is due to be paid to the utilities. (c) When money is not paid, the home owners are left…

City planning authorities who often come under fire for their decisions, are facing yet another accusation this time, for sanctioning a mega development project in an ecologically sensitive area. BDA has approved a private residential project in an area comprising valley and buffer zones in Varthur Hobli, while State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) have issued the environmental clearances. The residential project - Shriram Chirping Woods by Shrivision Homes Pvt Ltd - is under construction in an ecologically sensitive area between Kasavanahalli (Harlur) and Kaikondarahalli lakes in Varthur hobli. The area is a…

Citizen Matters had earlier reported that dengue cases in Bengaluru are severely under-reported, that the official dengue figures are only a fraction of the actual numbers. But when it comes to non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes, heart diseases, respiratory diseases etc., the situation is worse - these diseases are not tracked at all in the city. NCDs are now emerging as the leading cause of deaths in India, since communicable diseases like malaria and TB are under better control. But in Bengaluru, like in the rest of the country, no one is tracking them. Without data on these diseases, policy-making…

If you are a resident of Hagadoor, Muneshwara Nagar, Kumaraswamy Layout or a few other wards, it’s better you verify your name in the final electoral roll published by the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka. There are chances that you might have been “disqualified” from voting! Higher the chances of disqualification if your ward comes under Mahadevapura Assembly Constituency. Like every year, the office of the Chief Electoral Officer published the final electoral roll for the year 2016, on January 11th. Most of them might not have checked their names in the electoral roll after it was published, as election…

enter for Education Environment and Community, in partnership with Cycle For Cause, is organising a cycle rally, to celebrate World Earth Day and World Environment Day. Kicking off from Bengaluru on Earth Day, which falls on April 22nd, the group hopes to cover 30 district headquarters in Karnataka, including places in North Karnataka like Bidar, Raichur and Gulbarga, before returning to Bengaluru on World Environment Day, which falls on June 5th. During the course of the trip, the group is looking to promote reforestation by engaging with local organisations, colleges, individuals and government departments. The plan is to plant 60,000…

It’s a tiny single-room house nestled among similar dingy structures in a slum locality in Mangammanapalya. The house is located close to Hosur Road, which was an epicentre of garment workers' protests that took Bengaluru by storm when the Central government notified rules for Employee Provident Fund (EPF) restricting withdrawal of the PF till the age of 58. A cot placed on one side of the room occupies half the available space. On another corner is an old TV, the only source of entertainment. There is an open utensil washing-cum-bathing space at one end of the room and a kitchen…

Pic: Mayur Channagere If you are someone who rides a bike for more than four hours in Bengaluru every day, there’s a significant chance that you will develop Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). COPD, which makes breathing difficult, is a leading cause of disability and death globally; it is irreversible and worsens over time. The conclusion is from a study on 100 non-smokers in Bengaluru aged 25-40 years, who commute to work by bike. Given the worsening traffic jams in the city, the number of people riding bikes for over four hours per day could be quite high. But respiratory…

Summer Workshop: Journalism for Young Citizens Following the success of our Journalism Workshop for Citizens, we are happy to announce a special 2-day students' workshop on May 3rd and 4th, in partnership with Atta Galatta, the Koramangala bookstore. The workshop is ideal for young people (14-17 years), and will introduce them to the basics of news gathering, writing, photography. Encourage your teen or a young friend to sign up and gain insights into how the city works and how to use journalism to engage and solve problems. More info » Limited seats available, so register quick! This week’s highlight Time…