City: Bengaluru

The residents of Bellandur, Koramangala and HSR Layout in Bengaluru, who have been fighting over the months to get the government to stop the mega project coming up on the wetland lying between Agara and Bellandur lakes, finally are resorting to a massive protest, to make their voices heard louder. The protest will be held on Sunday, March 23, 2014, at 10.30 am. The project is said to be violating the conditions set by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board, namely not altering the sloping pattern, not encroaching the drains etc. Despite this, the project developers Mantri Techzone Pvt Ltd…

Students pursuing their master’s in physical education from Bangalore University (BU) are not provided with a proper sports ground, which eventually results in fewer number of physical education teachers in the city. After the students graduate in Masters in Physical Education, they are required to clear the National Eligibility Test (NET) in order to apply for jobs in primary and high schools for the post of PEd teacher. There is only one college affiliated to BU that provides the course of MPed, University College of Physical Education. The college has one ground where students train in multiple sports. The SoftCopy…

Last week, when I and my wife were going out, we saw a small political rally behind us. What caught my attention was, one of the politicians who was the centre of attraction in the rally, was using an official vehicle. This left me wondering whether using office vehicle in political campaigning is allowed. So I did my research and bumped on to this set of guidelines called ‘Model Code of Conduct.’ Here is a look at what the Model Code of Conduct is, what does the code talk about electoral violations, how do citizens know if they are witnessing…

The ever-smiling staunch BJPian Devaragunda Venkappa Sadananda Gowda, popularly known as DVS, has been in politics since 1983. Born in 1953, he graduated in science, and had a brief stint as an advocate, before plunging headlong into politics through Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Jan Sangh. Hailing from Puttur of coastal Karnataka, with a strong RSS background, he became an MLA from Bharatiya Janata Party in 1994. He then contested Lok Sabha elections in 2004. He entered Lok Sabha by defeating the now-central Minister Veerappa Moily. He headed Karnataka BJP in 2006 as its state president, and was perceived…

In the narrow lanes of Shantinagar, off the Markam road, Bangalore Central Candidate for Aam Aadmi Party V Balakrishnan decided to start his first campaign, Jansabha. The location was the crowded junction of the five lanes that had constant movement of scooters and bikes. The event was scheduled on Friday, 14th March 2013. Young volunteers ran up and down fixing the banners and placing the red carpet on the floor, while senior citizens distributed the pamphlets. The party’s symbol “Zhadu” (broom) was placed at the two open corners of the stage. At the background, the speakers relentlessly aired the Aam…

He is among the new breed of fresh faces aspiring to win elections and bring in a change in Bengaluru. And he represents a party that brought about a sea change in the way the game of politics is played out in India. Meet V Balakrishnan, the representative of Aam Aadmi Party for Bengaluru Central Lok Sabha Constituency. V Balakrishnan, called Bala by his partymen and friends, is the ex-chief finance officer of Infosys. Born and brought up in Vellore, Tamil Nadu in a classic middle class family, Balakrishnan has three elder sisters and one elder brother. His father was…

To understand what unexpected thing V and X did next, and why they did it, it is essential to know what they had done the previous day, at the same garbage dump. They had done a quick session of garbage forensics – or dump fingerprinting! If you saw the recent movie – Zero Dark Thirty – on the capture of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, it had one crucial garbage-related clue that revealed Osama’s hideout in the compound at Abbottabad, a stone’s throw away from the Pakistani military academy.  It was the “absence of garbage” emanating from this particular compound…

Yes, it has been an exciting weekend. Your own interactive news and analysis website, Citizen Matters, won the Namma Bengaluru Award in media category, at an event organised by Namma Bengaluru Foundation in Freedom Park, on Saturday, March 15th, 2014. Accepting the award, Citizen Matters co-founder Meera K noted that even though the team was tiny by normal standards of newsmagazines, in reality, it is hundreds of thousands strong, because of direct participation from citizens. "It is the citizens of Bangalore who share their news, community activities and events, the citizens who send leads for our professional journalists to investigate,…

Residents of HSR Layout, Somasundraplaya have written a letter to AnanthKumar, the incumbent MP of Bangalore South, apprising him of their problems and lack of response from the people's representatives. The letter says: "We are writing this mail in continuation of our earlier mails. We are now writing in pain and frustration as we continue to face the problem of total neglect of our area Somasundrapalya. The road work on the 27th main which had commenced has completely slowed down. The garbage problem continues to be a nightmare. The stink is so high we cannot breathe fresh air when we…

The press note from Namma Bengaluru Foundation states: The winners of the prestigious Namma Bengaluru Awards (NBA) for 2013 will be announced on 15 March, 2014, at Freedom Park, Bangalore. We invite you to be a part of the award function, to applaud and help celebrate our true heroes. Each one of the award winners is a crusader, fighting for justice and saving our city from vested interest. Anna Hazare, who has been spearheading the anti-corruption movement, will be the guest of honor at the awards, stressing our singular vision of breaking the nexus between unethical, dishonest, and illegal forces…