City: Bengaluru

Road was filled with children playing various games. Pic courtesy: ESAF Bangalore FB page ESAF and HealthBridge in association with Kasturi Nagar Mahila Samaj celebrated children’s day by reclaiming street on 3rd Cross Street, Kasturi Nagar on 17/11/2013, Sunday between 11am – 1pm. Under the leadership and support of Vimala Gowda, President, Kasturi Nagar Mahila Samaj members utilised this opportunity to teach children about the games they played on street when they were children. Traditional games such as Kunte Pillai, Chowka Bhara, Chinese checkers, Chess, Ayuthu mane, pakida atta, cycling and running race were organised by members of ESAF. ESAF,…

A student felicitates a Poura Karmika. Pic courtesy: CMCA Thousands of children from the member schools of Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness will be thanking Pourakarmikas across the city this month. The flag-off event for the Pourakarmika thanksgiving day was celebrated for the seventh consecutive year at the Rajkumar Gajinamane Hall, BBMP Head office, Bangalore. Narayan, the president of the Pourakarmika Union, was present on the occasion. In his speech Narayan said, ”People look down upon Pourakarmikas in the society but an organization like CMCA recognizes the Pourakarmika’s work including health and hygiene. I am really happy about this”. Children…

After going through the news item published in the front page of The Hindu dated 20th November 2013, on the brutal attack on a woman inside the closed ATM in the heart of Bengaluru city, I would like to explain a possible cost-effective remedial measures to avert such criminal incidents in ATM kiosks. Normally we observe that on very next day of a holiday or in other occasions, rolling shutters of many ATMs partially closed or fully closed due to non availability of cash or for any fault in the system and no notice board is placed on rolling shutter…

The Karnataka High Court comprising of a bench of Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice S N Satyanarayana rapped the government for having no action plan to clear encroachments despite having evidences with them. The Chief Justice accepted on record Namma Bengaluru Foundation’s detailed aide-memoire inter-alia listing out a representative list of large scale encroachments of government lands; the memo enlists details of 13 major encroachments in Bengaluru urban and rural district as mentioned in the JLC and Task Force report. Namma Bengaluru Foundation’s writ petition filed in public interest seeks the recovery of the land encroached as indicated…

For many years now, civil society has waged a long fight to get a proper Planning body instituted for Bangalore and other large cities. This is not only essential in order to coordinate different development activities in all sectors, but also required by the Constitution. Now, in responding to a PIL by C N Kumar, the government has put out the draft notification to create this body. Purely institutionally, it is a victory for all of us. JNNURM was supposed to get this done, but that was dodged by packing the Mission with pliable appointments and state governments that cooperated…

Have you ever been into an argument when you wished - I wish I can prove why you are so wrong? Have you ever heard or read something that you instinctively knew to be incorrect yet you were unable to explain it how? You know that the world is not what it ought to be, but you do not know how to address it in an informed manner. You are frequently getting disillusioned by the quality of debate on television and are looking for avenues which can provide meaningful information. Are you interested in human rights, good governance, environmentalism, equality…

Just two months away to welcome a New Year, Kannada Wikipedians celebrated the completion of 10 years of journey towards building a free encyclopedia for Kannada. Wikipedians from different part of the state gathered today at H Narasimhaiah Hall, National College, Basavanagudi to witness the event. The stage was adorned by the father of the modern Kannada dictionary, Nadoja Prof G Venkatasubbaiah, the chief guest, along with T R Anantharamu, Senior Scientist (retd), Geological Survey of India, Abhaya Simha, National Award fame Cinema Director and U B Pavanaja from A2K (Access To Knowledge.) Prof Venkatasubbaiah handing out mementos to Wikipedia…

If you are travelling to Bangalore International Airport on November 17, 2013, you will have to avoid the usual airport road from Chalukya Cirlce till Mekhri Circle. Be prepared in advance, with extra time for the commute and proper knowledge of the alternative routes. In view of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Bangalore and public meeting at Palace Ground on November 17, 2013, Bangalore Traffic Police has announced the following traffic changes from 6 am to 10 pm. 12781681101113231445615‹ › $(document).ready(function(){ $('.carousel .carousel-inner .item').first().attr('class', 'active item');}); Click on the slideshow to visualise the arrangements. I. General vehicles diversion…

Just a few months ago – on 23 February 2013– a fancy, “sky kissing” (ambara chumbana) clock tower, the tallest in the state, was installed with much fanfare at a cost of over Rs 90 lakhs (by a cash-strapped city administration). The fancy clock not only showed the time, it was supposed to change colour for each day of the week - orange for Tuesdays, blue, green etc. Go take a look now – the ‘colour changing’ bit has not lasted even a few months. It remains orange forever. Spend money on a 'colour-changing’ fancy contraption, pay the contractor, and…

Chief Election Officer of Karnataka published a new version of Electoral Rolls on 3 November 2013, on his website. My observations here are limited to the electoral rolls of 28 constituencies of Bengaluru. Data quality of the rolls has improved compared with the version published in May 2013. 240 of the 370 voters below age 18 were infants at age 0 and age 1. They have all grown up and become 18 to 98 year old in the new list. Interestingly 57% of them are 23 year old now, ready to register in matrimonial sites. Did the AEROs check the…