GENRE: In Focus

The dusty haze of construction, ubiquitous green signs and makeshift shacks with ‘namma metro', a clear view of a once tree-lined street, half demolished buildings, newly asphalted road - metro construction work is in full swing on Mahakavi Kuvempu Road (MKK Road) in north-west Bangalore. Listen to Citizen Matters audio story in English and Kannada (6 1/2 mins) Citizen Matters Podcasts Download Podcast Subscribe to podcasts What are Podcasts?Podcasts are audio files you can listen to whenever you want. You can subscribe to our podcast feed using a jukebox tool (like Apple's iTunes) so that your computer automatically downloads it…

The State Election Commission (SEC) has written to the BBMP asking the Assistant Revenue Officers (ARO) to verify the voter lists of their respective wards. This comes a day after a Bangalore-based citizens group on voter awareness, Smart Vote, approached the SEC about errors in 19 polling booths. Smart Vote found that the electoral lists of three polling booths have been duplicated, in what seems to be a human error and not that of the database itself. These have been fixed by the SEC. But there are more such duplications and the SEC says they are looking into it. In…

Citizens tend to be skeptical if not cynical of hearing about plans for Bengaluru, especially when even the most elementary projects get caught up in bungles and delays. Recently it was the turn of the Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa's ABIDe task force to release its own grand plan for the city's development. Release of Plan Bengaluru 2020. From right, ABIDe member R K Mishra, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, ABIDe Convenor and MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar, ABIDe member A Ravindra. Pic courtesy: ABIDe. On January 14th this year, Rajya Sabha MP and Convenor of the Agenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure Development…

Come February 16th and it will be a crucial day for the first Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) proposal for Bangalore. Karnataka's Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) has called for a meeting of the BDA, BMTC, Rail India Technical and Economic Society (RITES) and Infrastructure Development Corporation ( Karnataka) Limited (iDECK) on that day to discuss the BRTS proposal. In BRTS, BMTC buses will run higher speeds than usual in part because of dedicates bus lanes, allowing commuters to reach destinations faster. If the BRTS gets the Cabinet nod, it will first be implemented along the Outer Ring Road,…

For someone who mooted the idea of Bus Day, 23-year-old Manjari Vishnoi could not venture out on February 4th 2009, thanks to a running temperature. Nevertheless, she's happy about the outcome of the initiative and says, "I think it went pretty well. I know a lot of people who took the bus." Manjari, a software engineer at Cisco Systems (the network equipment major with a large presence in Bengaluru), is also a member of the online citizen community Praja.in. Praja has been working closely with BMTC on Bus Day initiative. Bengaluru's Bus Day on February 4th was a modest success.…

Kempe Gowda ward. Chowdeshwari ward. Atturu. Yelahanka Satellite town. Jakkur. Thanisandra. Byatarayanapura. Kodigehalli. Vidyaranyapura. Dodda Bommasandra. Kuvempu Nagar.If you reside in any of these wards, it is likely that you have either been visited or will soon be, by officials seeking information about your property. These are officials of a not-for-profit organisation called My Bhumi, who are carrying out a 'property survey' on behalf of the BBMP, for Wards 1 to 11 in North Bangalore.“Many people are not paying tax, that's why we are doing this. We will feed this into the computer. We will get name of owner, type…

Yet another road-widening project in Bengaluru has hit a roadblock as residents and shop owners raise the flag against BBMP’s Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) scheme. TDR scheme has come in for more fire. This time, shop owners, tenants, and residents of Tannery Road in East Bangalore are protesting against the road-widening work ordered by BBMP in their area. Tannery Road - Nagavara Owners/ Merchants Association office bearers and members, with Legislative Council Chairman Veeranna Mattikatti and guests at the Republic Day 2010 celebrations. Pic: Karunya Keshav. “We are not opposing road widening. We oppose TDR,” says Ahmed Baseer, property…

City elections may not happen on February 21st. On January 28th the Supreme Court directed the Karnataka state government to follow the ruling of the Division Bench of the High Court of Karnataka of December 8th. In that ruling, the High Court had asked the government to re-do the ward reservations list for Bengaluru in line with the 2001 census data for the Bangalore municipal area. With the ward reservation list quashed, the BBMP council elections are likely to not take place as scheduled. Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal The State Election Commission (SEC) today told Citizen Matters that they have written…

Sixty-nine year old A N Vittal, a resident of Kammanahalli in Bangalore East, has frequented the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) office several times in the past one year. Despite several phone calls, e-mails and hand-written letters to the concerned officials at the BWSSB including the Chairman and Public Relations Officer (PRO), the water problem in his area persists. “Cauvery water supply through the tap has completely stopped”, he says. But Assistant Executive Engineer N Malla Reddy has given Vittal and his neighbours a temporary solution to the problem. “He said, if water is not coming, you call…

Confusion continues to loom over the status of road widening projects in Bengaluru. Recent media reports suggested that all road widening projects in the city were put on hold, after a statement made by Transport Minister R Ashoka. The Minister later backtracked saying that work on only the Mysore Road-Central Silk Board corridor will be stalled. One of the markings on the Silk Board-BTM Layout corridor, indicating proposed acquisition of 7.41 m. File pic. Citizen Matters reconfirmed this with Ashoka who says, “I don't know how many road widening projects have been stopped. I don't have exact number. In JP…