INTERVIEWS

Much is being said and heard about the difficulties that the new Bangalore airport (Bangalore International Airport Limited - BIAL) is likely to impose on the citizens of Bangalore. A few days ago, the High Court of Karnataka weighed in on a PIL and recommended that the government and BIAL renegotiate the original agreement, with particular reference to the steep user charges and on the option of keeping HAL airport open. Last week, the central government floated its new greenfield airport policy, which does not explicitly bar a second commercial airport within a 150 kms radius of the first one.…

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…

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…