Governance

On 15th Apr 2013, the third Monday of April, celebrated as Patriots' Day in the USA and also the day of the world's most popular marathon - the Boston Marathon, 3 people were killed and over 140 injured due to bomb blasts close to the finishing line, at around 4 hours and 10 minutes into the marathon. It is now known that all three of the unfortunate victims who died in the bomb blasts at Boston, were spectators who had come to cheer their friends and others in the race. Several of the injured were also spectators.If this had happened…

Note: This website will soon be migrated to a new system.  If you face any issues, do mail us. You can also reach us through Twitter or Facebook! Bengaluru This Week Get our free weekly newsletter. Name Email Bengaluru This Week archives. I'm a just-so person. Have no political affiliation, do not belong to a community that has political clout or to any significant group / union that can make noise and is sought after by political parties (like some auto drivers who throw tantrums, forget what their job is and can go on a "pre-poll" strike so that they can…

  N A Haris, Congress MLA from Shanthinagar, is contesting once more from his constituency. Like all other contestants, Haris, 46, too is busy trying to woo the voters by holding padyatras to various areas in his constituency. Haris was in news recently for his role in the eviction of about 1000 families from Ejipura EWS (Economically Weaker Section) quarters. Citizen Matters caught up with him during two of his evening padayatras - to Vivek Nagar and Vinayaknagar. In this exclusive interview, he talks about his plans for Shanthinagar, his views on Ejipura evictions and more. Pic: facebook.com/mlaharis Excerpts from…

Note: This website will soon be migrated to a new system.  If you face any issues, do mail us. You can also reach us through Twitter or Facebook! Bengaluru This Week Get our free weekly newsletter. Name   Email       Bengaluru This Week archives. Our politicians who are elected to office make many decisions that affect our lives -- they formulate laws and develop projects. They do this without consulting citizens, and later we citizens are forced to fight those that are unacceptable to us, on the streets and in courts. Elected representatives plan our cities without proper roads,…

Assembly Equation The Karnataka Assembly has 224 seats and the incumbent BJP barely holding on to a majority. The last decade has seen permutations and combinations of party tie-ups and several politicians and MLAs change parties before, during and after elections. As many as 20 bypolls were held in the last 5 years because of MLAs quitting their parties to join the ruling party. It foresees more by polls for the Parliament if any of the 4 sitting MPs who are contesting the Assembly election win. Electorate According to the Chief Election Office, Karnataka has 4.36 Crore voters. Bangalore has…

Workers transporting election campaign material. Party members lodged in hushed discussions. Plastic chairs strewn about. Posters of B S Yeddyurappa smiling directly at you. For a party that was born barely a few months ago, the mood at the election office of the Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP) in Malleshwaram is surprisingly calm. The reasons could be many. For one, the man who leads the party is a force to reckon with. It's his very first election outside of the party that led him to become its first ever Chief Minister in south India. After more than 30 eventful years with…

Note: This website will soon be migrated to a new system.  If you face any issues, do mail us. You can also reach us through Twitter or Facebook! Bengaluru This Week Get our free weekly newsletter. Name Email Bengaluru This Week archives. As I scrolled through some Facebook updates last week, I saw a note shared by my friend. It talked about a Political Action Internship by Prof Rajeev Gowda, an eminent personality who teaches at IIM Bangalore. I read through the note and it interested me. This turned out to be a great workshop covering some topics and uncovering many…

Rajeev Chandrasekhar is an independent MP representing Karnataka and Bangalore Urban in the Rajya Sabha. In April 2012, he was elected unopposed for the second term with the support of the JD(S) and BJP MLAs in the Karnataka Assembly. He is the founder of RC foundation which focuses on primary education for poor children; and has been at the forefront of raising finances and resources for supporting Tsunami-affected people, Kargil war-affected and defence personnel and rehabilitation of children impacted by the tragic burning of school in Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu. Rajeev Chandrasekhar. File pic. Chandrasekhar has been looking forward to…

Ashok Niranjan is a software engineer at Accenture and a member of the Management Committee, in charge of water at Brigade Mayflower in JP Nagar. He is looking to adopt individual water metering. "We are just two of us (in our apartment) and out most of the day. We use less water but we end up paying as much as anybody else who is using lot more water than we do," says Niranjan.Niranjan realises the gravity of water consumption. After their initial successful rainwater harvesting project, he is committed to saving water.The 240-apartment Mayflower block gets a total water bill…

Election is the time to recall whatever a party has done to the constituency during its rule and find out what are the promises for Bangalore the party has in store. Narayana Rao, head of the Bangalore manifesto committee of JD(S), says that the main topics in the JD(S) manifesto are water, electricity and the issue of whether Bangalore should be allowed to grow the way it is now. “Forming of layouts should be completely privatised,” says Narayan Rao. Pic: Navya P K Here are excerpts from the interview:In BWSSB's water supply, about 35% is lost because of leaks alone.…