City: Bengaluru

Lather flowing onto the road near Varthur lake. Pic: Murali Govindraju On Wednesday April 29th, Bengaluru made national headlines once again. The reason: rising pollution in Bengaluru’s lakes, a proof for which was the snow-white effervescence seen in Varthur lake. Despite it being a weekday, many young kids, working professionals and old residents of Whitefield-Varthur area turned up near Varthur lake where large volumes of white lather had risen from the lake. After the rains in Bengaluru over the last couple of days, many lakes have started carrying huge volumes of snowy froth. This froth which would have otherwise been…

KSTC buses will ply as usual after 6pm. Pic: Pavan Kulkarni With Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation Staff and Workers’ Federation calling for a day-long strike opposing the provisions of the Road Transport and Safety Bill, 2015, KSRTC and BMTC buses will remain off road in Bengaluru on Thursday (April 30th). Confirming the strike call to Citizen Matters, Staff and Workers’ Federation General Secretary H V Anantha Subba Rao said that the strike will last for 12 hours, from 6 am to 6 pm. “As many as 1,20,000 employees of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC), Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation…

Here's the report submitted by the Lake Devlelopment Authority to the High Court of Karnataka, on the status of Agara and Bellandur lakes.     //  Related ArticlesHC pushes for restoration and rejuvenation of Agara and Bellandur lakes

KSTC bus on its way to Hassan. Pic: Pavan Kulkarni Anticipating that a large number of people will travel outside and into the city over this weekend on account of Friday being an off for May-day, KSRTC has arranged 30 additional buses for the three-day period between 30th April and 2nd May. These buses will operate from Mysore Road Bus Station, Basaveshwara Bus Station Peenya, Vijaynagar TTMC, Ganganagara, Malleshwaram 18th Cross bus stand and a number of other pick up points. However, not all buses have been reserved so far, and only if there is a demand for more, these…

On April 24th, 40 children from the Sarjapur road area, along with volunteers from Kasa Mukta Bellandur (KMB), took to the streets to educate eatery joint owners about the hazards of serving food in disposable plates, encouraging them to adopt eco-friendly alternatives instead.  Pic: SujathaPic: SujathaPic: Sujatha‹ › $(document).ready(function(){ $('.carousel .carousel-inner .item').first().attr('class', 'active item');}); Everyone is aware about the impact of the usage of plastic and the kind of imbalance it is causes. Indeed, pollution of the environment by chemicals leached from plastics into air and water is an emerging area of concern. The convenience of using plastics and disposable items…

Even as the rescue operations are underway in the earthquake-hit Nepal, over 200 people from Karnataka, majority of whom are Bengalureans, are still stranded in the mountain nation. While 150 people from the State have safely reached their homeland in last two days thanks to the rescue operation, a large number of people are yet to fly back. Ritesh Kumar Singh, Disaster Management Secretary, told Citizen Matters that the State government has put all its efforts to get in touch with people from Karnataka who are stranded in Nepal and make their return hassle-free. “Evacuation measures have been taken up…

Commuters awaiting their train at the Carmelaram station. Pic: Shinoy Prahladan Carmelaram station is a small station on the Bengaluru-Hosur line just off Sarjapur road. Several long distance trains to Tamil Nadu and Kerala, as well as few passenger trains, run on this line. Many of these trains stop at Carmelaram. A huge crowd boards and alights at the station due to the sheer convenience resulting from the location. Recently, the railway authorities have done some work in the station, by lengthening, raising and concreting Platform 1 and providing a little better shelter and lighting. However, there are still many…

The Karnataka High Court has set aside the order of a single bench that directed the State government to conduct BBMP polls before May 30th, and has directed the State government and the State Election Commission (SEC) to hold the election within six months from the date of dissolution. With the HC judgment, the State government has got a breathing space to carry out proposed restructuring of the BBMP and conduct the election. The division bench comprising Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice Ram Mohan Reddy delivered the judgement on the appeal filed by the State government against the…

Hosur Road tops the chart in fatal accidents. The highway extending from Kudlu gate to Huskur gate near Electronic City, saw the highest numbers of accidents resulting in spot deaths in Bengaluru over the last three years. Citizen Matters tried to understand why the accident rate was so high on Hosur Road and what was being done to improve the situation, and hit upon many interesting facts. National Highway hinders city’s traffic 36 out of the 55 fatal accidents in 2014, have occurred on Hosur Road. The area falls under Electronic City Traffic Police limits. The fence between the service…

  Bengaluru this week April 23rd 2015     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!     We have some excellent news for you. Every year the Knight fellowships program at Stanford University awards eight international fellowships for journalism innovation. This year, one of the eight is our own newsmagazine’s co-founder, Subramaniam Vincent. Read the report. Here is the latest news from Bengaluru, before we get into our stories: Amid the hue and cry of residents, BBMP and BDA carried out a demolition drive at Sarakki lake bed. As many as 78 illegal structures were demolished…