City: Bengaluru

  Bengaluru this week March 26th 2015     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!   Before we give you the news updates, a quick pitch... Our fundraiser is on for five more days, until March 31st. We have so far raised 53.17% of our target of Rs 5,00,000. A big thank you to all those of you who have extended your support! We will be sending the receipt for your donation by March 30th. If you find the stories that we publish on Citizen Matters useful, please consider making a contribution. Your support will help…

Our favourite event of the year is around the corner... Yes, we are talking about the Fête de la Musique! As each year, the celebration will take place on the weekend of June 21st. This time however, the event will be bigger with more venues across the city.  As always, it is a free event, a huge gathering that celebrates music of all genres. We thus, rely entirely on the motivation of bands who would like to get together in the spirit of the festival, in celebration of music and all things music, and are willing to play for free on that…

A new government rule on housing allotment criteria envisages reserving some flats in apartments for low-income families. This means, a well-to-do family could well have a really poor family as their immediate neighbours. According to the new regulation introduced by the State government, 15 per cent of the total space in posh apartments and villas is to be reserved for the urban poor. For example, if a builder has built an apartment with 2,000 flats, 300 flats in them should be meant for the poor. At least this is the spirit of the law. In reality, it may not happen.…

I come from a family that can only be described as bonkers. Come April, amma would ask (I wish I could capture the exact tone of the original Tamizh in English; alas, it’s not to be!), “All right. When does your drama start?” Fact was that come May, I would suddenly, without any preamble or warning, fall ill with high temperature – ague, the works. Standard Operating Procedures would kick in with clockwork precision. I would gather up all the blankets and rugs I could find, make a multi-layered protective covering with them, and go to bed, shivering. I would…

Pic source: myprivatetutor.com Katerina Milkova, a working mother in Bangalore, wanted a personal tutor for her son who is in 5th grade. She tried a couple of home tutoring service providers, and her search ended when she found EON Education. They met her at her convenience and explained the process very professionally. They provided a demo class for her and arranged for a passionate teacher to come home. “The tutor writes what has been taught in a logbook, with the date and duration of the class. My son is also given tests by her and his scores are recorded. It…

  Bengaluru this week March 20th 2015     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!   We are into the last leg of our March fundraiser. We have so far raised 43.71% of our target of Rs 5,00,000 from 83 donors. A big shout out to all of you who have contributed so far. To the rest of you, if you have found Citizen Matters’ articles to be useful, please donate to Oorvani Foundation and support our journalism. Your aid will ensure that we continue to bring you the stories that matter. Click here to make…

The Karnataka State cabinet accepted the interim report of BBMP Restructuring Committee, with an in-principle decision to divide Bengaluru into three municipalities. The Committee which has come up with plans on how to restructure Bengaluru City felt that dividing is the best way to rule this city, and suggested that there could be a structure of five to eight municipalities. The interim report was submitted to the government on March 19th, 2015. With this, it has become certain that Bengaluru will be divided into three or more pieces. If this happens, you will not have to travel all the way…

Amid the hue and cry over the death of IAS officer D K Ravi which has prompted the public and the opposition parties to demand for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) inquiry into the case, there seems to be differences of opinion in the IAS Officers’ Association on demanding CBI probe. A set of senior officials Citizen Matters spoke to said that the IAS Officers’ Association in its central committee meeting on March 17th did not pass a resolution to demand the State government to hand over the case to CBI. “In the meeting it was decided to wait…

Citizen Matters is happy to announce that all our popular guidebooks, Living in Bengaluru 2.0, Buying, Investing and Renting Property in Bengaluru and Get To Know Bengaluru Better are now available for purchase as e-books on three different platforms, Newshunt, Rockstand and Kindle. The prices range from Rs 80 to Rs 125 (Note: Our partner platforms may discount prices from time to time). All three e-books are available for iOS and Android platforms, and can be downloaded from iTunes and Google Play respectively. To download any of these apps, please follow the links below. Newshunt: iTunes | Google Play Rockstand: iTunes | Google…

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) presented its annual budget, the last by the current Council, on March 17th 2015. The total outlay in the 2015-16 Budget is of Rs. 6730 crores. Acknowledging the financial situation of the BBMP to be “tight and tough”, Chairman of the Finance and Taxation Committee, V Anand characterised the budget as a realistic one. Instead of initiating new projects, the budget’s main focus would be to see through the ongoing and spilled over works and to cut down on administrative overheads. Total grants of Rs. 2,891 crores are expected from the State Government. The…