City: Bengaluru

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…

Citizen Matters and India Together co-founder Subramaniam (Subbu) Vincent has won the John S Knight (JSK) Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University for 2015-16. He is one among eight awardees who have been awarded the fellowship to pursue proposals for journalism innovation at Stanford University during the 2015-16 academic year. The other fellows are from Ukraine, Venezuela, Kenya, Germany, China, Australia, and Brazil. "I am thrilled and excited by receiving this award," says Subramaniam Vincent. Explaining the project on which he will work on during the fellowship, he says: "Around the world, city newsrooms are often using reporters to both track city…

Karnataka High Court will decide on the schedule of council elections for Bengaluru. Pic: Poornima Dasharathi The Division Bench of the High Court of Karnataka which has completed the hearing of the State government’s appeal against the Single Bench order to conduct BBMP polls before May 30th, has posted the judgment to April 24th, 2015. The court also extended the interim stay refraining the State Election Commission (SEC) from continuing the election procedures till the verdict. During the day-long hearing that took place on April 22nd, the division bench sought to know from the petitioners and the respondents if the…

There was once a time in Bengaluru when one could see only a few buildings and a handful of people from right where they were standing. These days however, you should consider yourself lucky if you can see more than the bumper of the vehicle in front of you. From being referred to as Garden City, it has now been tagged as Garbage City. Independent bungalows and vataaras have given way to high-rise apartments. Empty streets are now jam-packed with vehicles.   Here is a comparison between the Bengaluru of yore, when it went by several flattering sobriquets, and the…

World over, April 22nd is celebrated as Earth Day. The day, first celebrated in 1970, was a call to get the public talking about the environment in America. As the Earth Day website calls out, “It marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement.” It is now celebrated in close to 200 countries, where it not only serves as a reminder for us to gauge how the environment is coping with change, but also what we as individuals and groups can do to ensure that the situation does not worsen. Though Earth Day is…