City: Bengaluru

So BESCOM wants us to pay 75 paise extra per unit of electricity consumed, as per its proposal. Some citizens are opposing this and registering their dissatisfaction, but the  majority of us apparently  can't be bothered or don't care, or  are not even aware of the proposal - the last, however, is no excuse because  the proposed hike has been in the news and the BESCOM authorities have also issued notices inviting reactions (and objections if any) from citizens. Three months ago, the Consumer Care Society of Banashankari bemoaned the fact that the initial announcement inviting citizens' comments, brought in…

It's been a busy week at the movies in Bangalore. Even as the much awaited The Social Network opened in theatres, the Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy's International film festival opened at three different venues in the city, screening 85 films between November 8 and14, 2010. Besides its presence in the city, the festival also expected to move to Bidar, Dharwad, Mangalore and Shimoga.  Citizen Matters caught up with some of the festival's weekend fare. The Social Network (USA) This film on the making of Facebook runs with the tagline "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies".…

Taking possession of an apartment is so often fraught with its own challenges (late handover, defects within the apartment) for the individual apartment owner, that more often than not building-level issues tend to be ignored.  Further, during the Builder-provided warranty period, occupancy normally tends to be very low, making very few people available for handling building-level issues.  Caveat Emptor: Latin for 'Let the Buyer Beware'. While first-time associations do cover obvious issues (like major defects / incompletion in building construction, basic documentation, handover of maintenance corpus), many other issues are ignored, either due to a lack of awareness or resources…

Record and file everything.  It is essential that the MC (Management committee) formally document and file everything pertaining to the handover.  Many problems, which have their roots in ineffective handovers, crop up only after several years.  During the intervening period, people change - both in the MC / Association as well as the Builder.  Further, vendors' memories are notoriously short when it comes to delivering on promises made.  All important documents should be copied and filed properly - in a logical manner, which allows easy retrieval at a subsequent date.  Originals and copies should be stored separately - e.g. the…

On Monday midnight, 120 residents of Sachidananda Nagar got their khatas from the BBMP zonal office at Rajarajeshwari Nagar. “This is a great victory for us. It was ‘freedom at midnight’,” gushes Nethrakere Uday Shankar, 54, one of the leaders of the protest. Shankar is Chief Sub-Editor at a Kannada daily in the city. "I bought a plot in the layout in 1992, and planned to build a house there in 2001. I have been waiting for khata since 2001," he said. It was around 1.40 am when khatas were given away to all. This rare act by the BBMP…

A crow, caught in the maanja. Pic: Saandip N G. I witnessed murder of my avian friends in Lalbagh, near the Glass House on Sunday morning. The culprit? A manja daara is a thread used for flying kites. This is very strong and is smeared with fine powered glass to increase its strength. Everyone present witnessed the birds being killed. Even the horticulture department workers inside Lalbagh ignored it and shook their heads as if it not of any concern to them. This is the second time I am noticing, unattended kite threads passing through many trees in Lalbagh. The…

Recently I took the Children's Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA) civic club members of VET school, where I volunteer, to a plastic waste recycling factory, 'KK Plastic Waste Management' on Kanakapura Road.We are all aware that we should segregate garbage. Of course, we have all heard of separating kitchen waste, plastic, paper, metals etc. But when it has to be actually put into practice, people hesitate because (a) old lazy habits die hard, and (b) people are not sure how to dispose of each of these categories. However, there is a practical solution for each of these categories of waste.…

Much before the   much hyped BBMP elections early this year, regular write ups were penned down in the media by a number of residents of H S R Layout on "What are our expectations from the new Corporator?". This was followed up by discussing these very points during the campaigning. Later a copy of these were given to the Corporator when there was an interaction between prospective candidates and residents organised by the Federation at H S R club. Subsequently, after elections, a number of petitions have been given by Federation/ RWAs of HSR Layout. Also there have been discussions…

Old-timers of Malleshwaram area cannot ‘not know' this simple library, on Sampige Road, Malleshwaram (between 2nd and 3rd Cross). It has been there since 1951.  69-year-old G R J Gupta, has part of this library since he was nine-years-old. Though it started as a small store selling grocery, vegetables, fruits, milk, badam milk and condiments, newspapers, magazines and books, it was later converted into a full fledged library. "My father, who was a very well-known goldsmith and called the Gold King of Chennai, suddenly relocated to Bangalore in 1951.  I was just 9 years old then.  I do not know…

A good script is a rarity in Hindi cinema, and director Vipul Shah's Action Replayy - even when it hearkens back to Hollywood super hits like Back to the Future - is all of that and more. The film tells the story of a young boy (Aditya Roy Kapoor) who travels back in time to make his parents (Akshay Kumar & Aishwariya Rai) fall in love. The film will especially appeal to those who have an appetite for seventies nostalgia. The ‘retro' touch that permeates the film is well done, and one smiles as one re-lives a touch of the…