Governance

These numbers have been provided by BBMP. If you find that a number is not working, do comment below this post with the number that's not working. EAST ZONE 22975802 NAMES OFFICERS WARDS PHONE Venakateshppa Joint commissioner All East 9480684122/ 25588242 Venakata chalpathi Deputy commissioner All East 9480684056/ 25595239 Prasad Chief engineer All East 9480684531 Narasimha raj Superintent engineer All East 9480685304 Narasimha raj Executive engineer (shanthi nagar) 89,111,112,114,115 9480685304 Anwar pasha Executive engineer (cv raman nagar) 50,57,58,79,80,88,113 9740813571 Mohan gowda Executive engineer (hebbal, j c nagar) 18 21 9945065565 Yarab reddy Executive engineer (pulakeshinagar) 31,32,47,48,60,61,78 9480685236 Jay shankar Executive…

Kudos to the Parliament and the Government for passing the Lokpal bill today. It goes along with a bouquet of legislation to combat corruption, starting with the Right to Information Act. Though Lokpal is a powerful tool, we still need to address the causes of the disease of corruption - electoral funding! 1. The reality of direct elections today is that large sum of money is required to reach out to the electorate and provide them with democratic information relating to their electoral choices. The official limits upon election expenses are irrational, barely meeting the appropriate levels of expenditure and…

Though he is one of the most important citizen of Bengaluru, the Mayor, is no different from any of us. B S Satyanarayana seems to be working on many things at a time - garbage, potholes and others. Citizen Matters caught up with him to know his views - particularly on garbage. Mayor Satyanarayana inspecting the cleaning and roadwork near K R Market on Sunday Pic: BBMP PRO What do think the term of the mayor should be? Do you agree with the proposal for a five- year term directly elected mayor? Do you need more powers to do your…

A new rule to link Aadhaar Card and Bank Account with the gas connection is on the way. Consumers in Bengaluru are being sent messages regarding this, though the government has not completed the process of issuing the cards for a large number of citizens. Also, as the acceptance of Aadhar is still pending in the supreme court, how can this be implemented? Direct Subsidy Transfer scheme has not been implemented so far in Karnataka anywhere, though many deadlines have been given.                                      - EditorAlso read: How to link Aadhaar card to bank account. At present the…

The Chief Minister wants to do the Mayor's job, and keeps most of the power and finances needed for the city with the State government, rather than devolving them. The Mayor is attending to complaints from the public and trying to resolve them, which is good, but surely that seems like the Commissioner's job. Without a framework for running the city, there is total chaos, and no realistic expectation of improvement. What is needed? (a) The CM should constitute the Metropolitan Planning Committee for the Bangalore Region, let SOMEONE ELSE lead the planning, so that there is sufficient mind-space to…

The Department of Urban Development of the Government of Karnataka has published the draft rules for the Constitution of the Metropolitan Planning Committee for the Bangalore Metropolitan Region and invited comments from the general public on these rules. These are my comments, following a detailed consideration of the provisions of these rules. Overview of the proposed MPC structure Draft rule 3 speaks of the constitution of the Committee. The State government nominees are: The Chief Minister Minister for urban development Chairperson, BDA Principal secretary to government Urban Development One representative of the Government of India (National Capital Region and Planning…

This draft notification is dated November 07, 2013, and published in the Gazette dated November 14, 2013. Technically the notification can have objections till November 29, 2013. URBAN DEVELOPMENT SECRETARIAT NOTIFICATIONNo. UDD 356 MNJ 2005(P), Bangalore, dated: 07.11.2013 The draft of the Bangalore Metropolitan Planning Committee Rules, 2013 which the Government of Karnataka proposes to make in exercise of the powers conferred by section 503B read with section 421 of the Karnataka Municipal Corporations Act, 1976 (Karnataka Act 14 of 1977), is hereby published as required by sub-section (1) of section 421 of the said Act, for the information of…

Following is the text of objections and recommendations by CIVIC. Rules should be general: They should be applicable to any metropolitan city in Karnataka - not just Bangalore, as many other cities in Karnataka have reached or are fast-approaching the population mark of 10 lakhs and will require MPCs to be set up. Recommendation: The Rules need to be general, to apply to all cities which cross the 10 lakh population limit. Public discussion needs to happen: There has been no prior public intimation of the intention of the government to draft the said Rules as per Section 4(1)(c) and…

Public Affairs Centre (PAC), an independent non-government think tank working in the area of governance and service delivery, has recently completed an assessment of the services provided by BESCOM. The study funded by BESCOM, used the Citizen Report Card (CRC) approach to collect feedback from users as well as the BESCOM staff to understand the quality of service delivery and issues faced by both parties. The aim was to use the information generated through the study to find actionable remedies for issues of concern faced by both users and the BESCOM staff. The study covered all the eight Circles and…

Urban Development Department has published the draft rules for the Constitution of the Metropolitan Planning Committee for the Bangalore Metropolitan Region inviting objections or suggestions. Please find below my submissions after a detailed study: The draft Rules have not been given adequate publicity in the Press and Media. Even till date the notification does not appear in your department’s website. I therefore request you to give wide publicity in the media including publishing on your department’s website and extend the date for receiving suggestions by 30 days. Sec 4(1) c of RTI Act requires you to publish all relevant facts…