City: Bengaluru

  Bengaluru this week June 18th 2015     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!     Last week, we had featured the Under-23 Ultimate team and how for the first ever time, India was set to send a team to London for the Under-23 Ultimate Frisbee World Championships, provided they raised sufficient funds… And here’s the good news. The team has raised enough funds and will be making it to London! We wish them the very best. You can follow the team and their journey here: Team India U23’s long and hard road to London.…

A recent circular sent by the Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) directed apartments with Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) to adhere to certain parameters. This kickstarted a debate among apartment residents, as the BWSSB did not publish the circular on their website and there was no official communication on this to any of the apartments that have STP. The BWSSB circular issued by BWSSB Engineer-in-Chief on May 19th 2015 deals with two aspects: 1) Making it mandatory to use external additives like microorganisms for bio-culturing in STPs 2) Compulsory installation of single low cost ‘probe’, a sensor equipment, fitted…

 Women at the Dodda Maramma temple, waiting to see the other car processions. Pic: Perumal Venkatesan No celebration is complete without fireworks. Pic: Perumal VenkatesanA lady cooks sweet pongal (made using new rice and jaggery) inside the temple campus, to offer to the goddess. This is a common practise across amman (Mariamma) temples in Tamil Nadu too. Pic: Perumal Venkatesan The gully where processions carrying the four idols meet. From here they proceed to the Dodda Maramma temple for the Agni Kunda Puja. Pic: Perumal Venkatesan Young lads dance to the beat of the tamte vaathya. Pic: Perumal Venkatesan Karagattam…

The BDA tender makes it mandatory to leave some space to make the skywalk path visible from beneath the road. Pic: Shree D N The Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) wants to improve pedestrian experience on Outer Ring Road by building 25 skywalks. However, the plan has hit a deadlock, after there were no bids or expressions of interest put up by anyone for the tender to construct 23 of these. Jayashankar Reddy, Executive engineer, BDA, told Citizen Matters that no applications were made for the tenders the BDA had called for, to construct pedestrian these pedestrian skywalks. The BDA plans…

Touts stopping non-KA registered vehicles opposite Kadugodi police station on June 8th 2015. Pic: Waseem Memon   Dear Sir, At the outset, let me express my sincerest thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to meet me in Nagpur on May 17th 2015. You gave me a patient hearing and assured me that my concerns with regards to freedom of movement of motor vehicles across all states, shall be addressed in the New Motor Vehicles Bill to be tabled soon in the Parliament. While we may still be able to Drive Without Borders across states, I believe we…

Of whom are you? Who are you? Whence have you come?                                                                                                                 - Śamkara bhagavatpāda, “Moha-mudgarah” The roots of people are not always clear. Sometimes, it is quite all right for things to be that way. Nothing much is gained by knowing the facts as they seem…

A US-based non-governmental organisation and a Bengaluru-based engineering firm have prepared a Vision Plan for restoration and regeneration of lakes in Bengaluru. The Vision plan titled ‘Better Lakes, Better Bangalore’ advocates a “sustainable water supply plan for Bangalore.” Curiously, many of the stakeholders mentioned in the report have denied involvement in preparing the report. Bengaluru-based engineering consultant firm Invicus Engineering, along with San Francisco-based non-profit organisation working towards water sustainability—Sherwood Institute and an engineering firm based in San Francisco, Carollo Engineering, had signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the BDA on November 6th 2012 to provide a Vision Plan for…

  Caregivers, housekeepers, maids, nannies, cooks or domestic help - call them by any name, domestic workers in the country are still in the fringes. Why, one may ask? The phrase ‘domestic work’ conjures images of household work associated domesticity – the one of cleaning and caring, and hence relationships that exist within this frame remain in the shadows. There has always been a gendered stigma attached to domestic work especially in India, and the work is always viewed through the lens of power and authority, submission and suppression Of memsahib, her maid and India’s colonial past “This can be…

Elderly people need security. Pic: Abhishek Angad Our nation is facing a crisis in ageing as we attempt to understand and prepare to meet the needs of millions of older adults, current and future. Public and private sectors are engaged in a dialogue to address the needs of a diverse ageing population; to promote their dignity and independence, and expand opportunities for current and future generations of older persons. In India, over 90 million people are above 60 years of age. This is about 7.4% of the total population. The fear is that by 2021 it is estimated to grow…

The High Court of Karnataka took serious exception to the absence of BBMP Administrator M N Vijay Bhaskar from the court proceedings during the hearing of a batch of solid waste management PILs on Friday. The Special Bench constituted by the High Court comprising of Justice N Kumar and B V Nagarathna refused to accept submissions from the petitioners during Friday’s hearing, owing to the absence of the BBMP Administrator in the court. “During the last hearing in April, the court had given one and a half months time to the newly appointed BBMP Administrator and the Commissioner to study…