EDITORS' PICK

Some of our best articles, chosen by our team. Check out these in depth stories that add perspective and bring insight!

Srinivas (52), Mahadev Gowda (42), Narayana Swamy (35) died while they were cleaning the Collection Tank of the Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) in ND Sepal Apartments in HSR Layout. The apartment management association RWA of the 80-unit complex, largely occupied by software engineers, now finds itself charged with a crime under IPC section 304A. STP issue was in news recently because of a tussle between the government and the apartment owners. Following a National Green Tribunal (NGT) order, the Government made it mandatory for even older apartment complexes to have STPs in their premises and added a penalty for failing…

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When the story of Kanchanamala Pande, the silver medal winner at the Berlin para-swimming championship in 2017, hit the headlines, there was wide furore, and rightly so, over the tribulations that that she was made to go through. The grant sanctioned by the Government of India for six participants failed to reach them on time and Kanchanmala was forced to beg and borrow on the streets of Berlin in order to be able to stay there and participate in the tournament.  . If such is the treatment accorded to a para-sportsperson representing the country in a global tournament, one can…

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The Revised Master Plan (RMP) 2031 is being scrutinised by the public. Most experts feel that too much priority has been given to archaic rather than progressive planning. Although the government has not conducted enough workshops or feedback meetings with the public, the draft is out for public comment. You can view all the rules here. In a workshop organised by the Environment Support Group (ESG), participants were taken aback when they learnt that every one of them, ranging from planners to industrialists, could become part of the planning process as a constitutional right! A bottoms-up approach is supposed to…

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In response to the terrible fire accident in Kailash bar in Kalasipalya that claimed five innocent lives, the Hon'ble Chairman of the Standing committee on Health (of BBMP) says: "First we will compile a list of bars in the city." Are you kidding me? BBMP does not have a list of bars and pubs and restaurants? I bet every corporator and engineer knows exactly how many bars are there in their ward and how many of them should not be there. You don't need computers for this! They might even have a little notebook in their bulging front pockets with…

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Three years back, Chithra Rajan ordered a Dell laptop from a major Indian e-commerce company. There was an ‘offer’ on the laptop - while it usually cost over Rs 40,000, the offer was for Rs 27,000. “The laptop was delivered to my office, and I only opened it when I got home. I was shocked to find that the laptop was not manufactured by Dell at all, but by some unknown company. It also did not have Microsoft OS installed as mentioned in the product description,” Chithra says. When she called the customer care number of the e-commerce company, she…

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Nearly a kilometre of a busy road blocked for transport an entire day in Bengaluru! And there are thousands of people if not lakhs, who do not mind that - they look forward to it, in fact. Barring the residents of the said road, of course :-). Sounds surprising? Not if you have been in Bengaluru during the first Sunday of January these past decade and half. This is the day reserved for the renowned Chitra Santhe organised by the Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath. The 15th edition of the Chitra Santhe (Painting Fair) was held on Kumara Krupa road whose both…

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Media focus on the fire that broke out and killed four in Mumbai’s residential Mamoon Manzil complex has been less compared to that on the fire tragedy in the same city in the end of December. The cause of the fire in this building is yet to be ascertained but no one would be surprised if it was pinned down to faulty management and violation of rules. Barely a week ago, the Kamala Mills tragedy got the Bruhan Mumbai Corporation (BMC) on its toes, throwing them into panic-stricken knee-jerk reaction: suspending five officials, galvanising authorities, managers, health and medical experts…

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Mobility was arguably Bengaluru’s single largest problem in 2017. Even as people grappled with depleting resources of water and land, it was the nightmare of getting from one place to another that took precedence over all else in our psyche. In a city of about 1.1 crore people, Bengaluru officially has close to 70 lakh registered vehicles. This is the second largest vehicle population in the country, coming behind Delhi which leads the way with a little more than a crore vehicles on its street. Mumbai with a population of 20 million has just over 35 lakh vehicles. In Bengaluru…

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The residents of Indiranagar have been dealing with the fall out of rampant and unplanned commercialisation in their area for a few years now. With a number of bars and pubs opening up in arterial roads, the problems have only multiplied. Most of these establishments are concentrated around CMH road, 12th Main Road, 100 Feet Road and 80 Feet Road. Parking woes, overstretched utilities, loud music during nights, drunken misconduct - the list was endless. So while many Bengalureans preferred to head to Indiranagar for a night out, it had become a nightmare for those who lived in the locality.…

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Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has proposed converting street lights to Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights many times in the last 10 years, but none of those plans were executed. Now the BBMP has come up with a new approach to making it happen. BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad recently explained that the government would in a couple of weeks call out tenders for the work of replacing street lights with LED light bulbs. It is expected to take a couple of years for the project to be completed. Why has there been a delay in the  plan for LED…

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