GENRE: LN

The residents of Bellandur, Koramangala and HSR Layout in Bengaluru, who have been fighting over the months to get the government to stop the mega project coming up on the wetland lying between Agara and Bellandur lakes, finally are resorting to a massive protest, to make their voices heard louder. The protest will be held on Sunday, March 23, 2014, at 10.30 am. The project is said to be violating the conditions set by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board, namely not altering the sloping pattern, not encroaching the drains etc. Despite this, the project developers Mantri Techzone Pvt Ltd…

Students pursuing their master’s in physical education from Bangalore University (BU) are not provided with a proper sports ground, which eventually results in fewer number of physical education teachers in the city. After the students graduate in Masters in Physical Education, they are required to clear the National Eligibility Test (NET) in order to apply for jobs in primary and high schools for the post of PEd teacher. There is only one college affiliated to BU that provides the course of MPed, University College of Physical Education. The college has one ground where students train in multiple sports. The SoftCopy…

In the narrow lanes of Shantinagar, off the Markam road, Bangalore Central Candidate for Aam Aadmi Party V Balakrishnan decided to start his first campaign, Jansabha. The location was the crowded junction of the five lanes that had constant movement of scooters and bikes. The event was scheduled on Friday, 14th March 2013. Young volunteers ran up and down fixing the banners and placing the red carpet on the floor, while senior citizens distributed the pamphlets. The party’s symbol “Zhadu” (broom) was placed at the two open corners of the stage. At the background, the speakers relentlessly aired the Aam…

Yes, it has been an exciting weekend. Your own interactive news and analysis website, Citizen Matters, won the Namma Bengaluru Award in media category, at an event organised by Namma Bengaluru Foundation in Freedom Park, on Saturday, March 15th, 2014. Accepting the award, Citizen Matters co-founder Meera K noted that even though the team was tiny by normal standards of newsmagazines, in reality, it is hundreds of thousands strong, because of direct participation from citizens. "It is the citizens of Bangalore who share their news, community activities and events, the citizens who send leads for our professional journalists to investigate,…

Arvind Kejriwal of Aam Aadmi Party will be participating in a road show today - on March 15, 2014. The road show route has been issued by Traffic Police as an advisory, in order to avoid the routes. The route and approximate timings have been given below. Road show will start at 9.30 am from Hebbal Bus Stand. It will move to Bellary Road towards Ganganagar Market at 10am. Then the show will move through Ganganagar 5th main, R T Nagar Bus Stand, R T Nagar Main Road, T V Tower Junction, Jayamahal Road, Cantonment Railway Station, Queens Road and…

On March 11, a reputed newspaper published an article — ‘It's no lottery: BDA doubles flat rates’. The article stated that applicants who had been allotted 2 BHK flats by the BDA as part of its low-cost housing scheme, had started receiving notices from the BDA, informing them that they had to pay Rs 10 lakh over the original cost price of Rs 7.5 lakh, and those who had been allotted 3 BHK flats should expect to receive notices to pay an additional Rs 15 lakh. The article obviously caused a furore among those who had been allotted flats so…

The past week has certainly set the tempo for the oncoming Lok Sabha Elections in Bengaluru. A frenzy of sop announcements, inaugurations, stone-laying, flagging off activities were seen just days prior to the announcement of dates for the elections when the Model Code of Conduct would be enforced. The elections were announced on the March 5th. About 72.62 lakh Bangaloreans will get to vote on April 17th. Notifications for filing nominations for the 28 constituencies in the state will be announced on March 19. Accounting of expenditure incurred by the candidate for poll expenses will be tabulated from the day…

This is a fortnightly newsletter shared by the citizen group bellandur-forum@googlegroups.comPurva Sunshine residents get Khata In 2010, few residents of Purva Sunshine (PSS) decided to submit their Khata applications together. It turned out to be a long journey of 3 years which ended in availing individual khata documents for 66 of them on March 1st 2014. Some key points and achievements:• This was the 'The Khata' certificate, not the temporary B-Khata.• Constant follow-ups in groups of 8-10 residents and ensuring Kannada speaking residents were actively involved.• Two press releases were made during initial stages to create awareness and get input from…

Haven't you seen asphalting going on in super-speed recently in your area? Haven't most of the roads been improved recently? So far we were all neglected - now the public good is seen as supreme. Why - oh, why? No prizes for guessing - the election season is here! Announcement of the Model Code of Conduct by the Election Commission means that new welfare and populist schemes cannot be announced by the governments during this period. It does not mean a full stop in the work that a government does. Political parties that haven’t done anything through out the period…

Poll dates have been announced. Bengaluru is waiting to show the power of the voters. The nine-phase timeline will have the polls scheduled in Karnataka on April 17th, 2014. The counting will happen on May 16th, 2014 across the country. In the world’s largest democracy, about 81,00,00,000 voters will decide the 543 leaders who will represent them in the 16th Lok Sabha. Karnataka has 28 Lok Sabha seats and Bangalore has three seats. EC Notifications The Election Commission (EC) on its website has begun announcements for the Lok Sabha elections. Letters have been sent out to the Chief Secretaries and…