GENRE: LN

Residents of Dollars Colony in J P Nagar 4th phase are complaining of increasing traffic jams at the 8th main road-2nd cross intersection. The cause they say is the M K Ahmed super market located at the intersection. Sign at the entrance (8th Main Road) of the basement restricting parking to two-wheelers. Pic: Yogaraj Mudalgi. K V R Somayaji, at IT consultant in his fifties, who lives opposite the store on 2nd cross says that the store is not allowing car parking in the basement, leading to customers parking on busy 8th Main. A city no-parking sign prohibits parking of…

With the ban of thin plastic bags coming into force from 15th March 2011, Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust (PNLIT) cloth shopping bags are in the market. It is said that one reusable bag eliminates an average of a 1000 plastic bags. Anand, one of the owners of Fresh Greens, with the bags. Pic: Arathi Manay Yajaman. When the ban was first announced a few weeks ago, some of the shops on Puttenahalli Road had approached PNLIT members for the supply of cloth bags that can be sold in their shops. About the same time last year, some of us who were concerned…

In the hope of bringing the once common house sparrow back to Bengaluru, Burhani Foundation (India) distributed 500 bird feeders at the Burhani Masjid in Gottigere, off Bannerghatta Road on 6th March. Across the country, fifty-two thousand bird feeders were distributed as a part of centenary celebrations of the birth of Dr. Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin, Dai-al-Mutlaq (spiritual leader) of the Dawoodi Bohra community. His birthday falls on 6th March, according to the Gregorian calendar. People collecting the bird feeders from the judges of Limca and Guiness Book of World records. Pic: Yograj S Mudalgi The distribution was taken up in…

Dev Raj 45 is a construction worker who left his village in Bihar 25 years ago to make a living. He has worked in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Jodhpur, Coimbatore and Bangalore. After all these years, he's going back to his village disappointed with what he has achieved. Raj has been in Bengaluru for a year now. "I am going home next month and I will not come back. I will work in the fields in my village. Yes, I will earn less but it is far better than living here," said Dev Raj. He earns 200 rupees per day…

St Joseph's college for Arts and Science was the venue for the mini international cultural and food festival on Saturday, 26 February. The North east and Tibetan forum which comprises of the students from the region was at the helm of it. In its fourth year, the festival is meant to show case the Northeast's cultural uniqueness at the Bengaluru college. North east students performing their traditional dance Tibetan dance. Pic: author. The current king of the Royal House of Tripura, Kirit Pradyot Deb Barman, was the chief guest. Three thousand people attended the festival. King of Tripura, addressing the…

The work for tar road began, in December 2009. As part of that, the work for drains along the road, though started from scratch, has been going on in rounds, changing the course of the drain thrice. The work came to a halt with out proper cover for drains. Lack of proper planning before starting the work was quite apparent. A short drain running across of the road, opened for clearing the blockage because of debris and wasn't covered since then, has been big trouble for all the passing vehicles, especially four wheelers, and pedestrians when it rains, at nights,…

Move over cricket and football, children and adults of Springfield apartments on Sarjapur Road have a new sport to try their hands on. The apartment conclave has recently installed indoor rock climbing wall in the premises. The 30 feet wall has holds arranged asymmetrically which climbers use to grip and climb. Rajat Bhargava, who is in charge of outdoor activities at Springfield says, "I wanted to introduce some unique out door activity and sport climbing seemed to be a good choice as it is an adventure sport." Outback India, which promotes adventure sports, set up the wall and have assigned…

Seven years after BDA laid out the first plan of Phase I of PRR (Peripheral Ring Road), the project is nowhere close to taking off, due to land acquisition issues. After many changes in length, alignment and cost made over the years, BDA - the executing agency for the project - gave the final alignment in 2007. BDA now plans to hold a meeting with the Chief Minister to discuss compensation for land acquisition. "We cannot acquire land or float tenders without arriving on a formula for compensation. This will be discussed in the meeting with CM," says BDA PRO…

The collapse of a wall in a construction site in CK Palya off Bannerghatta road on February 2, which killed five labourers and injured four, has once again proved how easily government sanctions can be obtained for any poor-quality building. A Citizen Matters investigation has shown that the lives of Parbhu Yadav, 40, Sanjith Sharma, 25, Raju Podar, 60, Jugesh Thathi, 40, and Raja, 60, all from Biharm could have been saved. Preliminary observations after the tragedy had already indicated flaws in construction including poor quality of cement mix, poor foundation and lack of cement pillars to support the nearly…

Fishermen of Iblur Lake faced a loss of Rs.1.8 lakh from a total income due to the death of fish caused by the inflow of sewage into the lake water. "We lease the lake out for fishing and sell these fish with the help of fishermen. Because of the death of the fishes, we are facing a loss of 80 percent,"said Narayanappa K, contractor of Iblur Lake. The five varieties of fish bred in the lake are Common Turf, Virijallu, Katla, Rohu and Jilebi. "The loss is beyond imagination. This is the second time the fishes have died.  The same…