Governance

June 2012 Of voter’s list, voting booths and preferential voting:  a guide to voting booths and how to find your name in the electoral rolls for the election on June 10th. Also a note on how the preferential system works. Sixteen candidates will battle it out in the Bangalore graduate constituency MLC election on June 10th. Campaigning in graduates MLC race intensifies, contrasts break through. Follow the progress of the Election campaignWho is running for office? Read the in-depth backgrounder on Ramachandra Gowda, Ramoji Gowda, A Deve Gowda, Ashwin Mahesh, Nagalaxmi Bai and K S Lakshmi. All about the MLC…

There are a three weeks to go for the Bangalore’s graduate constituency election - the one in which only graduates can vote. The candidate elected from this constituency will become a member in Legislative Council (MLC), the upper house of Karnataka's state legislature. With election scheduled for June 10th, candidates are campaigning intensely. In addition to the three mainstream political parties that usually participate in this election - BJP, Congress and JD(S) - the Andhra Pradesh-headquartered Lok Satta party has entered the fray this time. There are also independent candidates. An overview of the major candidates -Ramachandra Gowda, Ramoji Gowda,…

For the past one month, former Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde has been campaigning for Ashwin Mahesh, Lok Satta party’s candidate for the graduate constituency MLC election. This is the first time Hegde is endorsing a candidate in any election. He also goes door-to-door appealing residents to vote for Mahesh. Justice Santhosh Hegde. File pic: Citizen Matters In this interview with Citizen Matters, Hegde talks about his decision to start engaging with elections.Why are you endorsing a candidate in this election?I was against anyone in Team Anna campaigning in elections, as it would almost be like taking sides. There are lot…

Sixteen candidates will battle it out in the Bangalore graduate constituency MLC election on June 10th. The candidates include those from five political parties - BJP, Congress, JD(S), Lok Satta and CPI(M) - and 11 independents. Unlike the last election in 2006, more voters also have been enrolled this time. While there were around 60,000 graduate voters last time, it has gone over 1.1 lakh this time, with over 51,000 new enrollments. In graduate constituency election, the votes a candidate gets depends on the number of voters he has gotten enrolled. And even less voters actually come to vote on…

Over 100 residents of Ejipura EWS (Economically Weaker Section) quarters staged a protest at BBMP head office on May 29th, demanding that shopping mall should not be built in the quarters land. The quarters is spread over 15.64 acres and houses over 1500 families. In January, BBMP made an agreement with a private company Maverick Holdings to develop almost half the area for a shopping mall and the remaining area for EWS quarters. Residents of Ejipura EWS quarters protesting at BBMP head office, NR Square, on May 29th. Pic: Navya P K “It is illegal for EWS land to be…

Amidst all the talk to a Bharat Bandh tomorrow, May 31st, on the face of it, Bangalore seems to be little affected. Conspicious in its absence though is the lack of a single coordinated response by all city authorities together. The top brass of the city bus system, municipality, police, and traffic police are not speaking in one voice about whether citizens must stay home or not. On 21st January 2011, BJP supporters being arrested by Bangalore City Police. File pic: Prabhu M Citizen Matters spoke to a number of officials to put this brief together. BMTC has decided to…

IAC Karnataka had organised a protest rally on May 25th, Saturday at Chamrajpet. The meeting was addressed by H S Doraiswamy, senior freedom fighter. This was followed by candle light vigil at traffic signal  junction, Chamrajpet. For over a year now, IAC has been protesting the unfortunate killing of honest officers and whistle blowers. In spite of the continued killings, starting from the Satyendra Dubey, Sheila Masood to the recent killing of Narendra Kumar, Madan Naik, SP Mahantesh in different parts of the country,  governments both at Centre and States have done nothing to offer protection to the whistleblowers. This…

BBMP Contract Pourakarmika Workers Association staged a protest today at BBMP head office about the pending salaries for the past two months. Around 1,000 workers participated in the protest. They demanded that the system of paying salaries through contractors should be done away with and be paid directly by BBMP. The pourakarmikas say that the contractor usually pays only half the salary, that too as cash and not via cheques. They also demanded for minimum wage and proper identity cards. Pourakarmikas protesting at BBMP head office. Pic: Sankar C G “We are not getting minimum wage on time as mentioned…

BBMP has listed control room numbers for disaster management on its official website. Unfortunately these lines either do not work or there is no response. I had lodged a complaint (Complaint no: 197) with BBMP (South Office) on May 11 for clearing the branch of the tree that had fallen due to heavy rain, which was promptly cleared within couple of hours.It has been more than 10 days and the branches cut are thrown across my compound facilitating to make it a dump yard. Irony is that BBMP Porakarmikas who clean the road, dump all the debris in the same…

BBMP unlike BDA is not a development authority, it can be termed as a maintenance authority and provides services, hence it should focus on -Capacity building - Administrative restructuring of BBMP - Roles and responsibilities of departments/officers  to be defined.Computerisation of all BBMP offices, establishment of  citizen help centers in each ward.Adequate and skilled professionals should be hired as required in BBMP.Services of Private consultants/professionals /outsourcing can be utilised as required on a contract basis instead of utilizing engineers from the public works department.Involve registered Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) and civic organizations to monitor projects of the ward and conduct…