Governance

Citizens of Koramangala, HSR Layout and Bellandur areas have come together under an umbrella group called South-East Bangalore Forum for Sustainable Development, to oppose the massive 72-acre IT SEZ project by Manipal ETA Infotech, near Agara Lake. 27 RWAs representing over 25,000 residents have joined hands and written to Traffic police, BBMP, BDA, BWSSB, Karnataka Udyog Mitra, KIADB, Lake Development Authority, and industry bodies like CII, CREDAI and Nasscom. Citizen Action Forum, a pan-Bangalore federation of over 70 RWAs, has also come forward to support the campaign. The ongoing construction at the area between Bellandur and Agara lakes Pic: Kedar…

Rajesh (name changed), one of the founder members of NGEF Housing Society, was in for a shock when he realised that he himself was not going to get a site in NGEF Layout, Mallathahalli. Rajesh had paid for a 40X60 site, but when he tried to get a khata, he was told that the site did not exist in the approved plan. It was instead part of the original land owner’s share. It was after a long legal battle that he was finally allotted a site. Many buyers are often not as lucky. Many have lost their money to House…

"All my family members are there, I do not know what will happen to them and me,” weeps 74-year-old V Ravichandra, a resident of Yelachenahalli. He is waiting for the last five days to hear from his family which travelled to Badrinath, as part of the Char-Dham yatra. "My two grandchildren, aged four and nine years, are missing, along with my son and daughter-in-law. My family members have not been rescued. All I heard was that five people from their group of 19 have been rescued. But these do not include my family members,” said Ravichandra.Ravichandra himself has visited Uttarakhand…

It is common knowledge that India is passing through a tumultuous period in her democratic governance. Though postmodern democracy has many drawbacks and has been dominantly designed by many nations, it needs to be recognized that the world in our times has irreversibly arrived at democracy as the most acknowledged healthy way of governing nation states. It is also recognized that most nation states have adopted representative democracy as a pragmatic way of respecting citizen’s power. In the evolution of representative democracy several types of electoral systems have been invented, developed, modified etc. Nations with known dominant ideologies have developed…

Time is now ripe for bringing in systemic changes and strategies to take Bengaluru on a road towards a sustainable solution for handling and processing of solid waste according to the MSW Rules 2000 notified by the Ministry of Environment & Forests. As an important step towards managing Municipal Solid Waste Management (SWM) as well as to evolve and implement strategies and action plan for Bengaluru getting back its glory as a clean and green city, the Government of Karnataka, Urban Development Department constituted an Expert Committee (EC) under the Chairmanship of Commissioner, BBMP and seven other experts to advise…

The Governor has once again returned the Sakrama Bill. In any event, given the court case that is going on, any attempt by the government to circumvent the court was bound to land in trouble, so there's not much point in the Governor also getting embroiled in it. Let's face it - this Bill should be killed. It's a bad idea, always has been. But more than that, we should now be thinking about a scarier proposition - we have reached the stage in our politics where it is difficult to do good things because our representatives are being elected…

On 11 June 2013, Suvarna News 24X7 and TV9 news had reported that the Mayor, Venkatesh Murthy, asked for the concessionaire agreement between the Maverick Holdings and the BBMP, related to Ejipura Economically Weaker Sections Quarters. However, chief engineer Rangaraju, who took over from erstwhile chief engineer B T Ramesh, said that the file was missing. Citizen Matters' effort to try to know why the Mayor wanted the files did not receive any reply, as the Mayor asked us to talk to the BBMP Commissioner. The Commissioner, Lakshminarayan, remained unavailable over phone for any clarifications. But here is the ‘missing’…

When it suits their dodgy interests, the political parties actually cooperate with each other, even though they are theoretically opponents in the electoral and other arenas. Yesterday (June 11, 2013) we saw a very good example of this in the Karnataka Legislative Council. Some years ago, the Supreme Court handed down a judgment that was intended to free the police forces from direct political interference. The court ordered the establishment of an appointments Board in each state that would manage the postings of lower level police staff (below the rank of DySP). This Board is filled with members of senior…

A news item, dated June 5, 2013 said: “Wall pulled down to alter minister’s chambers.” A partition wall connecting two rooms allotted to Forest Minister Ramanath Rai was demolished in order to make the minister’s chambers bigger. Minister Sir, it was not just the wall that was demolished, it was the wall of hope that the people had erected, about better governance, when they elected your party to govern the state last month. Just last year, the then chief minister’s political secretary had ordered demolition of walls in his office to make it bigger – and this same Congress that…

There are a number of things that the CM can do, to clearly signal a break with the failures of the past. As the new Chief Minister takes office, many Bangaloreans must be wondering what lies in store for our city. We are all hopeful that along with a new government, we will get a new direction too. We've had enough of irresponsible apathy and outright criminality of the political leadership over the last decade. The city is virtually gasping for a new politics, focused on solving problems and being accountable to the public. There are a number of things…