City: Bengaluru

Former Olympian, Nisha Millet and Kannada actress, Anu Prabhakar are true blue Bangaloreans. They, like many other Bangaloreans, have been brought up around the numerous trees that adorned the city. With time and urbanisation, the cityscape has taken a turn for the worse. Urban forests have given way to apartment complexes and tree-lined promenades have been turned into roads. Does this spell the end of Garden City? Not by a long shot; especially considering that Neralu is around the corner.   On February 8 and 9, Bangalore will witness an event that is the first of its kind. Neralu, the Bangalore Tree Festival will be…

“Western culture has made inroads to Indian culture, because of which we find nine-year-olds raping 13-year-olds. It is we, as a citizen, who have to do something about it, instead of pointing to others,” said Y Bhaskar Rao, Karnataka Lokayukta. He was addressing the participants after an interaction session organised on the eve of Lokayukta Day celebration, on Thursday, January 9, 2014. The Lokayukta day was observed as part of 25 years of Lokayukta service in Karnataka. Bhaskar Rao explained the suo motu initiatives taken up by him in the last one year, including prompting the departments to start biometric…

A man claiming to be a cardiologist who ran his own hospital for five years was not registered as a doctor in the state of Karnataka. S K Guharoy, who described himself as “about 42 years” in the documents he submitted in court, is not registered as a doctor in his hometown state of West Bengal. He says he has treated thousands of patients at his Medicare Hospital in R T Nagar in the past five years. According to the Medical Council of India, all doctors working in the state should be registered both in Karnataka and in their home…

Taking into consideration the rate at which Bangalore is expanding and the space constraints that came with the expansion, in 2012, the BDA announced that ‘vertical’ was the way to go. With this announcement, the BDA forayed into the construction of low cost housing, announcing that 6180 flats would be made available for purchase by the public. Private real estate sector and some people were sceptical about the quality of low cost housing by BDA. Citizen Matters wrote about this in detail. 3000 flats allotted Of the proposed flats, applications were invited for 3000 flats across 17 sites in March…

The BMTC has been the city’s lifeline for many years carrying about 40- 45% of its commuters. With a fleet of over 6000 buses, the corporation can claim to have a significant presence in comparison to other city bus providers. The BMTC is also a monopoly in the sense that private bus companies are not allowed to ferry passengers on a mass transit basis. Significantly, one of the strongest points of BMTC has been that it has largely been a profit-making body since its inception in the late 90s (when it was created out of the then BTS which was…

After a recent discussion on TV, I got the feeling that people hardly know what corruption is and generally share a feeling of despondency and lack of hope about reducing or eliminating it. However, corruption is a systemic failure like many others and can be and has been cured in many countries, and within countries, in many sectors. Over the last four years, anticorruption has been a significant part of my consultancy portfolio. Starting from my experience in ipaidabribe.com, a site that began to crowd-source corruption-related experiences of citizens, I have since worked in several countries and authored reports on…

Sweet Indrajao (Wrigtia tinctoria) is a small, deciduous tree with flowers that look like snow flakes. Native to India and Burma, Wrightia is named after a Scottish physician and botanist William Wright. The leaves of this tree yield a blue dye called Pala Indigo. The wood of this tree is used for making Channapatna toys. The wood is suitable for matchboxes, bobbins, engraving and printing-blocks, mathematical instruments and rulers. It is also suitable for stained wood inlay-work. Medicinal uses: A survey conducted showed that tribal people in Chhattisgarh district control diabetes with their own drugs prepared from plant sources proving…

From ‘Pete’ to ‘K R Market,' Bengaluru's oldest market built in 1920’s has seen many changes. However, presently not many citizens in Bangalore might have visited this area, as the traffic and garbage problem is terrible and repulsive. The new market with the unique architecture was built in 1990’s. If the BBMP's plan goes well, K R Market will see another big change, as a feasibility report for multilevel car parking and some re-organisation in K R market has been prepared and being discussed. New building in K R Market was built in 1997, but vast area remains underutilised. Pic…

Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board has issued an order instructing M/s Mantri Techzone Pvt Ltd / M/s Manipal ETA Infotech Ltd to stop the construction of the Special Economic Zone, residential and commercial buildings coming up on 72 acres of land that lies between Bellandur and Agara lakes, in South Bengaluru. Post the Upa Lokayukta’s comments on Mantri SEZ in a meeting held on December 20, 2013, KIADB’s 327th Board Meeting discussed the matter and passed an order directing Mantri Techzone Pvt Ltd to stop the construction with immediate effect. According to the minutes of the KIADB Board meeting, the…