Governance

It is illegal to run a hospital or a clinic without first registering with Health Ministry and Bengaluru has around 15,000 private medical establishments that are running without registration. This essentially flouts the Karnataka Private Medical Establishment Act 2009. Pic: Sankar C G But the doctors who run these clinics seem to be unaware of the process. "I have not registered my clinic anywhere because I didn't know about it. I don't have any kind of certificates from medical waste management, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board or BBMP," says Dr. Asha D. Patil of Santhi clinic in Kengeri.KPME Act 2009…

March 17, 2012 saw a small number of Bengalureans debate active citizenship. On the occasion of World Consumer Rights Day (March 15), Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF) held a summit on the "state of Consumer Affairs in the City". The summit was held at Udayabhanu Kalasangha in Kempegawdanagar. From left, Sainath NR, Sakuntala Narasimhan, Ramamurthy, Maj. Pankaj Rai Pic: Anisha Nair The guest speakers included Dr. Sakuntala Narasimhan, national award winning journalist and consumer protection activist, N S Ramamurthy, former senior food inspector, Public Health Institute, Retd Major Pankaj Rai, who is currently helping people fight medical negligence cases, Sainath N…

Last month, around 400 residents under BESCOM's S6 subdivision, JP Nagar, were in for a shock. Their bill reflected a penalty ranging from Rs 4000 to Rs 1.1 lakhs. Upon enquiry, they found out that the penalty was for not entering into an agreement with BESCOM at the time of shifting into LT3 consumer category. The overall penalty charges amounted to around Rs 43 lakh. From left to right: Kashinath, Pradeep Nagaraj, Sunita K S. Pic: Abhishek Angad In May 2010, there was a major shifting of electricity installations from residential (LT2) to commercial (LT3) in the S6 subdivision of…

National Games Village (NGV) was built in 1997 and fire safety equipments were installed at the time. But 15 years on, most residents still do not know where these are located or how to use them.According to the Karnataka Fire Force Act, 1964, it is the responsibility of the fire department to check whether equipment are being maintained in good working condition.  Ghataprabha block of National Games Village. Pic: Anisha Nair Meera Rajesh, a resident of NGV says, "I am not aware of any fire safety equipment being installed in our society. I don't think there are any at all."…

I had the opportunity to attend a Children's Ward Sabha in Vijnana Nagar on February 23rd. It was organised by CWC (The Concerned for Working Children), an NGO for child rights.A Ward Sabha in urban areas is similar to a Gram Sabha in rural areas, wherein citizens of a village come together to voice their demands from elected representatives; these demands are supposed to be incorporated in the development package for that area. In 2006, based on the experience of other countries which have such children's sabhas, the Karnataka government took the initiative of making children's gram sabhas mandatory in…

Illustration: Sridhar comaravalli Mar 21st UPDATE On the evening of March 20st, as this article was published, lawyers decided to call off the strike for a few days. This was in response to Karnataka Home Minister R Ashoka's order to transfer DCP(Central) G Ramesh and ACP K N Jitendranath. Lawyers say, however, that they are continuing to demand resignation of Ashoka himself. Also, DGP (CID) R K Dutta's report to Karnataka's Home Secretary has confirmed that police did not follow due procedure during the lathi-charge on advocates on March 2nd, according to media reports. Lawyers say it is now a…

CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General of India) has unearthed yet another BBMP scam. This time it is about the excess payment of over Rs 90 lakhs paid to two contractors for drain de-silting works in 2009. Despite spending 1.65 crore rupees on these two rajakaluves, it is not clear how much work was actually done, as BBMP officials had manipulated the work records. This has come out in the 2008-10 audit of BBMP by CAG. Rajakaluve works in another area. File Pic: Anisha Nair The irregularities were on de-silting and re-sectioning two rajakaluves (major Storm Water Drains or SWDs). One…

Residents of KEB Layout in BTM 1st stage have been petitioning BBMP about a public park that was demolished to benefit a private party. Citizen Matters had reported the issue in October 22 issue. BBMP demolished the play area in KEB layout park to build a road through it, in 2009. Pic: Navya P K BBMP had built the road through the only park here to facilitate traffic to a Sai Baba temple nearby, violating laws that mandate park protection. This also led to severe congestion by vehicles parking in inner roads of the layout.But BBMP is not swayed, even…

The high court ruling prohibiting commercial enterprises in areas designated as residential neighbourhoods, has very important implications for all of us, whether we are property owners, tenants, business people, or retired senior citizens. Where just one RWA (Residents Welfare Association) and 12 individuals of the city joined hands to go to court against the rampant commercialisation of residential areas in the metropolis, there should have been in fact, several thousand supporters and joint-petitioners, given the city's population of over 60 lakhs. File pic. Meera K Consider this example - 8-F main and 27th cross in Jayanagar's third block used to…

The residents of National Games Village (NGV) see no hopes of respite from the problems of the Storm Water Drain (SWD) beside their colony.The construction of a wall for the SWD system in NGV, which started around a year back, is yet to complete. Workers working on the wall of SWD in NGV. Pic: Anisha Nair Ravinder Sharma, a resident of NGV says, "We face the problem of foul smell and garbage getting collected there on a daily basis since years," the once closed drains were also opened last year due to water clogging. He further added, "... they have…