Blogs

On the 14th of October 2011, Citizen Matters organized a meeting of several of the writers who contribute to the magazine. From 4 pm onwards, people started trickling in, and after a round of self-introductions, people got to discussing the various issues that faced the city of Bangalore...prime among them being, of course, civil administration. While this was going on, tea, coffee and snacks were being served: Several of the writers gave their inputs: And along with Padma and Meera, Subbu moderated the meeting, and elicited responses and inputs of various kinds from the authors. Many of the contributors came…

BBMP had entrusted a company called Optic Cable to survey the total length of all OFC cable laid out in the city. According to the data collected by BBMP 4,717 km length of OFC cables have been laid out from all organisations. But they estimate that the actual numbers might be higher.  Mayor and Deputy Mayor cut unauthorised OFC cables. Pic courtesy: BBMP As such, from today BBMP has started using OTDR device to identify all illegally laid out cables and started disconnecting them. The first disconnect was done today in Ward No 11, Abbigere area in North Bangalore, where…

BBMP council opposition leader, M Udayshankar (Congress) has written a letter to BBMP listing the measures to conserve power, on 12 October. Here's the translated copy. Karnataka state has been facing acute power shortage in the recent days as never seen before. Hence it becomes the government's responsibility to take up measures on a large scale. At the grassroots level all the citizens and organisations should also contribute towards power savings. In this direction: BBMP must control lighting in parks. Park lighting should be done only at specific times in the evenings. BBMP should control road lights and keep them…

Everyday when we read the newspaper we see the names of overachievers in our society. Even when you read a regular teen novel you hear how amazing high school is. Well guess what? It is called 'fiction' for a reason. Simply because it is unreal! High school can be the most difficult period of a student's life. It is when most boys and girls go through adolescence, their hormones start acting up and they simply start acting mean. This is something I have always failed to understand. How do girls become so mean? No, not mean - cruel, cunning and…

Wise words About the Green line between Greece & Cyprus A potent message Facts on Northern Ireland's religious divide Separating Palestine and Israel Symbols of peace? US shuts out Mexicans The performers pause Why do people build walls between their territories? To ensure privacy? Or safeguard themselves and their belongings? But the borders between "neighbours" such as the United States of America and Mexico, India and Pakistan, Israel and Palestine and other places have been doing much more than protecting the citizens of the respective countries. In fact, they have managed to sow the seeds of violence and animosity apart…

In the August Oota from your Thota (OfyT) event, not only did I have the opportunity to interact with several garden enthusiasts, I also managed to overhear snatches of conversations among the visitors and participants. What struck me particularly was how people thronged to buy vegetable seeds sold at the event. Some visitors even fretted over the absence of particular seed varieties! And then there were the school children who had not only initiated and nurtured a vegetable garden but had also saved seeds which they sold that day. Students from B M English School, had set up a stall…

BBMP has allocated 2 crore rupees for the development of Ulsoor lake in the current year’s budget and work for the same will commence from November. Commissioner Siddhaiah and MLA Roshan Baig at Ulsoor Lake. Pic courtesy: BBMP Local MLA Mr Roshan Baig conducted an inspection around the lake. Tenders have been called for to build pedestrian path around the lake, bridge construction, painting for grills etc and work will start as soon as the process is over.During October a program has been taken up to clean all weeds and partheniums and to plant about 300 saplings on a single…

Some 25 members of the Bird Watchers Field Club, Bangalore, led by ardent bird watcher, Deepa Mohan visited the Puttenahalli Lake on 8th Oct. After spotting the juvenile coots, little grebes and pheasant tailed jacanas and seeing a coot couple building a nest, Deepa called our lake a "nursery." This was the nicest thing to hear about the lake we have been trying very hard to revive and sustain. The nesting shows that the birds feel safe to raise their young ones and the presence of large shoals of fish means that the water is clean enough for them to…

BBMP has directed its officials to improve and maintain cleanliness of all the roads and footpaths leading to Metro Stations. BBMP Officials inspecting roads along metro line. Pic courtesy: BBMP On October 20th Namma Metro starts operations from M G Road to Byappanahalli. In this backdrop, BBMP officials inspected Palace Road, Race Course Road, Basaveswara Circle, Raj Bhavan Road, Cubbon road, Sankey road, M.G. Road to Byappanahalli, CMH Road on October 4, to see the conditions of the roads and footpaths. Pic courtesy: BBMP Even though many pot holes were filled up, many new have come up because of continuous…

We are sure everyone is aware of the flood in Orissa and the Earthquake in Sikkim. Hundreds of lives have been lost, livelihood destroyed and people have lost everything and have been taking refuge in relief shelters. As learnt from people who have been volunteering in the area, the extent of damage is immense. Orissa: Water is continuing to surge from the river Mahanadi and its tributaries and creating havoc in Orissa. More than 3000 villages have been marooned by this flood. Many districts have been severely hit and all communication channels to these pockets had been disrupted. About 10…