City: Bengaluru

Ours is a family of four adults and two children. We had prepared ID cards for all as per the procedure laid down by the election commission by getting official photos taken at corporation center. We, now, have our Voter ID cards with our photos and other required details. But when I recently checked before the election at the Help Center, we were surprised that our photos are not available in the computer of the Help Center. Again, they took our photos and gave us new ID cards. I really wonder how photos can go missing. Just four days prior…

It is abundantly obvious that Bangalore today is a war zone where the inhabitants subsist in a constant state of mortal peril. Don't look now, but there's somebody popping up at your window for a spot of neighbourly homicide of an evening. Negotiating traffic isn't your biggest cause for concern on our congested roads. No, that would be the chap with the backpack at the signal who looks a bit cross about something. Any minute, he'll stop with the glaring and start saying it with a Kalashnikov. Then where would you be? Illustration: Narasimha Vedala Our netas barefacedly usurp the…

Residents living in select premium housing segments in the city - including Palm Meadows on the Marathahalli-Whitefield Road and Chaithanya Samarpan on the Whitefield-Hoskote Road have been receiving undervaluation notices from the sub-registrar's office. What are undervaluation notices? Who sends them out and on what grounds? What should home owners do when they receive such notices? Citizen Matters tried to find the answers. The Chaithanya Samarpan gated community on the Whitefield-Hoskote Road, is a 5-minute drive from the Whitefield Railway Station. (Pic: Savita Kini) The District Registrar of Stamps, under Section 45-A of the Karnataka Stamp Act 1957, is entitled…

“I hope I win an Oscar for India as Indians are crazy about Oscars,” AR Rahman quipped before he even won the Oscar. It is true the Oscars are a big deal in India, as is evident from the post Oscar success of the film. The lives of slum dwellers are suddenly coming to the forefront; inspiring film-makers, writers and artists. One such group of 14 artists came together at Crimson Art Gallery in Hatworks Boulevard on Cunningham Road, with an exhibition, ‘Big Dreams’, which had a collection of paintings inspired by Slumdog Millionaire. The show was on till 30th…

The markets of Madivala, Nelamangala, Banashankari and Naganathapura wear a new look these days. Buying vegetables, fruits and other home needs in the evenings has become easier now, thanks to the CFL bulbs that have replaced petromax lanterns in these places. They have illuminated smiles on the vendors’ faces too.Sarojamani, a small vendor for the last 17 years recalls that earlier the vendors had to either scramble for a place below the streetlight or spend on costly and low illuminating light sources or pack up their business by sunset. She used to spend more than Rs 900 per month for…

Government Government makes preparations for BBMP elections After a series of elections, Bangaloreans should be prepared for one more. Government has started the preparations for BBMP elections now. High Court, in its revised judgement, has instructed government to hold elections before the end of July this year. The government has already violated the court judgement before. It will not dare to repeat the same mistake again. The notification for BBMP elections is expected to come out next week. ( Prajavani , Wednesday, April 29 ) Vidhana Soudha gets life again After a couple of months of brief lull, the centre…

It was a shame to read that only 42 per cent exercised their vote, inspite of all the propaganda that it is one's duty to vote. In my village of Gedalahalli Kothanur, there was a turn out in huge numbers. We had three centres  to cast our vote and we finished voting within a few minutes. From the news we hear it was the middle class who did not cast their vote. I think they should be penalised in some way. We have a sensible electorate now and by casting our votes, we are making sure we get good governance.⊕

Last Monday (20th April) afternoon was witness to an inflow of people into the Bhageerathi auditorium at BNM School, Banashankari II Stage. The reason, Jnanajyothi, the Senior Citizens’ Forum of the locality had organised a one hour talk by S Shadakshari of the ‘Kshana Hottu Aani Muttu’ fame. An opportunity that many senior citizens of the locality were not willing to miss despite the threat of imminent rain. Pic: Deepa Vaishnavi Jnanajyothi has been, for the past 9 plus years, organising monthly meetings of its members with the intention of enabling a common meeting ground for Senior Citizens of the…

The Bangalore Metropolitan Transportation Corporation has for years allowed hundreds of drivers to get back behind the wheel after causing bus accidents that killed pedestrians, cyclists—and in some cases their own passengers, an IIJNM investigation has found. Watch the story here.   Records and interviews show the massive agency fires a small percentage of the drivers it concludes were fully “at fault” for the fatal wrecks. Most are put back to work, in some cases with punishments no greater than if they had been involved in fender benders. And in a number of cases, the pattern of leniency backfired: drivers…

Ashraff Unnissa of Alahalli vanished two years ago. So did Shanthamma, who was last seen in and around rural Yediyur. Then there's Geetha HR, who has clean vanished from her place of employment in Kodihalli. Pic courtesy: IIJNM All three are members of an elite yet dubious Karnataka club: Bangalore government school teachers with some of the worst absenteeism records in the state. They are gone, forcing their colleagues to pick up their long-forgotten class load. Never gone But in the twisted logic of the educational bureaucracy, they are not forgotten. Since their bosses in the district offices haven't purged…