Policy

There seem to be differences of opinion between the government and the BBMP, regarding the implementation of recently approved Karnataka Town and Country Planning and Certain Other Laws (Amendment) Act 2009 - popularly known as Akrama Sakrama scheme. With the Governor H R Bhardwaj giving his nod to the scheme, many illegal constructions will soon become regularised, by paying a penalty. Interestingly, the Governor had rejected the proposal sent by the BJP government in July 2010. The Governor was not in favour of legalising illegal constructions, but okayed the bill after certain amendments by the present government. Most of the…

Citizens participating in an Aadhaar enrolment drive. File pic. Aadhaar card, though has been challenged in various courts, is still considered as an important identity card by many. The queues in Aadhaar enrolment centres are a testimony to this. Aadhaar card is not mandatory, according to Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI). Now that the Supreme Court has given an interim order banning making Aadhaar compulsory to avail government subsidies, the demand for Aadhaar card should go down - but that’s not the case. All subsidies, including LPG subsidy, are meant to be for poor people. Interestingly, LPG subsidy is…

Over 68 lakh people out of total 96 lakh have already enrolled for Aadhaar card in Bengaluru. Most are waiting for the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme to roll out, and for the LPG subsidy to come to the bank accounts mapped. While everyone was under the impression that Aadhaar card is mandatory for all government subsidies and services, a Supreme Court interim order issued on September 23, 2013, ruled that Aadhaar card cannot be made mandatory, it has to be voluntary. Retired justice Puttaswamy, the man behind the PIL filed in Supreme Court against UIDAI. Pic: Bosky Khanna Justice Puttaswamy,…

Our urban planning framework has totally misunderstood the management of parking. Starting with building bye laws to on-street parking to off-street, pretty much EVERYTHING we do around parking is wrong. And the examples that people point to as 'successful' are often very good examples of failures. The goal of the municipality should be to manage mobility, not parking. And this focus should prioritise mobility of public transport vehicles, and also facilitate good quality infrastructure for pedestrian movement. Look at the example of every major city in the world. They don't go around telling builders that for every square foot of…

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…

Is going taller the only way to fund Bangalore’s infrastructure needs? A recommendation in a recent report to do just that has sparked off a heated debate between two of the city's influential elites on the future of the city and its skyline. What started off the skyscraper debate was the recent re-submission of the Karnataka Information and Communication Technology Group 2020 (KIG-2020) Report titled ‘Karnataka’s roadmap to global leadership by 2020’ to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. In it is a recommendation to allow for more high rises within the city, charging a toll for doing so and using that money…

The Governor has once again returned the Sakrama Bill. In any event, given the court case that is going on, any attempt by the government to circumvent the court was bound to land in trouble, so there's not much point in the Governor also getting embroiled in it. Let's face it - this Bill should be killed. It's a bad idea, always has been. But more than that, we should now be thinking about a scarier proposition - we have reached the stage in our politics where it is difficult to do good things because our representatives are being elected…

When it suits their dodgy interests, the political parties actually cooperate with each other, even though they are theoretically opponents in the electoral and other arenas. Yesterday (June 11, 2013) we saw a very good example of this in the Karnataka Legislative Council. Some years ago, the Supreme Court handed down a judgment that was intended to free the police forces from direct political interference. The court ordered the establishment of an appointments Board in each state that would manage the postings of lower level police staff (below the rank of DySP). This Board is filled with members of senior…