City: Bengaluru

Pic: BBMP   Full text of the BBMP budget speech 2016-17 presented by M Shivaraju, CHAIRMAN, TAXATION AND FINANCE COMMITTEE, BBMP, BENGALURU I heartily welcome all who are present in the Kempegowda Council Hall and I request your permission to present the Bruhath Bangaluru Managanagara Palike‟s Budget for the year 2016-17. Remembering with high gratitude, the great personality, the social reformer Sri. Basavanna, who was in the court of Bijjala during 12th century A.D. and made revolutions in Kalyana with his social justice, welfare of all. Transparency in his all walks, religious insight, with the greater responsibility of bringing in…

Venkatappa Art Gallery off Kasturba Road, Bengaluru. Pic: Shree D N Some people are a little confused why Karnataka artists are against the adoption of the state Venkatappa Art Gallery (VAG) by Tasveer Foundation to build MAP - Museum of Art and Photography, to house Abhishek Poddar's art collection. Artists have formed Vagforum (Venkatappa Art Gallery Forum) to oppose this move. MAP in VAG is being projected as god's gift to the Bengaluru's public. Let me explain our stand: Artists are not against the Museum of Art and Photography or MAP coming up in the city. But it should be…

  Bengaluru this week March 24th 2016     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!     You must have got our earlier mail with reason #2 to support Citizen Matters. If you missed that mail with the details of the Journalism Workshop for citizens on April 2nd, click here. This week’s highlight: How we can help farmers on the outskirts Chemical-free farming needs more efforts, hence costs more for a farmer. Pic: Shree D N At a time that we city dwellers in Bengaluru are getting affected by water problems, farmers on the city outskirts…

With the last date for receiving applications under Akrama Sakrama scheme having come to an end, the BBMP has received a lacklustre response from people willing to apply under the scheme. The number of applicants in entire BBMP limits is as low as 37, as on the last day - March 22nd, 2016. The State government introduced Akrama Sakrama scheme last year and gave a time frame of one year from March 23rd, 2015 to March 22nd, 2016, for people to apply seeking regularisation of unauthorised buildings. Thanks to the ongoing court battle, lack of publicity by the government authorities…

Lack of reliable irrigation schemes leads to agriculture land being unutilised. Pic: Shree D N March 22, 2016. No sign of good rains in near future. A farmer, Chandrashekharaiah, who has some land near Hesaraghatta, is worried about what he can do on his land, to reduce his water needs and get better returns. He used to grow paddy, millets and vegetables earlier. Now he is not concerned about food crops, because the effort and labour required is more than what he can earn from it. And he does not want to end up becoming yet another farmer who could…

Bengaluru is the IT hub of India, and most people here are becoming tech-savvy.  Bengaluru is today a global name, and with the changing stature of the city, the Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) too is striving to do its best.  Given the widespread use of technology, BTP has decided to use technology to serve citizens better. BTP frequently receives many complaints against auto drivers from the public—refusal to go on hire, demanding excess fare, misbehaving and other issues—through its various communication channels. In order to address citizens’ problems effectively, BTP has designed, developed and launched a mobile application called bSafe…

Growing up in Bengaluru for me has always revolved around the Cantonment - early morning walks under the tree-lined avenues towards Richards Park, eating Ritchies mutton biryani on MM road (back in the day when a plate was a meagre Rs 40), or buying weekly groceries from Thoms after Sunday mass. Historically, the Cantonment of Bengaluru dates back to the 18th century, specifically 1807, when the British defeated Tipu Sultan’s army and established themselves around the Ulsoor kere. The British established various typologies from large parks and shopping centres to parade grounds and schools, the most important being the colonial bungalow…

As it happens every year, Bengaluru got good amount of money this year too. Here's a look at the details. Bangalore Water Supply and drainage Board The following projects have been approved: • Water Supply and Underground Drainage Project for 110 villages coming under BBMP at a cost of Rs. 5018 crore approved with JICA loan. It includes components to reduce unaccounted for water of 180 MLD. • In addition to existing untreated water main pipeline, scheme for extending additional untreated Water Transfer Pipeline between Forbes Sagar to N.B.R and to extend up to T.K. Halli at an estimated cost…

The public consultations organised tree cutting for Metro Phase II in Bengaluru have been repeatedly cancelled due to lack of data and procedural lapses. Activists who were present in the Metro public consultation on March 11 demanded that the data on planted trees and the trees to be cut be made public. Namma Metro had uploaded the tree cutting data, however there was no map done by Namma Metro. This map has been created using the data provided in the BMRCL website. Click on the individual balloons to see the type of tree and cordinates. Here are the trees to…