City: Bengaluru

A performer in Dasara celebrations in Mysore. Pic: Raghavendra K S Prathibimba is a photography exhibition, scheduled to be held on the 58th Rajyotsava of Namma Karnataka, at Chitrakala Parishath, Bangalore from October 31st to November 2nd. The exhibition is the culmination of the journey of six photographers from diverse backgrounds, who set out to have an intimate rendezvous with the state of Karnataka through their lenses. In an attempt to capture the myriad reflections of the grandeur of the state, their journeys took them from the explored to the unexplored jewels of Karnataka, framing the state that we live in and…

14-year-old Ruth goes to a school in DJ Halli, Bengaluru, every day—not to study—but to work, unlike most children. She has been doing so since January 2014. She leaves home at 7 am and walks for about half an hour to get to school. At school, she looks after children younger than herself—giving them food and water, taking them to the bathroom, washing their feet. Once Ruth finishes her work at school, she once again walks and reaches home by 6.30 pm. At home too, she has several household chores to attend to. In any other family, these chores would…

  Bengaluru this week October 30th 2014     CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!    Rajyotsava greetings to all of you! Do write to us about your plans to celebrate Kannada Rajyotsava, or upload them here as an event. Let us celebrate the birthday of the State of Karnataka! City news that mattters And before our Bengaluru This Week roundup, here’s the curation of latest city news. Trouble is brewing on the garbage disposal front again. The Gram panchayat of Aarodi village on the outskirts of Bangalore has decided against letting BBMP install waste…

Police commissioner's office on Infantry Road.If you are the decisionmaker in a firm that is looking to hire employees through private consultancies in Bengaluru, you need to be careful! And if you are looking for a job in Bengaluru, there are some consultancies you would not want to register with. Crime Control Bureau (CCB) Fraud and Malpractice Squad conducted raids recently on seven job consultancy firms, which provided fake experience certificates on experience, projects and trainings. CCB open to getting info from citizens CCB has also asked people to share information on trafficking and flesh trade, financial frauds via email…

Ramalinga Reddy, MLA at his home office in Lakkasandra. Pic: Ganga Madappa Ramalinga Reddy, MLA of BTM Layout, is a busy man. In addition to holding the Transport portfolio in the State Government, he is also the Bangalore In-charge Minister. Citizen Matters caught up with the six-time MLA over tea at his home office in Lakkasandra, even as the rains lashed the city. Read on to know what he has to say about the BBMP bifurcation, the waste management crisis and where he sees the city four years from now. What development works have been initiated in your constituency? Is…

A recent news report stated that the Karnataka government has notified amendments to some sections of the Karnataka Motor Vehicles Act. These amendments make way for a steep hike in the fines to be collected for incessant honking. The proposed fines are Rs. 1000 for the first offence and Rs. 2,000 for subsequent violations. This is not the first such initiative. The Bangalore Traffic Police (BTP) launched the ‘No-honking Monday’ campaign long back. BTP had also roped in popular and respected faces of the city like Rahul Dravid to strengthen this campaign. BTP has engaged in this rhetoric of no-honking…

As the night sets in, autos hope to grab a share of people who want to reach their home but don't have buses. File pic. What do you do when you finish your duty at 9 pm and want to get back home, but your office does not have cab services? You are forced to hire an auto or a cab. Because, there is simply not enough bus transport available at that time of the night. Bangalore is no longer the small provincial town of the last century, but a mega polis where different industries contribute to the city’s income.…

The garbage problem in Bangalore seems to be too high a mountain (literally) to climb! Can we afford to let things slide till we are sucked into a vortex of crisis? Do we need to face a plague epidemic, as Surat did some decades ago, before we wake up? What can we, as citizens of Bangalore do, to solve the apparently unsolvable issue? Let us look at the three major aspects of the problem. First, garbage generation. If we don't generate so much garbage, we would not have to face the problem. How do we generate less garbage? The 'wet…

On 21 October, when the newspapers carried reports about the move to convert Balabrooie (the government guest house next to Chitra Kala Parishad) into a club house for legislators, there was also another news item. A toddler was mauled by stray dogs. The grievously injured child was rushed by his migrant labourer parents to the BBMP hospital in the area, but there were no specialist doctors available. So the toddler had to be taken to KIMS hospital at Chamarajapet. Thereafter the child had to be shifted yet again, to a hospital at Malleswaram. Hospitals, especially government hospitals meant for those…

A garbage dump in residential Electronic City. Pic: Nishit Sharma It was a bitter cold morning of January 2010 in Jammu when my phone rang. It was a landline number with STD code as ‘080.’ I answered the call only to realise moments later that I had been called back into service from a nine-month sabbatical. This time, I was posted at the ‘Garden city of India.’ I was excited to start my second stint in Bangalore as it was the preferred destination for all software engineers. I booked my tickets and landed in Bangalore a week later. As mentioned…