City: Bengaluru

Namma Bengaluru Foundation CEO Sridhar Pabbisetty and Director of Child Rights Trust, Vasudeva Sharma speaking at the press conference. Pic courtesy: NBF Child safety and security is the need of the hour in Bengaluru, with the recent spate of unfortunate incidents of child abuse reported. Child-safe Bengaluru Initiative is working on preventive and corrective measures to protect child safety across various spaces that involves children. As a part of the Initiative, an interactive discussion on child safety and preventive action has been planned by Namma Bengaluru Foundation, on 6th September, 2014, with Child Psychiatrists, Child Rights Activists, Policy makers, Legislators,…

The most common complaint Bangaloreans have about the city of Bengaluru is about the planning being a disaster. This is especially the case after Bengaluru grew out of its old city limits and ate up rural areas very quickly. All of this, coupled with reckless issue of permissions and corruption, led to disorderly growth in traffic, water usage and even hiving off of lakes for development. The term “well-planned city” is referred to in a utopian way by many. But come September 16, this is all about to change. Bangalore is one step closer to better planning and coordination between…

    Bengaluru this week  September 18th 2014       CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!  City news that matters   Tomorrow - September 5th, is Teachers’ Day. Many schools in the city have asked the children to watch the Prime Minister’s speech and write a report. The State and Central governments however have clarified that watching the speech is not compulsory. If your child has a writeup, we invite you to share it with us, so we can share it on Citizen Matters! Here is our Bengaluru This Week roundup. But first, our…

A screenshot of the Mandur countdown timer as on September 4th, 10:20 am. Less than 57 days for the Mandur landfill to shut down. The government seems to have no visible plan as to how to handle the piles of garbage that will still need to go somewhere. The people supposed to be on top of the situation are still waiting for the system to evolve, by when we will probably see the evolution of a new species from tons of rotting garbage! India does not have excess of space for landfills like the US or some other countries. Landfills…

  Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Company (BMTC) has initiated some steps aimed at improved mobility and reduction in air pollution in the Bengaluru Metropolis through decongestion of traffic. Bus day is conducted every month, and tomorrow is a Bus day. Excerpts from BMTC press note in this regard: This month BMTC has decided to observe 55th “Bus Day” on 4th September 2014, Thursday to ensure maximum public participation. The Bus Day in this month will be observed in the following corridors: Old Airport Road (ITPL Sarjapura Road Hosur Road   Bannerghatta Road      Kanakapura Road Mysore Road, Magadi Road Tumkur Road…

Citizen Matters is creating a map to track the amount of money people of Bengaluru spend on water tankers in the city. This map aims to give information about water tanker rates across the city of Bangalore. This will also give an insight into the availability (or lack of) water in these areas. If someone is charging you heavily, you will know it by looking at the map. Click on a map pin and the relevant information for that area will pop up. Also the map will show how much people are paying in another area. You can compare the…

A press note from Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) brings you the details of new bus arrangements for Onam season, from Bengaluru. Here goes the press note text: In view of Tiru Onam festival, KSRTC has made elaborate arrangements for operating extra buses as mentioned below in addition to the existing schedules to provide transport facility to the traveling public from 03/09/2014 to 09/09/2014. Special buses from Mysore Road Bus Station and Shanthinagar Bus Station in Bangalore will be exclusively operated in important places of Kerala State i.e, Cannanoor, Kozikod, Ernakulam, Palghat, Trissur, Kottayam, Tiruvananthapuram, etc. Facility to book…

Flooding that took place in PES campus recently. Pic: Sent by a reader. Bangalore, with its burgeoning population, faces the challenge of providing decent housing for all. Sensing the opportunity, many builders have forayed into the field, with various real estate projects all over the city and the outskirts. LIST OF PROJECTS OR ACTIVITIES REQUIRING PRIOR ENVIRONMENTAL CLEARANCE        1     Mining, extraction of natural resources and power generation (for a specified production capacity) Mining of minerals Offshore and onshore oil and gas exploration and development and production River Valley projects Thermal Power plants Nuclear power projects and processing of…

In the first part of this series, I explained about the history of Whitefield area in Bengaluru that resulted in khata confusions. In the second part, I answered many questions related to khata, in addition to explaining why khata is not a proof of ownership. There are five categories of people based on the khata they have or don't have. Category A: Those who have been able to obtain a khata issued by the erstwhile Mahadevapura CMCCategory B: Those who have a Village panchayat khata issued by the erstwhile Whitefield Village panchayat, but for some reason, were unable to obtain…

The first thing that hits you, when someone who comes out from airport happens to sneeze or feel feverish is this: Could this be Ebola? And one is careful with those who come from Ebola-affected countries, for they might even be Ebola-affected! However, what is the real situation about Ebola? Do we, the Bangaloreans, have a reason to worry? Citizen Matters explores. Ebola has no known remedy, still many cured Ebola virus (EBV) has no known cure, though some trial drugs appear to work. The mortality rate is 90% according to World Health Organisation. Death toll in the southern African…