Governance

Citizen Matters had published an article on the death of Meghala, a girl aged six and weighing 12 kg, at D J Halli. This article throws light on the extent of malnutrition in Karnataka and how various recommendations to combat the same were ignored by the government, resulting in a death that could have otherwise been prevented. Meghala's death and the subsequent reaction in the media and political corridors is reminiscent of the furore after the death of five-year-old Anjaneya from Raichur in late 2011. Anjaneya was diagnosed as being severely malnourished in 2010 and yet, thanks in no small…

With increased demand for Aadhaar cards and the urgency among people to get the card, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has taken initiative to provide the cards electronically. Now you can get e-Aadhaar card, without having to wait for the UIDAI to send the card to you. Though this service was introduced a year ago, not many know about it. Sources in the E-governance Department which has been entrusted with the task of providing this service say that they do not have numbers available on how many e-Aadhaar cards have been issued. Why e-Aadhaar card? E-Aadhaar is a…

The Stamps and Registration Department, as an annual exercise, is in the process of revising the guidance values of all commercial and residential units in Bangalore Urban, Rural and Ramanagara district. Latest update: Look upwards; pay more!How has the new guidance value affected the realty market in Bangalore? What is the new guidance value criteria for apartment? Click here to read. Last year, the Department received 19 lakh property registrations from April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013, in all 47 sub registrar offices and realised an amount of Rs 5.265 crore. Of this, 17% of the applications were from…

Haseena was attacked with acid in 1999. She lost her eyes forever, her body suffered severe damage, which stole her right to live like all of us. Her attacker spent only five years in jail, and has faded away from public memory. However, Haseena refused to go down in life. She took up a computer course and learnt to stand on her won feet. Now she’s employed, and helping other visually impaired become self-reliant. Haseena narrates her story to Citizen Matters. Over to Haseena. I was born and brought up in this beautiful city of Bangalore, where my parents and…

Meghala, who died on 17 July 2013, due to malnutrition coupled with pneumonia. Pic: Javed Iqbal   “Poverty is the worst form of violence.” - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi There were two little girls in Bangalore. They lived quite far away from each other, and never knew the other existed.  They were diagnosed with similar illnesses in a gap of two weeks – one having contracted pneumonia and the other affected with pneumonitis (a milder form of pneumonia). Both of them weighed exactly 11.8 kgs at the time of diagnosis. One lived in a slum, and the other in a middle-class…

Freedom from garbage. The words have a nice ring to them, which is probably why the BBMP chose the name, KasaMuktha, for its new effort to manage waste in the city. Forced by the High Court to ensure that all solid waste is segregated at source in homes and offices, the municipality is struggling to come up with an alternative that is acceptable to citizens, and works well. Why? Simple. All our earlier efforts to 'manage' trash were built around landfills. Simply collect the trash from the citizens of Bangalore, and take it away to villages outside the city and…

Bangalore houses roughly around one crore citizens. As the city grows, crime rate too goes up. To facilitate smooth flow of grievance redressal mechanism and complaint follow ups, Police Department has brought certain services under Sakala scheme, to aid the citizens in getting their work done in time. However, how many people are aware of this? The Police Computer Wing (PCW) of the Karnataka State Police had introduced 21 services under the Sakala scheme, in April 2012. Four months ago, the PCW also launched the mobile SMS Gateway service. But its reach has been limited. Speaking to Citizen Matters, ADGP,…

It was ironic to see the Chief Minister wonder on the Kasa Muktha programme, if BBMP should be split into smaller municipal bodies. Of course it should be. But the question should not be reduced to such a simplistic one. There is a whole lot more to consider. (a) If we say that the ideal city is of a certain size, say no more than 2.5 million, then we should ask ourselves what we will do in 2023, when Bangalore's population is higher by another 2.5 million people. (b) What about fast urbanising areas outside BBMP? Why do we continue…

See potholes everywhere after the rains for a week or two? Let's remember that we spent Rs.300 crores tarring the roads just before the elections. That's literally being washed away. There is a way to deal with potholes, but BBMP doesn't want to do that. As long as that doesn't change, we can't expect better roads. In most cities around the world, the local government has a small amount of internal capacity too. I.e. they don't outsource the 100% of their engineering work. About 10% is kept in-house. This means that they have a budget for some materials, a few…

A hoarding at the Directorate of Health and family welfare with information on dengue and chikangunya Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal ‘Dengue-like disease hits Bangalore’, ‘Sting of dengue at a feverish high in Bangalore’, ‘Dengue cases jump 3-fold in State’, are some of the headlines in recent media reports on dengue. However, several doctors in the city feel that there may be a slight misrepresentation in these reports that could unnecessarily result in panic and fear among people. A doctor with a well-known private hospital in the city, on the condition of anonymity, says a newspaper reporter asked if the dengue prevalence…