City: Bengaluru

In Part I, I explained the history of property-related confusion in Whitefield area in Bengaluru, and why Khata confusions arise. Here are some more questions answered on Khata: What is Khata? The term ‘Khata’ literally means an account. This term has a long history. Kingdoms levied land revenue on citizens to raise the bulk of their resources. For this purpose, they developed systems for measuring of land and appointed collectors to estimate and collect the taxes. Each land owner was assigned a ‘Khata’ in the records of the tax collectors, in which details of the estimated tax payable and the…

  Museum Cross Road, a residential street at the heart of Bengaluru, used to be a road like many others in the neighbourhood. The maintenance was neglected. The old pavement was uneven, and tree roots were breaking through, cracking the pavement and creating bumps. It was an eyesore. Worse than that, it posed a danger to the residents. There weren’t even street lights to illuminate the road at night. This was the fate, until residents of the street, which is colloquially known as Museum Cross Road because it is located just off of Museum Road, decided enough was enough. The…

Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthmurthy, one of the stalwarts in Kannada literature who got 6th Jnanpith award for Kannada, passed away on Friday, August 22, 2014. This leaves a deep void in Kannada literary world, leaving behind very few independent and fearless voices. He was suffering from diabetes, and his last days saw severe kidney failure which finally proved fatal for him. He was admitted to Manipal Hospital recently. On Friday, August 22nd, his blood pressure levels dropped and he had to be put on ventilator. He was declared dead by the doctors in the evening. Born in the pre-independence era, on…

Damaged fence dangerously dangling near Ulsoor lake. Pic: Ganga Madappa Does this look surreal? Unreal? Or photoshopped? No - this is a real picture projecting the state of affairs in the Ulsoor lake bund. Such broken fencing areas are attracting dumpers, while the stagnant water inside continues to breed all sorts of mosquitoes. Though dumping was regular activity near Auro Mirra International school in Ulsoor in central Bengaluru, it reached the peak in the past couple of days. Residents of Lakeshore Manor Apartments, next to Auro Mirra School, noticed a tanker with a Maharashtra registration number, carrying septic tank waste…

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…