Governance

Also read: Have STP and fire hydrant in your apartment? This is what BESCOM can charge In the past month, several apartment complexes on Sarjapur Road in Bengaluru received a notice from BESCOM asking for payment of additional security deposit. In one case, the notice specified that the existing deposit was Rs 47,120 and the calculated MMD (Months Minimum Deposit) was Rs 1,43,690, and therefore the difference of Rs 96,570 was needed to be paid to BESCOM to avoid disconnection. When this came to Citizen Matters’ notice, we decided to have a chat with BESCOM to find out what the…

People in Bengaluru can now heave a sigh of relief. According to draft rule notification of Akrama Sakrama, all buildings which are completed and have occupation certificate or PID Numbers issued shall be eligible for regularisation under these rules. Even other buildings are eligible, subjected to certain conditions. Akrama Sakrama application (application for regularisation of unauthorized developments) consists Part-I, Part-II and Part-III. Part-I: For the regularisation of plot in an un-authorised sub-divided land / layout. Part-II: For regularising the land use violations. Part-III: For the regularisation of unlawful buildings. Submit the completed application form with the documents required within three…

Scarcity creates corruption. Therefore, regulating availability is not the way to tackle it; that will only make things worse. In our country, there is a massive deficit of many things that people want. Affordable houses, good schools and hospitals, water supply, waste management, and so on. This causes intense competition for what is available. Those who can bid high have a chance of gaining, and also those who can rig the bidding itself. Housing is a very good example of this. To buy a house in any of our major cities now, you either need a lot of money, or…

Karnataka Criminal Investigation Department’s interim report on the alleged KPSC recruitment scam has indicted various officials exposed in the TV9 sting operation a few months ago, in the alleged demand for ‘under-the-table’ money from KAS aspirants. The investigation was carried out after a FIR was filed by the Department of Public Administration and Reforms (DPAR). The report by CID of Karnataka confirms large scale malpractice, corruption and favouritism in the selection of Grade A Gazetted Probationary Exams of 2011. Apart from the eight people named in the FIR, CID has found out the involvement of many others who acted as…

Talk about illegal buildings, and you come to know that more than 80% of buildings in Bengaluru have violations. Building owners who have knowingly or unknowingly violated the building rules, have been looking to resolve these issues once and for all. And the respite is here - in the form of Akrama Sakrama. The government has published the draft rules for Akrama Sakrama on December 31, 2013, deciding to regularise the buildings built before October 19, 2013. Like any other law, The Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act - now known as Akrama Sakrama - was framed with a lot…

“Western culture has made inroads to Indian culture, because of which we find nine-year-olds raping 13-year-olds. It is we, as a citizen, who have to do something about it, instead of pointing to others,” said Y Bhaskar Rao, Karnataka Lokayukta. He was addressing the participants after an interaction session organised on the eve of Lokayukta Day celebration, on Thursday, January 9, 2014. The Lokayukta day was observed as part of 25 years of Lokayukta service in Karnataka. Bhaskar Rao explained the suo motu initiatives taken up by him in the last one year, including prompting the departments to start biometric…

Taking into consideration the rate at which Bangalore is expanding and the space constraints that came with the expansion, in 2012, the BDA announced that ‘vertical’ was the way to go. With this announcement, the BDA forayed into the construction of low cost housing, announcing that 6180 flats would be made available for purchase by the public. Private real estate sector and some people were sceptical about the quality of low cost housing by BDA. Citizen Matters wrote about this in detail. 3000 flats allotted Of the proposed flats, applications were invited for 3000 flats across 17 sites in March…

After a recent discussion on TV, I got the feeling that people hardly know what corruption is and generally share a feeling of despondency and lack of hope about reducing or eliminating it. However, corruption is a systemic failure like many others and can be and has been cured in many countries, and within countries, in many sectors. Over the last four years, anticorruption has been a significant part of my consultancy portfolio. Starting from my experience in ipaidabribe.com, a site that began to crowd-source corruption-related experiences of citizens, I have since worked in several countries and authored reports on…

It's time to let go of your favourite horn that you chose to fit your vehicle with. Wonder why? The Supreme Court of India, in its judgment dated December 10, 2013, on the petition SLP (Civil) 25237/2010, has banned the multi-tone horns in vehicles. The last date for removal of this is January 10, 2014. Bangalore Traffic Police, in accordance with the obeyance of law, has issued a notice regarding this. A pamphlet that is issued by the Police Inspector of Indiranagar Traffic Police station says that all kinds of air pressure horns, musical horns, reverse horns, hooters, trumpets and…

How about starting 2014 with a walk for gender minorities? Praja Rajakiya Vedike along with other organizations is conducting "Freedom Walk – ​​E​​nd Violence on Sexual Minorities" tomorrow (Wednesday, Jan-1-2014). This is an effort to facilitate interaction between sexual minorities and the society at large, in the context of the December 2013 Supreme Court judgment on IPC Section 377. ​The Freedom Walks are an initiative to make the public understand the issues of disadvantaged sections of our society.​ Participants will gather at 5:00 PM near the Radhakrishna Theatre (in Matadahalli) and start walking at 5:30 PM. They will pass through…