City: Bengaluru

"I'm doing what I want. I feel like, after marriage, however my life will be, I will not have regrets for not having enjoyed life in my 20s. I will never have to think that 'my life was so dull and so boring'. I can be happy thinking I have (at least) enjoyed life when I was single." Meet Manwara, 26, an MBA graduate, working in a well-known IT firm in Bengaluru. Manwara and her friends Deepthi (25), Sandhya (30) and Ruchika (28) live in a paying guest accommodation in South Bengaluru. They come from different parts of India, and…

  Bengaluru this week March 4th 2016     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!     As we launch our fundraiser next week, please share your feedback in this quick 5 second survey! We promise to take you seriously and improve Citizen Matters even more! Take the survey >> Run for money! 71 days to go - we have a friend of Citizen Matters who will be running the TCS World 10K, and raising funds for Oorvani Foundation. Are you participating too? Would you also help us in raising funds? Please mail us >> This week's highlight:…

An article on New York Times says 2015 was the hottest year on earth so far. Just as 2015 made way for 2016, we have another article from Washington Post that says February 2016 was the hottest month for entire Earth! What’s going on? Is global warming coming true? What was it like, in Bengaluru? This February had one of the warmest days in its history February 23rd, 2016, recorded a maximum temperature of 35.5 degree C, which is the highest temperature in Bengaluru for February since 2005. However, all-time record for February goes to a day in 2005. According…

My Dear Friends and Fellow Bengalureans, Warm (or perhaps ‘fiery’) greetings from me. Possibly, I do not need an introduction. Nevertheless, for those who still don’t know me: I’m the disrepute of Bengaluru - the frothy, foamy, toxic-filled, foul-smelling Bellandur Lake, which many claim has put Namma Bengaluru to shame on international landscapes. This would make for a pretty picture if we didn't know the reality. Pic: Sanchayan Nath Let me say, I owe this claim-to-fame to: The city’s mindless administrative machinery Unlawful encroachers All those who consider dumping waste (solid, liquid or industrial) in my waters their birth right!…

If you are a women, the chances are that you have been at the receiving end of sexual harassment in some form or the other; being groped on a moving bus or being catcalled at, or even being made to listen to sexist jokes. Unfortunately, what happens in most cases is that women accept it as a sad reality of living in India. And unless the assualt is severe, very few women actually come forward to report it to the police. According to Amnesty International, only 1 in every 100 women reports sexual violence. Pic: readytoreport.in/WhenIFileAnFIR To empower women to…

On the fourth of every month I need to commute from north to south Bengaluru, to unlock my gate for the BESCOM meter reader and collect my monthly bill. The fourth of each month also happens to be designated as bus day by BMTC to encourage citizens to take to public transport to ease traffic snarls on our jam-packed roads. Although I know the rationale underlying the bus day initiative, this is why we commuters abhor bus rides. 1) We waste time, lots of it, and today time is precious. Just covering 14 km, from Sanjaynagar in the north to…

It has been five and a half months since the third time corporator from Congress, B N Manjunath Reddy took charge as the Mayor of Bengaluru. With BBMP budget round the corner and news of property tax hike after seven years making the rounds, the Mayor speaks about some of the issues in BBMP and clears his stand on certain things, in an exclusive interview with Citizen Matters amid his busy schedule. Just six months are left for your term to end. So what is that one thing that you would like to be remembered for as a Mayor of…

I enjoy taking groups of people on nature and bird walks. So, when my friend Vaibhav Chaudhury, who’s involved in many social initiatives, called me to help him guide the residents of a gated community on a bird walk in Madiwala kere, I was very happy to do so. So off we went to the kere at 4pm. I first got a photo of him with the bird board that Brickwork India had put up. The photos of the waterfowl are all by him and Dr Sanjeev Managoli, a paediatrician who manages to follow his passion for birds and contribute…

B.PAC submitted its strong objections to BESCOM’s proposal for increase of electricity tariff for FY-17. TV Mohandas Pai, Vice President and Revathy Ashok, CEO and Managing Trustee, B.PAC made the submissions to the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) during the public hearing conducted by KERC on Friday February 26th 2016. Following are the highlights of B.PAC’s submissions.  Capital Expenditure CAPEX for FY15 has nearly doubled – The sanctioned budget was Rs 763 crore, whereas actual CAPEX has increased to Rs 1474 crore in 2014-15. This amounts to an increase of Rs 711 crore. Such a significant increase in unplanned CAPEX…

While the jury is out on the third Union Budget by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, one aspect stands out: it brought little news, either good or bad, for cities. However it is important to note that budgets are not essential for the city level expenditures. The provision relevant for cities such as public health, land tenures, local government, etc fall under the State List of Indian Constitution. In the case of Bengaluru, it is the Karnataka State budget or the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike budget that has more impact on the ground than the Union Budget. Having said that, the…