GENRE: LN

Nearly two weeks ago, a major chokepoint in city's north-eastern fringes was eliminated when citizens starting driving over the Whitefield-Kadugodi railway overbridge. The bridge connects the Kadugodi-Seegehalli-Kannamangala area north of the Whitefield Railway Station with the rest of Bengaluru city. After wait of nearly four years and a particularly excruciating two years, the clean, well-done road with bridge bounding walls nicely painted seems like a heaven-slapped fast lane for weary motorists here. It now takes only a minute to cross over what has been a 20-40 minutes detour, leading to an extra hour of road-time every day for most people…

“The best way to promote sports is through communities. If we can support the needy through such initiatives, even better,” says 16-year-old Shaurya Saluja, organizer of a five-day squash camp in the city. A 12th standard student at Indus International School, Saluja believes that such camps will make the otherwise less-known sport popular. Shaurya Saluja. Pic courtesy: Shaurya Saluja. The camp will be held at Shobha Lakeview Club at Sarjapur Outer Ring Road on July 23, 24, 25, 30 and 31. Satinder Bajwa, Harvard University Head Squash Coach and mentor of eight-time world squash champion Jansher Khan, is holding the…

As a response to water shortage, four bore wells were sanctioned under the councillors quota for every ward. Unfortunately in BTM layout, the program resulted in two tragic deaths, on 16th Main Road, in II Stage. On June 15th, one of the crew members of the borewell firm that got the contract, took the first step to raise the bore motor to start drilling. While raising it, the equipment touched the electricity line above. Power was not shut down in these lines leading to the operator’s death within a fraction of a second. One co-worker tried to save him but…

Like minded citizens of Shakambarinagar ward have come together to form a citizens’ forum to address the civic issues of the ward and closely work with the elected representatives as well as civic authorities. The organisation meets every fortnight (Monday) at their office in JP Nagar. Shakambari Nagar Citizen Forum members meeting MLA B N Vijayakumar and Corporator Somashekar at their office. Pic: Raghavendra. Below are some issues pertaining to Shakambari Nagar Ward:-    Installation of ward name boards at all the four boundaries of Shakambari Nagar.-    Installing of street/ Road boards which are broken or defaced.-    Identifying and desilting of…

Even as the state government and BBMP recently made yet another u-turn on road-widening plans in Bengaluru, uncertainty remains over what is to come for properties that have been marked for acquisition.The state government and BBMP have announced that marking of roads for widening will be suspended. File photo. The Ring Road Property Owners' Association (RRPOA) for one believes that this is just a “trick” as no orders have been given in writing. Core Committee Member of RRPOA, Venkatesh Murthy says, “They should withdraw this (road widening plans) in writing, then only it will be official, not orally.” However, BBMP…

A TDR notice was handed over by a BBMP employee at the gate to the Whitefield Memorial Church in May. See copy of notice given to Memorial Church. Similar notices have been given to all residences/commercial establishments along the Whitefield-Varthur main road. Exterior view of the Whitefield Memorial Church. Pic courtesy: Krupa Rajangam. Members of the Church of Church of South India (CSI) congregation and The Anglican Church of India congregation are appalled at this contemplated action of the BBMP. With respect to all Christian denominations, his Highness Wodeyar IX gifted three-quarters of an acre to build an inter-denominational church…

Amidst all the excitement of the FIFA World Cup, Bangalore had its own mini world cup tournament last week, with players representing France and Spain fighting it out in the finals on Sunday. The KIPSTA Cup football tournament ended with two ‘France’ teams - Rootsports (representing Bangalore based sports management firm Root Sports) and BSSF (Bangalore School Sports Federation) - winning the cup in the Senior and Under-15 categories respectively. The runners-up in the two categories were ARM Technologies Pvt Ltd and SPT (from SPT Sports Academy) respectively. Kipsta cup U15 team in action. Pic: Navya P K. A small…

S K Nataraj is Mayor and corporator of Sarakki ward. Even as he plans to visit each and every ward in order to understand their problems, citizens are pointing to issues in his own ward that need attention. Pic: Chetan Boray. Sarakki ward includes 6th phase JP Nagar, a BDA-planned area, which is supposed to have basic facilities available to its residents when compared to revenue sites. But citizens here continue for suffer from inadequate piped water supply. Resident Anand Rao, in his late fifties, says that BWSSB officials point out that the line is at a higher point and…

Heads swapped On the day this story was published (29th June), the state government effected transfers to two key officials in the city government. BBMP Commissioner Bharat Lal Meena was transferred to head the BDA, and the latter's commissioner H Siddiah was transferred to head the BBMP. Talking to Citizen Matters on this, Mayor S K Nataraj said he was not consulted on the transfers and that he viewed it as a 'routine' state government decision. The Mayor of Bengaluru S K Nataraj has announced that a separate BBMP council session will be held to discuss road widening in the…

It's been thirty years since John Lennon passed but his spirit clearly still lives on. Nehru Bal Sangh, Bangalore, more commonly known as NBS, once again organised their much awaited inter- school cultural competition Cascade, at Bal Bhavan, Cubbon Park with the theme of ‘All we need is love.' Nehru Bal Sangh (NBS) is a United Nations recognised and accredited, voluntary, non-profit organisation with branches in 18 states of India. NBS is run by young student members who engage in social causes such as fundraising for organisations including the Spastic Society and Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA). In the past…