Governance

As it happens every year, Bengaluru got good amount of money this year too. Here's a look at the details. Bangalore Water Supply and drainage Board The following projects have been approved: • Water Supply and Underground Drainage Project for 110 villages coming under BBMP at a cost of Rs. 5018 crore approved with JICA loan. It includes components to reduce unaccounted for water of 180 MLD. • In addition to existing untreated water main pipeline, scheme for extending additional untreated Water Transfer Pipeline between Forbes Sagar to N.B.R and to extend up to T.K. Halli at an estimated cost…

In 2014, the Government of Karnataka decided to go for private-public partciipation in maintaining of public places. Freedom Park, Visweswaraiah Museum, Tippu fort, Lalbagh, Cubbon Park aquarium and Venkatappa Art Gallery were in the list of such tourist destinations for Bengaluru Urban. The government also formed a committee with Minister for Tourism as the chairperson, to consider and approve CSR proposals to maintain public places in the list of 46 tourist destinations identified.   // Adoption of Tourist Destination Karnataka Tourism GO (PDF) Adoption of Tourist Destination Karnataka Tourism GO (Text) Related ArticlesMoU between GoK and Tasveer Foundation on Venkatappa…

  // KTVG-Report-2014 (PDF) KTVG-Report-2014 (Text) Related ArticlesMoU between GoK and Tasveer Foundation on Venkatappa Art Gallery

  // VAG-Tasveer-Foundation-GoK-MoU (PDF) VAG-Tasveer-Foundation-GoK-MoU (Text)

BBMP taxation committee chairman Shivaraju addressing media. Pic: Shree D N Bruhat Bengaluru Maha Nagara Palike (BBMP) has started pre-budget consultations with various sections of society including nongovernmental organisations, resident welfare associations and journalists. The consultation with journalists was done in Malleshwaram on March 16, 2016. Chairman of Standing Committee on Taxation, M Shivaraju chaired the meeting. He said journalists had their eyes and ears on the ground and knew what was wrong where, hence capable of advising based on ground realities. Many journalists from electronic and print media were present in the meeting. The inputs given by the journalists…

Civic group members who have pushed hard for RERA Bill, are a happy lot. With the passing of Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Bill, 2015 which intends to protect the interests of home buyers, in the Rajya Sabha on 10th March 2016, the bill crossed a major hurdle. All day, activists were trying to lobby for the Bill through Twitter with the handle @FightForRERAInd. Today (March 15th) the Bill was passed in Lok Sabha too. The citizen activism to push the RERA Bill started in Delhi, by Lt Gen Bahri (Retd). The Delhi group reached out to other major cities…

In order to scientifically process Bangalore city’s municipal solid waste (MSW), the State Government has set up seven compost plants, which are large facilities with required machinery and construction. Kannahalli is the largest one (can handle 500 tonnes per day), located in the outskirts of the city. One of India’s major companies in waste management, IL&FS Environment, is undertaking the operation and maintenance of this plant. There were issues with the composting facility, as the villagers near the plant complained of bad odour and other problems, and stopped garbage lorries from entering the facility for a few days. A notice…

Prakash Belawadi, an actor and a theatre personality, had the shock of his life when a caller posing as a bank officer asked his wife for the One Time Password (OTP). Belawadi happened to reveal it to her without thinking. It was too late when he realised that his wife had unintentionally communicated to it to the person at the other end of the phone. The result: money to the tune of Rs 90,000 was billed to his credit card. A screengrab from an animation by the Federal Trade Commission intended to educate citizens about phishing tactics. Pic: Wikimedia Commons…

Here is an extract from my proposals to the government on things to include in the State Budget, 2016-17: (a) The Master Plan for Bengaluru and other cities being statutory, the State Budget each year should mandatorily allocate monies to proposals within these plans. That is essential to retaining their statutory nature, and also to ensure that development during a Plan period is annually guided by such allocations. A beginning may be made in this, by an explicit reference in this year's Budget to financing proposals under the Master Plan. This would also give the newly appointed Minister for Bengaluru…

If you are a women, the chances are that you have been at the receiving end of sexual harassment in some form or the other; being groped on a moving bus or being catcalled at, or even being made to listen to sexist jokes. Unfortunately, what happens in most cases is that women accept it as a sad reality of living in India. And unless the assualt is severe, very few women actually come forward to report it to the police. According to Amnesty International, only 1 in every 100 women reports sexual violence. Pic: readytoreport.in/WhenIFileAnFIR To empower women to…