bangalore journal

On October 13th, Bangalore University (BU) demolished a compound wall that was illegally built in its land. This 1 acre land has been with BU for almost four decades, since 1974. But the university has never been able to make use of it. The land is located right along Outer Ring Road. According to BU Registrar B C Mylarappa, the land value is around Rs 15 crores.Interestingly, this land was not randomly encroached, but was granted to another party by the government itself in 1995. Government granted it to Kanyakumari Vidya Samsthe (KVS), an educational society, at the cost of…

I am very tired and exhausted after 5 hours of running around, waiting in front of Seshadripuram Police Station and interacting with the police. I am writing this at midnight.The whole ordeal started on 24th October when Tejaswini, a volunteer handing the 24×7 NorthEast telephone helpline number 9482396178  on behalf of Peace and Solidarity Forum, received a phone call at around 9:30 PM from a person of Tripura origin living in Seshadripuram area. He said that Northeast Indians residing in his building were facing constant physical assaults, extortion and threats for the past two months. My fellow activists from Praja…

A cardinal principle in administration and policy making is that one should never introduce a rule or law that cannot be enforced. The dangers are manifold -- those who flout the rule get away with impunity, and the rest of the citizenry gets the message that laws mean nothing, they need not be obeyed. Take the BBMP's latest decisions for ‘cleaning up' the mess that the city has become.Residents whose dogs mess up the pavements and public places, are now warned that they will be fined and penalised. Walk with me a short distance -- less than 300 metres --…

There was a time in my life when a vacation meant packing a few clothes in a bag, a couple of books, camera, a brush, toothpaste, cream, comb and a few other essentials. It was usually done in about an hour the night before the said vacation, even if there was an early morning flight.That was then. And there is now. I have spent the entire day packing and it isn't even done yet. And the flight? It isn't until Saturday. Pic: Wikimedia commons Yes I know. That sounds extremely scarily organised. But I'm no longer packing for one. I'm…

On October 13th, a National Law School of India University (NLSIU) student was gang raped in the adjoining Bangalore University campus near Nagarbhavi.By now we all know enough details about the student to construct an image of who she might be. Her age, her boyfriend's name, age, his job profile, that he owned a car, where they both are from, insinuations towards their intimacy levels, whether she got into trouble with hostel authorities earlier for ‘this' kind of behaviour. All this information was culled out in the name of journalism and served as news reports.By now it is almost rhetorical…

The Kaikondrahalli Lake team is paying tribute to the lake by inviting photographers to participate in a unique exhibition about the lake. In a photocontest held in September, Bangaloreans submitted the following entries: The 20 selected entries were submittted by: Achintya Guchhait Bhooshan.N.Iyer Deepak Kumar Faisal K Ananda Rajkumar Krishna I Nandagopal M K Vanila Manini Bansal Manjunath Prabhu Rajesh Balakrishnan Rajiv Manikoth Ravindra Kumar K R Sandeep Menon Shashi Pandharkar CK Subramanya The images were displayed in Hyderabad at the recently concluded eleventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 11) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).…

‘We care for Jayanagar, a voluntary group, organised a waste management awareness session, at Jayanagar 9th Block, on October 9th. Local Jayanagar East (Ward 170) corporator, Muni Sanjeeviah also attended. We care for Jayanagar is a group of residents from various apartments and neighbourhoods of Jayanagar including Adarsh Residency and Chitramala apartment (Byrasandra). Modeled after the "We care for Malleswaram" group, they help local residents get started with responsible waste management practice. We care for Jayanagar volunteers. Pic courtesy: Usha Shetty Residents presented information on various aspects of waste management. Suma Rao presented information on what is considered as waste,…

In the previous two articles, we have discussed how to assess if you are at risk of heart disease, and how to confirm or rule it out. This will result in one of the three scenarios: You have gone through your physician's examination and investigations, and he declares that you do not suffer from heart disease. Before you start celebrating, please understand that it may mean "for the time being". If you are at risk, you still need to modify your lifestyle, lower your risk factors, and have a periodic reassessment programme.Your physical examination and investigations suggest that you have…

BBMP has booted out a senior forest officer, on the ground that he was too expensive - the expense being an additional Rs 5 lakh per year. Brijesh Kumar, IFS, was deputed by state government to BBMP, to take care of lakes, horticulture and forests, since these resources are in a sorry state. Government had created the post of CCF (Chief Conservator of Forests) in BBMP, and appointed Kumar on May 17th.On October 17th, just as he completed five months, Kumar was relieved of his charge. BBMP's Standing Committee on Establishment and Administrative Reforms had made this decision in August.…

Many of us have been discussing the garbage issue and these are some of the comments.I live along a street near the Jayanagar shopping complex that has mainly commercial outlets. I have been segregating wet waste for years, I am interested in lending a hand with keeping the city clean, but once I segregate, where do I go ? ‘Door to door' collection is a farce -- no one knows when the garbage collection van comes, at what time, and whether it announces its arrival with a bell or whatever. I also leave the house early, and do not return…