bangalore journal

For the past one month, former Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde has been campaigning for Ashwin Mahesh, Lok Satta party’s candidate for the graduate constituency MLC election. This is the first time Hegde is endorsing a candidate in any election. He also goes door-to-door appealing residents to vote for Mahesh. Justice Santhosh Hegde. File pic: Citizen Matters In this interview with Citizen Matters, Hegde talks about his decision to start engaging with elections.Why are you endorsing a candidate in this election?I was against anyone in Team Anna campaigning in elections, as it would almost be like taking sides. There are lot…

“Kissing a lot of frogs before I meet my prince charming.” She laughs when asked about her collection of around 150 frog figurines of all shapes and sizes. Shobhana Narasimhan, 48, is a professor and chairman at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research(JNCASR), Bangalore India. She has a PhD in Physics from Harvard University, Cambridge. Passionate for social work and development of women, in the field of physics. She travels the world for this. Shobhana Narasimhan – Physicist at JNC. Pic: Anisha Nair As a school student you had a phobia for Physics. How did you end up being…

Starting the grade separator works at Koramangala for the contested Sirsi-Agara signal free corridor has landed BDA in trouble. The High Court on May 29th ordered that emergent notices be sent to BDA and its Commissioner Bharat Lal Meena. Emergent notices are issued only in serious conditions and have to be responded to immediately.Justice Shylendra Kumar and Justice B Srinivasa Gowda passed this order on a contempt case filed by Bengaluru-based civic organisation CAF (Citizen's Action Forum) and Kuvempu Nagar RWA. These petitioners said that BDA started electrical works for the project, by violating the court's previous orders. They had…

Sixteen candidates will battle it out in the Bangalore graduate constituency MLC election on June 10th. The candidates include those from five political parties - BJP, Congress, JD(S), Lok Satta and CPI(M) - and 11 independents. Unlike the last election in 2006, more voters also have been enrolled this time. While there were around 60,000 graduate voters last time, it has gone over 1.1 lakh this time, with over 51,000 new enrollments. In graduate constituency election, the votes a candidate gets depends on the number of voters he has gotten enrolled. And even less voters actually come to vote on…

Born in Kochi , Muralidhar Rao has been a Bangalorean since 1959 and a resident of Koramangala since 2005. He is a former industrialist himself. He married his passion for writing and civic mindedness and in 2006 co-founded praja.in. It is an online platform to engage in discussions on civic issues. He is also a member of the citizens group ‘Koramangala Initiative ' His wife, Priya Rao, works as a Associate Director-Technical for Indian Spastics Society in Karnataka region. He has a son and a daughter. Excerpts from his interview. You are a regular commentator on civic and commentator issues.…

Amidst all the talk to a Bharat Bandh tomorrow, May 31st, on the face of it, Bangalore seems to be little affected. Conspicious in its absence though is the lack of a single coordinated response by all city authorities together. The top brass of the city bus system, municipality, police, and traffic police are not speaking in one voice about whether citizens must stay home or not. On 21st January 2011, BJP supporters being arrested by Bangalore City Police. File pic: Prabhu M Citizen Matters spoke to a number of officials to put this brief together. BMTC has decided to…

When an apartment is built and it is eventually occupied, a few questions do the rounds within the new community. There are always common issues to be coordinated with the builder regarding teething troubles, maintenance, handover and several such issues. Normally, a group of owners comes together to coordinate on behalf of the community. For a period, I was one of them in our large apartment located near Marathahalli in Bengaluru. Among the various challenges we faced, one of the toughest questions to answer was on registering the owner’s association. Today, if a community is lucky, the builder registers the…

If you stay around Kanakpura Road , you know what a ordeal it is to traverse this road during peak hours. With the Metro construction in full swing, all we are left with is a narrow lane on either side for cars. Buses, jatka vehicles (horse carriages), cement mixtures, autos and lorries. On any normal day, it can take up to 30-45 min to reach the family mart junction from Konanakunte cross. If this weren't enough, we noticed that a huge pandal with loud speakers, lighting arrangement and seating arrangement was done right below the flyover. I believe this is…

There is no area in Bangalore today where rainwater directly seeps into the ground except a few parks like Lalbagh and Cubbon Park. Almost all roads are cemented or tarred.  Natural lakes and ponds have become foundations for huge residential apartments and commercial complexes. Rain harvesting pit in JayanagarBBMP has miserably failed in managing rainwater. The idea of having a 12 feet deep pits reinforced with concrete rings in storm water drains is good but is shabbily executed in Jayanagar.BBMP officials should have ensured that the rainwater enters the drain and reaches the rainwater harvesting pit.  If this exercise was…

Members of Federation of Residents Welfare Association of Ward 148 (Ejipura) known as FORWARD 68 brought civic officials for a one-on-one session in its quarterly review meeting on 19th May.The meeting was held in Ashwini Layout, primarily to discuss the resident's grievances. Members of RWAs from Ashwini Layout, Venugopalaswamy Layout, ST Bed Koramangala, Ejipura New Extension Residents' Association (ENERA) and Chandra Reddy Layout voiced their problems with BBMP, BWSSB and BESCOM officials. Member of Forward-68 attending the meeting. Pic: Abhishek Angad Anil Kumar , Secretary , FORWARD 68 drove the meeting and allowed concerned residents in turns to inquire about their…