GENRE: Explainers

Bangalore has many residential projects coming up for occupancy this year, and the most popular location seems to be South Bangalore. Citizen Matters got details of around 45 new projects from a property bazaar organised by realtor Magicbricks.com last month in the city. In addition to popular builders, lesser-known companies are also introducing many projects. Most projects are located in the outer limits of the city. Many new residential projects are coming up this year in South Bangalore. Pic: Navya P K Of all projects, 11 are located along Hosur Road. While many of them are coming up near Hosur…

Mobile phones are handy and small. While this makes them very easy to carry around, they are also susceptible to thefts or misplacement. With the help of technology and better law enforcement, it is becoming easier track lost or stolen mobile phones. However, recovering a mobile phone is still a matter of luck. Handy and easy to lose. Can technology help track down a lost phone? Pic: Yograj S Mudalgi Software to the rescue Suman H M, a nineteen-year-old undergraduate student of Mount Carmel College lost her cell phone while shopping, which had cost her almost 10 thousand rupees. While she…

NOW that most of us have paid the taxes for the years 2008-09, 2009-10 & 2010-11 by filling the appropriate form and have come to the stage of paying the taxes for the current year. In the first year of the block period (2008-09), you would have used Form I (for properties with PID No.), Form II (for  properties having only Khata Number) or Form III (for properties with neither PID nor Khata number).  The block period has been officially extended to FIVE years and hence the current block consists of years from 2008-09 to  2012-13. Hence the depreciation allowed…

Summer holidays are here and most kids are let loose. Some of you may pack them off to summer camps or day cares or the grandparents’.  Many working parents are also taking a week or two off to spend time with the kids. Here are some ideas to do stuff together with your children (five years or older): "A kid needs time to lie on his back, opportunity “to find out whether he breathes differently when he’s thinking about it than when he’s just breathing” and to wonder who she’d be if her parents hadn’t gotten together. A kid needs…

In a hearing on April 7, the High Court directed that the report submitted by the committee on March 3 should be implemented. The court order said that the following should be taken up on war footing: surveying lakes to demarcate boundaries and erect fences, identifying and removing encroachments, removing silt and weeds and laying bund where necessary, and stopping sewage flow into lakes. These tasks should be completed and reported to the court for further directions. Chief Justice J S Khehar said that the process initiated to protect Bangalore's lakes will be applied across other districts.  Excerpts from the…

Load shedding, the most dreaded word in summer isn't always because of power shortage. Most of it has got to do with overloaded distribution and supply lines. Here are some areas where BESCOM has identified issues and proposed solutions. This might help reduce power cuts in Bengaluru.BESCOM North ♦ There is load shedding in Platinum City, Yelahanka and Sahakaranagara as the cable size is small. The cables are overloaded and they can take maximum power of 40 MW only. The cable size has to be increased from these areas up to the sub-stations ♦ Byadarahalli MUSS and its lines are…

For Bengaluru's netizens whose local LPG suppliers (Indane, HP or BP) are listed in the the Food Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs department's website, compliance with the January 19th notice on elimination of fake above poverty line (APL) ration cards got easier. This guide applies whether or not you have an APL ration card. (Note: this guide does not apply for consumers whose gas agency is not listed on the FCS department's website.) You can submit your LPG, BESCOM and Ration card information consumer data document scans through the web. On a successful submission, you will get an acknowledgment slip…

Namma Bengaluru - the so called 'naturally air-conditioned' city has long since lost its claim to this epithet. We do have summers and winters now and for all practical purposes, winter is not far away. Growing Radish in containers. Pic: Manikandan P. For me winter typically conjures up images of cold weather warmed by the winter sun, yummy carrot halwa, hot radish /cabbage parathas with pickle, comforting soup and masala tea. And a recent trip to the hills not only convinced me completely that cold weather makes one eat more; It also reinforced the excitement and joy of growing one's…

Taking possession of an apartment is so often fraught with its own challenges (late handover, defects within the apartment) for the individual apartment owner, that more often than not building-level issues tend to be ignored.  Further, during the Builder-provided warranty period, occupancy normally tends to be very low, making very few people available for handling building-level issues.  Caveat Emptor: Latin for 'Let the Buyer Beware'. While first-time associations do cover obvious issues (like major defects / incompletion in building construction, basic documentation, handover of maintenance corpus), many other issues are ignored, either due to a lack of awareness or resources…

Record and file everything.  It is essential that the MC (Management committee) formally document and file everything pertaining to the handover.  Many problems, which have their roots in ineffective handovers, crop up only after several years.  During the intervening period, people change - both in the MC / Association as well as the Builder.  Further, vendors' memories are notoriously short when it comes to delivering on promises made.  All important documents should be copied and filed properly - in a logical manner, which allows easy retrieval at a subsequent date.  Originals and copies should be stored separately - e.g. the…