CITIZEN JOURNALISM

Love them or hate them, apartment residents cannot survive without them. Pic: Sankar C G Most Management Committee members of apartment complexes in Bengaluru are familiar with water problems — many of them find themselves in an unenviable tight corner between water tanker vendors and demanding residents!. Who are these water vendors? For a scholarly understanding of 'water tanker mafia', see this article. It would seem that vendors are a privileged set of a few who have nearly unlimited access to the most exploited resource in the city - ground water, and have made a livelihood/business out of it. In…

A young mother was sitting on a bench, in a park at the heart of Bengaluru. Her two kids had some eatables on their hands in cardboard plates. In spite of them sitting very close to a ‘Use Me’ dust bin, the children scattered their plates and tissues all over the place. ‘The bin is just here child, why can’t you put them in there?’ – I said casually. She looked at me askance and looked at her mother. The mother looked at me as though I did something wrong and with an expression of annoyance said “ಯಾಕ್ ಮೇಡಮ್, ಈ…

  Mutilated Ganeshas at Sankey Tank. Pic: Vani Murthy  Lord Ganesha is my favourite childhood friend, my saviour at all times - when I met with a road accident on a highway, during my illness, when I am in despair.  He is the one who comes to my rescue. I do know many others too love him, respect him, look up at him as their friend in need, but for me he is something special. As I grew up I realised what makes him so special to all. Everything he did evoked fun in the mind of young ones. His…

In Part I, I explained the history of property-related confusion in Whitefield area in Bengaluru, and why Khata confusions arise. Here are some more questions answered on Khata: What is Khata? The term ‘Khata’ literally means an account. This term has a long history. Kingdoms levied land revenue on citizens to raise the bulk of their resources. For this purpose, they developed systems for measuring of land and appointed collectors to estimate and collect the taxes. Each land owner was assigned a ‘Khata’ in the records of the tax collectors, in which details of the estimated tax payable and the…

Pigeons feeding in the Ram-Anjenaya temple premises. Picture: Ashok Kumar S I saw a person on the premises of Ramanjaneya temple at Basavangudi, Bengaluru. He looked to me like a middle-aged person; he must have been in his 50s. He had come there to walk, like everybody else. He carried with him a bag of food. The bag contained wheat grains, bread, milk and water. I wondered why he had brought along all this food, and whom did he bring it for. I continued watching him, to know what he was up to, and find out what he was going to…

Graphite India, present in Whitefield, processes graphite daily in huge quantities which releases a large amount of fine graphite soot into the atmosphere. This is fine enough for it to not be very visible, yet is breathed by, not just the Graphite India employees, but, all the daily commuters, residents and businesses around the vicinity of Graphite India. And with ITPL and other business parks in the area, daily commuters are ever increasing (with the current numbers close to almost 1.2 Lakhs per day using the road in front of Graphite India). All these citizens are exposed to this soot.…

The District Disability Welfare Office organised a camp for the differently-abled at the Government Kannada School in DJ Halli on August 11th and 12th, to ensure immediate needs of differently-abled people at DJ Halli are met. The camp allowed the differently-abled to undergo medical check-ups, and apply for disability certificates, disability pension and aid devices.   The first patient to come into the camp was an old lady, Vijaya, with some form of mental illness, who came in as early 8 30 am on Aug 11th, despite the disability camp being scheduled to start only at 10 am. She was…

Checking the zonal map of Whitefield area can help finding out some violations. Courtesy: clearvalue.in To understand why some of the confusions arise and why getting Khata is not easy sometimes, knowing the background is important. Here is some backround to the whole issue. Till the late nineties, if I remember correctly, Whitefield was a Gram Panchayat. The administration of Gram Panchayats is governed by the Karnataka Panchayat Raj Act 1993. Under this Act, the Panchayats are also empowered to collect property taxes. For this purpose, Whitefield Gram Panchayat used to maintain Khata registers. Older residents of Whitefield have copies…

On this very Independence Day, we, the people of Bengaluru, are still dependent on quasi-governance structures that we have inherited from the British. Let me not get philosophical, but existing legislative structures ensure that without these layers of beurocracy, we cannot bring even a small change. Is it that we have become more accepting and adjusting? Part of the problem is we - the citizens, I realise. Many of our fellow Bangaloreans stand at places other than the earmarked bus stands. Also, the corporates do not realise that they are losing quality time of their employee. The corporates do not…

Although almost all the consumers in Bengaluru who purchase flats and apartments are concerned about A or B khata, they do not bother to verify whether the property purchased by them has a valid Completion certificate / Occupancy certificate. In simple terms, the absence of a valid Completion certificate / Occupancy certificate, means that the building may not have been built as per approved plan, and the threat of demolition of unauthorised structure looms large. Further, if you want to sell or hypothecate the property after a lapse of say 10 years, you will not be able to do so,…