Governance

The Karnataka High Court comprising of a bench of Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice S N Satyanarayana rapped the government for having no action plan to clear encroachments despite having evidences with them. The Chief Justice accepted on record Namma Bengaluru Foundation’s detailed aide-memoire inter-alia listing out a representative list of large scale encroachments of government lands; the memo enlists details of 13 major encroachments in Bengaluru urban and rural district as mentioned in the JLC and Task Force report. Namma Bengaluru Foundation’s writ petition filed in public interest seeks the recovery of the land encroached as indicated…

If you are travelling to Bangalore International Airport on November 17, 2013, you will have to avoid the usual airport road from Chalukya Cirlce till Mekhri Circle. Be prepared in advance, with extra time for the commute and proper knowledge of the alternative routes. In view of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Bangalore and public meeting at Palace Ground on November 17, 2013, Bangalore Traffic Police has announced the following traffic changes from 6 am to 10 pm. 12781681101113231445615‹ › $(document).ready(function(){ $('.carousel .carousel-inner .item').first().attr('class', 'active item');}); Click on the slideshow to visualise the arrangements. I. General vehicles diversion…

Chief Election Officer of Karnataka published a new version of Electoral Rolls on 3 November 2013, on his website. My observations here are limited to the electoral rolls of 28 constituencies of Bengaluru. Data quality of the rolls has improved compared with the version published in May 2013. 240 of the 370 voters below age 18 were infants at age 0 and age 1. They have all grown up and become 18 to 98 year old in the new list. Interestingly 57% of them are 23 year old now, ready to register in matrimonial sites. Did the AEROs check the…

There seem to be differences of opinion between the government and the BBMP, regarding the implementation of recently approved Karnataka Town and Country Planning and Certain Other Laws (Amendment) Act 2009 - popularly known as Akrama Sakrama scheme. With the Governor H R Bhardwaj giving his nod to the scheme, many illegal constructions will soon become regularised, by paying a penalty. Interestingly, the Governor had rejected the proposal sent by the BJP government in July 2010. The Governor was not in favour of legalising illegal constructions, but okayed the bill after certain amendments by the present government. Most of the…

Citizens participating in an Aadhaar enrolment drive. File pic. Aadhaar card, though has been challenged in various courts, is still considered as an important identity card by many. The queues in Aadhaar enrolment centres are a testimony to this. Aadhaar card is not mandatory, according to Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI). Now that the Supreme Court has given an interim order banning making Aadhaar compulsory to avail government subsidies, the demand for Aadhaar card should go down - but that’s not the case. All subsidies, including LPG subsidy, are meant to be for poor people. Interestingly, LPG subsidy is…

A press note released on November 10 said that intensive verification of ration cards has begun in Bangalore, which will soon be extended to the other cities, districts and taluks in the State. Commissioner for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Harsh Gupta said in the press note that in view of the large number of complaints received from the public on the alleged bogus ration cards and misuse of ration by the Fair Price Shops, the Department has taken this initiative. How is verification carried out? Gupta said that the Department, which has 42 Food Inspectors in the Bangalore Informal Rationing…

Here’s one of the reasons why Bengaluru's administrator BBMP has a severe fund-crunch. Every year BBMP budget expects crores of rupees to be collected as advertising revenue. But, the actual amount collected by the BMBP is way below expectations. Budget estimates for 2012-13 predicted that the advertising department could bring in Rs. 45 crore, but the actual revenue collected from registered hoardings was only Rs.22 crore - thereby causing a deficit of 23 crores. BBMP advertising department manager Lakshmi M has the reason: “Many advertisers who fail to pay their taxes or renew their license are considered as illegal advertisers.…

Online voter roll registrations in Beengaluru were closed for sometime, on September 26, 2013. Those who logged in to the Karnataka Election Commission website received a message, saying that the voter registration will reopen after the publishing of the draft electoral roll. Now it is that time of the cycle when the draft rolls will be out soon and registrations will re-open. Karnataka Chief Election Officer Anil Kumar Jha talks about the Election Commission's plans, in an interview with Citizen Matters. Voters registration was suppossed to be open from August 10 till November 11, 2013. Why did it close now?…

Problems in Bengaluru • There is no leadership of the city. Most of the important public services are in the hands of the State government, which is more concerned with its State-level priorities than with the city’s. Mayors serve short, uneventful terms. • There is hardly any planning. BDA does no more than zoning of areas for different uses, and even this is very poorly enforced. Other agencies plan-as-they-go, without any reference to a regional or city-level perspective. There is no commonality of jurisdiction among agencies, either. • The legal steps (outlined in the 74th Constitution Amendment Act, 1992) to…

Only six states of the country have Legislative Councils in addition to Legislative Assemblies. Karnataka is one among them. Assembly and Council together form the legislature. MLCs have almost equal authorities, opportunities and responsibilities as MLAs. There have been several prominent ministers from the Council. Common man does not vote in legislative council elections. Legislative Councils have separate electoral rolls and constituencies different from Assembly Elections. 75 seats in legislative council of Karnataka are divided as: Teachers constituency - 7 Graduate constituency - 7 Nominated by Governor - 11 Elected by MLAs - 25 Local Authorities constituency - 25 Teachers'…