Governance

With only two months left for the BBMP council’s term to end and the election likely to be held this year - in 2015, there are all indications of the BBMP polls witnessing an interesting fight between conventional and the new political parties. Though almost all the political parties say it is a bit too early to predict the structure of electoral battlefield, specially when the State government is allegedly trying to delay the polls, they admit that the BBMP election this season is going to be different from past. The victory of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi election…

The State government is likely to face the wrath of the judiciary, having made visible changes in violation of the Karnataka High Court order while amending zonal regulations in Revised Master Plan, 2015. The Citizen Action Forum (CAF) which has been fighting against commercialisation in residential areas, has filed a contempt petition in the High Court against the government for not abiding by the affidavit submitted by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) promising to curb commercialisation in residential areas. The case is likely to come for hearing in the court next week. Land use classification by the BDA is often…

While the nation is still recovering from the unforeseen historic results of Delhi Assembly elections, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is busy preparing to attack other cities and states. Next in the hit list seems to be Bengaluru. AAP’s Karnataka unit members who are flying high with the clean sweep of the party in the Delhi assembly election are now silently preparing for BBMP polls. The civic body poll is likely to be held this year—in 2015, as the term of the BBMP council ends this April. Though the party did not fetch any seats and underperformed in its political debut…

The app released by Government of Karnataka has a lot of scope for improvement. The ambitious mobile governance project of the State government, Karnataka One, which was also touted as one of the world's largest multi-mode mobile governance platforms, has not met the expectations of the people. Even after almost two months of launching, the mobile app that intends to offer easy access to various government and private services, is yet to evolve as a comprehensive mobile governance system. During its launch on December 8, the government had boasted that the app will provide 637 government (both Central and State)…

On February 7th, BMTC celebrated the 61st edition of Bus day at Yelahanka. Five BMTC buses have been equipped with alarms that can be used by women and children, in case they feel threatened or harassment while on the bus.  Two new Chakra services were also introduced to provide better connectivity within Yelahanka. The event was attended by Transport Minister, Ramalinga Reddy, SR Vishwanth, MLA of Yelahanka, H Nabhiraja Jain, BMTC Chairman, VS Aradhya, Vice-Chairman of BMTC and Dr Ekroop Caur, the Managing Director of BMTC. Installation of alarms to make travel safer for women  Since a large number of…

In India, thousands of men and women are affected by sexual violence every year. In 2014, a report released by the United Nations Children’s Fund revealed that 77 percent of young girls between 15 and 19 years of age were affected by rape, forced sexual intercourse, and physical abuse by partners. In Bengaluru alone, there has been an alarming increase in the number of cases of child sexual assault.  DURGA (Dare to Understand behaviour, Respond appropriately and Guard ourselves Ably) is a unique citizen’s initiative to help young women and girls harness important life skills to deter crime. By creating…

At the public hearing conducted by Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) on February 6th, several civic groups objected to BESCOM's proposed hike for electricity tariff for the financial year 2016. BESCOM had earlier filed an application proposing a tariff hike of 80 paisa per unit across all consumer categories. B.PAC represented by TV Mohandas Pai, Vice President, Dr Hari Parameshwar, Head of Regulatory affairs and Revathy Ashok, CEO and Managing Trustee, and Aam Aadmi Party - Karnataka (AAP), represented by Ravi Krishna Reddy and Shanthala Damle, submitted their objections to KERC. Eliminate cross-subsidy variation; government should bear cost for farmers:…

After close to four years of doing Mallathahalli to Bellandur in Bengaluru, and enduring much travails with BMTC’s 500K, my commute changed, for the worse. The workplace shifted to Mahadevapura and there was a whole new paradigm of traffic jams and pile-ups to deal with. I put my money on the bus route 333T, a Volvo service which runs from the BDA complex in Nagarabhavi to ITPL, cutting through the heart of the city, via Okalipuram, Majestic, Old Airport Road and then Marathahalli Bridge. I would get down at the bridge and hitch my way towards Mahadevapura in the perennial…

This post is my vent on the rotten experience we LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas) consumers, in Bangalore, had to face due to Center’s decision of deciding to transfer our LPG subsidy to our bank accounts directly. This meant that our Aadhar number had to be linked to the LPG account and to the bank. Here, I have to mention this to Mr Nilekani: whatever might have been the noble intentions behind the Aadhar card, it was not done properly. We spent a lot of our precious time to get the card done, when it was introduced. We had to make…

The BBMP Council in its monthly Council meeting on January 28, 2015, passed several resolutions renaming / giving new names to the parks, roads, lakes etc in the city. The BBMP projects sanctioned in order to repair or maintain these public properties will hitherto have these names. Here is the list of old names and new names: List of public place New names Park at Ward No. 168,Jayanagar 4th Black , 7th Main Road Brindavana Park Kaigondaralli Lake in Ward No. 150 Swamy Vivekananda Parisara Dhama Road stretching from 8th Main Road to Veerabhadreshwara Theatre Shakthi Ganapathi Nagar, Ward No.…