bangalore journal

Someshekar says “We want to stop this work with our generation, our children should go to school and get an education". Pic: Chetan BorayThe bamboo materials are bought from Belgaum. Pic: Chetan BorayThe bamboo stick is made into ladders, baskets of different sizes and so on. Pic: Chetan Boray‹ › $(document).ready(function(){ $('.carousel .carousel-inner .item').first().attr('class', 'active item');}); Around 40 families originally from Mysore, who have been weaving and selling bamboo products on the footpaths of Bangalore Gayanasamaja, KR Road for the past 28 years will now have to find another place to continue their business. BBMP has served them a notice…

Apart from the traffic snarls in Chikkallasandra, the residents of this area are exposed to another hazard. Garbage collected from nearby localities are sorted out daily on a bridge built over an open drain right on the 18th Main Road, about 100 yards from the Chikkallasandra junction. This route is extremely busy as it is the shortest way from junction to Devegowda petrol bunk junction.Pic: S Srinivasan After collecting garbage from the nearby localities using hand carts and three-wheeler vehicles, the paurakarmikas dump it on the side of the bridge. They sort out the garbage before loading it into the…

The Karnataka High Court's order with regard to the state government's proposed war memorial project is likely to be pronounced during this week. Just last week, the BDA had begun work at the Indira Gandhi Musical Fountain Park, where the memorial is proposed to come up. This was, however, stalled following several media reports that suggested that going ahead with construction work amounted to contempt of court as the case is subjudice. Last week, the BDA had started construction work at the Indira Gandhi Musical Fountain Park. This was later stalled after objections from the public. Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal The…

A quick glance at your neighbourhood schools. At Indira Priyadarshini, Sindhu J C topped the SSLC with 601 for 625. 90% passed at Holy Infant. At Frank Public it is a 100% pass. At St Marks Public, 100% passed, with 20 of 30 students securing first class. Mahatma Education Society secured a 67% pass. “Its not too bad, we not only concentrate on academics but also on other curricular activities”, says Dr Seshagiri Rao K A, Principal.Coming to some ICSE 12th results, at Clarence Public, all students secured above 80% marks. At Dayananda Sagar, above 80% of the students got…

For a majority of them, it was their first ever chance to speak as people's representatives. That too on a pressing issue. As BWSSB Chairman P B Ramamurthy put it, "It was a golden opportunity. I couldn't have got so much information from anywhere else". For two days, corporators from across Bengaluru voiced their concerns over water-related problems in their wards. Demands for borewells, jetting machines, regular desilting and replacement of old pipes with new ones, were made. Complaints ranged from lack of cooperation from local BWSSB officials, to the need to hold monthly meetings with engineers. The occasional bouquet…

In the two-day BBMP council session on water, as each corporator spoke about the water problem in their wards, they all had one demand in common. Borewells. And more borewells."I need 20 borewells in my ward", said one. "Give me 10-15 borewells", said another. At the end of the session, as BWSSB Chairman P B Ramamurthy announced the various projects taken up by the Board, the corporators requested him to mention the immediate plan of action to address the water crisis and demanded a response to how many borewells were going to be installed immediately. Mayor S K Nataraj and…

At the two-day special BBMP council session on water, Mayor S K Nataraj and BWSSB Chairman P B Ramamurthy made a slew of announcements to address the water crisis in Bengaluru. These include both short-term and long-term measures to improve infrastructure and ensure water supply to all.Here are announcements made by the BWSSB:111 Assistant Executive Engineers (AEE) are being recruited. The process will be completed in the next 15 days193 valve men are being recruited. This will also be completed in the next two weeks78 sanitary workers will be recruited. The BWSSB has only 136 sanitary workers currently, apart from…

Film actress Ramya has come out in favour of extending deadlines of restaurants and pubs to 2 am (DNA, May 20). Minister Renukacharya raised the issue this year. Extending pub deadlines is one regular topic that comes up every year.But does rest of Bangalore have to shut shop so early?Nothing is open post dinner here! Outsiders term this a sleepy city, where nothing opens before 10 am and everybody closes by 8 pm. Retailers may say there is no crowd after 9 pm. But there are more and more working-couple families who will find it convenient to shop late. They…

The BBMP Tax Collection System is in shambles. Neither the help centres nor the online system is user friendly. I am listing below the various problems faced by tax payers.1. Application Forms not properly worded. The depreciation clause in the ‘Instructions to Tax Payers' booklet should be clear as to where and how to apply this clause. The tax calculated for 2009-10 will not be the same as in 2008-09, if this clause is applied as per its real meaning. It will be higher because of the use of ‘Net Taxable Annual Value' without depreciation for the subsequent years in…

By mid-April I was becoming allergic to the calendar. “Don’t look at the date”, I told myself. The April 30th deadline for paying property tax was approaching. "There are no forms available at the Sanjaynagar centre yet", said a friend.  "I downloaded the form but they refused to accept it because it doesn’t have the acknowledgement form," said another (Why doesn’t it have an acknowledgement form? Good question.)With just a week left, I decided to pay up, and “be done with it”. That morning’s newspapers said some Assistant Revenue Officers (ARO’s) were being authorised to collect property tax. So I…