Governance

Getting hold of a bottle of acid is not impossible, in Bangalore, but difficult - unless you have local contacts  - this what I found when I went hunting for acid on City streets a week before the Centre submitted the regulations on sale of acid to Supreme Court. My hunt started yielding results when I reached B V K Iyengar road and its surrounding areas. After searching in places like Ebrahim Street, J C Road and even petty jewelery shops and battery shops who use acid to clean jewels and batteries, I approached a shop on Hospital Road, near…

The disturbing trend of 'criminalisation of politics' – which is simply or rather simplistically understood, as being the criminalisation of our elected representative bodies i.e., Parliament, state assemblies and other representative bodies - has engaged considerable attention of the Indian citizenry, for reasons that are too obvious to require any explanation here. When concerns around this issue were raised over a period of time, before the most important forum within the judiciary, the Supreme Court, some interesting pronouncements have come our way. Evidently, they have made an impact on the electoral process, even  though it is debatable whether such judicial…

Our urban planning framework has totally misunderstood the management of parking. Starting with building bye laws to on-street parking to off-street, pretty much EVERYTHING we do around parking is wrong. And the examples that people point to as 'successful' are often very good examples of failures. The goal of the municipality should be to manage mobility, not parking. And this focus should prioritise mobility of public transport vehicles, and also facilitate good quality infrastructure for pedestrian movement. Look at the example of every major city in the world. They don't go around telling builders that for every square foot of…

“His form is ungainly — his intellect small —” (So the Bellman would often remark) “But his courage is perfect! And that, after all, Is the thing that one needs with a Snark. Lewis Carroll: The Hunting of the Snark About 10 years ago, four NGOs in Bangalore — Janaagraha, Public Affairs Centre, Centre for Budget and Policy Studies and Voices — got together to demand quarterly accounts from the Bangalore City Corporation. This was called the PROOF campaign, and it attracted a great deal of interest. PROOF became possible because a system of accounting for the Corporation had been…

BWSSB's decision to charge higher water charges only from those who live in apartment communities but not from those who live in single family homes makes no sense, nor is it actually executable. There is a tendency in the agencies to impose higher expectations on those in apartment communities, and even this is done selectively (we are seeing this in SWM also, having to fight against such discrimination). Moreover, those who think up such things are always careful to exempt communities like LIC quarters and BSNL quarters and KEB quarters, because these are not 'private' apartment communities.I agree that BWSSB…

Sub Registrar Office Bangalore by Citizen Matters

Citizen Service Centres established by BBMP enable citizens to pay their property tax under the scheme of SAS 2000, obtain Khatha Certificate/Khata Extracts and also birth and death Certificates.All the CSCs will be able to provide the services following in respect of any ward or area in the jurisdiction of BBMP which will make it possible for citizens to access these services without having to go to different offices of BBMP to meet specific authorities.The Citizens can also get applications for registration of Khathas and sanction of building plans and register their complaints/Requests and suggestions about BBMP’s services. BBMP Citizen…

Bangalore Traffic police Numbers by Citizen Matters

One of the useful initiatives by the erstwhile BJP Government in Karnataka was the Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act - 2011,also known as Sakala. Introduced on 1 March 2012, it aims at bringing transparency in administration. There are various services offered under Sakala, including obtaining a Khata for your house. For more information on Sakala, visit the website here. The Sakala website mentions the list of documents required for submitting your Khata registration application: Application in prescribed form Attested copy of the title deed Copy of Encumbrance Certificate (in form 15) for the past 10 years Conversion Certificate…

Is going taller the only way to fund Bangalore’s infrastructure needs? A recommendation in a recent report to do just that has sparked off a heated debate between two of the city's influential elites on the future of the city and its skyline. What started off the skyscraper debate was the recent re-submission of the Karnataka Information and Communication Technology Group 2020 (KIG-2020) Report titled ‘Karnataka’s roadmap to global leadership by 2020’ to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. In it is a recommendation to allow for more high rises within the city, charging a toll for doing so and using that money…