City: Bengaluru

Pigeons feeding in the Ram-Anjenaya temple premises. Picture: Ashok Kumar S I saw a person on the premises of Ramanjaneya temple at Basavangudi, Bengaluru. He looked to me like a middle-aged person; he must have been in his 50s. He had come there to walk, like everybody else. He carried with him a bag of food. The bag contained wheat grains, bread, milk and water. I wondered why he had brought along all this food, and whom did he bring it for. I continued watching him, to know what he was up to, and find out what he was going to…

    Bengaluru this week  August 21st 2014       CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!  City news that matters >> State government is slowly and steadily moving towards splitting BBMP again. A high-level meeting that took place on Tuesday decided to re-organise zones and wards in the BBMP to facilitate bifurcation. >> CID chargesheet against key accused in KPSC scam Mangala Sridhar, says that she called various candidates, around 450 times, before and after the examinations. Curiously there is also a name of ‘Doddavaru’ that came up during her conversations, reports Times of India.…

The District Disability Welfare Office organised a camp for the differently-abled at the Government Kannada School in DJ Halli on August 11th and 12th, to ensure immediate needs of differently-abled people at DJ Halli are met. The camp allowed the differently-abled to undergo medical check-ups, and apply for disability certificates, disability pension and aid devices.   The first patient to come into the camp was an old lady, Vijaya, with some form of mental illness, who came in as early 8 30 am on Aug 11th, despite the disability camp being scheduled to start only at 10 am. She was…

The Karnataka Domestic Workers Union has organised a protest against the employment of minors as Domestic Workers.  Time: Thursday August 21st, 3 30pm and 4 30pm Venue: Karmikara Bhavana, Bannerghatta Road The Karnataka Domestic Workers Union strongly condemns the recent attack on a child domestic  worker by her employers in Bangalore. We stand in solidarity with the girl who struggled for her life  for ten days at Vani Vilas hospital and demand that the employers are brought to justice. We stand for the right to life, dignity and education of every child and we demand that the girl is rehabilitated and…

The recent cleanup of the pedestrian subways near Cubbon Park and K R Circle at the heart of the city of Bengaluru allowed citizens to enjoy what the city’s music and art scene had to offer at a new public venue. The Bangalore Underground Festival conducted on August 17, 2014, ushered in a new trend of  public spaces being maintained by the public, for the public. The festival also brought to light an obvious, yet neglected, hence not used, pedestrian pathway around K R Circle. Art and photo exhibition was held in one of the subways, while another subway hosted…

Checking the zonal map of Whitefield area can help finding out some violations. Courtesy: clearvalue.in To understand why some of the confusions arise and why getting Khata is not easy sometimes, knowing the background is important. Here is some backround to the whole issue. Till the late nineties, if I remember correctly, Whitefield was a Gram Panchayat. The administration of Gram Panchayats is governed by the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act 1993. Under this Act, the Panchayats are also empowered to collect property taxes. For this purpose, Whitefield Gram Panchayat used to maintain Khata registers. Older residents of Whitefield have copies…

Stop talking. Start doing. That’s the mantra more and more citizens in Bengaluru are adopting these days. The fever has now spread to corporates too. The new initiative launched on Independence Day, Adopt-a-Mile, aims to drive the cynicism towards government, into a movement of bringing in change. “I used to come to Bangalore during my summer vacation. The city was so beautiful then, but today, it has lost its beauty. We want to give back our city its beauty,” says Ananth Ramachandran, an executive working with a technology firm. The movement, started by five such people from different companies, will…

On this very Independence Day, we, the people of Bengaluru, are still dependent on quasi-governance structures that we have inherited from the British. Let me not get philosophical, but existing legislative structures ensure that without these layers of beurocracy, we cannot bring even a small change. Is it that we have become more accepting and adjusting? Part of the problem is we - the citizens, I realise. Many of our fellow Bangaloreans stand at places other than the earmarked bus stands. Also, the corporates do not realise that they are losing quality time of their employee. The corporates do not…

    Bengaluru this week  August 14th 2014       CITIZEN MATTERS Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine Speak up, it's your city!  City news that matters >> Last week, the government finally acted on the CID report on 2011 KPSC scam, by cancelling the entire notification, because KPSC refused to do the revaluation. Curiously, HD Kumaraswamy stood by the recruited KPSC aspirants who were protesting in Freedom Park. Chief Justice D H Waghela has recused himself from hearing the case. >> Interestingly, former opposition leader A K Subbaiah has lashed out at Kumaraswamy saying gowdas were the sole beneficiaries of the scam,…

Let’s escape the din and chaos of the Bengaluru streets. Let’s go underground! Sounds nice? But who would want to go underground in Bangalore? Do you have such places which are not dark and dingy? Short answer is, yes! Sometimes it is right in front of you... but you tend to ignore it. The project Bangalore Underground aims at exploring creative and better use of the public spaces like subways. And here is the slogan: Let’s escape chaos; Let’s go underground! Curious? On August 17, just walk into one of the pedestrian subways near K R Circle, with friends and…