Governance

The Chunavana Android App is developed by the CEO of Karnataka after assessing the need of the public through a specialized KAP Survey is available for the public download now in the Google Play Store. The survey report revealed that out of the people who did not vote 25% was because they were not aware of their polling stations, 17.5 % of the urban voters did not vote because of long queue and avoided standing in the queue and 7.5 % of the urban voters did not vote because they are unaware of their candidates and the constituencies. The Chunavana…

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is contesting in a few seats in Bengaluru, in which K R Puram is one. Lingaraj Urs has been campaigning hard to gain ground to take on the incumbent Basavaraj Byrathi. Here are the excerpts of an interview with him. You are a first time candidate in the Assembly elections and the people of K R Puram don't know much about you. Tell us a bit about your experience in public service and administration. I think I'll go back a little in time, to the roots of my career. I spent 30 years in IT and…

Political parties come up with their manifestos for every election, promising to solve issues and do progressive things that will help people at large. Here's the list of manifestos from various political parties, for Bengaluru and the state. Indian National Congress (INC) Manifesto for Bengaluru Region (released on April 28, 2018): The highlight for Bengaluru is the mention of pitching Bengaluru region as a second capital for the country. [embeddoc url="https://citizenmatters.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Regional_INC-Manifesto_260418.pdf" download="all"] Indian National Congress (INC) Manifesto for Karnataka State (released on April 28, 2018): [embeddoc url="https://citizenmatters.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/INC_Manifesto_State_2018.pdf" download="all"] Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State Manifesto (released on May 3, 2018) [embeddoc…

A malnourished boy, in shabby clothes, stood trembling in fear at the Chennai Central Railway station. Unaware of the surroundings and people, he sat in silence at the railway station for hours. Only when the Railway Protection Force (RPF) employees initiated a conversation, did he open up about his risky escape from a confectionery unit in Karnataka. The 17-year-old boy, a resident of Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu, was coaxed into work by a middle man, when he was barely 13. The promise of a decent job and good salary soon turned sour, as the boy was forced to work…

If you are one among the 5 lakh voters of Mahadevapura, this is what you need to know! Background information Find your constituency Understand the role of the MLA Learn all you can about the candidates: see below Locate your voting booth: TBD How to cast your vote: TBD Candidates share their vision and action plan https://citizenmatters.in/candidate-debate-mahadevapura-bangalore-karnataka-elections-2018-24394 Incumbent MLA Profile and Track Record What did Mahadevapura MLA Aravind Limbavali do in the Karnataka Assembly in his 2nd term? How did Aravind Limbavali spend his Local Area Development (LAD) funds? Tracking Aravind Limbavali in the news Interview: TBD Performance evaluation from…

On 29th April 2018, less than two weeks before the Assembly elections, Million Voter Rising, a citizen group of changemakers from Mahadevapura constituency in Bengaluru, organised an interaction with some key candidates set to contest in the elections in their constituency. This included: Aravinda Limbavali - Incumbent MLA (BJP) Bhaskar Prasad (AAP) Ramesh Chander (Swarajya Party) K Sathish (JDS) A C Srinivas (INC) The opening session saw a brief presentation on the status of Mahadevapura and candidate introductions - with a general background of all the candidates, comparative statistics of their assets and the criminal cases against them. The organisers…

BTM Layout has a new candidate this year, who is out to make a dent in the vote share of major parties. Two budding journalists, Shravya Sharath and Gauri Mullerpatten, spoke to him on behalf of Citizen Matters, to understand his pitch and views on various issues. Excerpts: You are a first time candidate in the Assembly elections. People of BTM don’t really know much about you. So could you give us a brief about your background? Absolutely! It’s not that people of BTM don’t know me. I’ve been here all my life - I live this area. I’ve been…

Amid a busy day meant for campaigning, Sureshkumar took time to meet us during a break. He is one of the MLAs in Bengaluru who are in touch with people and socially active. Being a senior member of the Opposition, he has been actively raising issues related to Bengaluru and the State in the Assembly, seeking solutions from the Government. He spoke about his work, party's policies and more in the interview. Edited excerpts: What have you been able to achieve as an MLA in the last five years? As a true representative of the people from Rajajinagar, I have…

Women’s groups in Bengaluru, representatives from various political parties, Bangalore Ladies Circle and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry Ladies Organisation (FICCI FLO), came together to discuss representation in politics for women and women's issues. (WO)Manifesto, brainchild of Shruti Modi Kaura saw attendance by women from all walks of life at the TERI Institute on April 24. Shruti, once the Chairperson of Bangalore Ladies Circle 31, was only acting on her inclination to lead change when she went door-to-door asking for a seat in major parties. Soon, she realized there was no question of entering politics due to the…

The Tamil Nadu government’s decision to expand the Chennai Metropolitan Area (CMA) to eight times its current size has earned a fair share of criticism from city activists and residents. This became particularly evident during the public consultative meeting organised by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) recently. Even though the second master plan for Chennai, proposed in 2008, has proved to be a damp squib, the state government had, via a notification in January 2018,  proposed to expand CMA from the current 1,189 sq.km to a whopping 8,878 sq.km.  The proposal, if implemented, will urbanise a total of 1,709 villages…