City: Bengaluru

The common adulterants in pulses, tea, soft drinks, sweets, oil, saffron, coffee and chilli powder and so on are as follows.Pulses: Stone is a common occurrence in rice and Tur Dal. Kesari dal is a banned product and is sometimes sold as Tur dal, especially at times when Tur dal prices are high. It contains toxins that can paralyse the individual if consumed for two or three months. "We discovered the dal (Kesari passed off as Tur dal) was being sold in Karnataka border for Rs 25 to Rs 30 per kg and was being passed off for Tur Dal.…

I am a resident of Maria Selva Apts, an apartment located at Hennur Road and Davis Road cross. Markings as "+11m" and “+5m” by BBMP have been made on the compound walls adjoining Hennur Road. Apartment owners also received a letter from BBMP asking us to apply for Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) a few days ago. The letter is confusing. No deadline is given. There has been no communication from BBMP after we got this letter. The road in question is Hennur Road (from Pottery Road towards Lingarajapuram and beyond to Ring Road). This road has been mentioned in…

BBMP has installed an Organic Waste Converter (OWC) in  Malleswaram Market a couple of weeks ago as part its project to renovate the market. The market now has a system that manages all waste that is generated within the market. The OWC cost around Rs 22 lakhs. OWC can process one ton of waste every day. Pic: Vani Murthy. The OWC is a machine that processes wet organic waste by employing aerobic microbial decomposition. The organic waste is churned into a homogenised; odour free output through a bio-mechanical process. This output is left to cure in baskets for stabilisation where…

The BBMP has been promoting its own engineers to higher positions in the town planning department, violating a government order that says all town planning posts in the city have to be filled by qualified officials from the state government's Department of Town and Country Planning (DTCP). The state government's Department of Town and Country Planning controls appointments to BBMP town planning functions. Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal. Take the case of Ravindranath, Joint Director of Town Planning at the BBMP. As per a state government order, Ravindranath has been transferred to the town planning department in Magadi (under the jurisdiction of…

On the busy Ring Road in Kuvempu Nagar (BTM Layout) near the BTM bus terminus, unnoticed by many of us, there is a small temple, dedicated to Karumariamman Amma -a well known goddess in Thiruverkadu, Tamil Nadu, now is in midst of a busy neighbourhood. Temple dedicated to Karumariamman Amma. Pic: Chetan Boray. Before the temple was built, there was an ant hill and a serpent, claim the residents of Someshwar Colony. Muniswamy, Ramchandra, Nagaraj and P Shanmugam, all residents of the area took the initiative of constructing the temple. It was completed in the year 1994. Every year, a…

In what may perhaps rank as the first budget proposal of its kind, Citizen's Voluntary Initiative of the City (CIVIC) in association Jago  submitted a Participatory Budget Proposal of Sagayapuram (ward number 60) to B  Palaniammal, the councillor of the ward, in an event held on Friday, May 7th.The budget proposal is for the year 2010-11 The meet was held at  Alphonsus High School Hall on Davis Road from 4.30 to 6.30 pm. Jago is a seven year old coalition of Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWA’s) and Civil Society Organisations (CSO’s) in Bangalore East.“This activity must be replicated in each ward…

I met Rahul on my way to the milk booth. He held a half-peeled banana in his hand as he hurried down, his mother close behind him with what looked like a badminton kit. Though the summer vacation had commenced,  Rahul had not visited us for a fortnight, not even for the regular chess competitions the two of us (Rahul and I) have at my home.I saw them again the next day, huffing and puffing their way to the main gate of ourpremises. As the boy boarded a waiting van and Neetu, Rahul's mother, waved at him, I got curious…

On May 2nd, Transport Minister R Ashok inaugurated an incomplete JP Nagar underpass near 24th Main, 15th Cross road junction. The overbridge which runs from 24th Main towards Puttenahalli and Jambusavari Dinne has been opened. Road towards Sarakki from from 24th Main 15th cross junction. Pic: Chetan Boray. Out of the four side-roads branching out of the overbridge, only two side roads towards JP Nagar 6th phase and Sarakki signal are functioning. The other two side roads are still under construction and not open to public. Construction of underpass road leading from 6th phase JP Nagar to Bannerghatta is also…

Muniyamma (56) who was awarded the Kuvempu Vidyamaana Prashasti  by Kuvempu Kalanikethan Trust in February does not sound very elated.  "Memento will not fill our stomach, but a government job can feed our family," she says. She is a resident of Konanakunte.She is the milk-seller who helped police capture the LTTE members who took part in the conspiracy to assassinate former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.She says, the Government of Karnataka promised to reward her with Rs 10 lakhs in the year 1991, but she got only Rs 60000 since then. Her son also never got his promised job. She complains,…

Bangalore has a spanking new set of councillors. We citizens have cast our votes and are hoping, it will pay at least this time. What is interesting is that we have 74 women councillors compared to the 17 in the previous election. Will that make a difference? Of the 74 seats 67 come from reserved constituencies.In the light of the hoopla around Women's Reservation Bill in the Parliament, Bangalore's future administration might become the test case. It is true that most women candidates fielded were political novices and wives or relatives of politicians or political aspirants. And all along, media…