City: Bengaluru

Construction activities continue to encroach the drain that goes to Bellandur lake. Pic: Nikita Malusare The High Court of Karnataka on Monday, October 21, 2013, accepted the Public Interest Litigation against the Mantri developers and Coremind Software and Services along with other nine government departments. A bench comprising Justice K L Manjunath and Justice H S Kempanna directed that the defendants be served notices. Namma Bengaluru Foundation and Citizen Action Forum along with many resident welfare associations in and around Agara lake in south Bengaluru had filed a Public Interest Litigation (Writ Petition 36574/ 2013) on the Special Economic Zone…

Police atrocities can be questioned once the Police Complaint Authority is completely functional. File pic. The Police Complaint Authority (PCA) that existed only on papers for the past three years has now finally been formed. However, it doesn’t have punitive powers - it can only recommend action after an inquiry. The State Police Complaint Authority has started functioning in Karnataka from September 2, 2013.Retired high court judge Justice M P Chinnappa has been appointed as the chairman of the state Police Complaint Authority. The members are retired additional chief secretary Abhay Prakash, IGP- Grievances Alok Kumar and IGP- KSRP Malini…

Over 68 lakh people out of total 96 lakh have already enrolled for Aadhaar card in Bengaluru. Most are waiting for the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme to roll out, and for the LPG subsidy to come to the bank accounts mapped. While everyone was under the impression that Aadhaar card is mandatory for all government subsidies and services, a Supreme Court interim order issued on September 23, 2013, ruled that Aadhaar card cannot be made mandatory, it has to be voluntary. Retired justice Puttaswamy, the man behind the PIL filed in Supreme Court against UIDAI. Pic: Bosky Khanna Justice Puttaswamy,…

BMRCL Managing Director Pradeep Kharola has responded to the concerns of citizens on predicted traffic problems on Bannerghatta Road in Bengaluru once the Phase-II work takes off, by promising to look into the issues listed by them. Urban mobility expert Ashwin Mahesh, along with a group of residents, had listed out the pain points on Bannerghatta Road that need to be resolved before the commencement of Phase-II Metro work. Here is the list of the bottlenecks to be solved, listed by the residents. a) During construction, it would be extremely helpful if the foot-overpasses of the stations can be constructed…

A young seller arranging the vegetables at a weekly Santhe near Bannerghatta Biological Park. Pic: Bosky Khanna Food inflation is at 7-month high. Wouldn’t it be nice to know areas where you could get fresh vegetables in Bengaluru for throw away price? There are some places hidden on the outskirts of the city where you can buy fresh locally grown vegetables directly from farmers. Also known as Santhes, local small vegetable markets are organised once a week, in various places on the city outskirts. Homemakers, suppliers to hotels and restaurants, street sellers, shop owners and even direct hotel and restaurant…

With the Namma Railu project to connect Bengaluru to the surrounding towns moving forward, there is talk of 'land value capture' to finance it. I.e, can we find the money for this project (and others like it) by either giving additional FSI at a price to land-owners in the area, or by higher property taxes after the completion of the project? This is a standard financing technique that is used by many countries. But in Bangalore we have a dubious record on this front. We have arbitrarily increased FSI in some areas (e.g. near Metro stations) in violation of the…

Did you know that there are committees in BBMP to decide the budgeting and requirements related to various issues of Bengaluru’s governance? These committees came into existence after the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Amendment Bill - 2010 was approved. A gazette notification by Karnataka government dated July 30, 2010 mandated that the BBMP should have 12 standing committees to cover various aspects of city governance. Each has a clearly defined role and responsibility. Standing Committee for Taxation and Finance: This deals with all matters relating to finance and taxation and all other matters not specifically assigned to any other standing committee.…

Once again, it was time to shift; once again, it was time to fret over the collection of used/unused/sparingly used but ‘not being used’ items at home. That we were moving to a smaller rented house, made it evidently clear that I do away with some of that stuff. In the past I have been accomplishing this by donating the items to NGOs. During voluntary works, I have often noticed people adopting the easiest route to de-clogging their homes: they bundle all and sundry items together and dump at the nearest venue willing to accept their surplus. Concerned at this…

  October 13, 2012. A student of National Law School of India University (NLSIU) was abducted and raped by an eight-member gang inside the Jnanabharathi campus of Bangalore University, adjacent to NLSIU, when she was with a male friend. She bade goodbye to Bengaluru after the incident and returned to her hometown. She is not the only one - there are hundreds of cases of violence on women that go unreported for various reasons. Such mindless violence can be countered with intelligent precaution and sufficient safety measures. What if the victim had some sort of alarming or alerting system handy,…

Day 1: September 27, 2013 It was a very pleasant day. Crowne Plaza in electronic City was teeming with life. The first day of the Bangalore Literature Festival had kick-started. Unsurprisingly, Friday saw the smallest attendance due to it being a work day. The line-up for Friday’s panels featured a variety of famous faces ranging from Sri Sri Ravishankar and TV Mohandas Pai to Farhan Akhtar. Being the first day of the Literature Festival, I had made the decision to meander between talks. At first it had seemed like a smart idea. I thought it would allow me to get…