City: Bengaluru

Illustration: Narasimha Vedala On April 10th the Jayanagar police station in association with  Bengaluru  traffic police held an awareness programme called Pehle Aap (after you), to emphasise the need for vehicle drivers to heed the safety of others on the road, especially pedestrians, especially elderly pedestrians. Ironically, less than 24 hours later, I had occasion to visit the Jayanagar police station to file a complaint. I and another elderly pedestrian (male), were waiting  to cross the road at the busy intersection facing the shopping complex at 4th block, at 11 am  on Saturday April 11th.The signal turned  red for traffic flowing …

To be adopted by a canine! What a lovely thing it was. Many years after the hoity-toity Madame Pussaa had adopted us and departed from our lives (sad story, don’t want to go into it just now!), we were adopted by a canine from the street. There were always a group of them hanging around in the street – self-appointed sentinels who warned us that someone who was not familiar to them, was afoot on the streets. They would howl and bark. Among these was a female dog, un-named, who had a litter of four or five. One survived. Street…

It was the summer of 2014 when my family had planned a 3-day trip out of Bengaluru. Everyone was almost done with packing when we realised that we needed to find somebody to water the plants. Unfortunately, we could not find anybody who was free to pitch in. It was then that a bulb lit up over my father’s head and it was decided that we would set up a simple drip irrigation system that would water our plants. In less than four hours, the required materials were bought and we took off for our holiday, confident that our plants…

  Bengaluru this week April 9th 2015     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!   We're ecstatic to inform you that our March fundraiser was a grand success - we reached our target. A big thank you to all of you who contributed and spread the word. Here’s where you can have a look at our list of donors. Here's a round-up of the latest news from Bengaluru, before we get into our stories: In continuation to unearthing irregularities in the BBMP, the Lokayukta raided the BBMP on April 7th, and unearthed irregularities in clearing…

The period of relief for people in Bengaluru using vehicles registered out-of-the-state is over, as the High Court has ruled that the stay on collecting taxes is not applicable to all. On April 8th, the High Court limited the stay on collecting lifetime taxes till further orders, applicable only to the petitioner of the on-going case that contested the tax levied on a particular petitioner. This has in effect vacated the unofficial stay on the collection of lifetime taxes from vehicles registered outside Karnataka, traveling in this state for more than 30 days. The order issued by the High Court…

Screengrab of media coverage of the DK Ravi case. Collage: Ganga Madappa Add one frustrated public and the death of an honest officer in ‘mysterious circumstances’ and a system perceived as corrupt, and what does it equal? Mass speculation, sensationalised reporting, and public outrage. D K Ravi was an accomplished man. He came from a poor background, educated himself and achieved a position of power. Depending on which media outlet one follows, one can assume that he was an honest man, fighting against corruption, or a man involved in infidelity and deceit. However, there is no doubt that the public…

It is terrible to know of people losing lives in accidents. What if we know which areas are accident-prone? We could try avoiding those routes, or at least be careful while passing through the area. In this background, Citizen Matters tried to compile a list of top ten areas that are most accident-prone in Bengaluru. We also tried to understand why the accidents are more at these places and what is being done to solve the problems. We took into consideration the total number of accident cases over the last three years to come up with top 10 list. Over…

A girls hostel building run by one of the private educational institutions. Picture for representation purpose only. The killing of a girl student in her college hostel room in Whitefield has sent shockwaves in the civil society. Apprehension over the safety of girl students in schools and colleges, has now expanded to hostels too. Mahesh, who was appointed as the attender of Pragathi PU College two years ago, was also serving as the attender of the hostel after the college hours. He was allegedly allowed inside the hostel at any time and on the fateful night he entered the room…

Following the High Court’s directive to publish the final reservation list for 198 BBMP wards before April 13 2015, the Urban Development Department has published the draft reservation on April 4, inviting objections from public. (Here is the final reservation list for BBMP polls) This time, 50 per cent of the seats are reserved for women candidates in accordance with women quota. The womens’ seats that were 66 have been increased to 99. However, the reservation made by the government has not gone down well with the BJP, which is the ruling party in the BBMP. Going by the draft…

Gurudas Sivadas, a resident of 8th block Koramangala in Bengaluru, received a call from an unknown number (84689 38330), one day. A woman told him that his late father, who had expired in 1997, had left behind a life insurance policy, with him as the nominee. He was asked to claim the amount in the policy, Rs 145,580, on the same day from Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), failing which the money would be transferred to the government account, as the delay in making the claims was too long. When Sivadas said he would seek advice from one of…