LOCAL

Bangaloreans gathered in thousands to witness the staging of an unique event "Sahasra Veena Jhenkara" at the Palace Grounds. Jointly organised by the Art of Living and Ranjini Kala Kendra. Event was held on March 28, Pic: Sridhar C R The audience witnessed 1110 Veena Artistes of Karnataka from age groups 7-70. Prominent among those who participated in the show were noted Artistes Suma Sudhindra, D Balakrishna, Anuradha Madhusudhan and Dr Hema Ranganathan, Vijayalakshmi from Shimoga.The programme was inaugurated by Sri Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Guruji of the Art of Living along with Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda and Suparna Ravi…

Megha R, 32, a resident of RMV 2nd stage was eager to learn how to make compost at her home for her garden. She came with her husband to buy different variety of saplings grown from organic seeds to plant in her garden. She wants to use organic, natural manure and compost for her plants and organic seeds to grow new ones. And she thinks "Oota from your Thota" held in Malleshwaram, on March 25 was the perfect place for her.This was the fourth edition of this event by Garden City Farmers Trust, Bangalore (GCFT) after BTM Layout, Electronic City,…

It is illegal to run a hospital or a clinic without first registering with Health Ministry and Bengaluru has around 15,000 private medical establishments that are running without registration. This essentially flouts the Karnataka Private Medical Establishment Act 2009. Pic: Sankar C G But the doctors who run these clinics seem to be unaware of the process. "I have not registered my clinic anywhere because I didn't know about it. I don't have any kind of certificates from medical waste management, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board or BBMP," says Dr. Asha D. Patil of Santhi clinic in Kengeri.KPME Act 2009…

March 17, 2012 saw a small number of Bengalureans debate active citizenship. On the occasion of World Consumer Rights Day (March 15), Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF) held a summit on the "state of Consumer Affairs in the City". The summit was held at Udayabhanu Kalasangha in Kempegawdanagar. From left, Sainath NR, Sakuntala Narasimhan, Ramamurthy, Maj. Pankaj Rai Pic: Anisha Nair The guest speakers included Dr. Sakuntala Narasimhan, national award winning journalist and consumer protection activist, N S Ramamurthy, former senior food inspector, Public Health Institute, Retd Major Pankaj Rai, who is currently helping people fight medical negligence cases, Sainath N…

BCIL ZED Foundation conducted an International Sparrow Conference on 20 March, to raise awareness about the fall in the House Sparrow population in Bengaluru. 20 March is celebrated as the International sparrow day. As part of the conference there was a panel discussion on the birds, held at the Xavier Hall of St. Joseph's College, Lalbagh Road. Poster displayed outside St.Joseph's College. Photo: Deepa MohanThe first to speak was Dr. Abraham Verghese, of the Indian Institute for Research, who touched on how, several decades ago, places like Rajaji Nagar were just open land helping sparrow population. He added that several…

On March 20th, BDA filed its objections in High Court on the Agara-Sirsi Circle signal free corridor PIL. Koramangala 3rd block RWA and others had filed the case last month, specifically asking for work in four Koramangala junctions to be stopped, and HC had ordered a stay on the works. At several places in its objections filing, BDA has gone so far as to say that residents' concerns are imaginary. Sarjapur road dug up for construction of grade separator. File Pic: Deepthi M S BDA has presented copies of approvals for the project given by Technical Advisory Committees (TACs) of…

National Games Village (NGV) was built in 1997 and fire safety equipments were installed at the time. But 15 years on, most residents still do not know where these are located or how to use them.According to the Karnataka Fire Force Act, 1964, it is the responsibility of the fire department to check whether equipment are being maintained in good working condition.  Ghataprabha block of National Games Village. Pic: Anisha Nair Meera Rajesh, a resident of NGV says, "I am not aware of any fire safety equipment being installed in our society. I don't think there are any at all."…

I had the opportunity to attend a Children's Ward Sabha in Vijnana Nagar on February 23rd. It was organised by CWC (The Concerned for Working Children), an NGO for child rights.A Ward Sabha in urban areas is similar to a Gram Sabha in rural areas, wherein citizens of a village come together to voice their demands from elected representatives; these demands are supposed to be incorporated in the development package for that area. In 2006, based on the experience of other countries which have such children's sabhas, the Karnataka government took the initiative of making children's gram sabhas mandatory in…

Domestic Workers' rights union organised a public meeting in association with support groups Stree Jagruthi Samithi, APSA and Hengasara Hakkina Sangha (HHS) on March 13, 2012. The meeting was held at SCM house, Bangalore. Domestic Workers at the public meeting. Pic: Anisha Nair The meet was organised to address the concerns of the Domestic workers. Around 50 domestic workers came to voice their problems of domestic violence at their homes and workplaces from across the city.The panel of experts comprised of B S Bharathi Devi - Protection officer from Department of Women and child development, Aarti Mundkur - Lawyer, Sudha…

Residents of KEB Layout in BTM 1st stage have been petitioning BBMP about a public park that was demolished to benefit a private party. Citizen Matters had reported the issue in October 22 issue. BBMP demolished the play area in KEB layout park to build a road through it, in 2009. Pic: Navya P K BBMP had built the road through the only park here to facilitate traffic to a Sai Baba temple nearby, violating laws that mandate park protection. This also led to severe congestion by vehicles parking in inner roads of the layout.But BBMP is not swayed, even…