City: Bengaluru

Respected Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, I was delighted to read yesterday’s newspaper report in The Times of India (Only 97 city high-rises have occupancy certificates) that said that your government would “take suitable action against builders who flout the building bye-laws”. As you have rightly said, those who have violated the laws need to be punished, but while this is being done, steps need to be taken to prevent this violation from happening in the first place. It is distressing to note that "only 97 high-rise buildings in the city have obtained OCs between 2009 and 2014". This means that there are…

The recent altercation at Bangalore Club involving Rajvir P Sharma, ADGP, Railways, whose driver allegedly abused a security guard onsite, raked up the issue of people in power or their staff flouting the rules or demanding special treatment. [also read: Rajvir Sharma case: CAT on the wall] Sharma was asked to show the club identity card, following which it appears that one thing led to another. Referring to the incident, Sharma says, “I was on official duty, going from my office to the DG’s office. I needed to use the restroom, and therefore considered going through the Club to use…

Inside Johnson market. Pic: Mansoor Ali The BBMP proposes to demolish 18 old, traditional markets and replace them with malls. Most of the markets they plan to destroy are more than 60 years old, and some, like Johnson Market, are much, much older.   We believe the government must consider the heritage value of these markets before deciding to replace them with malls. Instead of thoughtlessly destroying them, the BBMP could easily involve urban, conservation and heritage experts such as INTACH to help revitalise these markets.   INTACH, together with like-minded people, has launched a campaign to save these structures and also promote…

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) made it clear to the plastic manufacturers in the city that they have to go by the Plastic Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011, that bans plastic below 40 microns. Producers seem to agree, however they think enforcing the rule by the BBMP is the biggest problem. BBMP Joint Commissioner for Health Yatish Kumar instructed the plastic manufacturers to provide details of the quantity of plastic they are generating, so that they can provide BBMP some percentage of their turnover to manage the waste, as part of Extended Producer Responsibility. The meeting between BBMP Health…

Most of us are familiar with the Reverse Osmosis (RO) water purifier technology that has been around for a few years now, even if not using it. While it seems to be widely accepted that RO-based purifiers are suitable for water supplies having high TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) content, debates have been on about the effects on our health due to the demineralized water that we consume after the RO-purification. Demineralisation aside, I would like to turn to one glaring feature of this technology in its current form: water runoff–that is, the non-potable water that an RO-purifier generates during the…

A vegetable vendor rents a bag to a customer. Pic: Vignan Gowda Vignan Gowda, Business Excellence and Operations Manager with an IT firm and a resident of Sanjay Nagar, spearheaded several clean up drives in his area. In all the clean up drives, he observed a pattern: polythene covers comprised a significant portion of the garbage. It was this that led him to do something about it. Gowda mobilised several other active members in the locality to figure out what they could do to reduce the usage of plastic. The group then decided to tackle the problem at the source.…

The flag-off ceremony.Pic: NBF As the countdown for the close of nominations for the Namma Bengaluru Awards 2014 (NBA) has begun, Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF) in association with BTV, the media partners for the awards, organised the flag off of the display vehicle from Dr Rajkumar Memorial grounds at Peenya.  The display vehicle will move around the city to enable citizens to nominate their heroes from right where they are.  The vehicle was flagged off by well-known director of the Kannada film industry, MG Shrinivas who now is making his debut as an actor in his new movie “Srinvasa Kalyana”.…

  Bengaluru this week December 11th 2014     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!   Citizen Matters co-founder Meera K receiving Manthan award in New Delhi. Pic: Navya P K We are very proud to announce that your local web newsmagazine Citizen Matters has won the Manthan Award (South Asia and Asia Pacific) in the e-News and Journalism category. Our co-founder Meera K received the citation last week at the award ceremony in New Delhi. This is our sixth award in six years! Thank you, for your unfailing support to us, by reading, giving feedback, contributing…

Pic: Bharath Rajshekhar I have been told time and again that the cow is holy, and I have believed it until I was witness to this... a shocker, the most disturbing incident. I had been to Chickpet to buy some electrical appliances and was sitting in the shop waiting for my things to be packed. Suddenly, a big cow appeared in front of the shop. The emptiness in its eyes gave me the impression that its stomach might be empty too. I proposed to the shopkeeper that we offer her something to eat, maybe some bananas. I was taken aback when he…

Citizen Matters is happy to announce the availability of our popular guidebooks for Bangaloreans in e-book form. Newshunt, the popular news app and Rockstand, the specialised e-book app—both are carrying our books. All our three guidebooks are available here. Buy e-books from Rockstand here Living in Bengaluru 2.0 Buying, Investing and Renting Property in Bengaluru Get to Know Bengaluru Better Buy e-books from Newshunt here Living in Bengaluru 2.0 Buying, Investing and Renting Property in Bengaluru Get to Know Bengaluru Better