OPINION

It was a short-lived campaign for the BBMP elections with little sound except for the occasional auto rickshaw blaring loud music and unintelligible squawks alternately. There were fortuitously none of the usual cut-outs, banners or buntings which end up ultimately as so much garbage. The only signs which indicated that a campaign was on, were the colourful pamphlets strewn on the roadside, muddied by the footprints of passers-by.After all the hype and excitement drummed up by the media, the State Election Commission says that only about 44 per cent of Bengalureans voted. But given that the electoral rolls are such…

If there was one clear sign at the end of counting yesterday evening, it was this: the electoral victories that the BJP sustained in 2008 by plucking 17 of the 27 state assembly seats from Bengaluru, has held sway on March 28th as well.The premise of this report is this: party identities and allegiances have broadly held sway in the March 28th city polls, not individual candidate credentials. With individual stature not being a factor in bulk of the wards, voters - whichever way you assume their votes were got -  have stayed with three major parties. For the most,…

Yet again, on the day after the city polls of March 28th, both State Election Commission (SEC) officials and the city’s dailies are crying hoarse about low turnout in Bengaluru. Official estimates are reportedly putting the number at around 45 percent and several dailies today have sermonised in their editorials that Bangaloreans did not take this election seriously enough.Really? Let’s look at the numbers again. According to the SEC, the total number of voters for all 198 wards of Bengaluru is 69.7 lakhs. Let’s stop right there. Is this number even possible? Graphic: Meera K. Even after amalgamation of towns…

As most of you know, the Bangalore Elevated Tollway from Electronic City (E-City) upto Bommanahalli was inaugurated by the Union minister, Kamal Nath, last week. The government hailed it as a successful project completed in record time. I have been using it since last week, and this is what I observed. The elevated highway in use. Pic: Thejesh G N. Even though my travel time from E-City to Silk Board junction has reduced by 20 minutes, I clearly see the bottleneck shifting to St Johns, north of Silk Board and to E-City Phase I main entrance in the south. The…

Recently, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and his band of Ministers, R Ashoka, Katta Subramanya Naidu and S Suresh Kumar, laid the foundation stone for a housing complex in JP Nagar. The housing complex will come up where a low income neighbourhood (slum) now exists with over 1000 houses. For now, around 100 houses have been razed and the families shifted nearby, in tin sheds.Speaking to these residents, they complained about the water problem, lack of toilet facilities, families of five were living in a cramped space, the tin sheds scratched them, they were sleeping on mud floors. Many refused…

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) or High Capacity Bus System (HCBS) is a high quality, ultra modern, customer oriented transit option that could deliver fast, comfortable and cost-effective urban mobility, quite similar to metro rail. Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) incorporates most of the high-quality aspects of metro systems without high investments. BRT was developed as a viable transit option in Latin America, where urban planners were seeking cost effective solution for the urban transport dilemma. This highly effective and economical mass transit option is now a way of life in many developing as well as developed countries such as China,…

Being a career woman, means a juggling act between home and office. Though we do believe we have super powers to do it all, we need help all the same. Be it a young unmarried girl, newly married or mother of two; we all need help.  In a city like Bangalore where nuclear families are the norm, more often than not it is the domestic workers or maids that come to the rescue of us superwomen. We may not openly accept it or even acknowledge it but talk to a woman whose maid has taken an unannounced vacation and you…

Open the day’s newspapers , and all you see are scary reports  -- about viral fevers, dengue, people thronging to clinics for medication, waterlogged layouts. A judgment under the Consumer Protection Act, handed out in Chennai  will be of interest to citizens in Bengaluru who would like to do something about the sorry state of civic amenities and cleanliness in the metropolis,  but knew also that the municipality could not be sued under the Act because of a  ruling that citizens were “not consumers” of municipal services under the law. A citizens' group filed a complaint with the Tamilnadu Consumer…

In every election, it has become standard to observe that the quality of our political leadership and governance is suffering because the educated, urban middle class does not turn up to vote. Now that we have another election before us - the BBMP Council- it may be worth asking, why is this, and how can this be changed?First, some clarification. While the overall voting percentage numbers certainly bear out the apathy of the middle class, there is still a section of this group that does turn out vote, in election after election.The more pertinent question, therefore, may be: "why do…

We love them, we hate them, but we cannot ignore them. The ubiquitous yellow and black (now of course they are going green) auto rickshaws are part and parcel of this city. This is the taxi of the middle class. You get the first taste of what is to come when you get off in any of the Bangalore railway stations. If you are not careful you will end up paying Rs 160 from Bangalore Cantonment to Halasuru, even if it is after 6 AM.Random sampling for the sake of this column, tells me that six out ten passengers who…