City: Bengaluru

"Every day is women's day" said Manjula Devi P N, a JP Nagar 3rd phase resident, employee of Corporation Bank and a volunteer with the Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled. Living with polio, this post graduate, bureaucrat's wife and mother of two started spending time with the children and others at Samarthanam in 2004, having decided that she must give back something to society. She spends a few hours every week mentoring youth, reading to children or assisting them with their lessons.Keenly interested in the issues of the mentally challenged, she also helps in raising funds for Samarthanam by talking…

Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa presented the state budget in the assembly on March 5th. What did the city allocated get in 2010-11? See our list below. ALLOCATIONS FOR BANGALORE Infrastructure For the next three years, Rs 18,872 crores has been earmarked for improving the transport system in Bangalore through metro rail, mono rail, roads. These funds will also be used to improve water and drainage facilities. The city's roads, footpaths and work on grade separator projects will be taken up by the BBMP at an expenditure of Rs 3000 crores. For commissioning of the first phase of the Metro…

Initiatives around Bengaluru spark some hope that progress can be made to cut down the city's carbon footprint. Bengaluru estimated to emit around 6.36 million metric tonnes of Carbon dioxide. In 2008, the South Asia chapter of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) came out with Carbon emission profiles for 54 cities in the region. Bangalore was one of the cities studied. ICLEI estimated that Bengaluru was emitting around 6.36 million teCO2 (metric tonnes of Carbon dioxide and equivalents) during the study period of 2007-2008. (This was the only published study Citizen Matters has found on carbon emissions…

Pics: Chitra Iyer. Holy celebrations with friends.Little holi players.Colors and joy.Colour attack.Smears and splashes.Holika‹ › $(document).ready(function(){ $('.carousel .carousel-inner .item').first().attr('class', 'active item');});⊕

Crime news is hardly a thing one likes to read in the morning. But the suicide of two young girls isn't something you can miss. The two girls aged 17 and 19 killed themselves some weeks back due to exam fears. Though the two deaths are unrelated, the cause is scarily common; especially at this time of the year.Over the last few years Bangalore has gained a dubious reputation of being the suicide capital of the country! One of the media reports quoting statistics available with the city's crime bureau says that over 7840 cases of suicides were recorded in…

Koramangala Smartvote is a campaign aimed at increasing voter turnout for BBMP elections and helping residents make an informed choice.  Koramangala Smart Vote Volunteers have been conducting a door to door campaign since November 2009, to reach out to residents in Koramangala Ward 151. Apart from this mass outreach campaigns have been conducted at Christ College, Jyothi Nivas College,  Rotary Club of Koramangala, Ladies Clubs in Koramangala, CPWD quarters, Koramangala Club and at other social gatherings. Door to door campaign will be continued till around elections time. Additionally mass outreach events are being planned at Koramangala mosque and other social…

Recently, Smart Vote, a Bangalore-based citizens' group, discovered a number of errors in the electoral lists of several polling booths. While some were complete replicas of a neighbouring polling booth, others showed some names repeated several times in the same list. The issue was brought to the notice of the State Election Commission (SEC) which is overseeing the BBMP council elections. Even as these errors were being rectified, there seemed to be many more such anomalies going unreported. Chief Electoral Officer Dr C S Suranjana, at his office near Cubbon Park. Pic: Vaishnavi VittalIt's against this backdrop that Citizen Matters…

The State Election Commission has announced the BBMP council elections schedule, with March 28th 2010 as the day of elections. The election code of conduct has been in force since March 7th and will go on till April 6th.The last date for filing nominations is March 15th while the nominations will be scrutinised on March 17th. The last date for withdrawing nomination papers is March 19th. After polling takes place on March 28th between 7 am and 5 pm, counting will be done a week later on April 5th. If necessary, repolling will take place on April 4th.March 7th 2010…

The latest realistically estimated date for the opening of the Whitefield railway overbridge is June 1st 2010. On February 19th, a new contractor, Banashankari-based KPR Constructions took over the unfinished project. KPR Constructions, which takes on Railways contracts along with sister concern Balaji Builders, is headed by N Kumar, Managing Partner. A steel girder segment at the Kadugodi yard next the Whitefield Railway Station has been painted as part of readying for launch. Pic: Subramaniam Vincent. Speaking to Citizen Matters from Hubli on the telephone, Vijay Kumar, Chief Administrative Officer, South Western Railway, said the bridge will be ready "in…

Instead of the focus being on the foremost brands in the world, this week, the focus is on the foremost art galleries in the city. Friday the 26th of February saw the inauguration of the five day long “Art Bengaluru 2010”- Bangalore’s contemporary art festival. Art Bengaluru was a five day program with an on going display of work from different galleries in UB city.The inaugurationWomen and high heels and men dressed in suits, browsed the three floors of UB city, wine in hand to see art from the best galleries in Bangalore. Each gallery had a small space to…