Governance

Edited excerpts of a student in Mount Carmel, Elixir Nahar's open letter, republished here with permission: A screengrab from Rahul Gandhi's talk at Mount Carmel As we students made our way past the lurking media and into our college campus, the fact of the matter was - this is about us, not them. It was going to be a friendly interaction between him and us, discussing matters that concern the youth and the country. We were definitely eager to see how he had tailored his interactive speech to suit our audience of young women. He opened with why he chose…

Legislators from the ruling Congress have submitted a petition in the Assembly to remove Upalokayukta Justice Adi, on charges of overstepping jurisdiction. Meanwhile a group of citizens have written to the Chief Minister opposing the move. The Assembly also admitted a motion to impeach Lokayukta Bhaskar Rao. Upalokayukta Justice Adi addressing the press at Kaikondrahalli lake that he visited in 2013. Respected Chief Minister Shri Siddharamaiah, We, the citizens of Bangalore request your kind attention and intervention in the case related to the motion initiated in the State Assembly to remove Upa Lokayukta Justice Subhash B Adi. The Lokayukta is…

Bengaluru is reeling under the severe garbage crisis once again. BBMP and the relevant authorities have failed to address the garbage situation in the city; they have handed over the city and citizens’ health to the garbage mafia. Heaps of garbage are quickly turning into mountains, and an outbreak of an epidemic is inevitable if the apathy and mindlessness continues. Throwing money at every problem seems to be the only idea BBMP comes up with. Unfortunately, BBMP’s expenditure of over Rs 400-500 crores on Solid Waste Management (SWM) annually has not stopped the garbage crisis. Bengaluru is probably the only…

Is Bengaluru the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg? If the political tizzy the city saw last month during BBMP mayor elections is anything to go by, one can confidently say yes! Should the citizens be grateful to all our netas for their public display of enthusiasm to serve the city or be plain worried? Going by BBMP’s history of siphoning off crores of rupees and scams after scams facilitated by the official-politician-contractor nexus, we should be a worried lot. The Kataria Committee Report to probe financial irregularities from 2007-2015 may have been a ploy used by the State…

In the first part of the series Loans for poor in Bengaluru, we explored how the system of loan from informal sources with high interest rates is pushing the poor deeper into poverty. The second part explored the system of bank loans for poor, to see whether it benefits the poor who don’t have securities. In the third part, we examine how micro-finance institutions function, and what do poor people feel about it. Mariyal, a 33-year-old domestic worker living in Ejipura slum in Bengaluru, has taken a Micro Finance Institution (MFI) loan for the first time. She has borrowed Rs…

BESCOM has published the schedule of load shedding. This is available on www.bescom.org for the convenience of consumers. The schedule has been given sub-division wise. According to the schedule, some areas could see power cuts of four hours even. However, comments on social media point out that some areas withness some unscheduled power cuts as well. Also read: Why is Bengaluru facing power cuts? To know when there will be a power cut in your area, look for the sub-division number on your electricity bill, and follow the link for the same. The areas which are fed by BESCOM feeder…

Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara Vedike released a manifesto on Saturday, October 17th. Here goes the text of the manifesto: Next to their workplace and home, Benglureans spend most of their time on the road, travelling. Bangaloreans spend a lot of time and money in order to travel for education, work and leisure due to the lack of an effective transport system. Our transport system is so costly that some people cannot afford even the bus and choose to walk, even long distances. A reliable, affordable and comfortable bus system will ensure that the 58 lakh bus commuters in Bangalore will travel…

The Bengaluru Bus Prayanikara Vedike (BBPV) organised a conference to highlight the problems faced by commuters in Bengaluru, to work out suggestions for improvement of Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC). The problems related to public transport are always paired with other issues of building a sustainable transport and urban development, the BBPV decided to invite, besides BMTC, other agencies like Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT), Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bangalore Traffic Police (BTP) and the State Government to respond to the concerns of bus commuters in the city. Unfortunately, the officials of BBMP, DULT, State Government and the…

Jewellery stolen from Davanam Jewellers recovered by Bengaluru police. Pic: Bengaluru City Police A woman in Bengaluru lost her golden ‘Vanki’ (armlet) and she lodged a police complaint. Police caught the thief and recovered the armlet. The cop who was in-charge of that station developed a secret desire to retain the valuable Vanki. Next day when the complainant (theft victim) arrived at the station to collect her Vanki, she was shown a pestle instead of the armlet. The policeman cleverly played with homophones and replaced ‘Vanki’ with a ‘Onake’ (rice pounder / pestle). He convinced the complainant that the item…

Citizen Matters previously brought to you a series of articles on Rainwater harvesting that included information on how best to go about incorporating best management practices of tapping the resource of rainwater within your own community. An earlier piece answered some basic questions about Solar Power in India. In a continuation of that series, this piece explains in simple terms how people can introduce solar power as an additional or alternate source of energy in their homes. Bangalore's daily power demand is about 2300 Mega Watts (MW), about one-third of the state's total power consumption. The average 2/3 bedroom home…