Governance

Some interesting twists in law come up in corruption cases, revealing technicalities that need to be addressed to clean up the system. This morning's news about Lokayukta-filed cases against former CM BSY is one such technicality. The cases were filed based on a CAG report, but in court it was argued (and accepted) that CAG reports are the exclusive property of the legislature, and no one else can take action based on them. I.e., when the CAG finds irregularities in actions of ministers, we must rely on the MLAs to take action against their own fellow legislators. In practice, given…

As 2015 has drawn to an end, it would be worthwhile for the government to reflect and learn from the issues that the citizens raised their voices about this year. The tech-savvy residents of various regions of Bengaluru increasingly took to public protests this year to voice their discontent with the myriad infrastructure problems that beset their neighbourhoods. These problems are symptomatic of the underlying issues arising out of a myopic vision and a deficit (sometimes bordering on absence) of governance. As long as the state government and the city’s administrators remain mired in a cycle of firefighting, band-aid fixes…

November 30. Sindhu Naik, a resident of North Bengaluru, got a notice from her apartment community: “A drive being conducted this Saturday (5th Dec) & Sun (6th Dec) from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. for the verification of the Aadhar card. Ms. Kumari S. from the Registrar General of Citizen Registration will be visiting our complex for this purpose. Please keep your Aadhar cards handy at this time.” She asked her friends and others, but did not get any clarity on what the issue was about. Citizen Matters tried asking Unique Identity Authority of India, but the officials in the…

Here's a small quiz: Who are the following individuals and what's common among them? Latha Krishna Rao, P B Ramamurthy, Gaurav Gupta, M S Ravishankar, Anjum Parvez, T M Vijay Bhaskar Someone who has been following public affairs in Karnataka would know that they are all IAS officers of the Karnataka cadre. But very few people are likely to know that they all held the position of Chairperson of the BWSSB (Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board) from 2007 to present. So that is six officers over a period of eight years, which gives an average of about 16 months…

With 6,500 buses in its fleet, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) carries 50 lakh people per day in Bengaluru. BMTC is one service, that whether you like it or hate it, you cannot ignore it. While BMTC bus service is appreciated as well as criticised by public, its Managing Director Ekroop Caur talks to Citizen Matters about the future plans for BMTC, challenges ahead and ways of meeting people’s demand. BMTC Managing Director Ekroop Caur At a time when private bus aggregators have made it to the bus service sector in Bengaluru, what initiative has BMTC taken to improve its…

Bangalore Political Action Committee (B.PAC) in association with BBMP on December 21st organised a workshop, Women Leaders for a Better Tomorrow - the imprint of women leaders in political leadership. Leading ladies of the BBMP Council. Pic: B.PAC “This is a historic moment in Bengaluru’s history”, said Revathy Ashok, CEO and Managing Trustee, B.PAC. “BBMP has more than 52% of women elected members and we thought this is the right moment to celebrate this win and to inspire our corporators with mind-blowing stories of several women political luminaries of Karnataka such as Leeladevi R Prasad and BT Lalita Nayak, she…

This true story is typical of the experience of thousands of residents of Bengaluru who are at the mercy of ‘service’ providers like the municipal corporation (BBMP) and water supply (BWSSB). In the first week of December, BBMP’s contractors began re-laying pavement stones in Jayanagar. Gangs of workers piled the dug up mud, concrete chunks, broken stone slabs and bricks all along the pavement, blocking my entrance. How do I get in and out of my home? I protested. The labourers suggested I step into the two feet deep drain and access my entrance. As a 75-year-old senior citizen with…

Flooding that took place at PES campus in Electronic City during August 2014. Pic: Sent by a reader. While Chennai is recuperating from the torrential rains that wreaked havoc in the city last week, a question that stands before Bengalureans is: to what extent is our city prepared to handle such a situation? Considering that Bengaluru is not immune to floods and 1,077 areas are flood-prone according to BBMP, we tried to know from various government agencies about their preparedness to handle a situation like that of Chennai flood. Here’s what came out of it. Coordination is the key Whenever…

Many of you may be interested in building your home on a plot owned by you. There are hundreds of private layout developers in all parts of Bengaluru, advertising all over newspapers and television. Private layouts are being developed along all the main roads from Bengaluru towards Devanahalli airport, Hoskote, Whitefield, Sarjapur, Attibele, Anekal, Jigani, Kanakapura, Mysore, Magadi, Tumkur and Nelamangala. Some of these projects are at a distance of nearly 50 kms from Vidhana Soudha. All layout developments have to fulfil legal requirements of the Land Revenue Act, the Land Reforms Act, the Town and Country Planning Act and…

On November 30th 2015, Monday, soon after Bengaluru Mayor N Manjunath Reddy called off the monthly council meeting citing model code of conduct for Legislative Council election as the reason, opposition party leader Padmanabha Reddy hurriedly convened a press meet. In his press meet, he accused the BBMP Commissioner and Chief Audit Officer of releasing Rs 179 crore for Programme of Works, violating the High Court and Karnataka government’s order to strictly follow seniority while clearing bills. The BBMP has released Rs 179 crore for works in different wards in K R Puram, RR Nagar and Yeshwanthpur legislative constituencies for…