City: Bengaluru

I sat on a plastic chair at the party office, waiting for the MLA at the BJP’s temporary office during campaigning at Yelahanka New Town. In the portico outside, under the shamiana there were some party workers clad in the traditional white, friends of the MLA waiting for him,  and a ubiquitous chai-wallah.  When the MLA came, he was surrounded by a horde of workers, colleagues and well wishers. It looked like he had a busy schedule and I was doubtful of getting any questions answered. However, he was courteous, prompt and gave pertinent answers. S R Vishwanath is a…

Many of us know that hundreds of trees are  felled all over the city under the guise of road widening often with no prior approval. Traders, home-owners, street vendors and slum dwellers are  dislocated without appropriate compensation apparently for various infrastructure projects without guarantee that these tasks will meet their proposed objectives and deadlines. If these citizen groups hadn’t intervened, BBMP would have implemented its road-widening scheme launched in 2005 (pic courtesy: Hasiru Usiru/ESG) Knowing that we could either accept or question the largely brazen and undemocratic approach adopted in the name of the city's development, some groups such as…

BBMP has introduced new application forms IV and V  for the year 2009-10 and updated the online calculator in their website.  I have found the following anomalies in both and wrote to the Commissioner, DC Revenue and other officials . So far nobody has replied; none of the  mistakes have yet been corrected. The anomalies are going to affect the entire public in the BBMP areas as the rules and columns in the forms and calculator are contradictory.            #1.  The Instructions to the Tax Payer at S.No.2 in the Forms state that "Depreciation cannot be claimed for 2009-10 and 2010-11…

Citizen Matters, Bangalore's own community news magazinepresents a local panel discussion & info session on "Career counseling and options: What can I do?" An opportunity for students and parents to understand aptitude and career options, get an idea on how to choose a career, etc. When: 11 July, Saturday at 12PM to 1.30PM Where: Magnus School of Business, 13th Cross, 6th Main, JP Nagar 3rd Phase, Blr-78(Near S Hotel and Shirdi Sai Baba Temple, See map herePanel Ms Annapurna Murthy (Manasa Consultants, Career Counselor), Wg Cdr R Shankar (BASE, JEE specialist), Dr Surekha Chukkali (Christ College, Sr Lecturer), Gautam S Rao…

 Citizen Matters, Bangalore's own community news magazinepresents a local panel discussion & interaction on "Know more about water: water harvesting, water quality testing, water diseases and more" The panel will have both experienced citizens and experts demonstrating simple techniques and ideas, and taking questions from the participants.When: 11 July, Saturday at 10.30AM to 12.00PM Where: Magnus School of Business, 13th Cross, 6th main road JP Nagar 3rd Phase The panel:Mr Nagaraj Podukotai (experienced RWH user), Mr R Navneeth Kumar (Project Engineer, Indian Institute of Science), Mr Sharada Prasad (Arghyam, water NGO), Dr Balagangadhar (Scientist, KSPCB), Dr Bobby Joseph (Professor, St Johns…

On Sunday, 21 June 2009, many Kannada book lovers gathered at Nayana Auditorium Kannada Bhavana. T Navakarnataka Publications released a series titled ”Vanitha Chintana Maale”, a set of ten books with content predominantly women centric . Navakarnataka Publications was established in 1960 and has as its motto: Pustakada Muulaka Manukulada Seve (Service to Mankind through books). In its nearly 50 years of operation, Navakarnataka has published more than 2500 different books that cater to a wide range of people – from intellectuals to the common man. In addition to a monthly newsletter titled ‘Hosathu’, Navakarnataka has been publishing books (predominantly…

A thief gave up stealing and became a construction worker under his guidance. He received 35 cash awards from the Deputy Commissioner of Police for his service. The list of accomplishments does not end here for Rajiv B R, a constable who has been working in the JP Nagar police station for the past nine years.“He is extremely committed to his job and tireless in his duty,” said Shivalingaiah, head constable, who has known Rajiv for the last four years. “He is hardworking and sometimes covers for others’ pending work too.”However, joining the Bangalore City police was not a planned…

Now that most of us have paid the property taxes for the year 2008-09 by filling the appropriate form (From I-for properties with PID no./ Form II-for properties having only KATHA no./ Form III-for properties with neither PID nor KATHA no.), it is time to start paying the taxes for the current year. A small quantum of forms have reached the Help Centres and are of two different types – White (Form IV) in bilingual & Blue (Form V)For properties, where there is no change in any field – either in CATEGORY (rented out/non-residential), or DIMENSIONS (Any addition/deletion to the…

It is often said that if you find a job you love you’ll never work a day in your life. This is not an easy task at all. Most people seem to think that the course one takes up after pre-university or 12th standard, almost always determines one’s career. Deciding which course to join is a taxing exercise especially for youngsters who are confused about what they want. Illustration: Narasimha Vedala Youngsters need to balance their talents, interests, parents’ expectations, and market demands to determine their next steps.It is important for parents and children to sit down and come up…

Anuya (name changed) had just finished her 10th standard and was not sure what subjects she should take up. Being a class topper, her parents’ first choice was science and mathematics but she did not like these subjects. She went to a career counselor, her aptitude and personality test results showed her creative side was very strong. However, her parents asked her to take up the science stream. She did very well in her PUC; later when she did not want to become an engineer her parents forced her to take up medicine. nuya was not really interested in medicine…