GENRE: Voices

If there is one politician who is most qualified to present a Budget for Karnataka, it is the Chief Minister himself - Siddaramaiah. While he has shown his ability to do the fine balance with not antagonising the public with more taxes, he has played to the gallery as far as keeping multiple vote banks in good humour is concerned. What should the budget aim to do? What are the key measures that should have been dealt with differently in the budget? Creation of more jobs across agriculture, manufacturing and services sectors should be the fundamental objective for the moment.…

“His form is ungainly — his intellect small —” (So the Bellman would often remark) “But his courage is perfect! And that, after all, Is the thing that one needs with a Snark. Lewis Carroll: The Hunting of the Snark About 10 years ago, four NGOs in Bangalore — Janaagraha, Public Affairs Centre, Centre for Budget and Policy Studies and Voices — got together to demand quarterly accounts from the Bangalore City Corporation. This was called the PROOF campaign, and it attracted a great deal of interest. PROOF became possible because a system of accounting for the Corporation had been…

Every budget talks about how Bangalore is an important metropolis and how its glory as an IT-BT capital has to be restored. In keeping with the current sentiment, the budget has discussions about garbage, roads, sites and investments. However there is only so much a city can take; so much a city can absorb; a limit to which it can cope. So, the question with every budget is that why are we so Bangalore-centric? Unpack the current Karnataka budget and you have a section dedicated to Bangalore which details out fly-overs, sky-walks, grade separators and garbage management. There is an…

The new Budget has been announced. For the first Budget with limited time, it is indeed a good one. Our Chief Minister  has said in the introduction that he intends to provide every citizen the bare necessities of life, a house, water in the tap, power, a road to the house, sewage facilities, education for children and safety for people and property. Ultimately this is what every citizen looks forward to and what we have not been able to achieve in the past 65 years. He has stated that he will ensure that taxpayers’ money is well-spent with no wastage,…

After almost a 40 minutes run from Bangalore city, the train 16732 bound to Tuticorin comes to a halt. Half-asleep passengers peek out assuming the stop to be Hosur, as the train comes to a halt on platform 1 of the station just outside Bangalore limits. However it is not Hosur - welcome to Carmelram. An unassuming country side station, it is almost a let thorugh for Bangalore city trains - but for a major part of North Bangaloreans, this is an important station, especially for trains from Yeshvantapur as they do not have to waste time in traffic jams…

The increase in fares 15 days back was as usual a hole burner in starting stages - fare of Rs.8 has become rs.9 and fare of Rs.9 is now Rs.12/- but does BMTC really think they make money this way? Consider my own example here. Travelling from Marathahalli to J P Nagar 6th phase, I get direct bus in mornings - but in return I need to change over at the Marenhalli signal for last 2 kms for which the fare works out to be Rs.9/-. On an average of 3 working days, I generally walk down home for the…

"Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books", said John Ruskin in Sesame and Lillies in 1865. What Ruskin told us around 150 years back is still valid. Do you agree? How many of us feel happy when a specific book has made such an impression that it is etched into our souls. A school textbook, an article from a magazine, an Enid Blyton story, a Jane Austen novel or even a grandma's lullaby or anything that has helped us in comprehending the intricacies of life…

It is now time to revive the age old procedure of building action plan. Here are some guidelines which can be implemented. 1. In multi-storied buildings, garbage chutes need to be banned, to enforce segregation at source. In buildings that already have chutes, they should be closed. In new buildings, chutes should not be approved during the plan sanction. 2. All multi-storied buildings should provide a garbage sorting area along with a composting area. If there is insufficient space at ground level, terrace/ topmost floor/ basement can be considered. It has been found that the terrace (or top most floor)…

Waste or garbage management is the responsibility of each one of us. It starts with us- residents and shopkeepers. All of us have to overcome the chalta hai attitude towards this very important environmental issue. The government and civic authorities also have a big role to play. Both of them have to work together as a focussed and committed team to overcome this huge issue. Unfortunately this has not happened. Residents Welfare Associations have regularly brought or bringing to the notice of concerned civic agencies, officials and elected representatives, to move forward, on this very important environmental issue through coordinated…

Years ago, my grandmother apparently cured her five children’s whooping cough by using natural Ayurvedic remedies. When we were kids and she was visiting us, Nani was the ‘go-to’ person for everything from upset tummies to cuts, bruises and falls. And as far as I remember, her remedies usually worked. According to my mother, “in those days, in her generation, people knew.” Now if you ask me, these days most of us don’t know. And even if we do, it feels safer applying a medicine instead of a turmeric powder and mustard oil mix on a burn. What if the…