Governance

Over 750 Resident Welfare Associations representing more than ten lakh Bangalore citizens under the platform of Namma Bengaluru Foundation and Bengaluru Residents Association Confederation Ensemble (BRACE) launched a protest against government’s failure to address citizens' concerns about massive corruption in Bangalore and the nexus of corrupt builders and some politicians that is destroying Bengaluru. The campaign that’s a result of the lackadaisical approach by the government despite the repeated pleas over a year now by the forum of BRACE will see a city wide signature campaign demanding the government for a Corruption free city that does not cater to mafias and…

Appendix-3.7 (Reference: Paragraph 3.16, Page-116) Details of donations made by BDA during 2009-12 Sl. No. Recipient of the donation Amount donated (` in lakh) Date of payment Purpose for which donation given 2009-10 1. Mahabodhi Society, Bangalore 5.00 25 April 2009 Celebrating 2553rd Buddha Jayanthi 2. Karnataka Olympic Association 1.50 12 May 2009 Awareness to donate human organs in an accident 3. Vidyarthi Shikshana Seva Trust 2.00 15 May 2009 Sponsorship of Techno fair 4. Bangalore Nagara Zilla Kannada Sahitya Parishath 2.00 14 July 2009 Contribution for 5th Bangalore Nagara Zilla Kannada Sahitya Parishath 5. VHD Central Institute of Home…

The audit report by Comptroller Auditor General of India for the year ending March 2013 reveals that Bangalore Development Authority, which lacks funds for the development works it is supposed to undertake, donated Rs.10.19 crore for various purposes, including Chief Minister’s relief fund and flood relief fund by a TV channel. An amount of Rs. 2 crore each was donated to Chief Ministers’ Relief fund and Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, while the Institute of Nephro Urology and Karnataka Chalana Chitra Academy for Rs 1 crore each. Similarly Rs 5 to 10 lakh was donated to many institutions under…

Personal Info | Assets & Liabilities | Positions Held | Performance | Local Issues | MPLAD Funds | Controversy Count   Ananth Kumar is a five-time Lok Sabha MP who represents the Bangalore South constituency. The constituency comprises of Govindraj Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Chickpet, Padmanabha Nagar, Bommanahalli, Basavanagudi, BTM Layout and Jayanagar assembly constituencies. In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, Kumar defeated Krishna Byregowda (INC), a sitting MLA for Byatarayanapura, by a margin of over 37,000 votes. In the past, when the NDA regime was in power, Kumar was a Union Cabinet Minister serving multiple ministries including Civil Aviation, Urban…

The High Court on Wednesday, February 19th, 2014, disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (WP 3676/2008) filed by Citizen Action Forum (CAF) and a few other civic groups in Bengaluru, that challenged the Draft Revised Master Plan (RMP) - 2015, prepared by the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), that allowed commercial use of residential areas, through a land use category called "mixed residential." A division bench comprising Chief Justice DH Waghela and Justice BV Nagarathna issued a direction to the State government to amend the land use change rules of the BDA's Revised Master Plan to allow only the ancillary use…

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBBMP) on February 17th 2014 presented a Budget of Rs 7773.08 crore for 2014-15. However, there are not many new projects, while the emphasis is made on paying pending bills and continuing spill over works. Debt-ridden cash-strapped BBMP had come under fire in last July for presenting an imaginative Budget of Rs 8498 crore. Out of the expected Rs 8445,26 crore, BBMP could collect only Rs 3208.95 crore. This reduced the estimated expenditure for 2013-14 to Rs 3236.15 crore, and the pending payments and announced works in the last Budget spilled over to the 2014-15 Budget.…

Bangalore Political Action Committeee (BPAC) conducted a Google Hangout panel discussion on the budget, on February 14th, 2013. The panelists included BPAC President Kiran M Shaw, Vice-president TV Mohandas Pai, social entrepreneur Ashwin Mahesh and urbanist V Ravichandar. The debate was moderated by Revathy Ashok of BPAC. Mohandas Pai said though in terms of growth the average of the state is better than the national average, he wants to see a large vision in the budget to develop the entire region and industries in terms of infrastructure. He said he wasn't happy with the 7.2 % growth in service economy,…

Plan outlay - State Budget 2014-15. Chart courtesy: Budget document Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's pro-agricultural, pro-poor Budget seems to concentrate more on the rest of Karnataka, but it hasn't neglected Bangalore totally. The allocation to the city seems to focus more on addressing infrastructural problems than anything else. Two major elevated corridors - one to smoothen the airport traffic and another to ease the pressure on outer ring road, will be major step towards reducing travelling time for Northern and Western parts of the city. But these also mean that the city will lose some more precious green cover. The Budget…

Lok Sabha elections are nearing. People are waking up to see what has been done from the funds the Member of Parliament gets. For those interested, here is a little bit of history. The Government of India put in place the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) since 23-12-1993, (barely two weeks following the passing of the Seventy third and seventy fourth amendments on 6 December 1993), enabling MPs to identify small works of capital nature with emphasis on creation of durable community assets based on locally felt needs in their constituencies. The initial allocation of Rs. 5…