City: Bengaluru

You can complain to Health Department if you find ambulances charging more than 10 rupee per km. Pic courtesy: Wikimedia Commons Lakshmamma, a domestic worker and a resident of Anjanagara, did not know where to take her sister Shanti, who suddenly complained of severe abdominal pain during late night hours. She did not know which ambulance service to call, as a private ambulance service she found refused to ply during late night hours. Charges for another service were over Rs 3,000 for just two kilometres, to a decent hospital on Magadi Road. Similar situation was also faced by another woman,…

When the alignment of around 50+ kms of the proposed road is more or less the same as NICE road, BDA has to construct only 60+ kms, not 110 kms as projected. Pic: wikimedia commons Why should the Peripheral Ring Road cost 4300 crores, and why should Japanese agency Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) be funding it? The toal length of the project is about 110 km, of which 50+ is unnecessary, because the western half of the road is more or less identical to the NICE Road which has already been built. So what we really need is road…

The opening balance of BBMP, according to documents, is 7529 lakhs - that is Rs 75 crore approximately. However the mega-plan unveiled via budget has various plans adding up to a spend of Rs 8520 crore. Here are the highlights of the budget. BBMP Budget 2013-14

  S G Vasudev is an interdisciplinary artist – an artist whose works are deeply influenced by other arts – music, dance, poetry, weaving, mythology and more. The release of the artist’s coffee table book “Vriksha – The art and times of SG Vasudev,” held on 20 July 2013, couldn’t have been better timed. The garden city is also playing host to a month-long exhibition of paintings of one of the country’s greatest interdisciplinary artists - Rabindranath Tagore. The austere occasion started with the launch of Vasudev’s book by the high priestess of theatre in Bangalore, Arundhati Nag. On the…

Apartment associations that received their water bills for June 2013 were in for a shock. Their water bills were two to three times more than what they had been paying! Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) had increased the charges for bulk consumers as per a notification in the Karnataka Gazette dated 23rd May 2013, but most apartment association representatives and residents were not aware of either the new charges, or of the impact of the amendment in tariff, till they received the bills.  According to the new tariff rules, for Bulk Domestic Consumers i.e. High-rise/Multistoried Buildings/ Apartments/ Central and…

The programme was launched at Freedom Park in presence of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, Bangalore In-charge Minister Ramalinga Reddy and others. Pic courtesy: BBMP The need to get rid of the tag of ‘garbage city’ finally seems to have made its way into the policies of government. Kasa Muktha ward drive was launched at Freedom Park on Wednesday, 24 July 2013, with the garbage clearance machinery geared up with 250 trained, dedicated Pourakarmikas and garbage contractors willing to make the programme a hit. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and BBMP Commissioner M Lakshminarayana kickstarted the…

Bangaloreans will definitely recall those dangerous days of 1999, when Pakistan Army clandestinely occupied some extremely sensitive areas in Kargil region of Ladakh, overlooking the strategic Srinagar-Leh road, threatening to choke the Army garrisons in Ladakh and Siachin sector into surrendering/ vacating those areas.  The country thereafter watched with bated breath, as TV reporters brought the valiant counterattacks by our valiant soldiers into our homes through extensive TV coverage. Precariously working their way up along steep slopes, well-covered by murderous machine gun fire, our soldiers did not let down their countrymen's expectations. Slowly, but surely, the operations progressed till the…

Ever so often, somebody makes the statement – that we need to have a right to water. You can substitute water with education, food, health or any other resource-dependent ‘right’ — the arguments are quite similar: that not enough people have sufficient access to it, that the lack of availability of the right was a fundamental human indignity, that it was likely against the fundamental right to life guaranteed by the constitution, and that it was high time the state did something about it. For better or worse, this has now resulted in Right to Education legislation, and will likely…

In part I of the series 'Blending with Bangalore,' Citizen Matters had explained the trend among non-Kannadigas to learn Kannada. Here is part II of the series, that throws some insights on how to learn Kannada in Bangalore. Kannada class being conducted by Kannada Learning School Pic courtesy: kannadalearningschool.com Journey from ‘Kannada Barolla’ to ‘swalpa barutte’, and then to ‘Kannada Barotte’ can be a pleasant and exciting ride if you choose the right path. Kannada is a very simple yet rich language. If you have real interest in the language, it is possible to speak reasonable Kannada within one month,…

Whitefield Rising, a voluntary, non profit organisation focussing on transforming Whitefield, is making efforts to better the lives of the residents of Whitefield. As part of the effort, Sangeeta Venkatesh, one of the leaders from Whitefield Rising, along with her team, has forged an agreement with BBMP with the corporator’s support, to create a ‘Model Street’ in Whitefield, that can be free of garbage within three months, starting July. The Model Street with no garbage A 4-km stretch between Hope Farm and Varthur Kodi on Whitefield Main Road is being cleaned up to showcase as a model street. The road,…