GENRE: Voices

The traffic in Bangalore and other cities are increasing alarmingly. This is due to the affordability of the people to buy a vehicle and the competitiveness of the automobile industries which are leading to high density of traffic which is a serious concern for global warming and the changing climatic conditions. There are 3 to 4 cars and 2 to 3 two wheelers for each house. I have seen most of the sedans and midsized cars are driven with a single persons and the government should stop giving licence to manufacture midsize cars and sedans and SUV's and this should…

Guru Ravindranath, one of the prominent RTI users in the city filed an RTI application on 31 January 2007. For not receiving the information, he filed an appeal on 14/3/07. The first hearing was set to 25/5/07. It was then postponed to 28/8/07. Then again it was postponed to 22/11/07. And again it was postponed to 12/2/08. And then again to 14/4/08! The state's Chief Information Commissioner at this time is K K Mishra. The RTI (Right To Information) Act is a special-purpose vehicle that is supposed to feed the citizens with information on demand. But Karnataka's bureaucrats are exploiting…

Early in the morning a Paurakarmika stands near my gate and calls. I peep out. "Amma, coffeeg enadru kodtheera?" (Will you give something for coffee?). She asks. I bend over the gate and show her the foot path and the drain. "Idanella yaar clean madowru? Regularag clean madidre enadru kodbahudu." (Who is supposed to clean all this? If you do this work then I could give you something). I say. "Mori clean madowru berevru barthaare." She says. I feel a bit annoyed. She pushes all the muck that is on the foot path into the drain and walks away sulking.…

Bangalore, as we know it now, could be an armchair critic's delight. Congested, cluttered, overgrown, brown Bangalore has old-timers sighing in despair or ranting in rage. The younger Bangaloreans give each other earfuls about the city's roads, traffic and lack of civic amenities. While more people pour in, the minimal infrastructure is stretched beyond help. The blame games continue. The mess festers. N S Mukunda of Citizens Action Forum with former Karnataka Lokayukta Justice N Venkatachala. File pic: Sneha. Meet a group of people who have moved beyond complaining. The Citizen Action Forum (CAF) consists of a group of individuals…

Sure enough, the Lokayukta is doing a good job in rounding up corrupt and inefficient officials and we congratulate them for that. However, we at Citizen Matters always wondered what made the Lokayukta tick, what happened to the people who were booked, and whether the Karnataka Lokayukta Act was powerful enough to make the Lokayukta an extremely effective anti-corruption organisation. Well, we decided to interview with Justice Santosh Hegde, the present Lokayukta and then draw our own conclusions from what emerged.67-year-old Justice Hedge took office in August 2006 for a five-year term. He was born in Karkala taluk, now in…

We all carry our family histories with us. Memories of mango trees, a large well in the backyard, a pudina patch, tyrannical aunts, loving grandmothers and ‘meese' thathas linger in the albums of our mind. Yet, some extraordinary lives demand more than a walk through the black-and-white photo gallery. Ambi's was one such. Amba Bai, a young woman, pregnant with her third child, woke up to widowhood one bright, summer morning of 1913. Her husband, Srinivasa, had drowned in the Kempambudi Lake (Chamarajpet), where he had gone for a swim. Her father, Krishna Rao, stood between Ambi, as she was…

Bangalore's administration and the Karnataka state government are trying to deal with the city's massive traffic woes in one way or another. The most common approach undertaken by governments is to implement schemes to widen roads, build flyovers, and develop mass transit/rapid transit systems. Recently, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) decided to implement its proposal of widening 85 roads in the city. Bangalore's roads are currently handling 32 lakh vehicles, nearly two and a half times the number in 1990s. It was in 2005 that the city's Roads Department announced the road widening scheme for 85 roads. However, the…

"How was the week-end?" I was faced with the routine start-of-the-week question. "Pretty good! My wife and I went to MG road on Sunday", I replied. "Cool, I hope you had fun shopping", the colleague responded. Surprisingly, it was true; but few would have guessed that we shopped at Namma Jathre - an exhibition cum fair organised by groups (mostly) working on community development, held in Cubbon Park's Bal Bhavan on 30 December. For those unfamiliar with the local language (like me), Namma Jathre translates to English as "Our Festival". Namma Jathre was started under the theme of 'Festival of…

At first glance, K Raja, 26, a resident of Bull Temple Road in Basavangudi and David Moszkowicz, 34, a native of Lyon, France would seem to have nothing in common. In fact, if one were to try and apply the six degrees of separation rule on these two individuals, it is quite a high possibility that, under normal circumstances, the number of links to connect them would be much greater than the standard six. Raja the Tavil player engaged in a jugalbandi with Pavan Kumar at the New Year eve celebration. Pic: Shreya Dasgupta. Mild mannered David looks every bit…

Srinivas Murthy is working President of the Rickshaw Chalakara Sangha (Autorickshaw Drivers' Union) in Bangalore which spearheaded the recent strike by autos in the city. The union is affiliated to the Community Party of India-linked Center for India Trade Unions (CITU). In conversation with Samuel Jacob, he avers that driving a rickshaw in Bangalore is no longer viable proposition given the increased cost of living and fuel prices. The Union is asking for a hike in the minimum rate from Rs.12 to Rs.20 for rickshaws plying in the city. Pic: Deepa Mohan. Murthy is about 65, is soft spoken and…