Governance

One of the three stone cutting units ordered to shut down in April is still functioning. While KSPCB says BESCOM has been asked to cut power supply, BESCOM officials say they haven’t received any written order in this regard. This stone cutting unit is located in the Bank of Baroda colony in JP Nagar 7th Phase. KSPCB had earlier ordered all the units to shut down by 30th April. Stone cutting unit. Pic: Yograj S Mudalgi Sadiq Ahmed, Senior Environmental Officer, KSPCB reiterates that the action has been taken. He says, “We have ordered the BESCOM officials to cut the…

Around 800 BBMP computer operators have not been getting their salaries on time and haven’t seen their pay cheques for the last few months. 400 employees from this sector have now formed a employees union and protested in front of the BBMP office on July 10th. They submitted a memorandum to N Jayaram, BBMP Additional Commissioner (Administration).Currently, this workers' union is trying to form zonal committees and take up more localised issues. The workforce which drives most of the BBMP’s computerised operations are the contract labourers, handled by government companies of the likes of KEONICS (Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation…

Bangalore will be the first city to pilot a project to allow Driving License applicants to consent to pledging their organs, at the time of license application. An initiative of Gift Your Organ Foundation (GYOF), the pilot will start on July 24th, at Electronic City RTO and will expand to other RTOs across the city and state in due course. GYOF, setup with a vision of ensuring there are no deaths in India due to shortage of organ donors, has been working with the Department of Health and Family Welfare and the Department of Transport, Government of Karnataka for the past few months.…

Karnataka’s newest Chief Minister is Jagadish Shivappa Shettar. Shettar is 56 and the state’s MLA from Hubli. Jagadish Shettar. Pic: bjpkarnataka.org Shettar earned a B Com in 1977 from Jagadguru Gangadhara Commerce College, Hubli and LLB from JSS Sakri Law College in 1980. His wife is Shilpa Shettar and they have two sons, Prashanth and Sankalp. In his 2008 filings before the election commission, Shettar and Shilpa disclosed their assets as follows. Assets Jagadish Shettar Shilpa Shettar Cash Rs 2,12,000 Rs 55,000 Bank balance Rs 2,70,321 Rs 2,34,458 Shares Rs 1,69,720 Rs 5,000 NSC/LIC Rs 1,85,000 Rs 4,25,000 Vehicle(Tata Indigo)…

The Citizen Action Forum (CAF) submitted their suggestions in response to BDA's call for inputs on the revision of RMP 2015. They sent their letter to the Office of the Town Planning Section of BDA in early July. Dear Sirs, In our interaction with officers of BDA, we have been informed that the exercise mentioned above is a first effort in the preparation of Masterplan 2035 and that feedback on current Masterplan 2015 is a necessary first step.  At the outset we would like to submit that the making of such an important document as the Masterplan for Bangalore, requires extensive and intensive…

Residents in numerous layouts and apartment communities in and around the Kadugodi area north of Whitefield have something to cheer. After a long wait, BMTC launched an extension of the 335E Vajra (Volvo) AC bus service to Hoskote. The route is 335-EK and runs along the Whitefield Hoskote Road connecting the Kadugodi bus terminus to Hoskote terminus. 335-EK bus launch. Pic credit awaited Many citizens in this area have been asking for an extension of this service for a few years now. Petitions had been sent to BMTC in late 2010 and early 2011. At that time BMTC officials had…

BBMP has presented yet another inflated budget of Rs 9498.40 crore on June 28th, 2012. Like the two previous budgets, this time also activists and opposition parties criticised the budget as unrealistic. The budget has got more significance in the grounds of coming assembly election on May 2013. Budget session. Pic: Sankar C G As usual, infrastructure works have snatched a good portion in the current budget too, with around 2000 crore rupees allocated for major infrastructure works. BBMP’s initiative to provide basic infrastructure to 110 villages in outer Bangalore, received warm welcome from all sections. Rs 135 crore has…

The Citizen Action Forum (CAF), a federation of RWAs will be sharing their inputs on Bangalore’s Master Plan 2035 with BDA. On May 7th, BDA had quietly begun a process of revision for Bengaluru's city master plan, and invited suggestions from public. This plan will be for the years 2016 to 2035. CAF along with Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF) and various individual RWAs will respond at a federation as well as individual level. Inputs to this process can be at two distinctive levels, at a micro and macro level. At a micro level, i.e. the rules and regulations governing various…

N S Ramakanth  and Dr Ashwin Mahesh interacted with residents of HSR Layout  on June 24 and a wide range of topics were discussed at length including Khata, solar power, solid waste management and reviving lakes. Balasubramanian Thirunavukkarasu, active citizen and resident of HSR Layout, was instrumental in organising the One Bengaluru meeting.  One Bangalore meeting. Pic: Balasubramanian Thirunavukkarasu One Bengaluru The meeting is the first such one as part of the One Bengaluru initiative. One Bengaluru is a platform to bring together people interested in public problem solving. Thirunavukkarasu said, "There are lot of well meaning citizens in our…

Respected Chief Minister, I write to you with considerable sadness, that a liked and respected politician today stands accused of unlawfully obtaining a G category site from the government. It is extremely unfortunate that we have reached this moment. I have known the Minister to be a good person, and I hope this allegation is not true. I hope there is a fair and tenable explanation to rebut what is said. At the same time, I urge you to take some steps to remedy the situation that has brought us here, so that we may not come to it repeatedly…