City: Bengaluru

In part-I, I argued that our planners, politicians and administrators put Bengaluru's development on steroids over the last 10 years, the way farmers sometimes do for agriculture, only to find that the soil dies later.I also argued that we have built a Bengaluru in the form of a giant shining saucer that is suspended at 10,000 feet above the real land of this city. There is one single pipe holding up the saucer and through this pipe, water, services, resources and low-income jobs are sucked through to the fast-paced life above. The pipe though is now bursting at the seams,…

Dinesh Gundu Rao, three-time MLA of Gandhi Nagar constituency in the heart of the city, is considered one among the youth leaders of Congress party. Son of ex-chief minister of the state Gundu Rao, he is an engineering graduate. He is contesting from Gandhinagar constituency for the fourth time. In a telephonic interview to Citizen Matters, he shared his views on the development of his constituency. Dinesh Gundu Rao Pic courtesy: dineshgundurao.com What were the topics of your focus in your constituency?The prime focus was development of each ward; ensuring proper facilities- roads, drains, water, garbage, footpaths, safety, education, cleanliness,…

With the onset of summer, many of the parks in the city have dried up. Most parks maintained by the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) were using up water from the bore wells on their premises. But over the last few months, many borewells have been drying up. Wipro Park in Koramangala has been drying up. Pic: Navya P K Parvathi Srirama, Joint Secretary of Koramangala 4th block RWA, says that compared to December, there is much water shortage now in parks. Parvathi, also a ward committee member of Koramangala, is in charge of monitoring parks in the area. Swabhiman…

Narendra Babu's phone keeps ringing. Some are from his office, but many are by the voters of his constituency. One such phone call is from a worried woman whose child has to undergo an operation; she doesn't have funds. Her husband is an auto driver. They are not sure how to get government aid. He tells her to meet him along with all related documents if any, at his office on Monday or Thursday, during the official public meetings.The venue is Anushrutha Foundation, his NGO, a little ahead of his office-cum-residence. Another woman who has come to the NGO wants…

In the run up to elections in Karnataka, a nationally telecast TV news programme last weekend focussed on the massive deterioration of civic life in Bengaluru. On display was the breakdown of garbage management, water supply, rise of the contractor and tanker mafia and the link to politicians, the state's political parties becoming personality-led factions and in all, a capital city and the silicon valley of India hopelessly caught in a disastrous spiral. Citizen Matters was interviewed for the telecast as well. It ended though with a hopeful note that when voters have a chance to reverse things. (Headlines Today,…

What is the root cause behind ineffective political leadership? Lack of training, among many other reasons, plays a major part. So will training the change-agents and policy makers change the course of politics too? Yes, says Prof Rajeev Gowda, professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB). He is planning to prove it by offering Political Action Internships, scheduled from 11 April to 9 May. Rajeev Gowda Prof Rajeev Gowda is one among those Bangaloreans who grew up in Bangalore, and later watched Bangalore expand beyond limits. He has been a part of the Centre for Public Policy (CPP),…

In the classic Alice in Wonderland, one day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat on a tree. "Which road do I take?", she asked. "Where do you want to go?" was his response. "I do not know", Alice answered. "Then", said the cat, "It doesn't matter". I travel by the same route everyday to my bus stop and from there, board a bus to my college, which again goes on the same discovered path. While riding till my stop, I always think how similar our life is to a road trip. We keep…

For LATEST FAQ on 2014 Elections, click here. To know the procedure for online voter registration, click here. The Election Commission has announced a special summary revision of photo electoral rolls. This will help enrol first time voters, voters whose names are not in the rolls, voters who have shifted residences and already enrolled voters who need to correct their details. All citizens who will be 18 years or above, as on January 1st 2013, are eligible. [This article, published in Dec 2012 has been updated 4 Apr 2013]  How to check your name on the voter roll How to…

So the hot topic of discussion in my seven-year-old's PTM recently was about bad words. One parent explained that his son had been using few unsuitable words off late and discussed the approach that he was taking. Soon all of us were talking of the same thing - the S word, the I word, the F word - that seemed to have made their presence felt in our children's lives, despite all our best intentions. Chiding children always is not the solution. File pic. Where do our children, mostly between 6 to 8 years old, pick these words up? Television…

It is that time of year when we have to pay the property tax for the current year. There are two different types - White (Form IV) in bilingual, and Blue (Form V) For the properties, where there is no change in any field - either in category (residential / non-residential), dimensions (any addition / deletion to the structure) or usage (tenanted / self-occupied) one has to use the white form (Form.IV). Unlike previous years, the Form IV has already reached all the help centres this time. Pic: Shreyas B K The block period for this term came to an…