City: Bengaluru

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…

About 30 kms from the city, a little off Sarjapur Road is Ananya School, a unique institution for underprivileged children.  Ananya is a part of an effort to bring the benefits of long distance running to its students. Trained electronics engineer and now full time runner, Santhosh Padmanabhan (30) is the brain behind the programme. Padmanabhan is the founder of Runner’s High, a Bangalore-based organisation that aims to promote ultra running and integrate running as an activity into the curriculum of schools for underprivileged children  such as Ananya School. They also coach interested individuals for long distance runs and marathons.…

"The National Seminar on Urban Growth of Bangalore with special reference to Bangalore Cantonment (1809-2009)" was held at Christ University from February 18th to 20th. This seminar was organised by the department of History, Christ University, Bangalore along with the Indian Council for Historic Research (ICHR), New Delhi. There was also a photography exhibition that featured numerous archival photographs of buildings of Cantonment. Swati Ramanathan. Pic: Mathew Prasad Idiculla. Swati Ramanathan, co-founder of Janaagraha, in her inaugural speech spoke of the how effective urban planning and urban governance can work together to provide a better city administration system. She also…

A slide show of shots at Palace Grounds. Pics: Srikanth AP‹ › $(document).ready(function(){ $('.carousel .carousel-inner .item').first().attr('class', 'active item');});⊕

The three days of music and dance at Brigade MLR Convention centre, JP Nagar was a thorough treat for all music and dance lovers. Hats off to Manasi Prasad (Head - Music Project, Brigade Enterprises) and K N Sashikiran (Founder and Director of Carnatica) who made this event possible.On February 26th evening a grand inaugural concert by Ganesh and Kumaresh (violin) and party marked the beginning of the Utsav. The duo presented a remarkable blend of melody and synchronisation. The theme was "Six seasons". The first Vasantha Rithu in Bilahari Raga was meticulously executed and was followed by Greeshma Rithu…

Whitefield - what kind of images would this name evoke? most likely IT - a glass and steel building, the Technology Park or maybe even the Sai Baba Ashram, anything but a village. Well, Whitefield or rather the old settlement of that name certainly qualifies as a village and a lost one at that.I first visited the old settlement more than a year ago in connection with another research project and was fascinated by its circular planning and wished to know more about its history. My starting point was of course, Lewis Rice's 1887 Mysore Gazette. In it he describes…