City: Bengaluru

On February 7th, BMTC celebrated the 61st edition of Bus day at Yelahanka. Five BMTC buses have been equipped with alarms that can be used by women and children, in case they feel threatened or harassment while on the bus.  Two new Chakra services were also introduced to provide better connectivity within Yelahanka. The event was attended by Transport Minister, Ramalinga Reddy, SR Vishwanth, MLA of Yelahanka, H Nabhiraja Jain, BMTC Chairman, VS Aradhya, Vice-Chairman of BMTC and Dr Ekroop Caur, the Managing Director of BMTC. Installation of alarms to make travel safer for women  Since a large number of…

In India, thousands of men and women are affected by sexual violence every year. In 2014, a report released by the United Nations Children’s Fund revealed that 77 percent of young girls between 15 and 19 years of age were affected by rape, forced sexual intercourse, and physical abuse by partners. In Bengaluru alone, there has been an alarming increase in the number of cases of child sexual assault.  DURGA (Dare to Understand behaviour, Respond appropriately and Guard ourselves Ably) is a unique citizen’s initiative to help young women and girls harness important life skills to deter crime. By creating…

At the public hearing conducted by Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) on February 6th, several civic groups objected to BESCOM's proposed hike for electricity tariff for the financial year 2016. BESCOM had earlier filed an application proposing a tariff hike of 80 paisa per unit across all consumer categories. B.PAC represented by TV Mohandas Pai, Vice President, Dr Hari Parameshwar, Head of Regulatory affairs and Revathy Ashok, CEO and Managing Trustee, and Aam Aadmi Party - Karnataka (AAP), represented by Ravi Krishna Reddy and Shanthala Damle, submitted their objections to KERC. Eliminate cross-subsidy variation; government should bear cost for farmers:…

After close to four years of doing Mallathahalli to Bellandur in Bengaluru, and enduring much travails with BMTC’s 500K, my commute changed, for the worse. The workplace shifted to Mahadevapura and there was a whole new paradigm of traffic jams and pile-ups to deal with. I put my money on the bus route 333T, a Volvo service which runs from the BDA complex in Nagarabhavi to ITPL, cutting through the heart of the city, via Okalipuram, Majestic, Old Airport Road and then Marathahalli Bridge. I would get down at the bridge and hitch my way towards Mahadevapura in the perennial…

This post is my vent on the rotten experience we LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) consumers, in Bangalore, had to face due to Center’s decision of deciding to transfer our LPG subsidy to our bank accounts directly. This meant that our Aadhar number had to be linked to the LPG account and to the bank. Here, I have to mention this to Mr Nilekani: whatever might have been the noble intentions behind the Aadhar card, it was not done properly. We spent a lot of our precious time to get the card done, when it was introduced. We had to make…

Most of us shudder at the sight of spiders, but they are really fascinating creatures. Did you know that most spiders are solitary... and cannibalistic? Many female spiders eat the males after mating! However, there are some spiders that are more sociable. One variety called Social Spiders, spin whole "apartment" complexes, which can cover large areas, like long stretches of this barbed wire fence: Or over plants, as you can see here: However, there is another group of spiders which are commonly called Harvestmen or Daddy Long-legs (they have long, thin legs)! Scientifically their name is Opiliones, but they are also…

In my earlier article dated August 19th, I had advocated the creation of a halt station on existing railway tracks, i.e. optimal use of resources, in turn saving our tax money. I would like to applaud Whitefield Rising for taking up this initiative and raising funds for the halt station. I was earlier requested to do a preliminary analysis by visiting sites at these locations, analyse feasibility and share my insights.  We should certainly go ahead with setting up halt stations between the junctions from Byappanhalli to IOL, Soukhya Spa (i.e. KIADB Phase II where there are warehouses). Often we just…

A gentleman inside a ladies toilet! Pic: Anisha Nair When was the last time you thought you had died and then managed to resuscitate your being? I experienced this painful process very recently. Here we were going from one place to another, and typically, the way it normally happens—without warning—my bladder started to constrict. This meant that I had to go and I had to go now! This also meant that I couldn't go anywhere and everywhere I pleased, the reason being that I'm not an Indian dog, neither am I an Indian man. I can't simply pull over to…

“Pussaaaaa! Vaammaa, paal kukkeyn!” (“Come here, drink some milk!”), aththi called out gently and sweetly. Ms Feline Attitude (FA) gave her a disdainful look, tossed her head as only the callously cold of her species could and would, flicked the tip of her tail, and walked away in what Wodehouse would have called 'a marked manner'. But let me rewind a bit. On the west of our house, with a stone slab compound wall separating the property from ours, was the home of Sri Thirumale. With his family lived an elderly lady (his mother, if I recall rightly), whom we all called aththi. Aththi was a very…

  Bengaluru this week February 5th 2015     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!   Before we get into our stories, here is a short summary of what happened in the city: Oil marketing companies have revised the prices of petrol and diesel prices. Bangaloreans now have to pay only Rs 62.01 for petrol and Rs 50.06 for diesel. A curious case of file change in BBMP has taken place, where a file with bills worth 35 crores was supposed to be cleared, but another file that had bills worth Rs 147 crores got cleared.…